The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Azerbaijan

AZERBAIJAN, ä'zer-bĭ-jän', Persia, the northwestern and most important province of Persia. It is bounded on the north by the Ara& on the east by the Caspian Sea, Gilan and Khamseh, on the south by Kurdistan, and west by Asiatic Turkey. Its area is 32,000 square miles. The land is very fertile, the orchards and gardens yield delicious fruits of almost every description, and great quantities, dried, are exported to Russia. Provisions are cheap and abundant, but there is a lack of forests and timber trees. Lead, copper, sulphur, orpiment, also lignite, are found; also a kind of variegated translucent marble known as Tabriz marble. The climate is healthy, not hot in summer, and cold in winter. The revenue amounts to about $1,000,000 annually. The province is divided into a number of administrative districts, each with a hakim, governor, under the governor-general, who is a responsible minister appointed by the Shah. Pop. about 2,000,000, comprising various races, as Persians proper, Turks, Kurds, Syrians, Armenians.