Derbent closes the narrow plain between the Caucasus and the Caspian with its citadel (Naryn-Kala) and two parallel walls running down into the sea, built under the Sasanians.
The city is the capital of its own emirate and a port and market for the steppe trade: slaves and mules went south through it in the geographers' time. Its Friday mosque stands on the site of an older church. Benjamin of Tudela knew of its Jews, and its Armenian community lasted into the early 13th century.
Who holds it
- Name
- Abd al-Malik ibn Bek-Bars (not pinned)
- Title
- Emir of Derbent
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The emir of Derbent (probably Abd al-Malik ibn Bek-Bars)
How things stand that morning
Held by the emir.
Charter
None; the emir rules with the town's notables (ru'asa), who expelled and recalled emirs in the 10th and 11th centuries (Minorsky, A History of Sharvan and Darband); their part in 1200 is not pinned.
Council
The notables and the heads of the quarters; nothing specific for 1200.
Communities
Persian-speaking Muslims, Armenians, Jews; mountain people from Tabasaran and the Lakz.
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
Sasanian double walls and the citadel of Naryn-Kala; the sea wall closes the harbour.
Trade and crafts
Customs of the passage; slaves, mules, furs and horses from the steppe (Le Strange); fish.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: General descriptions; nothing dated to 1199-1200.
Primary sources for Derbent
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.
- 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
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia, 'Derbent'
- Wikipedia, 'Emirate of Derbent' (ruler list after Minorsky, A History of Sharvan and Darband, 1958)
- G. Le Strange, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate (1905), chapters on Adharbayjan and Arran
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.