ASTRAKHAN

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 795 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ARN-AUD

ASTRAKHAN , a town of E. Russia,

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of the government of Astrakhan, on the left bank of the main channel of the

Volga

VOLGA (known to the
Tatars
- TATARS (the common form Tartars is less correct)
as Etil, Jill or Atel; to the Finnish tribes as Rau, and to the ancients as Rha and Oarus)

, 5o m. from the Caspian Sea, in 46 2r' N. lat. and 48 5' E. long. Since the growth of the petroleum industry of Baku and the construction of the Transcaspian railway, Astrakhan has become an important commercial centre, exporting fish, caviare, sugar, metals, naphtha, cottons and woollens, and importing grain,

cotton

, fruit and timber, to the aggregate value of 8,250,000 with foreign countries and of 14,500,000 with the interior of Russia. The town gives its name to the " fur " called " astrakhan," the skin of the new-born Persian lamb, and so to an imitation in rough woollen cloth. There is some tanning, ship-building and brewing, and making of soap, tar and machinery. Astrakhan is the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

port on the Caspian Sea and the head-quarters of the Russian Caspian

fleet

FLEET

. The city consists of (I) the kreml or citadel (1550), crowning a hill, on which stand also the spacious brick cathedral containing the tombs of two Georgian princes, the archbishop's palace and the monastery of the Trinity; (2) the Byelogorod or White Town, containing the administrative offices and the bazaars; and (3) the suburbs, where most of the population resides. The buildings in the first two quarters are of stone, in the third of

wood

, irregularly arranged along unpaved, dirty streets. The city is the see of a Greek Catholic archbishop and of an Armenian archbishop, and contains a Lamaist monastery, as well as technical schools, an ichthyological museum, the Peter museum, with ethnographical, archaeological and natural history collections, a botanical garden, an ecclesiastical seminary, and good squares and public gardens, one of which is adorned with a statue (1884) of Alexander II. Vineyards surround the city. Astrakhan was anciently the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of a Tatar state, and stood some 7 M. farther north. After this was destroyed by the Mongol prince Timur the

Great

GREAT

in 1395, the existing city was built. The

Tatars

TATARS (the common form Tartars is less correct)

were expelled about 1554 by Ivan IV. of Russia. In 7569 the city was besieged by the Turks, but they were defeated with

great

GREAT

slaughter by the Russians. In 1670 it was seized by the rebel Stenka Razin; early in the following century Peter the Great constructed here a shipbuilding yard and made Astrakhan the base for his hostilities against Persia, and later in the same century Catherine II. accorded the city important industrial privileges. In 1702, 1718 and 1767, it suffered severely from fires; in 17r9 was plundered by the Persians; and in 1830 the cholera swept away a large number of its people. In the middle ages the city was known also as Jitarkhan and Ginterkhan. Pop. (1867) 47,839; (1900) 121,580. Eight miles above Astrakhan, on the right bank of the

Volga

VOLGA (known to the Tatars as Etil, Jill or Atel; to the Finnish tribes as Rau, and to the ancients as Rha and Oarus)

., are the ruins of two ancient cities superimposed one upon the other. In the upper, which may represent the city of Balanjar (Balansar, Belenjer), have been found gold and silver coins struck by Mongol rulers, as well as ornaments in the same metals. The older and scantier underlying ruins are supposed to be those of the once large and prosperous city of Itil or Atel (Etel, Idl) of the Arab geographers, a residence of the khan of the Khazars, destroyed by the Russians in 969. (P. A. K.)

End of Article: ASTRAKHAN

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/ARN_AUD/ASTRAKHAN.html">
ASTRAKHAN
</a>

(Previous)
ASTRAGAL (from the Gr. ao-rpbyaXos, the ankle-j...

(Next)
ASTROLABE (from Gr. liar pop, star, and Aa(3eiv...

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email