ABSTRACT
COMMENTARY 38 The Iron Gates of Derhent (ref. Chap. 6, p. 207, n. I) The Iron gates of Derhent: Famous in Caucasian lore, they gave the name, often used, T. Demir-Kapi to the city. Minorsky has made a brilliant study of the history and topography of Derbent in HSD, in which, p. 46, he cites an Arab source that 'in the same year (A.H. 382/992) amir Maymun had the gate of Damascus and that of Palestine made of pure iron'. Brosset (RG, Vol. Iji, p. 386, n. I), discussed the tradition that David the Restorer, King of Georgia, 1089-1 125, after a successful campaign in Daghestan, 1124, removed the iron gates to Gelati in Imereti. He finds, however, that there is no evidence for David's victories as far as Derbent; and accepts the suggestion of Fraehn that the iron gate at Gelati, with an inscription in Arabic indicating that it was made in 1063, was carried away from Genzha, following the earthquake of 1139, when the city was pillaged by the troops of Dmitri I of Georgia (112.;- 1154). The earthquake at Genzha might indeed explain the tradition that the iron gates of Derbent were 'overthrown and lie in the earth'.
