The neighbouring province o f -Karâbâgh lies between the
rivers Araxes and Kur, and chiefly occupies the western portion
of the angle formed by their confluence : that is, it lies
between 38° 50' and 40° 50' north latitude, and between
46° 8 and 48° 10' east longitude. At the widest place, between
Nakhchivân and Elizabethpol, it is about 120 geographical
miles broad, and it extends nearly as far westward
of the meeting of the two rivers : it has a superficies of about
5250 square miles.1 With the exceptions of a narrow valley
and a richly cultivated plain, which extends from the right
side of the Kur to the estuary of the Karâ-châï, the province
is hilly, or rather mountainous, being traversed in different
directions by branches from Mount Ararat, one of whose
peaks, the Sarâ-dara, is 5000 feet above the Caspian Sea.2
Besides two of inconsiderable size, Karâbâgh contains the
lakes of Khanno-ghell, Tchopno-ghell, and Kara-ghell ; and,
in addition to the Araxes and Kur, the interior is watered by
the Karghar, the Terter, the Intcha-châï, the Kara-chai, the
Bazar-châï, and some twenty other considerable streams.3
In some places the soil is clayey or sandy, but the rest is a
rich black loam ; 4 and except in some of the low parts bordering
the rivers, the climate is cool and healthy at all seasons
of the year.
The mineral productions are naphtha, copper, emery, and
salt. The animal productions resemble those of Shirvân,
but are far more numerous ; and the abundance of forest
game, such as bears, elks, panthers, wolves, foxes, and jackals,
caused the woods in this district to be the favourite hunting-
ground of the late prince-royal. The rich pasture-grounds
are intermixed with vines, fruit-gardens, and fields of tobacco,
silk, flax, wheat, maize, millet, and cotton ; and most of the
other parts of the district are covered with those fine forests
of oak, plane, poplar, cypress, elm, ash, birch, fir, beech, and
walnut trees, from which the Tartar appellation Black Garden
was derived.5
1 Aperçu, &c., Tome III., p. 255 to 258.
! Ibid. 8 Ibid., p. 259 to 263. * Ibid., p. 253.
5 Ibid., p. 255 to 258.
Shushi, the only town, is situated on a rock 400 feet above
the Caspian, and contains 1698 badly-constructed houses.
It is inaccessible on three sides, and the fourth is fortified.
The population consists of 5289 Armenians, and 4572 Tartars.
Though the fisheries of the Araxes and Kur are good, the
flocks numerous,1 and the vegetable productions abundant,
Karâbâgh being without manufactures,1 it has no commerce,
unless the local interchange and sale of commodities may be
so called. The villages are very inferior, and the houses,
besides being badly constructed, are dark, and usually filled
with smoke.
The inhabitants of the province consist of Tartars, Armenians,
Kurds, and Boscha (gipsies), numbering in all
98,614 souls ; of whom 25,137 are Tartars. Here, as in
Dâghestân, the Tartar and Armenian languages prevail ; but
the Nestorians use a particular dialect, and the Kurds
another, called Kourilien, which is a compound of Tartar
and Turkish. Syriac is also in use.
The religions are the Muhammedan and the Christian: of
the former, besides the Shiahs and Sunnies, there is a third
sect, called the Ali Ilahiyah ;2 and of the latter, the followers
belong to the Armenian and Nestorian (locally caEed Nass-
ran) churches.3
The people consist of nobles, begs, and agas ; priests, the
maas (individuals who, for services, have been exempt for a
certain period from taxation), and peasants or townspeople.
Abandoned, for the most part, to listless idleness, the inhabitants
only differ from other northerns by their black hair,
and tall, handsome figure.4
The Kurdish nomades are fierce, courageous, and inclined
to drunkenness. The Tartars and Armenians, on the contrary,
are sober, but not particularly courageous : the former
are inclined to theft, the latter to trickery and imposture;
and both are so economical as to be often clad in tatters.6
1 20,000 horned cattle, 100,000 sheep, ■with goats, horses, camels, &c.—
Aperçu &c., Tome III., p. 281 to 301. , 2 See p. 88.
8 Aperçu, &c., Tome III., p. 266 to 287.
4 Ibid. 5 Ibid.