Rukal
There
is a Regal, a small Kent, near Shamakhi, but this has a mosque, a khan, a bath
with gardens, and three thousand houses with terraces; it belonged formerly to
Derbend and is now a dependence of Baku, the habitants are for the most parts
Turcomans, Kaitaks and natives of the towns of Daghistan, Enderi, Tarkhu, Kouk,
and Thalibseran; they are not duelists, though many exist in these parts. We
halted on the border of the river Regal, and afterwards continued our journey
through the fields; all at once we saw a great troops coming from the Black
Sea, which as we approached proved to be the troops of seven great Persian
Khans, viz. Erivan, Genje, Lor, Baku, Kilan, Moghan, and many Sultans, all in
state dresses, with more than ten thousand men of Turcomans, Moghols, Kalmuks,
Kodeks, Valacs, and Cossacks, with a variety of dresses and arms, sounding
trumpets of Efrasiab, beating drums and kettle drums, and playing Persian tunes
in a style beyond all description. The Khan of Erivan leaving the troops and
advancing to meet us, the Khan of Shamakhi acquainted me with it. He saluted me
first, and then the Khans of Kilan and Baku, and we continued improving our
acquaintance till we arrived at the town of Baku. So many salutes were fired
from the walls and towers of Baku that it seemed like a salamander in the fire
of Nimrod’s pile. We met with Envoys who had arrived from the Russian towns of
Astrakan, Heshdek and Terek, to compliment the Khan with presents on his feast;
thus we entered the Castle of Baku on Friday the first Moharrem of the year
1057 (1647).
Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in
the Seventeenth Century by Evliya Efendi, Vol. II (1850)
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