Derbend-ndmeh or the History of Derbend. 597 
As to the reading of the name of the actual town, Teberi, if we believe our Turkish version, 
makes it KS #b Bukhoui © ; Mas’oudi and Istakhri — © SE L Bäkouh and sb L Bäkou; both Gkazvinies, 
Bakoubel 5 L for which in some MSS. we find 4 SL Bakouyeh. But the modern Persians unani- 
mously read'it CE SL Béd-koubeh (from SL wind and RTS to rush) from the unceasing winds 
of the place. This reading is an established one; belonging to the literary language of Persia 
during the last 200 or 300 years. In Aderbidjan and Daghistan this town is commonly called 
Bäkü and more recently Baki; the first reading is more in use with European travellers. 
2) To the number of natural curiosities of the province of Bé&kü, or the ancient 4/banopolis, 
belong the pits of Naphtha and the ;Salt-lakes. Without mquiring into the assertions of the 
author (more extended in the version of St Petersburg) which are certainly founded on history, 
we think it proper to lay before the reader a short review, of the naphtha-pits and the salt-lakes, 
so numerous in the province of Bäkü, and which form to this day the principal native sour- 
ces of the riches of the country. 
In doing this I shall follow mostly the statements given in the «Review of the Russian do- 
minions beyond the Caucasus ». (OGospsnie Pocciäckux® B4a4tuiä sa Kaskasom=), an excellent and 
useful work published some years ago by the order of His Majesty the Emperor. To these 
statements I have added some other information that I have been able to receive from my corre- 
spondents in Daghistan during 1838 — 1841. For this reason, as to a few points , my statements 
on the subject will differ from those of Mr. Legkobitoff. 
‘ A) Naphtha. This native, combustible, shining liquid, belonging, as far as we know Lo 
all volcanic resions of the globe, such as Sicily, Italy, and some parts of the shores of the 
Caspian Sea, al differing from Petroleum by its greater lightness and purity, abounds in the 
peninsula of Apsharân or Aphsharän, and in the Jsle of Naphtha which lies in the direction 
from Baku to the Turkomanian shores. Springs of ît are also to be met with in the mountains 
of Shirwân, not far from Shamakhi, about Salian and in the province of Gkubbeh near the 
mountains of Besh-Barmagh. This fluid is got out of a kind of wells built on purpose for 
collectng it at the very sources. The nature of the soïl has generally considerable influence on 
the qualities of the fluid, so much so, that its colour differs according to the difference of the 
ground and the depth of the wells, It is partly from this cause that we have two principal 
kinds of Naphtha: the white, and the "dark; each of which, upon the same principle, under- 
oes some modification both in quality and in colour; and hence we have a third sort which 
is called the green naphtha. The white naphtha, being much purer and lighter, requires much 
more care and caution in collecting and preserving it. The fluid in general being apt to evaporate, 
the white sort, as the lightest and purest, is preserved in wells of stone, always shut up close 
to avoid loss. — 
The history of the ancient naphtha wells, in the Province. of Bäkü, is not known to anybody: 
when the old pits are ruined, new ones are dug instead of them, and consequently nobody 
knows the epoch to which the most ancient of them may belong. Some years ago in one of 
€ Professor Senkovsky has found in some MS. sb Bädkhoui, which in some degree justifes the 
established Persian spelling of the word: a55 L 
Mem. des sav. étrang. 1. VI. 76 
