He was a great Saint. The Divines of this country, all learned Doctors, have no enmity amongst themselves, but they shun all communication with the Reváfes (heretic Persians). Here ends Dághistán, and the province of Georgia begins.
The frontier castle Ur belongs to the Persians; we passed it on our left, and skirted the boundaries of the castle of Shekí, which I formerly saw on my way to Shamákhí, and arrived at the kent of Zakhorie on the frontier of Tamarass-khán, belonging to the Khán of Tiflís; the inhabitants are all Georgians, Armenians, and Gokdúlák.
This town is situated on the frontier of Georgia and now governed by the Persians. It was built by Núshirván to keep the tribes of the Caucasus in order. It is a pentagon castle, fourteen thousand large paces in circumference, with one hundred and seventy bulwarks, three gates, two thousand houses within the castle, a mosque, a bath, and a khán. Its waters, so many springs of life, issue from the west side of Mount Caucasus, and after irrigating the gardens fall into the Kúr to the eastward. The climate being rather cold, its silk is not much praised. The inhabitants are Georgians, Armenians and Gokdúlák; the Sultán commands a thousand soldiers, all Shiís, and there are twelve civil commanders and a judge. Sháh Ismail liked its climate so much that he remained here three years before the battle of Cháldirán, and built a suburb outside of it, so that it bears much likeness to the town of Kaschau in the middle of Hungary. After the loss of the battle of Cháldirán, the Ottoman flying troops arriving at this town destroyed it, and since that time many thousand loads of stones have been carried away by Ferhád Páshá for the repairs of the Castle of Aras. The Sultán of this place accompanied me, out of kindness, to the next station, and we passed the night in Khodraí, a kent of a thousand houses, with a mosque, khán and bath, on the frontier of Tiflís.
_Description of Georgia or Shúshádistán, viz. Betlís._