438 4 KAZFU-BEG, 
peared, when this impulse had been gratified, and very soon afterwards the very name of 
het Derbend-nämeh was never uttered by those who had lately shown such ardour in 
procuring the work. 
Some years after a change which occurred in my life and fortunes and when I had 
been taught the fall value of knowledge, especially when I found the fame of the Derbend- 
nâmeh diffused throughout the learned world of Europe, it was too late to regret my 
past carelessness in not having procured a copy of the work before I quitted Derbend. 
I did not fail, however, to address myself to some friends in that town and to solicit their 
aid in obtaining for me a correct copy. But it was, not until after the lapse of many years 
— namely in 1839 — that I received a fair MS. through the friendly efforts of Mirza 
Kerim, Secretary to Ibrahim Beg of Gkartchagh (see rem. 33 to Part L); and this copy, 
according to the information I have since received from Derbend, was, after much dif- 
ficulty, taken from an elegant MS. preserved in the book-case of one of the three mer- 
chants above mentioned. | 
S I. 
The earliest information respecting the Dérbend-nâmeh, and the epoch 
of its first apppearanee in Dâghistan, 
It would appear that it was not until the beginning of the last century, that the ear- 
liest information respecting the existence of the Derbend-nàmeh, was obtained by the learned 
world of Europe. The Academician Bayer, in one of his treatises (de muro Caucaseo) 
published in October 1726, says: «The Muhammedans under command of Gherai-Khan, 
having taken possession of the towns of Derbend and Andery, Muhammed Auabi-Akrässi 
received an order to consult the writings of the Arabs and Persians, and to com- 
pose, in the Turkish language, a treatise on the antiquities of Daghistan ‘ etc. 
This vague information we also find in Klaproth, but with some alterations which 
render it still more indefinite. We shall here place before our readers Klaproth's 
assertion, marking the difference between him and Bayer by putting in /talies those 
words, expressions and entire phrases which we find either varied in Klaproth or 
added to the account given by the Academician Bayer: He says: au temps où 
lislamisme se répandit dans le voisinage de Derbend, et où Gherai, Khan de Crimée, 
conquit les pays entre la: Kouma ét là mer Caspienne ainsi qu'Endery, il donna ordre à 
1 Cum Mahometani duce Gjerai Chano Derbentum et Anderum urbes occupassent, Muhamed Auabi 
Akrassi jussus est, ut, excussis Arabum Persarumique scriptis, antiquitates Dagestanas Turcice commentaretur &c. 
(Commentärii Acaderniäe scientiarum Imp: Petropolitanae T. [. p. 459.) 
