Tuesday, June 28, 2016

James Bryce, Transcaucasia and Ararat (1876)

James Bryce (1838-1922) was a distinguished British jurist, writer and Liberal politician. Born in Belfast, he studied at the University of Glasgow, University of Heidelberg and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he earned his law degree. He practiced law for several years in London before accepting an offer to serve as Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, a position he held for twenty three years until 1893. During this time Bryce had travelled extensively in Europe and, in 1876, visited the Caucasus, where he visited Georgia and Armenia.  In later years Bryce ventured into politics, becoming a member of the Parliament and serving as the British ambassador to the USA in 1907-1913. During World War I he was commissioned to write the well known Bryce Report on the German atrocities in Belgium. 

The brief excerpt below is from Bryce's book "Transcaucasia and Ararat" 


I will shortly describe the chief races that now occupy the country. Beginning from the west, we find the Mingrelians along the Black Sea coast, from the Turkish border to Sukhum Kaleh. They are the ne'er-do-wells of the Caucasian family. All their neighbours, however backward a Western may think them, have a bad word and a kick for the still more backward Mingrelian. To believe them, he is lazy, sensual, treacherous, and stupid, a liar and a thief. The strain in which the Russians and Armenians talk of them reminded me of the description one gets from the Transylvanian Saxons and Magyars of the Wallachs or Roumans who live among them. You ask what kind of people the Wallachs are. "A dirty people," they answer, "a treacherous people, a lazy people, a superstitious people, a cruel people, a gluttonous people. Otherwise not such a bad kind of people."

Lazy the Mingrelian certainly is, but in other respects I doubt if he is worse than his neighbours ; and he lives in so damp and warm a climate that violent exercise must be disagreeable. He is a well-made, good-looking fellow, but with a dull and perhaps rather sensual expression. And he is certainly backward in agriculture and trade, making very little of a singularly rich country. 

South of Mingrelia lies Guria, on the slopes and ridges of the Anti-Caucasus, a land where the people are more vigorous and upright, and where, as they have been less affected by conquest and immigration, the picturesque old costumes have best maintained themselves. 

West of the Mingrelians, in the hilly regions of the Upper Rion and its tributaries, live the Imeritians, a race speaking the Georgian language, who may generally be distinguished by their bushy hair. My personal knowledge of them is confined to three waiters at three several inns, rather a narrow basis for induction, but quite as wide as many travellers have had for some very sweeping conclusions. They have a better name than the Mingrelians, both for industry and honesty, and these three waiters 
were pleasant, civil fellows, though not particularly bright. 

Still farther east, and occupying the centre of Transcaucasia, are the Georgians, called by the Russians Grusinians or Grusians, who may be considered the principal and, till the arrival of the Muscovite, the dominant race of the country. They call themselves Karthli [kartveli], deducing their origin from a patriarch Karthlos (who was brother of Haik, the patriarch of the Armenian nation, and of Legis, the ancestor of the Lesghians), a grandson, or, as others hold, great-grandson of Gomer, son of Japhet. According to their own legends, they worshipped the sun and the moon and the five planets, and swore by the grave of Karthlos until converted to Christianity by St Nina in the fourth century of our era. For several centuries their kingdom extended almost to the Black Sea in one direction and the Caspian in another, and maintained itself with some credit against the hostility of Turks and Persians, though often wasted by Persian armies, and for long periods obliged to admit the suzerainty of the Shah. Its heroic age was the time of Queen Tamara, who flourished in the twelfth century, and is still honoured by pictures all over the country, in which she appears as a beautiful Amazon, not unlike the fancy portraits of Joan of Arc. To her is ascribed the foundation of every ancient church or monastery, just as all the strongholds are said to have been built by the robber Kir Oghlu, and as in Scotland there is hardly an old mansion but shows Wallace's sword and Queen Mary's apartment. [...] One sees traces of a sort of feudal period in the numerous castles ; most of them mere square towers, such as we see on the coast of Scotland and the north of Ireland, which lie scattered all over Georgia and Imeritia ; and the organisation of society was till quite lately feudal, the peasantry villeins under the native kings, and reduced under the Russians to serfdom, while the 
upper class consisted of landowning nobles and their immediate dependants. 

It is a joke among the Russians that every Georgian is a noble, and as the only title of nobility is Prince, the effect to an English ear of hearing all sorts of obscure people, country postmasters, droshky drivers, sometimes even servants, described as being Prince So-and-so, is at first grotesque. The number of noble families is, however, really not very large. I have heard it put as low as thirty, but as the title goes to all the children, each of the families has a vast number of titled members. This at least may be said for the numerous nobility, that, although it has been charged with vanity and frivolity, it does not despise all honest occupations. And some of the Georgian noble houses have pedigrees, apparently authentic pedigrees, older than any to be found in Europe. 

Every one has heard of the Georgian beauties, who in the estimation of Turkish importers rivalled or surpassed those of Circassia itself. Among them a great many handsome and even some beautiful faces may certainly be seen, regular and finely chiselled features, a clear complexion, large and liquid eyes, an erect carriage, in which there is a good deal of dignity as well as of voluptuousness. To a taste, however, formed upon Western models, mere beauty of features and figure, without expression, is not very interesting ; and these beautiful faces frequently want expression. Nor have they always that vivacity which, in the parallel case of the women of Andalusia, partly redeems the deficiency of intelligence. Admirable as pieces of Nature's handiwork, they are not equally charming. A Turk may think them perfection, but it may be doubted whether any one who had seen the ladies of Cork or Baltimore would take much pleasure in their society. However, this is a point on which people will disagree to the end of time; and those who hold that it is enough to look at a beauty without feeling inclined to talk to her need not go beyond Georgia to find all they can wish. It must be remembered, however, that this loveliness is rather fleeting. Towards middle life the complexion is apt to become sallow, and the nose and chin rather too prominent, while the vacuity of look remains. One is told that they are, as indeed the whole nation is, almost uneducated, with nothing but petty personal interests to fill their thoughts or animate their lives.

The men are sufficiently good-looking and pleasing in manner, with, perhaps, a shade of effeminacy in their countenances, at least in those of the lowland. They do not strike one as a strong race, either physically or otherwise, though they have produced some remarkable men, and having obtained civilisation and Christianity in the fourth century of our era, have ever since maintained their religion and national existence with great tenacity against both Turks and Persians. So early as the sixth century, Procopius compliments the Iberians (who are doubtless the ancestors of our Georgians) on their resolute adherence to Christian rites in spite of the attacks of the Persian fire-worshippers, who, it may be remarked in passing, seem to have been the first to set the example of religious persecution. The Muslims say that the Christianity of the Georgians is owing to their fondness for wine and for pork, both which good things, as everybody knows, the Prophet has forbidden to true believers. 
[...]

Scattered through Upper Georgia, and to be found among the peasantry as well as in the towns, there is a considerable Armenian population, who probably settled here when their national kingdom was destroyed by the Seljukian conquerors Alp Arslan and Malek Shah, in the eleventh century. Farther south, in Armenia proper, they constitute the bulk of the population in the country districts, Kurds being mixed with them in the mountains, Tatars in the plains, and Persians in the towns. As I shall have to recur to them in a later chapter, it is enough to remark here that they are the most vigorous and intelligent of the Transcaucasian races, with a gift for trade which has enabled them to get most of the larger business of the country into their hands. Their total number in these countries is estimated at 550,000. Between them and the Georgians there is little cordiality, especially as their wealthy men are apt to be creditors, and the Georgians apt to be debtors. 

Going down the Kur from Tiflis towards the Caspian, one finds the Greorgians give place to a people whom the Russians call Tatars, and who are unquestionably a branch of the great Turkic family....Veritable Turks these fellows certainly are, quite unlike the mongrel race who go by the name of the Turks in Europe, and much more resembling, in face, figure, and character, the pure undiluted Turkman of Khiva and the steppes of the Jaxartes. Being in some districts a settled and industrious race, they are, however, less wild-looking than the Turkmans, and remind one more of the grave and respectable Tatar of Kazan or the Crimea. Their villages, often mere burrows in the dry soil, are scattered all over the steppe eastward to the Caspian, and southward as far as the Persian frontier. Many are agricultural, many more live by their sheep and cattle, which in summer are driven up towards the Armenian mountains and in winter return to the steppe; and some of them, settled in the larger towns, practise various handicrafts, and among others weave rich carpets and other woollen fabrics which pass in the markets of Europe under the name of Persian. The Tatars are also the general carriers of the country. On the few roads, or oftener upon the open Steppe, one sees their endless trains of carts, and more rarely their strings of camels, fetching goods from Shamakha, or Baku, or Tavriz, to Tiflis, thence to be despatched over the Dariel into Southern Russia, or by railway to Poti and Western Europe. 

The last of their occupations, the one in which they most excel, and which they have almost to themselves, is brigandage. To what extent it prevails, I cannot attempt to say, for, as every traveller knows, there is no subject, not even court scandal, on which one hears such an immense number of stories, some of them obviously exaggerated, many of them honestly related, most of them absolutely impossible to test. If we had believed a quarter part of what the quidnuncs of Tiflis told us, we should have thought the country seriously disturbed, and travelling, especially by night, full of peril. If we had gone by our own experience, we should have pronounced the steppes of the Kur a greatdeal safer than Blackheath Common [ an area of south-east London]. Stories were always being brought into the city, and even appearing in the papers, of robberies, sometimes of murders, committed on the roads to Elizavetpol and Erivan; and along the latter road, we found the folk at the post stations with imaginations ready to see a Tatar behind every bush. Even the Russian officials at Tiflis, who of course desired to make little of anything that reflects on the vigilance of the Government, advised us to be careful where we halted, and how we displayed any valuables. I cannot help believing, therefore, that robberies do sometimes occur, and no doubt it is the Tatars, or at least bands led by a 
Tatar chief, who perpetrate them. But the substantial danger is not really more than sufficient to give a little piquancy to travelling, and make you fondle your pistols with the air of a man who feels himself prepared for an emergency. In a dull country, far removed from the interests and movements of the Western world, the pleasure of life is sensibly increased when people have got the exploits of robbers to talk about. It is a subject level with the meanest imagination: the idle Georgian noble and the ignorant peasant enjoy it as heartily as Walter Scott himself. 

[...]

Besides these aboriginal races, Georgians, Mingrelians, Caucasian mountaineers, and Armenians, and the incomers of old standing, such as Tatars and Persians, there is what may be called a top-dressing of recent immigrants from Europe, mostly Russians and Germans. The Russians, with one exception, consist of the officials, who generally consider Russia as their home, almost as our Indian civilians consider England, and intend to return to it when their work is over. The exception is formed by the various sects of dissenters whom the Government, fearing their disturbing political and social influence, has banished, or at least transferred, to these remote seats. They are mostly industrious, well-disposed people, morally, if not intellectually, above the level of the rest of the peasantry, who live in large villages, exactly like those of Central Russia, and keep themselves quite apart from the surrounding native population. 

Still more distinct are the Germans, of whom there are several colonies, the largest, established in Tiflis, numbering some four or five thousand souls. They came hither from Wurtemberg about sixty years ago, driven out by an obnoxious hymn-book. In respect of education and intelligence, they are of course far above any of the natives, while their Protestantism prevents them from intermarrying with, and therefore from sensibly affecting, their Russian neighbours. They have lost, if they ever possessed, the impulse of progress ; their own farms are the best in the country, and their handicrafts-men in Tiflis superior to the Georgians or Persians; but they are content to go on in their old ways, not spreading out from the community, not teaching or in any way stimulating the rest of the population. 

All these races live together, not merely within the limits of the same country, a country politically and physically one, but to a great extent actually on the same soil, mixed up with and crossing one another. In one part Georgians, in another Armenians, in a third Tatars, predominate ; but there are districts where Armenians and Georgians, or Armenians, Georgians, and Tatars, or Tatars and Persians, or Persians, Tatars, and Armenians, are so equally represented in point of numbers that it is hard to say which element predominates. This phenomenon — so strange to one who knows only the homogeneous population of West European countries, or of a country like America, where all sorts of elements are day by day being flung into the melting-pot, and lose their identity almost at once - comes out most noticeably in the capital of Transcaucasia, the city of Tiflis. Here six nations dwell together in a town smaller than Brighton, and six languages are constantly, three or four more occasionally, to be heard in the streets. Varieties of dress, religion, manners, and physical aspect correspond to these diversities of race. 

[...]


These peoples inhabit the more or less level country south of the Caucasus. Besides them, there is a multitude of mountain tribes of whom I have said something in the last preceding chapter, but who are far too numerous and too diverse in their character to be described at length. Probably no-where else in the world can so great a variety of stocks, languages, and religions be found huddled together in so narrow an area as in the Caucasian chain between the Euxine and the Caspian. It is as if every nation that passed from north to south, or west to east, had left some specimens of its people here behind to found a kind of ethnological museum. 

Monday, June 27, 2016

Caterino Zeno, Report (1471-1473)

The short excerpt below comes from the official reports of Venetian ambassador Caterino Zeno who visited the court of Uzun Hasan sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu, in the early 1470s.  

For this reason Alamur [Eluan Beg of Kars], being more alarmed that he ever was in the time of his father, summoned all the great Persian lords to court, and having collected fighting men, marched with his army against Ismail. The latter, finding his forces too weak to take the field, and, if an opportunity offered, to give battle to the king, sought the aid of some Georgian Christian chiefs, whose land bordered on that country, whose names were Alexander Beg, Gurgurabet, and Mirabet. These, as they had an ancient enmity against Alamur, and wished to overthrow his power, availing themselves of the opportunity given by Ismail, decided to assist him against Alamur. And therefore each of them sent three thousand horse, so that they were altogether nine thousand excellent soldiers. There are the people who were anciently called Iberians [Georgians], and as they then were, and still are, Christians, have continually waged war with the Turks on the frontiers of Trebizond. They were joyfully welcomed, and received many presents from Ismail, who, with these Georgian auxiliaries, found himself with an excellent army sixteen thousand men in the field.

Thence he advanced with the intention of giving battle to Alamur, if he had an opportunity, and thus both approached each other between Tauris and Sumachi, near a great river, where Alamur, who had an army of thirty thousand men, infantry and cavalry, having placed himself on his guard, occupied the only two bridges by which Ismail could cross into the territory in which he was posted. He did it with the intention that the enemy, finding the passage barred to them, might not, with the daring which they say is often favoured by fortune, stake all on one throw, and force him to fight against his will.

But Ismail, who was fearful of losing his reputation by any check or loss of time, and the more so, as he saw that Alamur, by his occupation of the bridges, was safe in his position from any attack, and looked slightingly on any skirmish, having by great good luck found a ford of the river, crossed it silently by night, and forming into a heavy column attacked the enemy and caused great slaughter.

This happened, as the king's men being half-naked, and not having time to seize their arms, were cut to pieces in immense numbers by armed and ferocious soldiers; and if here and there some bolder spirits made head, so fierce was the onset of the Suffaveans [Safavid soldiers], that they were driven back in an instant by a continuous shower of blows, and forced to share the fortunes of the others. And never has a more horrible nocturnal struggle than this been recorded; because, in the greatest darkness of the night, the whole field of battle was lighted up with the flash of arms, and throughout the whole region were heard the clash and din and confusion caused by the rout and massacre of so large an army, which fled before the pursuit of the enemy. Alamur, having escaped with difficulty with a few friends, retired to Amir [Diarbekr] fortifying himself in that city.

And Ismail having, to his great reputation, put that great army to the edge of the sword, caused all the booty to be collected and divided among his men, without keeping a single thing for himself. The second day he appeared before Tauris [Tabriz], and, meeting with no resistance, took it and gave it up to plunder, cutting to pieces those of the opposing faction...

All the people and neighbouring chieftains being terrified by the capture of Tauris and the rout of the king, sent in their allegiance to Ismail, except those of Alangiacalai, a fortress two days' distant above Tauris towards the north, which place, with ten adjacent towns, is inhabited by Catholic Christians, who at last, having remained faithful to Alamur for five years, hearing of his death, surrendered it
on conditions to Ismail with its immense treasure. When he had gained possession of this castle, Ismail caused himself to be proclaimed sovereign of Persia under the new title of Sofi.

Caterino Zeno, Report (1471-1473)

The short excerpt below comes from the official reports of Venetian ambassador Caterino Zeno who visited the court of Uzun Hasan sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu, in the early 1470s.  

For this reason Alamur [Eluan Beg of Kars], being more alarmed that he ever was in the time of his father, summoned all the great Persian lords to court, and having collected fighting men, marched with his army against Ismail. The latter, finding his forces too weak to take the field, and, if an opportunity offered, to give battle to the king, sought the aid of some Georgian Christian chiefs, whose land bordered on that country, whose names were Alexander Beg, Gurgurabet, and Mirabet. These, as they had an ancient enmity against Alamur, and wished to overthrow his power, availing themselves of the opportunity given by Ismail, decided to assist him against Alamur. And therefore each of them sent three thousand horse, so that they were altogether nine thousand excellent soldiers. There are the people who were anciently called Iberians [Georgians], and as they then were, and still are, Christians, have continually waged war with the Turks on the frontiers of Trebizond. They were joyfully welcomed, and received many presents from Ismail, who, with these Georgian auxiliaries, found himself with an excellent army sixteen thousand men in the field.

Thence he advanced with the intention of giving battle to Alamur, if he had an opportunity, and thus both approached each other between Tauris and Sumachi, near a great river, where Alamur, who had an army of thirty thousand men, infantry and cavalry, having placed himself on his guard, occupied the only two bridges by which Ismail could cross into the territory in which he was posted. He did it with the intention that the enemy, finding the passage barred to them, might not, with the daring which they say is often favoured by fortune, stake all on one throw, and force him to fight against his will.

But Ismail, who was fearful of losing his reputation by any check or loss of time, and the more so, as he saw that Alamur, by his occupation of the bridges, was safe in his position from any attack, and looked slightingly on any skirmish, having by great good luck found a ford of the river, crossed it silently by night, and forming into a heavy column attacked the enemy and caused great slaughter.

This happened, as the king's men being half-naked, and not having time to seize their arms, were cut to pieces in immense numbers by armed and ferocious soldiers; and if here and there some bolder spirits made head, so fierce was the onset of the Suffaveans [Safavid soldiers], that they were driven back in an instant by a continuous shower of blows, and forced to share the fortunes of the others. And never has a more horrible nocturnal struggle than this been recorded; because, in the greatest darkness of the night, the whole field of battle was lighted up with the flash of arms, and throughout the whole region were heard the clash and din and confusion caused by the rout and massacre of so large an army, which fled before the pursuit of the enemy. Alamur, having escaped with difficulty with a few friends, retired to Amir [Diarbekr] fortifying himself in that city.

And Ismail having, to his great reputation, put that great army to the edge of the sword, caused all the booty to be collected and divided among his men, without keeping a single thing for himself. The second day he appeared before Tauris [Tabriz], and, meeting with no resistance, took it and gave it up to plunder, cutting to pieces those of the opposing faction...

All the people and neighbouring chieftains being terrified by the capture of Tauris and the rout of the king, sent in their allegiance to Ismail, except those of Alangiacalai, a fortress two days' distant above Tauris towards the north, which place, with ten adjacent towns, is inhabited by Catholic Christians, who at last, having remained faithful to Alamur for five years, hearing of his death, surrendered it
on conditions to Ismail with its immense treasure. When he had gained possession of this castle, Ismail caused himself to be proclaimed sovereign of Persia under the new title of Sofi.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Michele Membré, Relazione... (1539-1542)

Portrait of Tahmasp I by an unknown Italian artist,
XVI-XVII centuries, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
Starting in 1521, the Ottomans led by the maverick Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent embarked on a rapid succession of victories in southeast Europe, capturing Belgrade, overrunning Hungary and besieging Vienna. Alarmed by these successes, Venice explored a possibility of forming an alliance with the rising Safavid Persia, where Shah Tahmasp had been also hard-pressed by the Ottomans. In 1539 the Venetian government made the decision to dispatch the thirty year old Michele Membré to Persia. Born into a well-to-do (but not patrician) Venetian family, Membré spoke several languages - Italian, Greek, Turkish and Arabic - and was a sociable person who found it easy to get to know people, all qualities that, in the eyes of the Venetian governing council, made him eminently qualified for the embassy. 

Pretending to be a merchant, Membré left Venice in early 1539 and, after passing  Crete, Cyprus and the Ottoman heartlands, he reached Western Georgia in late spring. After spending several weeks in Mingrelia, Imeretia and Kartli, he traveled to Armenia where he revealed his identity to the Persian authorities and was conveyed, with appropriate pomp, to Marand (some 45 miles northwest of Tabriz) where Shah Tahmasp had established his royal encampment. Welcomed by the shah, Membré spent several months at the Safavid court advocating alliance with Venice against the Turks and had exceptional opportunities to observe the Persian court. By the summer of 1540, Membré embarked on a return journey, travelling to the Portuguese colony in Hormuz, then to India and Portugal before returning back home in early spring of 1542. It was Venetian practice for envoys to present detailed accounts of their missions and Membré submitted his Relazione in July 1542. This document document provides excellent insights into the regions that Membré had visited and below is the excerpt on his experiences in Georgia.



Then I found a ship ready to go to Kaffa [in the Crimea], loaded with cotton botanoes from Adana and Tarsus. In the said ship were Turkish and Greek merchants; the sailors were Greek. So I straightway found the master of the ship and came to agreement with him; and because the sailors were Greek the master treated me kindly. And on the instant I loaded my camlets, which I had bought in Angora, and also sold that donkey of mine. And then we set out for Kaffa; if I am not mistaken, that was in the month of June 1539; and we went straight to Kaffa, remaining 18 days at sea with contrary winds and calms. The city of Kaffa consumes much cotton cloth because of the dyers. Then, together with the merchants, we lodged in a caravanserai... And that same day I found another Greek ship loaded with salt and other merchandise, master Khoja Ra'is of Sinop, which was ready to go to Mingrelia; and the next day I straightway found the master in the company of an Athenian barber, and I spoke with him, saying that he should carry me to Mingrelia. He replied that he would do so gladly. So, on the third day I loaded those few mohairs and camlets and on the fourth day set off on the said ship; from there we always sailed in sight of land, and in 18 or 16 days we reached a place called Anaclia, territory of the King Dadian of Mingrelia. 

In this place there is a large river, on which the ships go into when they are unloaded. Then the ship stops there on the said shore and holds a market within the ship, all by barter; they give cloth and take cloth. The Mingrelians come alongside the ship in their boats and each brings a bag with his cloth. So in that way they hold their markets. Salt is not found in the said place of Mingrelia. Leather and sheepskin and other goods are very dear. In the said place of Mingrelia there comes forth much yellow wax, linen thread and canarine silk of Zagem [Zagemi in eastern georgia] and they also sell many slaves. Then the next day the said ship began unloading salt and loading it into the boats to send to be sold in a market which they were going to hold in those days on the Phasis River at a place called Culauropa. 

And I went with the said boats to the said place where the market is held; and we travelled always in the boats on a river called the Phasis for 8 days. On the said river are infinitely many trees, on one side and the other, flat country; so each night the boat stopped by land and in the morning travelled, proceeding by sail. In the said place many flies and mosquitoes are found, which I surely could not have survived if I had not covered my face with a cloth, and all my body and hands; for the said mosquitoes were of such a kind that, when they had found uncovered flesh, they treated it so that the blood flowed as if a phlebotomy [ the practice of drawing blood from patients] had been performed. 

The Mingrelians go very poorly dressed, all with short cotton clothes and unshod, which we value for nothing. But it is quite true that all their feet look as if they were scabby. They wear on their heads a piece of felt like a mitre; they are all very small. To the north are many high mountains. The Mingrelian gentlemen wear very long clothes and a pair of boots of sheepskin leather, not having a leather sole but all of that sheepskin; also coloured felt on the head; and they are unbearded, with long moustaches such as the Iberians [eastern Georgians]have. So, because of the mosquitoes, as I have said, we endured great trouble till arriving at the said place of the market, called Culauropa. The said place is by the river called Phasis, to the southeast. It is on a plain within a wood and the houses are of wood, about 50 in number; and in the said place most of the households are Jews, who buy slaves of the Mingrelian nation and make them Jews; and in this the Mingrelians do not say them nay. 

And in the middle of the square where the market assembles stands a Church of Saint George, its vault of copper and with two little bell-towers. The Iberians [Georgians] celebrate the mass, and outside the church, there stands a wooden mast with three or four of their daggers [...] and two swords all stuck into the said wood. So, in that said place Culauropa I found a man from Scio called Zane, who was married there with an old lady of Mingrelia. Wherefore he made me alight at his house. I also found another, who was a venetian, married to a Mingrelian. His name was Bernardo Moliner, a man of forty five years of age, who told me that he had been a miller in Venice and that place in Mingrelia he had children, 3 in number, two male and a female married to one of the Mingrelians. 

Now, many poor people come to the said market, and other Iberian [Georgian] merchants with silks, which they exchange, cloth for cloth, without other money being used. And the said fair lasts three days and then all depart. There only remain those families of the Jews and 10 or 12 families of Mingrelians. 

So after the said fair was ended, as I have said, I set off in the company of a Greek merchant, Calojero of Trebizond by name, and we crossed the said river Phasis in a boat and went to a city of Iberia [Imeretia] called Kutaisi, of King Bashi achuq.* 

We were on the road 21/2 days, always travelling over level ground with many gardens. Then we entered the city called Kutaisi, crossing a river by a wooden bridge. Which river passes beside the said city; and to the north stands a stone fortress on a hill, in which there is a church; and on the other side, to the south east, is a meadow where the said King runs his horses. And beside the river he was building some houses of stone with many vaults, which they said were for the King. However, most of the houses in the  said city are of wood for the most part and there are many gardens.  

I lodged in the house of some goldsmiths from Trebizond, who kept me good company, and together with the said Calojero. In the said city cloth pays 5 per bale in tax. The coins of the said city are like Turkish aspers, and they are called tanka. The stamp on them is some Iberian [Georgian] letters. The King can have, by what was said, horsemen 7,000 in number, who are called aznavurs. The said aznavurs are much bigger men than the rest of us and have long, black moustaches; and they shave the beard. And they wear clothes, that is very long stockings of cotton cloth, of very coarse cotton, and cloth breeches, with, over the stockings, boots of sheepskin leather, and a quilted shirt of coarse cotton cloth, and a very long dolman of cotton cloth; and on the head a felt hat with a very long fine top. Which felts are coloured. Their arms are swords, lances, shield, bow and arrows, iron mace, mail coat, cuirassine, half helmet, plate gauntlets, good horses with good silk covers such that an arrow cannot go through them. So, when one of the said aznavurs rides to go to the field of battle, he wears all those arms. 

The said city of Kutaisi is very small.  After 7 or 8 days we went our way to another city called Gori, on which we were four days on the road, travelling always over very high mountains, full of trees and with many rivers, on which roads there is much mire; and about a day from the said city of Gori we passed by a fortress which stood on the summit of a mountain, and was in ruins for the most part. Then we came to to a place where there were houses to the number of about 70, all Jews, and beside that place passed a sweet stream like a canal. Thus, a river passes by the city called Gori. And with the horses we passed the said river and entered the city and lodged in the house of some Trapezuntines. The city is half of houses of wood and the other half of earth and part of stone. The city is small and to the north stands a stone fortress, partly in ruins. The King of the said place is called King Luarsab; he has horsemen called aznavurs, some 5,000 in number, by the account of his gentlemen. The people who live in the said city are half Armenians and the other half Iberians [Georgians]. They do not have salt, save that which comes from the lands of the Sophy [Persia]. Then, having loaded the mules, after 8 days I departed and went to another city called Tiflis, in the company of an Armenian of Lori. This city belongs to the said King Luarsab; to it we traveled 1 1/2 days. The said city of Tiflis is very large but the greater part of it was destroyed on account of the many wars the said Iberians have made among themselves. So the next day we departed, in company of five other Armenians who were going to Lori, the first of the Sophy's [Shah tahmasp's] cities, which borders on Iberia...


*King of Imereti was Bagrat III; Bashi achuq was the Ottoman name for the Imeretians.