ABSTRACT
Originally a dependency of the Shirvanshahs, Baku, at the end of the sixteenth century, was rising in importance at the expense of Derbent (cf. Asafi's glowing description, f. 119 v.). The town fell to Osman Pasha and, like Derbent, remained in Ottoman hands until 1606. Christopher Burrough and other agents of the Company of English Merchants were in Baku and Derbent in I; 80, and were well received by the Ottoman officials (EVT, Vol. II, pp. 4;0 fr.). The best near-contemporary description of Derbent and Baku is by the Turkish traveller Evliya <;elebi (mid-seventeenth century: see von Hammees English version, 1834, Vol. 11, pp. 162 fr.). For views of Derbent between seventeenth and early twentieth century, see Kosubski, IGD. The sixteenth-century Turkish version of Derbend-Name based on an earlier work, was edited by Mirza Kazem-Beg in English, SPB, 18;1; a revision with valuable commentary by V. Minorsky is in HSD; see also his brilliant reconstruction of the mediaeval topography of Derbent, pp. 8;-91.
