[279] Shirvan, the largest and most important division of the Southern Caucasus, is watered by numberless rivers, the largest of which is the Kur. Its capital is Schamachi, under which name, according to Kinneir, there are two cities, the old and the new. He says: “New Schamachi is situated in a plain on the river Aksui, about fifty versts from the Kur, and the same distance from the sea. The form is quadrangular, each side being eight hundred paces in length. The walls are in tolerable repair, built of unburnt brick, and surrounded with a very deep and broad ditch. When this town was taken by Aga Mahomed Khan in 1795, the inhabitants were supposed to amount to six thousand souls; but the city, as well as the villages nearest the plain, were reduced to ruins by that relentless tyrant, who did not retire till the month of February of the following year. The ruins of the old Schamachi, once a large and populous city, are still extant, but they are almost hid from the view by thick brushwood. This is the Schamacha of the ancients and stands in a fine situation, in an angle formed by the southern branch of Mount Caucasus.” [280] Derbend, a strong fortress on the Caspian, the Peninsula of Apshernon, near the Demir Kapoo or Iron Gates of the Caucasus. See note to Angiolello, cap. 16. [281] Compare the Long Walls at Athens. [282] Demir Kapoo. [283] Sheikh Hyder. [284] Aktamar or Van Lake, so called from the island of Ak Tamar, where the Catholicos of the Armenians resides. [285] Knolles says he fled into Hyrcania to Pyrcales. See _Travels of a Merchant_, cap. 13, and next page. [286] The accounts of authors vary as to Ismael’s age (see _Travels of a Merchant_, cap. 13); but I believe this to be the correct statement. [287] Kara Bagh, the country between the rivers Kur and Aras, the former river dividing it from Shirvan. [288] Ghilan, a province along the south-west shore of the Caspian, is rich and populous, the soil exceedingly fertile, fruits, rice, and grain being cultivated with great success; but the cultivation of silk constitutes the principal trade, and quantities are exported annually to Astrakhan from Resht and Lankeroon, the two principal towns in the province. Its population amounts to about six hundred thousand. [289] Followers of Ali, or rather of Sheikh Hyder, from the name of his ancestor Sheikh Suffee-u-deen Ishack. The family were lineally descended from Môossâh, the seventh Imaum.