Derbend- Nâmeh or the History of Derbend. 953 
which is dedicated to it*. À beautiful alley of Zchinérs lines the runnmg stream through the 
square, and forms a very pleasant prospect. 
2) That which we read in Klaproth's translation, regarding reservotrs, is here wanting in 
our MS. — The same assertion we find im the MS. of St. Petersburg, which however states 
that, «he (ïi. e. Muslimeh) in many places in Derbend built great reservoirs for water and clo- 
sed them with iron gates »: (s> JJel D pl5yses o jbl 7 Hb cs y oll ve o Jp as 02 Jp 
Whether it be truly ascribed to the author of the Derbend-nâmeh, or it be a supple- 
ment made by some of the copyists, the assertion, at least of the existence of reservoirs, if not 
of their having been built by Muslimeh, is authentic; and even at the present day some of 
them still exist, not however in Derbend, but in the mountains forming its Nestes boundaries, 
and they alone supply the town with water. 
These reservoirs are built of brick in the depth of the mountains “Like caves, fortified by 
thick walls and very strong vaults. Here great abondance of water is collected from a number 
of natural springs and is conducted, through a subterranean channel, in the desired directions, 
into the town. All such reservoirs are invisible and covered, like other parts of the mountains, 
with shrubs and bushes, and sometimes even with thickets. The principal reason, for which 
these reservoirs and the subterranean channels, leading from them, were intended to be secret 
and impenetrable, was to prevent the enemy, in the time of a long siege, from depriving the inha- 
bitants of the means of supplying themselves with water; and though the places of many of 
such reservoirs are known 1o the imhabitants by tradition, yet some of them, through their high 
antiquity, remain wholly unknown. In 1817 one of these reservoirs was discovered to the S.W. 
of Derbend, in consequence of the drying- up of some fountains, in several parts of the town 
The want of water excited the inhabitants of these parts to investigate the cause of this misfor- 
tune. They therefore dug out the ground in the direction of the subterranean channel that 
before led the stream into the fountain, and after many difficulties, reached the place where 
the reservoir was hidden in the depth of the mountain about 25 feet below the surface, There 
were, still some fountains in Derbend whose great reservoir was unknown in my time i.e. 
about 1819. 
Remark 5. page 54. pass] ob 
In our MS.'and in that of Berlin stands A) œb; but in the MS. of St. Petersburg we 
read pas) cb Bäbü-l-gkaisar, which is more probable, for we have already had the name 
given to a street, in the same manner as the appellation 41- Hems, which is at once both the 
name of a street and that of one of the gates. 
This bath, together with several other objects, as for instance a salt-lake, some portion of land and 
many shops; being dedicated to this great building, form its property and the income afforded would bave 
sufficed to keep.it up to this day: but the yearly offerings of the inhabitants are so great, that the said in 
come, only collected and scarcely touched, forms the stock or fund of the Mosque. 
