Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/163

 No Persian sentry longer walks the citadel walls ; no Turk- ish guard patrols the high approach where once the spirits of the mighty dead kept watch and ward on the silent height. The few Russian soldiers that I saw seemed to be on furlough or taking an hour off duty, for they made no attempt to bar the way nor paid any attention to us, although they may have been assigned to prevent any unauthorized encroachment on the forbidden ground. We entered without let or hindrance, save that the old Tatar custodian, who had the rusty key to the inmost door, was enjoying an afternoon siesta in his lodge below the hill, and bitterly resented being disturbed by stray comers on such a mission as mine.

For ages the citadel was the headquarters of the ruling khans. Here was their medieval palace which the Russian lieutenant Butkov described in his journal, over a century ago (1796). 1 He gives an account of the building, which is two stories high, and mentions the decorations in Persian style, with parti-colored glass windows, tiny mirrors, and mural paintings representing scenes of the chase. These are all typically Iranian, but I did not inspect the now dilapidated edifice, because I was looking for something more antique. Nor was I particularly attracted by a low-roofed structure, with a succession of arches, that is noticeable among the many ruins, for, though I may be mistaken, it did not seem to me to be of great antiquity.^

Still higher up, in the compound not far from the crest of

1 See Butkov, Materialy dlya novoi the citadel a low-roofed edifice ; he istoriyi Kavkaza s 1722 po 1803 god, destroyed it and built in its place an 2. 680, St. Petersburg, 1869. For a arsenal and storehouses for provisions translation of all the passages in this and naphtha.' The phrase * low- that relate to Derbent, I am indebted roofed ' is translated by Kazem-Beg to the kindness of my former pupil, (pp. cit. pp. 89, 96) as ' badly roofed.' Dr. Jacob Zeitlin. Justi, in Grundr. iran. Philol. 2. 640,

2 According to a statement in the refers to a. vaulted structure at Derbent, Derbend Ndmeh (tr. Kazem-Beg, p. but it is Derbent (Darbend) in Kurdis- 89) the Arab general Maslama, in the tan, not this Derbent.

year 115 a.h. = 733 a.d., found 'in

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