Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/153

 and covered with iron plates, but riddled with bullets. I doubt, however, if these doors are ancient, though they are old.

This was not all. Above the minor arch (and indicated by the black shadow cast in the photograph) are the remains of 'an old lion-head over the doorway' — as my note-book records, I was not aware when I made this memorandum that I should be able to trace the history of this gateway, or its mate in the northern wall, for over a thousand years. And now to the main thing! Directly below the lion's battered head are two blocks of stone that contain inscriptions of five and eight lines respectively, while another of seven lines, apparently somewhat later in date, is found lower down to the left. These tablets were the real find of the day ; but, for completeness, I may add that in the stones near them there was carved the oft-repeated figure of a ring with two lines hanging from it,^ resembling the familiar Sasanian chaplet with streamers. These devices were generally carved high up at the sides, out of ordinary reach, and not like the late Arabic scrawls, or even Russian capital letters, which had been cut by more recent or modern hands near the third, or lowest, inscription.

Before discussing these inscriptions I must say something regarding the history of the gate as one of the famous portals of Derbent. First let the Arabic writer, Ibn Fakih (903 A.D.), speak. After giving a rather detailed account of Derbent and its varied fortunes in the past, and after describing at length the walls and their extent, as built by Anushirvan, King of Persia, our writer mentions one of the gateways (the one in the northern wall, matching this which I have described) as follows:

'In the city of al-Bab {i.e. Derbent), upon the Bab-Jihad ("Gate of War ") above the wall, are two pillars of stone, a likeness of a lion of white stone upon each pillar, and below these two are two stones upon which are the likenesses of two lionesses' (qu., read 'inscriptions '?) .^

1 One of these emblems is shown in Qeog. Arab. 5. 291. For ' lion[esse]s ' the stone to the right of the two inscrip- o-*^ we are perhaps to read tions reproduced from a photograph. w" • o - ^ ' ,

2 Ibn Fakih, ed. De Goeje, Bihl. 'inscriptions' ,jIa^5U, through a

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