Anushirwan's Building of the Bab wa-l-Abwab Wall

بناء أنوشروان سد الباب والأبواب

c. 542 CE

Bab wa-l-Abwab (Derbent)

In al-Baladhuri from those versed in Armenia's affairs: a general of Qubadh ibn Fayruz the king trod Arran's land with twelve thousand and took what lay between the river called al-Rass and Shirwan; Qubadh followed and built in Arran the city of al-Baylaqan, Bardha'a — the frontier's city entire — and Qabala, built the wall of al-Lubn between Shirwan's land and Bab al-Lan, and built upon it three hundred and sixty cities, ruined after the later building of Bab wa-l-Abwab; then his son Anushirwan Kisra ibn Qubadh ruled, built al-Shabiran and Masqat, then the city of Bab wa-l-Abwab and the Durzuqiyya, built in Jurzan's land the city of Sughdabil settling Sughdians and sons of Persians as a muslaha, built toward the Romans Bab Fayruzqubadh, Bab Ladhiqa, Bab Bariqa on the sea of Trebizond, Bab al-Lan and Bab Samsakhi, and the fortresses of al-Jardaman and Shamshalda, conquered all Armenia in Roman hands, settled and fortified Dabil, built Nashwa the city of Busfurrajan's district, built Hisn Ways and castles in Sisajan — among them Qal'at al-Kilab and Sahiyunis — and garrisoned these forts with the warlike and bold of the Siyasijiyya; Anushirwan wrote to the Turk king asking peace and sought his daughter's hand, sending him a slave-girl adopted by one of his wives as his daughter, then came and they met at al-Barshaliyya feasting for days; he ordered his intimates to night-raid and burn part of the Turk's camp, then denied and apologised, then had fire thrown into a part of his own camp where only straw huts stood, and in the morning complained to the Turk: 'your men nearly destroyed my army, and you have requited me with treachery' — the Turk swearing ignorance — so Anushirwan said: 'brother, your soldiers and mine hate our peace for the plunder lost in the raids and wars between us, and I fear they will make mischief to corrupt our hearts after our sincerity and friendship, returning us to enmity after kinship and affection — my counsel is that you let me build a wall between us with a gate through which none comes to you from us nor to us from you save whom we will'; he agreed and went home, and Anushirwan set to building the wall of rock and lead at the sea's edge, three hundred cubits wide, joined to the mountain-tops — ordering stones carried in ships and sunk until they rose above water to be built upon, so the wall ran three miles into the sea — and when finished hung iron gates at its entry, posted a hundred riders to guard where fifty thousand soldiers had once been needed, and set an armoured redoubt upon it; afterwards the Khaqan was told 'he deceived you — married you to one who is not his daughter, and fortified himself against you' — and he could contrive nothing.