This town is situated on the frontier of Georgia and now governed by the Persians. It was built by Núshirván to keep the tribes of the Caucasus in order. It is a pentagon castle, fourteen thousand large paces in circumference, with one hundred and seventy bulwarks, three gates, two thousand houses within the castle, a mosque, a bath, and a khán. Its waters, so many springs of life, issue from the west side of Mount Caucasus, and after irrigating the gardens fall into the Kúr to the eastward. The climate being rather cold, its silk is not much praised. The inhabitants are Georgians, Armenians and Gokdúlák; the Sultán commands a thousand soldiers, all Shiís, and there are twelve civil commanders and a judge. Sháh Ismail liked its climate so much that he remained here three years before the battle of Cháldirán, and built a suburb outside of it, so that it bears much likeness to the town of Kaschau in the middle of Hungary. After the loss of the battle of Cháldirán, the Ottoman flying troops arriving at this town destroyed it, and since that time many thousand loads of stones have been carried away by Ferhád Páshá for the repairs of the Castle of Aras. The Sultán of this place accompanied me, out of kindness, to the next station, and we passed the night in Khodraí, a kent of a thousand houses, with a mosque, khán and bath, on the frontier of Tiflís. _Description of Georgia or Shúshádistán, viz. Betlís._ According to the author of the Sheref-námeh, this town was first built by Betlís the Treasurer of Alexander, who also built the castle of the same name in the province of Ván; its name is now Tiflís, which for a long time was a great Persian government, till in the time of Sultán Murad III. Lala Kara Ferhád Páshá with an immense army undertook the conquest of Georgia, and conquered Chaldír and seventy castles. Daúd Khán, who was then governor of Tiflís, garrisoned it with forty thousand men, and fortified it in all possible ways. On the other side the Ottoman commander summoned the town to surrender to his Emperor; at an assembly held on this occasion it was advised to send back the bearer of the summons, and to put themselves into a state of defence, but the more prudent foreseeing that they would not be able to make resistance, they all fled away one night, and left the Castle without defence. The Ottoman commander pursued them with the greatest speed, and came up with the Khán of Tiflís at the Castle of Zekúm, where he had entrenched himself with all the treasures carried away from his capital. A great battle ensued, in which no quarter was given by the Ottoman victors, and forty thousand Persians were cut to pieces. The booty taken by the Ottoman army was immense; the Aghá of the janissaries with seven regiments of his corps was sent to garrison Tiflís, and the castle of Zekúm was taken in the year 956 (1578). A few days after, the Castle of Kerím also fell. I have not seen the