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This country is greatly more beautiful and more fertile than the dominions of Uzun-Hassan, and is ruled over by Sivanse, king of Media . Of this country Shamaki is the capital, at which place I arrived on the 1st November 1474. This city is not so large as Tauris, but, as far as I could judge, surpasses that place in the goodness and abundance of every thing, especially in excellent cattle.
It is difficult to determine whether Contarini here means Maksud-beg or Masih-beg, as Uzun-Hassan had two sons of these names; Maksad was the elder, and may have been the person named in the text Masu. Bec or Beg signifies Lord or Prince.
Uzun-Hassan had assembled an army to reduce Persepolis and his sons to obedience; but a certain satrap named Zagarli who commanded in the neighbouring mountains, favoured the cause of Ogurlu, and had ravaged the whole country, to the very gates of Tauris, with a body of 3000 horse, owing to which, all the roads were obstructed and unsafe.
According to the best accounts which I received from different persons, the forces of Uzun-Hassan may amount to about 50,000 cavalry, a considerable part of whom are not of much value.
We agreed to travel in company from Tiflis, a city belonging to Pancratis . From thence in two days we entered the territories of Uzun-Hassan, as we took the road towards Shamaki, or Cyropolis, which is situated in a fertile and pleasant country.
"The illustrious republic of Venice, having done me the honour to appoint me ambassador to Uzun-Hassan, king of Persia, I accepted the employment with much pleasure, both that I might do acceptable service to my own country and for the general good of Christendom.
Resuming our journey in the morning, we descended the other side of the mountain, and entered the province of Armenia, which is under the dominion of Uzun-Hassan . In the evening we were conducted to a fort named Reo, which stands in the plain, between a deep river and a high mountain, and which is garrisoned by Turks in the service of Uzun-Hassan, but the neighbouring village is inhabited by Armenians.
Fortunately for us a Cadilaskir, one of the counsellors of Uzun-Hassan, arrived about this time at Tauris, who returned from an embassy into Turkey, where he had unsuccessfully endeavoured to negociate a peace between his master and the Turkish government.
I then gave a recital of all that had occurred in my travels, with some account of the dominions of Uzun-Hassan, and of the number of his forces, and of the empire and manners of the Tartars. The king and his courtiers listened to me with much attention during my whole speech, which lasted more than half an hour.
Leaving Chiagri towards evening of the 1st August, we came next day to an Armenian village at the foot of a mountain, where we had to cross a river in boats, and were informed that Uzun-Hassan had formerly gained a great victory near this place over the Tartars, having hemmed them into a corner, where their army wasted away with famine and disease.
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