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117-868: Various other passes in the Caucasus and Anatolia have been called the Gates of Alexander since at least the 1st century CE. Later, the Caspian Gates were also identified with the Pass of Derbent (in modern Dagestan ) on the Caspian; or with the Pass of Dariel , a gorge forming a pass between Georgia and North Ossetia–Alania . Tradition also connects it to the Great Wall of Gorgan (Red Snake) on its south-eastern shore. These fortifications were historically part of

234-785: A Kartvelian ethnic group native to the South Caucasus , who mainly live in Black Sea coastal regions of Turkey and Georgia . They traditionally speak the Laz language (which is a member of the Kartvelian language family ) but have experienced a rapid language shift to Turkish . Of the 103,900 ethnic Laz in Turkey, only around 20,000 speak Laz and the language is classified as threatened (6b) in Turkey and shifting (7) in Georgia on

351-865: A Laz cultural festival was established in Gemlik . The Laz community successfully lobbied Turkey's Education Ministry to offer Laz-language instruction in schools around the Black Sea region. In 2013, the Education Ministry added Laz as a four-year elective course for secondary students, beginning in the fifth grade. Lazuri is a complex and morphologically rich tongue belonging to the South Caucasian language family whose other members are Mingrelian , Svan and Georgian . N. Marr regarded Laz and Megrelian, two dialects of "linguistically one" language, as two languages. The Laz language does not have

468-704: A barrier against the Scythians. According to this historian, the people whom the Greeks called Scythians were known (among the Jews) as Magogites, descendants of the group called Magog in the Hebrew Bible. Josephus makes these references in two of his works. The Jewish War states that the iron gates Alexander erected were controlled by the king of Hyrcania (on the south edge of the Caspian), and allowing passage of

585-761: A few Christian Laz in the Adjara region of Georgia who have reconverted to Christianity. Famous for its saga and myths and bounded by the Black Sea and the Caucasian Mountains, the ancient region of Colchis spreads out from West Georgia to Northeast Turkey. The famous tale in Greek mythology of the Golden Fleece in which Jason and the Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes , with

702-406: A fictional motor tanker after the city in his book The Tanker "Derbent" . Derbent has 3 state and 1 municipal theaters. Derbent resembles a huge museum and has magnificent mountains and shore nearby, and therefore possesses much touristic potential, further increased by UNESCO 's classification of the citadel, ancient city and fortress as a World Heritage Site in 2003; however, instability in

819-798: A gate. It is depicted in this way on Arabian world maps starting from the 10th century, as also on the Tabula Rogeriana , an influential map drawn in 1154 by Muhammad al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily . It is not clear which precise location Josephus meant when he described the Caspian gates. It may have been the Gates of Derbent (lying due east, nearer to Persia), or it may have been the Darial Gorge , lying west, bordering Iberia , located between present-day Ingushetia and Georgia . However, neither of these were within Hyrcania, but lay to

936-508: A great king building a great wall. Knowledge of Chinese innovations such as the compass and south-pointing chariot is known to have been diffused (and confused) across Eurasian trade routes. Other medieval literature, such as the Latin Frankish Chronicle of Fredegar in the first half of the seventh century and the tenth-century Armenian History of Movsēs Dasxurancʿi connected Alexander's gates especially to events during

1053-478: A height of up to twenty meters and a thickness of about 10 feet (3 m) when it was in use. The Pass of Dariel or Darial has also been known as the "Gates of Alexander" and is a strong candidate for the identity of the Caspian Gates. An alternative theory links the Caspian Gates to the so-called "Alexander's Wall" (the Great Wall of Gorgan ) on the south-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea , 180 km of which

1170-607: A large Kartvelian-speaking population. In the eastern part of the same empire, an autonomous coastal theme of Greater Lazia was established. Byzantine authors, such as Pachymeres , and to some extent Trapezuntines such as Lazaropoulos and Bessarion , regarded the Trapezuntian Empire as being no more than a Lazian border state. Though Greek in higher culture, the rural areas of Trebizond empire appear to have been predominantly Laz in ethnic composition. Laz family names, with Hellenized terminations, are noticeable in

1287-511: A population of 31,168 consisting of 7,919 Shia Muslims (25.4%), 7,567 Russians (24.3%), 6,879 Jews (22.1%), 5,138 Caucasian highlanders (16.5%), 2,604 Armenians (8.4%), and 1,061 Sunni Muslims (3.4%). According to the 2021 Census , the main ethnic groups in the city are: Jews began to settle in Derbent in ancient times. During the Khazars' reign, they played an important part in

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1404-524: A population of roughly 120,000 residents. Derbent claims to be the oldest city in Russia, with historical documentation dating to the 8th century BC , making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Due to its strategic location, over the course of history, the city changed ownership many times, particularly among the Persian , Arab , Mongol , Timurid , and Shirvan kingdoms. In

1521-519: A relative cultural autonomy granted to the minorities in the 1930s, the written Laz literature—based on the Laz script—emerged in Soviet Georgia , strongly dominated by Soviet ideology. The poet Mustafa Baniṣi spearheaded this short-lived movement, but an official standard form of the tongue was never established. Since then, several attempts have been made to render the pieces of native literature in

1638-689: A result of the Roman campaigns between 88 and 63 BC, led by the generals Pompey and Lucullus , the kingdom of Pontus was completely destroyed by the Romans and all its territory, including Colchis, was incorporated into the Roman Empire. The former southern provinces of Colchis were reorganized into the Roman province of Pontus Polemoniacus , while the northern Cholchis became the Roman province of Lazicum . Roman control remained likewise only nominal over

1755-457: A rich scarf tied around the hips. Laz men crafted excellent homemade rifles and even while at the plow were usually seen bristling with arms: rifle, pistol, powder horn, cartridge belts across the chest, a dagger at the hip, and a coil of rope for trussing captives. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , the leader of the early decades of the Republic, aimed to create a nation state ( Turkish : Ulus ) from

1872-503: A seat of the arts and commerce. According to Arab historians, Derbent, with a population exceeding 50,000, was the largest city of the 9th century in the Caucasus. In the 10th century, with the collapse of the Arab Caliphate, Derbent became the capital of an emirate. Emirate of Derbent often fought losing wars with the neighboring Christian state of Sarir , allowing Sarir to manipulate Derbent's politics on occasion. Despite that,

1989-633: A source of diplomatic conflict between the Byzantines and the Sassanid Persians. When the current holder of the gates dies, he bequeaths it to Emperor Anastasius . Anastasius, unable and unwilling to finance a garrison for the gates, loses them in an assault by the Sassanid King Cabades ( Kavadh I ). After peace, Anastasius builds the city of Dara , which would be a focus point for war during the reign of Justinian and site of

2106-493: A superior and never paid contributions to the sultan. In the period following the war of 1828–1829, Sultan Mahmud II attempted to break the power of the great independent derebeys of Lazistan. In the event, the Laz derebeys, led by Tahir Ağa Tuzcuoğlu of Rize, did rise in revolt in 1832. The revolt was initially successful: at its height in January 1833, but by the spring of 1834, the rising had been put down. The suppression of

2223-574: A written history, thus Turkish and Georgian serve as the main literary languages for the Laz people. Their folk literature has been transmitted orally and has not been systematically recorded. The first attempts at establishing a distinct Laz cultural identity and creating a literary language based on the Arabic alphabet was made by Faik Efendisi in the 1870s, but he was soon imprisoned by the Ottoman authorities, while most of his works were destroyed. During

2340-659: Is a city in Dagestan , Russia , located on the Caspian Sea . It is the southernmost city in Russia, and it is the second-most important city of Dagestan. Derbent occupies the narrow gateway between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains connecting the Eurasian Steppe to the north and the Iranian Plateau to the south; covering an area of 69.63 square kilometres (26.88 sq mi), with

2457-473: Is home to machine building, food, textile, fishing, and fishery supplies, construction materials, and wood industries. It is the center of Russian brandy production. The educational infrastructure includes a university as well as several technical schools. On the cultural front, there is a Lezgin drama theater (named after S. Stalsky). About two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the city is the vacation colony of Chayka (Seagull). The Soviet novelist Yury Krymov named

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2574-455: Is informed that Alexander had confined the Alans among other savage nations but that, either due to a bribe or political conflict, they were able to persuade the king of Hyrcania to let them burst out. Although not itself apocalyptic, the description of Ps. Hegesippus foreshadows the development of the apocalyptic narrative of Gog and Magog behind Alexander's wall, for it is first in his text that

2691-522: Is rather vague, described as a 50-day march away northwards after Alexander put to flight his Belsyrian enemies (the Bebrykes , of Bithynia in modern-day North Turkey ). The late antique Christian Syriac Alexander Legend transformed the gates into an apocalyptic barrier built by Alexander in the Caucasus to keep out the nations of Gog and Magog . This development was inspired by some elements of

2808-594: Is still preserved today, albeit in a very poor state of repair. The Great Wall of Gorgan was built during the Parthian dynasty simultaneously with the construction of the Great Wall of China and it was restored during the Sassanid era (3rd–7th centuries) Derbent Derbent ( Russian : Дербе́нт ; Avar : Дербенд ; Azerbaijani : Дәрбәнд , romanized :  Dərbənd ; Lezgian : Кьвевар, Цал ; Rutul : Derbend ), formerly romanized as Derbend ,

2925-471: Is traditionally identified with Albana, the capital. The modern name is a Persian word ( دربند Darband ) meaning "gateway", which came into use in the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century AD, when the city was re-established by Kavadh I of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia, however, Derbent was probably already into the Sasanian sphere of influence as a result of the victory over

3042-695: The Alexander Romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes. This version locates the gates between two mountains called the "Breasts of the North" ( Greek : Μαζοί Βορρά ). The mountains are initially 18 feet apart and the pass is rather wide, but Alexander's prayers to God causes the mountains to draw nearer, thus narrowing the pass. There he builds the Caspian Gates out of bronze, coating them with fast-sticking oil. The gates enclosed twenty-two nations and their monarchs, including Gog and Magog (therein called "Goth and Magoth"). The geographic location of these mountains

3159-591: The Battle of Dara . In this war, the Persians once again bring up the gates during negotiations, mentioning that they block the pass to the Huns for the benefit of both Persians and Byzantines, and that the Persians deserve to be compensated for their service. The story of Alexander's construction of walls to seal away and confine Gog and Magog is absent from the rabbinic literature . The Gates occur in later versions of

3276-713: The Caucasian wall (fifty metres long), otherwise known as Alexander's Wall , blocking the narrow pass of the Iron Gate or Caspian Gates ( Portae Athanae or Portae Caspiae ). When intact, the wall had a height of 9 m (29 ft) and a thickness of about 3 m (10 ft) and, with its iron gates and numerous watch-towers, defended Persia 's frontier. Derbent has a cold semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification BSk ). Winters are highly variable, with very cold nights interspersed with occasional bouts of sunshine and summerlike temperatures. Highest temperature

3393-740: The Congress of Berlin by the Russians in 1878, throughout the Russo-Turkish War , thereafter, Rize became the capital of the sanjak. The Muslim Lazs living in newly established Batumi Oblast were subjected to ethnic cleansing; by 1882, approximately 40,000 Lazs had settled in the Ottoman Empire, especially to provinces in Western Anatolia such as Bursa , Yalova , Karamursel , Izmit , Adapazarı and Sapanca . With

3510-656: The Eastern Roman and Sassanid empires, culminating in the Lazic War , where 1,000 Tzanni auxiliaries under Dagisthaeus participated. Emperor Heraclius 's offensive in 628 AD brought victory over the Persians and ensured Roman predominance in Lazica until the invasion and conquest of the Caucasus by the Arabs in the second half of the seventh century. As the result of Muslim invasions, the ancient metropolis , Phasis ,

3627-577: The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale . The ancestors of the Laz people are cited by many classical authors from Scylax to Procopius and Agathias , but the word Lazi in Latin language ( Greek : Λαζοί , romanized :  Lazoí ) themselves are firstly cited by Pliny around the 2nd century BC. Vladimir Minorsky , Russian scholar of Oriental studies , argued in 1913 that

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3744-500: The Georgian Orthodox Church , had to obey Patriarchate of Constantinople , thus gradually becoming Greeks , the process known as Hellenization of Laz people . Lazs who were under the control of Constantinople, soon lost their language and self-identity as they became Greeks and learned Greek, especially Pontic dialect of Greek language , although native language was preserved by Lazs who had become Muslims. In

3861-743: The Lazistan sanjak as part of eyalet of Trabzon . The Ottomans fought for three centuries to destroy the Christian-Georgian consciousness of the Laz people. Due to the Ottoman Islamization policy, throughout of seventeenth century Lazs gradually converted to Islam . As the Ottomans consolidated their rule, the Millet system was brought to the newly conquered territories. Local orthodox inhabitants, once subordinated to

3978-694: The Ottoman Turks such as in 1583 after the Battle of Torches and the Treaty of Constantinople , till the course of the 19th century, when the Russians occupied the city and wider Iranian-ruled swaths of Dagestan. Being briefly taken by the Russians as a result of the Persian expedition of 1722–23 by Peter the Great , the 1735 Treaty of Ganja , formed by Imperial Russia and Safavid Iran ( de facto ruled by Nader Shah ), forced Russia to return Derbent and its bastion to Iran. In 1747, Derbent became

4095-623: The Russian Empire . (For background, see Russian conquest of the Caucasus#Caspian Coast .) In the 1886 census of Dagestan Oblast , as part of Russia's Caucasus Viceroyalty , people of Iranian descent (Russian: персы ) were still an absolute majority at 8,994 out of 15,265, or 58,9%. The modern city is built in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe ; near the western shores of the Caspian Sea , south of

4212-788: The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel , who will emerge from their prison during the End Times and unite with their fellow Jews to attack the Christians . Polo speaks of Alexander's Iron Gates, but says the Comanians are the ones trapped behind it. He does mention Gog and Magog, however, locating them north of Cathay . Some scholars have taken this as an oblique and confused reference to the Great Wall of China , which he does not mention otherwise. The Gates of Alexander may represent an attempt by Westerners to explain stories from China of

4329-645: The administrative center of Derbentsky District , even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the City of Derbent —an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts . As a municipal division , the City of Derbent is incorporated as Derbent Urban Okrug . According to the 1897 census, Derbent had 14,649 inhabitants, 9,767 of whom were Tatar (later known as Azerbaijani ) speakers (66.7%) and 1,004 were Russian speakers (6.9%). In 1916, Derbent had

4446-415: The 19th century, the city passed from Persian into Russian hands by the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813. Derbent is derived from Persian " Darband " ( Persian : دربند , lit.   'Door/opening in a Barrier', from dar "door/gate" + band "barrier/dam", lit., "gate in the barrier" ), referring to the eastern-most pass in the high Caucasus Mountains (whence the putative "barrier/dam") on

4563-399: The 33rd Shirvanshah, managed to keep the kingdom of Shirvan independent. Ibrahim I revived Shirvan's fortunes, and through his cunning politics managed to continue without paying tribute. Furthermore, Ibrahim also greatly increased the limits of his state. He conquered the city of Derbend in 1437. The Shirvanshahs integrated the city so closely with their political structure that a new branch of

4680-505: The 5th century by the first Christian king, Gubazes I of Lazica , who declared Christianity as a state religion of Lazica. After the introduction of Christianity, Phasis was the see of a Greek diocese, one of whose bishops, Cyrus , became a Patriarch of Alexandria between AD 630 and 641. Trebizond became the metropolitan see of Lazica when the ancient metropolis, Phasis, was lost by the Byzantine Empire. Trebizond, which

4797-469: The Armenian community, which numbered about 3,000 in the census of 1913. Excavations on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, opposite to Derbent, revealed the Great Wall of Gorgan , the eastern counterpart to the wall and fortifications of Derbent. Similar Sassanian defensive fortifications there—massive forts, garrison towns, long walls—also run from the sea to the mountains. The Caliph Harun al-Rashid lived in Derbent and brought it into great repute as

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4914-471: The Caspian Gates, which he contrasts with the Gates of the Caucasus, a vast natural feature in a mountain chain rent asunder. Here, he says gates with iron covered beams have been placed above a horribly odorous river, along with a fortress to bar the passage of the innumerable tribes. These gates divide the world into two portions. Josephus , a Jewish historian in the 1st century, gives the first extant reference to gates constructed by Alexander, designed to be

5031-417: The Caucasus ridge was over the Darial Gorge . A traditionally and historically Iranian city, the first intensive settlement in the Derbent area dates from the 8th century BC; the site was intermittently controlled by the Persian monarchs, starting from the 6th century BC. Until the 4th century AD, it was part of Caucasian Albania which was a satrapy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and

5148-455: The Caucasus. The first Sasanian attempt to seal off the road along the Caspian seacoast at Darband by means of a mud-brick wall has been dated in the reign of Yazdegerd II (438–457 AD). Movses Kagankatvatsi left a graphic description of the sack of Derbent by the hordes of Tong Yabghu of the Western Turkic Khaganate in 627. His successor, As mentioned by the Encyclopedia Iranica , ancient Iranian language elements were absorbed into

5265-428: The Great Eastern Sea". Derbent became a strong military outpost and harbour of the Sassanid Empire . During the 5th and 6th centuries, Derbent also became an important center for spreading the Christian faith in the Caucasus. During periods when the Sasanians were distracted by war with the Byzantines or protracted battles with the Hephthalites in the eastern provinces, the northern tribes succeeded in advancing into

5382-424: The Laz living in Turkey and Georgia have developed different understandings of what it means to be Laz as their identity in Georgia has largely merged with a Georgian identity with the meaning of "Laz" being seen as merely a regional category. In a stereotyping manner, non-Laz often use the exonym Laz for groups that are mostly not ethnic Laz: The Lazuri-speaking ancestors of the modern Laz originally hailed from

5499-466: The Laz today is only estimated, with numbers ranging widely. The majority of Laz live in Turkey, where the national census does not record ethnic data on minor populations. Artvin : Arhavi and Hopa . minorities in: Borçka district. Trabzon : Of Anatolia : Karamürsel in Kocaeli , Akçakoca in Düzce , Sakarya , Zonguldak , Bartın , Istanbul and Ankara Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti : Zugdidi and Anaklia . The majority of

5616-433: The Laz today live in an area they call Laziǩa, Lazistan, Lazeti or Lazona name of the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Laz people in modern northeast Turkey and southwest Georgia. Geographically, Lazistan consists of a series of narrow, rugged valleys extending northward from the crest of the Pontic Alps ( Turkish : Anadolu Dağları ), which separate it from the Çoruh Valley, and stretches east–west along

5733-418: The Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica . The warlike tribes of the Chaldia, called Tzanni, the ancestors of modern Laz people lived in Tzanica , the area located between the Byzantine and the Lazica. It included several settlements named: Athenae , Archabis and Apsarus ; Tzanni were neither subjects of the Romans nor of the king of the Lazica, except that during

5850-436: The Parthians and the conquest of Caucasian Albania by Shapur I , the second shah of the Sassanid Persians. In the 5th century Derbent also functioned as a border fortress and the seat of a Sassanid marzban . The 20-meter-high (66 ft) walls with thirty north-looking towers are believed to belong to the time of Kavadh's son, Khosrau I , who also directed the construction of Derbent's fortress. Some say that

5967-406: The Rubas River, on the slopes of the Tabasaran Mountains (part of the Bigger Caucasus range). Derbent is well served by public transport, with its own harbor, a railway going south to Baku , and the Baku to Rostov-on-Don road. To the north of the town is the monument of the Kirk-lar, or forty heroes, who fell defending Dagestan against the Arabs in 728. To the south lies the seaward extremity of

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6084-401: The Russian conquest, many Jews of rural Dagestan fled to Derbent, which became the spiritual center of the Mountain Jews . The Jewish population numbered 2,200 in 1897 (15% of total population) and 3,500 in 1903. In the middle of the 20th century, Jews constituted about a third of the population of Derbent. In 1989, there were 13,000 Jews in the city, but most emigrated after the dissolution of

6201-415: The Seleucid calendrical system which began in 1 October, 312 BCE; by subtracting 311 or 312, a date of 514/5 is arrived at, representing a vaticinium ex eventu . A second prophecy of an incursion appears for 940 SE, pinpointing to 628/9 AD and corresponds with the invasion of Armenia by the Turkic Khazars (not to be confused with a reference to the Turks which may not occur in this type of literature until

6318-438: The Shirvan dynasty emerged from Derbend, the Derbenid dynasty. The Derbenid dynasty, being a cadet dynasty of Shirvan, inherited the throne of Shirvan in the 15th century. In the early 16th century, the kingdom of Shirvan was conquered by Shah Ismail of the Safavid dynasty. As Shah Ismail incorporated all the Shirvan possessions, he also inherited Derbend. Derbent stayed under Iranian rule, while occasionally briefly taken by

6435-414: The Shirvanshahs, had attempted, and on numerous times, succeeded, to conquer Derbend since the 18th Shirvanshah king, Afridun I , was appointed as the governor of the city. Over the centuries the city changed hands often. The 21st Shirvanshah king, Akhsitan I , briefly reconquered the city. However, the city was lost once again to the northern Kipchaks . After the Timurid invasion, Ibrahim I of Shirvan ,

6552-475: The Soviet Union . In 2002, there were 2,000 Jews with an active synagogue and community center. The chief rabbi of Derbent, Obadiah Isakov, was badly injured in an assassination attempt on July 25, 2013, sparking concerns of further acts of antisemitism targeting the Jewish community. In 2016, the Jewish population was down to 1,345. In the 2024 Dagestan attacks , a synagogue in Derbent was set on fire by armed gunmen, possibly affiliated with ISIS . The city

6669-438: The Trebizontine province of Lazia threw off its allegiance to the king of the 'Iberian' and 'Lazian' tribes and united itself with the Georgian Kingdom of Imereti . Laz populated area was often contested by different Georgian principalities, however through Battle of Murjakheti in 1535, Principality of Guria ensured control over it, until 1547, when it was finally conquered by resurgent Ottoman forces and reorganized into

6786-459: The Turkish and Georgian alphabets. A few native poets in Turkey such as Raşid Hilmi Pehlivanoğlu have appeared later in the 20th century. Andrew the Apostle after traveling from Trebizond into Lazica in the first century AD, built a church here. The significance of the apostle's activities was that he introduced the principle of Christian faith and thereby paved the way for later missionary activities. The Lazes were converted to Christianity in

6903-400: The Turkish culture has been high, and Laz identity was oppressed during the days of Ottoman and Soviet Rule. One of the pivotal moments was in 1992, when the book Laz History ( Lazların tarihi ) was published. The authors had failed to have it published in 1964. "The tribes in Colchis consolidated during the 13th century BCE. This was at this period mentioned in Greek mythology as Colchis as

7020-434: The Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. During the first three decades of the Republic, efforts to Turkify geographical names were a recurring theme. Imported maps containing references to historical regions such as Armenia , Kurdistan , or Lazistan (the official name of the province of Rize until 1921) were prohibited (as was the case with Der Grosse Weltatlas , a map published in Leipzig ). Cultural assimilation into

7137-466: The Two Horns"), a righteous ruler and conqueror who reached the west and the east. The barrier was constructed with melted iron sheets and covered with copper. During the Middle Ages , the Gates of Alexander story was included in travel literature such as the Travels of Marco Polo and the Travels of Sir John Mandeville . The identities of the nations trapped behind the wall are not always consistent, however; Mandeville claims Gog and Magog are really

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7254-425: The Tzanni lived under nominal Byzantine suzerainty in the theme of Chaldia, with its capital at Trebizond, governed by the native semi-autonomous rulers, like the Gabras family, of possibly "Greco-Laz" or simply Chaldian origin. With the Georgian intervention in Chaldia and collapse of Byzantine Empire in 1204, Empire of Trebizond was established along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea, populated by

7371-411: The beaches of the Caspian Sea . (The other pass, the Darial Pass , is in the Central Caucasus Mountains, and likewise carries a Persian name, standing for "the Alan Pass/gate" – with the Alans being the modern Iranic Ossetians .) It is often identified with the Gates of Alexander , a legendary barrier supposedly built by Alexander the Great in the Caucasus . The Persian name for

7488-447: The capital of the Derbent Khanate of the same name. During the Persian Expedition of 1796 , Derbent was stormed by Russian forces under General Valerian Zubov , but the Russians were forced to retreat due to internal political issues, making it fall under Persian rule again. As a consequence of the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813) and the resulting Treaty of Gulistan of 1813, Derbent and wider Dagestan were ceded by Qajar Iran to

7605-425: The celebration of Kolkhoba theater performances are followed by a variety of activities and it is considered one of the main public festivals. The national instruments include guda (bagpipe), kemenche (spike fiddle), zurna (oboe), and doli (drum). In the 1990s and 2000s, the folk-rock musician Kâzım Koyuncu attained to significant popularity in Turkey and toured Georgia. Koyuncu, who died of cancer in 2005,

7722-429: The cisterns, the old cemeteries, the caravanserai, the 18th-century Khan's mausoleum, as well as several mosques. As of 1865, the city had: 1 - Russian and 1 - Armenian church; 1 - Sunni and 16 - Shiite mosques, as well as 3 synagogues. Derbent is twinned with: Laz people The Laz people , or Lazi ( Laz : ლაზი Lazi ; Georgian : ლაზი , lazi ; or ჭანი, ch'ani ; Turkish : Laz ), are

7839-484: The city came into use at the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century AD, when the city was re-established by Kavadh I of the Sassanid dynasty of Persia, but Derbent was probably already in the Sasanian sphere of influence as a result of the victory over the Parthians and the conquest of Caucasian Albania by Shapur I , the second shah of the Sassanid Persians. The geographical treatise Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr written in Middle Persian mentions

7956-420: The construction by Alexander of an iron gate to section off the barbarian group. In the first of two references to this gate, Ps. Hegesippus, places its location at the Taurus Mountains . This is mentioned in the context of a discussion on Alexander's founding of the Antioch of the Orontes , and therefore represents Alexander not only as a founder of civilization but also its protector. In the second reference, it

8073-432: The countries of the Romans and Persians; they will shoot arrows with armagest and will return and enter their country. Moreover, I wrote that (at) the end of eight hundred and twenty six years, the Huns would come forth by the narrow road..." (the inscription goes on for several more pages). This prophecy whereby the Huns break through the gates is linked to the invasion of the Sabir people in 515 AD as Syriac texts would use

8190-460: The defence lines built by the Sassanid Persians , while the Great Wall of Gorgan may have been built by the Parthians . Alongside other motifs such as the Horns of Alexander , the Gates of Alexander became commonly associated with Alexander legends, as in the Alexander Romance , the Syriac Alexander Romance , and the Qissat Dhulqarnayn . Pliny the Elder (23 AD – 25 August 79 AD), in his Natural History , says that Alexander passed through

8307-472: The designation of the term of Lazistan was officially banned in 1926, by the Kemalists . Lazistan was divided between Rize and Artvin provinces. During the beginning of the Stalinist era , the Lazs living under Soviet domination had a certain cultural autonomy in the Soviet Union but after breakout of the Second World War , Soviet authorities designed a strategy to ethnically cleanse the border regions of populations it deemed unreliable. The Laz population

8424-464: The direction of the Sassanid emperor Khosrow (Chosroes) I . A large portion of the walls and several watchtowers still remain in reasonable shape. The walls, reaching to the sea, date from the 6th century, Sassanid dynasty period. The city has a well-preserved citadel (Narin-kala), enclosing an area of 4.5 hectares (11 acres), enclosed by strong walls. Historical attractions include the baths,

8541-527: The emirate outlived its rival and continued to flourish at the time of the Mongol invasion in 1239. In the 14th century, Derbent was occupied by Timur 's armies. The Shirvanshahs dynasty existed as independent or a vassal state, from 861 until 1538; longer than any other dynasty in the Islamic world . They were renowned for their cultural achievements and geopolitical pursuits. The rulers of Shirvan, called

8658-403: The entire head above the eyes, knotted on the side and hanging down to the shoulder and the upper back; a snug-fitting jacket of coarse brown homespun with loose sleeves; and baggy dark brown woolen trousers tucked into slim, knee-high leather boots. The women's costume was similar to the wide-skirted princess gown found throughout Georgia but worn with a similar kerchief to that of the men and with

8775-521: The everyday speech of the population of Dagestan and Derbent especially during the Sassanian era, and many remain current. In fact, a deliberate policy of “ Persianizing ” Derbent and the eastern Caucasus, in general, can be traced over many centuries, from Khosrow I to the Safavid shahs Ismail I , and ʿAbbās the Great . According to the account in the later "Darband-nāma", after construction of

8892-461: The fortifications Khosrow I “moved much folk here from Persia”, relocating about 3,000 families from the interior of Persia in the city of Derbent and neighboring villages. This account seems to be corroborated by the Spanish Arab Ḥamīd Moḥammad Ḡarnāṭī, who reported in 1130 that Derbent was populated by many ethnic groups, including a large Persian-speaking population. In 643, Derbent

9009-435: The gate should be constructed out of iron and bronze, for which he recruited three thousand blacksmiths to work the latter and three thousand other men for the former. However, it was believed that the barbarian tribes would break through during the apocalypse. The dimensions and features of the gate are described in detail, and Alexander was said to have placed an inscription on it which reads "The Huns will come forth and subdue

9126-619: The gates to the Alans (whom Josephus considered a Scythic tribe) resulted in the sack of Media . Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews contains two relevant passages, one giving the ancestry of Scythians as descendants of Magog son of Japheth , and another that refers to the Caspian Gates being breached by Scythians allied to Tiberius during the Armenian War . In his description of the Alans , Pseudo-Hegesippus follows Josephus in mentioning

9243-481: The help of his daughter Medea , has brought Colchis into the history books. Kolkhoba is an ancient Laz festival. It is held at the end of August or at the beginning of September in Sarpi village , Khelvachauri District . Festival has revived the former lifestyle of Lazeti residents and moments of human relations typical to the times of ancient Greece and Colchis related to the Argonauts journey to Colchis. During

9360-640: The historical context of the time, including dread of the northern hordes, a variety of Persian fortifications meant to seal off the movement of steppe nomads, and eschatological thinking and attitudes of the time. At its outset, the Syriac Alexander Legend (otherwise known as the Neshana ) records Alexander constructing a wall of iron to prevent an invasion of the Huns that would result in the plunder of peoples and countries. Alexander commanded that

9477-557: The invasion of the Čōl, at the boundary of the Georgian Guard.). -Wėrōy-pahr: "The Georgian Guard" The old name of the fortress at Darband;... In Arabic texts the city was known as " Bāb al-Abwāb " ( Arabic : بَاب ٱلْأَبْوَاب , lit.   'Gate of all Gates'), simply as " al-Bāb " ( Arabic : ٱلْبَاب , lit.   'The Gate') or as " Bāb al-Hadid " ( Arabic : بَاب ٱلْحَدِيد , lit.   'Gate of Iron'). A similar name meaning "Iron Gate"

9594-543: The level of the Caspian was formerly higher and that the lowering of the water level opened an invasion route that had to be fortified. The chronicler Movses Kaghankatvatsi wrote about "the wondrous walls, for whose construction the Persian kings exhausted our country, recruiting architects and collecting building materials with a view of constructing a great edifice stretching between the Caucasus Mountains and

9711-451: The life of the city. The Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela mentions Jews living in Derbent in the 12th century, and Christian traveler Wilhelm of Rubruquis writes about a Jewish community in the 13th century. The first mention of Jews in Derbent in modern times is by a German traveler, Adam Olearius, in the 17th century. Derbent's Jewry suffered during the wars in the 18th century. Nadir Shah of Persia forced many Jews to adopt Islam. After

9828-478: The men dancing erect with hands linked, making short rapid movements with their feet, punctuated by dropping to a crouch. The women's dances are graceful but more swift in movement than those encountered in Georgia. In Greece such dances are still associated with the Pontic Greeks who emigrated from this region after 1922. The traditional Laz men's costume consists of a peculiar bandanalike kerchief covering

9945-634: The middle of the seventeen century, several governors of Tunis , who bore the title of Dey were Laz origin, such as: Muhammad Laz (1647-1653), Mustafa Laz (1653-1665) and Ali Laz (1673). Not only the Pashas (governors) of Trabzon until the 19th century, but real authority in many of the cazas (districts) of each sanjak by the mid-17th century lay in the hands of relatively independent native Laz derebeys ("valley-lords"), or feudal chiefs who exercised absolute authority in their own districts, carried on petty warfare with each other, did not owe allegiance to

10062-470: The ninth century), although this may have been an interpolation that was made into the text during the reign of Heraclius to update the narrative for a contemporary political situation. The description of the gates of Alexander in the Syriac Alexander Legend influenced most subsequent Syriac literature describing these events. More indirect, the Tiburtine Sibyl records that Alexander "enclosed"

10179-546: The north and west of its boundaries. Another suggestion is some mountain pass in the Taurus-Zagros Mountains , somewhere near Rhaegae, Iran , in the heart of Hyrcania. The Gates of Alexander are most commonly identified with the Caspian Gates of Derbent , whose thirty north-looking towers used to stretch for forty kilometers between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains , effectively blocking

10296-545: The northeast, around Abkhazia and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and settled in the present homeland of the Laz in antiquity. Modern theories suggest that the Colchian tribes are direct ancestors of the Laz- Mingrelians , they constituted the dominant ethnic and cultural presence in the south-eastern Black Sea region in antiquity, and hence played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of the modern Georgians . In

10413-569: The notion is developed that the tribe behind the wall have actually been confined or imprisoned behind it. Jerome states in the late-fourth century in his seventy-seventh letter that "the gates of Alexander keep back the wild peoples behind the Caucasus". Like Ps. Hegesippus, and unlike the later traditions of the Syrian church, Jerome was concerned with the Greco-Roman discourses on civilization and barbarity as opposed to apocalypse. Jordanes

10530-466: The old name of the fortress – Wērōy-pahr (The Georgian Guard): šahrestan [ī] kūmīs [ī] panj-burg až-i dahāg pad šabestān kard. māniš [ī] *pārsīgān ānōh būd. padxwadayīh [ī] yazdgird ī šabuhrān kard andar tāzišn ī čōl wērōy-pahr [ī] an ālag. (The city of Kūmīs of five towers Aži Dahag made it his own harem. The abode of the Parthians was there. In the reign of Yazdgird, the son of Šabuhr made it during

10647-454: The passage across the Caucasus. Derbent was built around a Sassanid Persian fortress, which served as a strategic location protecting the empire from attacks by the Gokturks . The historical Caspian Gates were not built until probably the reign of Khosrow I in the 6th century, long after Alexander's time, but they came to be credited to him in the passing centuries. The immense wall had

10764-482: The past 20 years, there has been an upsurge of cultural activities aiming at revitalizing the Laz language, education and tradition. Kâzım Koyuncu , who in 1998 became the first Laz musician to gain mainstream success, contributed significantly to the identity of the Laz people, especially among their youth. The Laz Cultural Institute was founded in 1993 and the Laz Culture Association in 2008, and

10881-530: The people of Gog and Magog to prevent their incursion from the north, coinciding with the statement that at some point in the future they will rise again and break through. A similar narration is mentioned in al-Kahf (" The Cave "), the 18th chapter of the Quran . According to the Quranic narrative, Gog and Magog ( Arabic : يأجوج ومأجوج Yaʾjūj wa-Maʾjūj ) were walled off by Dhu al-Qarnayn ("possessor of

10998-538: The records of the mediaeval empire of Trebizond, and it is perhaps not too venturesome to suggest that the antagonism between the "town-party" and the "country-party," which existed in the politics of "the Empire," was in fact a national antagonism of Laz against Greek. In 1282, kingdom of Imereti besieged Trebizond , however after the failed attempt to take the city, the Georgians occupied several provinces, and all

11115-654: The region and finally left the area to the Ottoman-Turkish forces in March 1918. From 1918 to 1920, the national movement swept rapidly all around Lazistan, committees and an interim government was created. It was oriented towards Soviet Russia. But as soon as, the Soviet-Turkish treaty of friendship was concluded, it helped the Turks, to integrate Lazistan. The autonomous Lazistan sanjak existed until 1923, while

11232-588: The region at the end of the ninth century, the Armenians living there were able to establish a kingdom, which lasted until the early years of the thirteenth century. The Holy Saviour Armenian Church still rises up in the skyline, though it is used as the Museum of Carpet, Arts and Crafts today due to the decline in the Armenian population. There was also a second Armenian church and two Armenian schools which served

11349-478: The region has halted development. The current fortification and walls were built by the Persian Sassanian Empire as a defensive structure against hostile nomadic people in the north, and continuously repaired or improved by later Arab, Mongol, Timurid, Shirvan, and Iranian kingdoms until the early course of the 19th century, as long as its military function lasted. The fortress was built under

11466-666: The reign of Heraclius , the Byzantine emperor who defeated the Sasanian Empire in their great war of the first decades of the seventh century. The medieval German legend of the Red Jews was partially based on stories of the Gates of Alexander. The legend disappeared before the 17th century. In medieval world maps, the land of Gog and Magog is generally shown as a region in the far north, northeast, or east of Asia , enclosed by mountains or fortifications and often featuring

11583-476: The reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) they were subdued, Christianized and brought to central rule. The bishops of the Lazica appointed their priests, seeing they are Christians. Tzanni began to have closer contact with the Greeks and acquired various Hellenic cultural traits, including in some cases the language. From 542 to 562, Lazica was a scene of the protracted rivalry between

11700-463: The rising had finally broken the power of the Laz derebeys. This state of insubordination was not really broken until the assertion of Ottoman authority during the reforms of the Osman Pasha in the 1850s. In 1547, Ottomans built coastal fortress of Gonia , an important Ottoman outpost in southwestern Georgia, which served as capital of Lazistan; then Batum until it was acquired according to

11817-559: The second half of the eight century the Trebizond area is referred to in Greek sources (namely of Epiphanius of Constantinople ) as Lazica. The 10th-century Arab geographer Abul Feda regards city of Trebizond as being largely a Lazian port. In 780, kingdom of Abkhazia incorporated the former territories of Lazica via a dynastic succession, thus ousting the Pontic Lazs (formerly known as Tzanni) from western Georgia; thereafter,

11934-498: The shores of the Black Sea, one of them being Trebizond ( Greek : Τραπεζοῦς , romanized :  Trapezous ) founded by Milesian traders from Sinope in 756 BC. Trebizond's trade partners included the Proto-Laz tribes of Mossynoeci . By the sixth century BC, the tribes living in the southern Colchis ( Macrones , Mossynoeci , Marres etc.) were incorporated into the nineteenth satrapy of Persia . The Achaemenid Empire

12051-511: The southern shore of the Black Sea . Lazistan is a virtually a forbidden term in Turkey. the name was considered to be an 'unpatriotic' invention of ancien regime. Laz ancestral lands are not well-defined and there is no official geographic definition for the boundaries of Lazistan. However, parts of the following provinces are usually included: Historically, Lazistan was known for producing hazelnuts . Lazistan also produced zinc , producing over 1,700 tons in 1901. The traditional Laz economy

12168-648: The spread of Young Turk movement in Lazistan, the short-lived autonomist national movement headed by Faik Efendişi was established. However, it was soon eliminated as the result of Abdul Hamid 's intervention. During the First World War (1914–18) Russians invaded the provinces of Rize and Trabzon. However, following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Russian forces had to withdraw from

12285-483: The thirteenth century BC , the Kingdom of Colchis was formed as a result of the increasing consolidation of the tribes inhabiting the region, which covered modern western Georgia and Turkey 's north-eastern provinces of Trabzon , Rize and Artvin . Colchis was an important region in Black Sea trade – rich with gold, wax, hemp, and honey. In the eighth century, several Greek trading colonies were established along

12402-577: The tribes of the interior. The first-century historians Memnon and Strabo remark in passing that the people formerly called Macrones bore in his day the name of Sanni , a claim supported also by Stephanus of Byzantium . The second-century historian Arrian notes that Tzanni , same as the Sanni are neighbours of the Colchians, while the latter were now referred to as the Lazi. By the mid-third century,

12519-645: Was a Byzantine author of the sixth century. In a detailed discussion on the Amazons in a Latin work of his named the Getica , he wrote that Alexander had built a set of gates and called them the Caspian Gates. These gates, he said, were guarded by the Laz people of Roman Georgia . The Gates are also mentioned in Procopius ' History of the Wars: Book I. Here they are mentioned as the Caspian Gates and they are

12636-597: Was also an activist for the Laz people and has become a cultural hero. The Laz are noted for their folk dances, called the Horon dance of the Black Sea, originally of pagan worship which was to become a sacred ritual dance. There are many different types of this dance in different regions. Horon is related to those performed by the Ajarians known as Khorumi . These may be solemn and precise, performed by lines of men, with carefully executed footwork, or extremely vigorous with

12753-444: Was based on agriculture—carried out with some difficulty in the steep mountain regions and also on the breeding of sheep, goats, and cattle. Orchards were tended and bees were kept, and the food supply was augmented by hunting. The Laz are good sailors and also practise agriculture rice, maize, tobacco and fruit-trees. The only industries were smelting, celebrated since ancient times, and the cutting of timber used for shipbuilding. Over

12870-527: Was captured by the Arab Muslims, who called it the Gate of Gates ( Bab al-Abwab ), following their invasion of Persia . They transformed it into an important administrative center and introduced Islam to the area. The impression of antiquity evoked by these fortifications led many Arab historians to connect them with Khosrow I and to include them among the seven wonders of the world. The Darband fortress

12987-620: Was certainly the most prominent Sasanian defensive construction in the Caucasus and could have been erected only by an extremely powerful central government. Because of its strategic position on the northern branch of the Silk Route , the fortress was contested by the Khazars in the course of the Khazar-Arab Wars . The Sassanids had also brought Armenians from Syunik to help protect the pass from invaders; as Arab rule weakened in

13104-591: Was defeated by Alexander the Great , however following the Alexander's death a number of separate kingdoms were established in Anatolia , including Pontus , in the corner of the southern Black Sea, ruled by the Persian nobleman Mithridates I . Culturally, the kingdom was Hellenized , with Greek as the official language. Mithridates VI conquered the Colchis, and gave it to his son Mithridates of Colchis . As

13221-411: Was lost and Trebizond became the new Metropolitan bishop of Lazica, since then the name Lazi appears the general Greek name for Tzanni. According to Geography of Anania Shirakatsi of the 7th century, Colchis ( Yeger in Armenian sources, same as Lazica) was subdivided into four small districts, one of them being Tzanica, that is Chaldia , and mentions Athinae, Rhizus and Trebizond among its cities. From

13338-423: Was recorded 38.8°C (101.8°F) on August 29, 1995 and August 13, 1974 and lowest temperature was recorded -19.0°C (-2.2°F) on February 14, 1988 and February 3, 1994, and the highest lowest temperature recorded was 28.9°C (84.0°F) on July 6, 1990, July 12, 2010 and June 7, 1984, lowest high was -6.1°C (21.0°F) on January 15, 1993 and December 7, 2005. Within the framework of administrative divisions , Derbent serves as

13455-547: Was sent to exile in Siberia and Central Asia . After the death Stalin in 1953, the political climate had changed that between 1953 and 1957 the surviving Lazs were allowed to return to their homeland. Most Laz people today live in Turkey, but the Laz minority group has no official status in Turkey. The number of the Laz speakers is decreasing, and is now limited chiefly to some areas in Rize and Artvin. The total population of

13572-893: Was the only diocese established far in the past, Cerasous and Rizaion , both formed as upgraded bishoprics. All three dioceses survived the Ottoman conquest (1461) and generally operated until the 17th century, when the dioceses of Cerasous and Rizaion were abolished. The diocese of Rizaion and the bishopric of Of were abolished at the time due to the Islamisation of the Lazs. Most of them subsequently converted to Sunni Islam . There are several ruined churches in present-day Rize and Artvin districts, such as; Jibistasi in Ardeşen , Makriali (Noghedi) in Hopa , Pironity in Arhavi etc. There are also

13689-534: Was used by Turkic peoples, in the form " Demirkapi ". Derbent's location on a narrow, three-kilometer strip of land in the North Caucasus between the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains is strategic in the entire Caucasus region. Historically, this position allowed the rulers of Derbent to control land traffic between the Eurasian Steppe and the Middle East . The only other practicable crossing of

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