Derbend-ndmeh or the History of Derbend. 653 
ll sue ls Lrels gs ls) and the great number of their difficult passes. 
: ° . In these mountains there are many wonders 
ph das ($ LU) ds le; & JS lof which we shall mention some. — The 
a ‘ nav . lauthor of Kheridetul- Adj&ib and that of Tuh- 
LE à) Je à sil 25) AS çà dl ie fetu-l- Albäb say in their works, that the 
—. SI Mens RAR es name of this chain of mountains in the books 
bo HI SL L T4 ER Br HE on ancient history is Djabalul-fa’h, and that 
LE seb. Obs y pull in on ne tn are . fortresses 
De and numerous bäbs (passe or defiles). Amon 
re OIE Ës OI plu] ob 455 DL eLë these are the defile of Lan ** (or FA 4 
of Asserir; that of Jran-Shah; that of Fi- 
lan (or Gkilan) Shah; that of Leyän-Shah; 
that of Azigkeh, and that of Sabran and 
some others %, 
The Georgian chronicles pretend thet Cavcds was the name of the seventh son of Thargumas, thé great 
ancestor of the southern Caucasians. | 
As to the epithet é) ss we do not think it is a corruption of )) Je as D’Ohsson supposes. 
(see D’Ohsson’s des peuples du Caucase p, 154.) We would rather follow the opinion above referred to, 
that he mountains being such as to give the sovereign who might rule them, dominion over all the neigh- 
bouring countries — was the reason of the adoption of this name. The word d° is sometimes mistaken for 
gs and vice Versa — see Le ls p- 402. 
82 By this name the Arabian Geographers, it seems, called the most remarkable defile in the central 
Caucasus now known by the modern appellation of Dariul (a contraction of the Persian Deri-alan, i. e. the 
gate of the Alans) and the gate of Caucasus. It was through this gate or defile that Mervan, after having 
subdued all Armenia, directed his way towards the Khazars and arrived in Semender, their chief city; where 
was united to him the army of Babul-Abwab (see above, Extract VI note 70). Our Orientalists often con- 
fonnd Babul-lan with Babi- Albân, and some of them think that the Arabs contrived the first name for ex- 
pressing the ancient Pylae Albaniae, which they received from their Byzantiue neighbours and which some- 
times they corrupted into Babul- leyän and Babul-lebân. In fact the error belongs to the Byzantine writers: 
They did not, and could not determine the proper spot where these Pylae Albaniae were situated; some take 
it for the actual Darial, some for Derbend , and some place it near Bâkou where they supposed to have been 
the ancient capital of the Alans. But we think that the Arabs called by the name of Bäbul-lun always the 
present Darial through which the Caucasian Alans made their irruptions into Persia; whereas the actual 
Derbend they named Babul- Abwâb. (Consult the following note 83). 
#3 Besides these in Zbnul-verdi, Al-Idrisi and others we find, Joe œL Bâbi- Sul ub22E ab or ob 
let Babi-Cartijän or Carümän; =" ob or CE Babi Semesdji or Sedjeskhi; and ob 
OL pr Bubi- Teberistan or Tebasaran. These, as the reader is aware, were the names of the difficult pas- 
ses or defiles in various directions in the Caucasus. It must be confessed, that every research into the true 
position of all these passes, as well as of their present appellations, will not meet with the desired success 
before ths appearance of a distinct and complete geographical work on all the principalities comprehended in 
Mem. des sav. étrang. T, VI. 5 83 
