Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/90

 32 BAKU, THE CITY OF OIL WELLS

sulphur, the water, though esteemed wholesome, is very unpleasant.' [Details regarding the environs are here omitted.] ^

From the middle of the eighteenth century onward, the number of travelers visiting Baku, like George Forster (1784), S. G. Gmelin (about 1771), and those in the nineteenth cen- tury, has constantly increased, and reference to the most of them will be found below in connection with the celebrated fire temple.

In its long history Baku has seen many changes. Originally a part of the Persian Empire, it came under the power of the Arabs with the Muhammadan conquest in the seventh century A.D., but after the fall of the Caliphate it passed into the hands of the Khans, or powerful princes, of Shirvan, who held sway over it for several hundred years. In 1509 it was taken by Persia, but fell later before the Turks, only to be recaptured by Shah Abbas the Great. Early in the eighteenth century there arose a mightier crisis with far-reaching results. Peter the Great of Russia, when on his campaign in Persia, in 1722, set his heart upon Baku ; and in the following year, 1723, his general, Matushkin, bombarded and took the place. It was restored to Persia in 1735, during the reign of Empress Anna, but was subsequently taken by Russia in 1806, and was finally ceded to the Czar by the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813.

From the moment of Russian occupation dates the great commercial growth of the city. Steamers constantly ply be- tween its harbor and Astrakhan on the north, Krasnovodsk on the east, and Anzali or Astrabad on the south side of the

1 Hanway, An Historical Account of work entitled, Voyages and Travels

the British Trade over the Caspian through the Russian Empire, Tartary,

London, 1753; 3 ed. 2 vols. London, ed. Edinburgh, 1778 (cf. 2. 379-380)—

1762 (1 ed. 1. 377-384 ; 3 ed. 1. 260- see George Forster, Voyage du Bengale

261). It appears that Dr. Cooke later a Petersbourg, traduit par L. Langles,

regretted having communicated his 2. 343, n. 1, 356-359, n. 1, Paris, 1802.

material to Hanway, or felt that he My authority for this is Langl6s (loc.

had been misrepresented, and accord- cit.), as the volume by Cooke is not

ingly he published an independent accessible to me.

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