Derbend-nâmeh or the History 0f Derbend. 
Dell nl SOU ai dé «il Jol 
less ombres dsstliegyell 
sent slufs bleus 
Did ge use el a, Jo Le; Luke 
» JS pl baton def x 
anim use ail » Due Joel y) ax 
op bu JS fe EL 05, (el pl 2 
je ol Gp auig je Ce Bd) pa Loge 
dl jh as al pl dus 
E. ol pol op > Lie ae j; sr dun 
Lib) ais l'an Lu) ile dle 
bois} bus, Dumes Aus ul Se 
A > abs slel Jbusl Qilye dei: 
D 0j Du Oui ju es yl ai 
Mridl fo ah ré ets, 05 1h ygs) 
G QËS p 27 5USl pile au (55 ») 
ee ol pos ponsl dll Guen SLb,i 
TN a ae es mets 
617 
Majesty Omar (Othman) asked him: « How 
did ye penetrate those difficult passes and how 
did ye conquer those countries? He answered: 
(O Amirul-muminin! Al those towns were (in- 
habited by) infidels; the tribes called Khazars 
and ÆAlans are contiguous with the Turks ‘*. 
They were struck with wonder at seeing us; 
for no troops of an epemy had yet entered 
that country. Gazing at us they said, (to each 
other);» Are these not the sons of men? Are 
these angels, that have the means of co- 
ming to this country? Otherwise, for sons of 
men it is impossible to come hither!» (see 
Remark 7 to Part Il). — They asked us whe- 
ther we were sons of men, or angels? We 
answered, ‘we are the sons of men; we are 
not angels, but the angels of heaven have 
accompanied us, to assist us and to massacre 
and annihilate such as may desire to make 
war With us.” — For this reason they were 
afraid and did not dare make war upon us. 
Their belief was that we were as the angels 
of heaven; that we could not be killed, and 
that neither arrows nor the sword could do 
us any harm; for this reason we went whither 
we chose and nobody hindered us. — But 
at last one (of the enemies) said: ‘Let me 
strike one of these with an arrow and see 
whether he will die:” so saying he hid him- 
. [self in ambush. As soon as one of us passed 
by that place he shot his arrow and kil- 
and Djagbatai translations of the work (see Dr. Dorn’s Nachrichten, p. 60 and 108) it is merely said that 
“an individual who had accompanied Abdulla in that expedition returned to the presence of Omar « &c. 
14 By Alans I mean the ancient inhabitants of the great Cubarda, who in the southern parts of that prin- 
cipality till this day call themselves 4lans. In the Persian and Djagatai translations of this place we find 
Turks, instead of Turkistan, which is preferable. 
