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 drain into the Urmia lake. The country to the west of the lake, with the districts of Selmas and Urmia, is the most prosperous part of Azerbāïjān, yet even here the intelligent traveller laments the want of enterprise among the inhabitants. Azerbāïjān is one of the most productive provinces of Persia. The orchards and gardens in which many villages are embosomed yield delicious fruits of almost every description, and great quantities, dried, are exported, principally to Russia. Provisions are cheap and abundant, but there is a lack of forests and timber trees. Lead, copper, sulphur, orpiment, also lignite, have been found within the confines of the province; also a kind of beautiful, variegated, translucent marble, which takes a high polish, is used in the construction of palatial buildings, tanks, baths, &c., and is known as Maragha, or Tabriz marble. The climate is healthy, not hot in summer, and cold in winter. The cold sometimes is severely felt by the poor classes owing to want of proper fuel, for which a great part of the population has no substitute except dried cow-dung. Snow lies on the mountains for about eight months in the year, and water is everywhere abundant. The best soils when abundantly irrigated yield from 50- to 60-fold, and the water for this purpose is supplied by the innumerable streams which intersect the province. The natives of Azerbāïjān make excellent soldiers, and about a third of the Persian army is composed of them. The province is divided into a number of administrative sub-provinces or districts, each with a hākim, governor or sub-governor, under the governor-general, who under the Kajār dynasty has always been the heir-apparent to the throne of Persia, assisted by a responsible minister appointed by the shah. The administrative divisions are as follows:—Tabriz and environs; Uskuh; Deh-Kharegan; Maragha; Miandoab; Saūjbulagh; Sulduz; Urmia; Selmas; Khoi; Maku; Gerger; Merend; Karadagh; Arvanek; Talish; Ardebil; Mishkin; Khalkhāl; Hashtrud; Garmrud; Afshar; Sain Kaleh; Ujan; Sarab. The revenue amounts to about £200,000 per annum in cash and kind, and nearly all of it is expended in the province for the maintenance of the court of the heir-apparent, the salaries and pay to government officials, troops, pensions, &c.

AZIMUTH (from the Arabic), in astronomy, the angular distance from the north or south point of the horizon to the foot of the vertical circle through a heavenly body. In the case of a horizontal line the azimuth is its deviation from the north or south direction. AZO (c. 1150–1230), Italian jurist. This Azo, whose name is sometimes written Azzo and Azzolenus, and who is occasionally described as Azo Soldanus, from the surname of his father, is to be distinguished from two other famous Italians of the same name, viz. Azo Lambertaccius, a canonist of the 13th century, professor of canon law at the university of Bologna, author of Questiones in jus canonicum, and Azo de Ramenghis, a canonist of the 14th century, also a professor of canon law at Bologna, and author of Repetitiones super libro Decretorum. Few particulars are known as to the life of Azo, further than that he was born at Bologna about the middle of the 12th century, and was a pupil of Joannes Bassianus, and afterwards became professor of civil law in the university of his native town. He also took an active part in municipal life, Bologna, with the other Lombard republics, having gained its municipal independence. Azo occupied a very important position amongst the glossators, and his Readings on the Code, which were collected by his pupil, Alessandro de Santo Aegidio, and completed by the additions of Hugolinus and Odofredus, form a methodical exposition of Roman law, and were of such weight before the tribunals that it used to be said, “Chi non ha Azzo, non vada a palazzo.” Azo gained a great reputation as a professor, and numbered amongst his pupils Accursius and Jacobus Balduinus. He died about 1230. AZO COMPOUNDS, organic substances of the type R·N:N·R′ (where R = an aryl radical and R′ = a substituted alkyl, or aryl radical). They may be prepared by the reduction of nitro compounds in alkaline solution (using zinc dust and alkali, or a solution of an alkaline stannite as a reducing agent); by oxidation of hydrazo compounds; or by the coupling of a diazotized amine and any compound of a phenolic or aminic type, provided that there is a free para position in the amine or phenol. They may also be obtained by the molecular rearrangement of the diazoamines, when these are warmed with the parent base and its hydrochloride. This latter method of formation has been studied by H. Goldschmidt and R. U. Reinders (Ber., 1896, 29, p. 1369), who found that the reaction is monomolecular, and that the velocity constant of the reaction is proportional to the amount of the hydrochloride of the base present and also to the temperature, but is independent of the concentration of the diazoamine. The azo compounds are intensely coloured, but are not capable of being used as dyestuffs unless they contain salt-forming, acid or basic groups (see ). By oxidizing agents they are converted into azoxy compounds, and by reducing agents into hydrazo compounds or amines.

Azo-benzene, C6H5N:NC6H5, discovered by E. Mitscherlich in 1834, may be prepared by reducing nitrobenzene in alcoholic solution with zinc dust and caustic soda; by the condensation of nitrosobenzene with aniline in hot glacial acetic acid solution; or by the oxidation of aniline with sodium hypobromite. It crystallizes from alcohol in orange red plates which melt at 68° C. and boil at 293° C. It does not react with acids or alkalis, but on reduction with zinc dust in acetic acid solution yields aniline.

Amino-azo Compounds may be prepared as shown above. They are usually yellowish brown or red in colour, the presence of more amino groups leading to browner shades, whilst the introduction of alkylated amino groups gives redder shades. They usually crystallize well and are readily reduced. When heated with aniline and aniline hydrochloride they yield (q.v.). Amino-azo-benzene, C6H5·N2·C6H4NH2, crystallizes in yellow plates or needles and melts at 126° C. Its constitution is determined by the facts that it may be prepared by reducing nitro-azo-benzene by ammonium sulphide and that by reduction with stannous chloride it yields aniline and meta-phenylene diamine. Diamino-azo-benzene (chrysoidine), C6H5·N2·C6H3(NH2)2, first prepared by O. Witt (Ber., 1877, 10, p. 656), is obtained by coupling phenyl diazonium chloride with meta-phenylene diamine. It crystallizes in red octahedra and dyes silk and wool yellow. Triamino-azo-benzene (meta-aminobenzene-azo-meta-phenylene diamine or Bismarck brown, phenylene brown, vesuvine, Manchester brown), NH2·C6H4·N2·C6H3(NH2)2, is prepared by the action of nitrous acid on meta-phenylene diamine. It forms brown crystals which are readily soluble in hot water, and it dyes mordanted cotton a dark brown. On the composition of the commercial Bismarck brown see E. Täuber and F. Walder (Ber., 1897, 30, pp. 2111, 2899; 1900, 33, p. 2116). Alkylated amino-azo-benzenes are also known, and are formed by the coupling of diazonium salts with alkylated amines, provided they contain a free para position with respect to the amino group. In these cases it has been shown by H. Goldschmidt and A. Merz (Ber., 1897, 30, p. 670) that the velocity of formation of the amino-azo compound depends only on the nature of the reagents and not on the concentration, and that in coupling the hydrochloride of a tertiary amine with diazobenzene sulphonic acid the reaction takes place between the acid and the base set free by the hydrolytic dissociation of its salt, for the formation of the amino-azo compound, when carried out in the presence of different acids, takes place most rapidly with the weakest acid (H. Goldschmidt and F. Buss, Ber., 1897, 30, p. 2075).

Methyl orange (helianthin, gold orange, Mandarin orange), (CH3)2N·C6H4·N2·C6H4SO3Na, is the sodium salt of para-dimethylaminobenzene-azo-benzene sulphonic acid. It is an orange crystalline powder which is soluble in water, forming a yellow solution. The free acid is intensely red in colour. Methyl orange is used largely as an indicator. The constitution of methyl orange follows from the fact that on reduction by stannous chloride in hydrochloric acid solution it yields sulphanilic acid and para-aminodimethyl aniline.

Oxyazo Compounds.—The oxyazo compounds are prepared by adding a solution of a diazonium salt to a cold slightly alkaline solution of a phenol. The diazo group takes up the para position