Darbend

Derbent commands a narrow passage between the Caucasus Mountains and the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Its Persian name means a barred gate, a fitting name for a city whose stone defenses closed the road between the northern steppe and Iran. Under the Sasanians two great parallel walls ran from the sea to the citadel above the town, with further fortifications extending into the mountains. Within the walls grew a city of markets, mosques, baths and courtyard houses.

Arab armies took the city in the seventh century and called it Bab al-Abwab, the Gate of Gates. It became an important Muslim center and a contested frontier during the Arab wars with the Khazars. Later an emirate based at Derbent survived into the Mongol age, while the Shirvanshahs repeatedly sought control of the gateway. Timur's armies occupied it in the fourteenth century, and the old walls continued to serve successive rulers.

In the sixteenth century merchants traveling between Russia and Persia passed along the Caspian route through Derbent. Peter the Great's forces took the city during the Persian campaign of 1722; Russia returned it to Iran in 1735. After further struggles the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 ceded Derbent to Russia. Through all these changes, its position between mountain and sea remained the source of its enduring importance.