Baku

Who holds it

Name

Akhsitan I or his successor (not pinned)

Title

Shirvanshah

Confidence

low

Lord in 1200

The Shirvanshah, who has kept his residence here since Qizil Arslan took Shamakhi in 1191

How things stand that morning

Held by the Shirvanshah; probably the court's residence.

Charter

None: the towns of the atabegs have no charters; the governor (shihna or wali), the judge (qadi) and the market inspector (muhtasib) answer to the ruler.

Council

No sworn council; the notables (a'yan), the qadi and the heads of quarters speak for the town.

Communities

Muslim townsmen; merchants of the Caspian trade.

Fairs and markets

Weekly and daily markets (suq) and caravanserais; no fair dates recorded.

Militia

Townsmen's young men's associations (ahdath, 'ayyarun) exist in the towns of the region; nothing specific is recorded for 1199-1200.

Walls and castle

Walled port town (12th-century inscriptions of the Shirvanshahs are reported on the walls; not checked here).

Trade and crafts

Naphtha and white oil, salt, saffron, silk and carpets through the port; the Caspian trade with Persia and the Rus'.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Iranica and poets; nothing dated to 1199-1200.

Primary sources for Shirvan

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The History of Derbent and Shirvan, as preserved in Munejjim-bashi's Jami al-duwal, Anonymous (an 11th-century author of Derbent, excerpted by Munejjim-bashi, died 1702) (about 1075; preserved in an Ottoman compilation of the 1670s). The only local history of the Shirvanshahs and the emirs of Derbent, surviving as extracts in a 17th-century Ottoman compilation.
• History of the Armenians, Kirakos Gandzaketsi (1241 to 1265). Written at Getik and Gandzak in the Zakarid lands of Georgian Armenia. Read online
• The Georgian Chronicles: the Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, and the Life of Queen Tamar, Anonymous, attributed to the chancellor Theodore of Chqondidi and to Basili, master of the court (about 1210 to 1225). Two court histories of Queen Tamar written within a generation. Read online
• Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online