BAKU, ba-k/ (a corruption of the Pers, badkubu. given to it on account of the destruc tive winds of that region). The seat of adminis tration of Russian Trans-Caucasia and an im portant seaport on the west coast of the Caspian Sea, on the Peninsula of Apsheron (Nap: Russia, G 6). It is an important commercial and manu facturing centre, has several ship-building yards, is of great impo•tanee to Russia as a naval station, and is known especially for the rich petroleum wells in its neighborhood. In its ar chitectural aspect, the city presents a combina tion of the Oriental and the European styles, and while certain portions of it wear the impress of antiquity, others, on the contrary, look very much like the modern commercial town. On the new quay, which is about a mile in length, along the shore south of the city, there are modern stores and bazaars, many fine buildings, and the ancient garden of the Khans. The older town, laid out. in terraces, on the slope of a hill, has irregular, narrow streets and alleys lined with low, wooden, flat-roofed houses. Here are the ruins of the palace of the Khans—once a. magnifi cent edifice built in the Slussulman style of the Fifteenth Century, and the Mosque of the Shall, erected in 1078. Close to the shore, near the strong wall of the old town, stands the 'Tower of the Slaiden'—the subject of many poetical le gends. North of the harbor, also on the shore, is still another part of Baku, the so-called 'Black Town,' whither the crude oil is conducted through pipe-lines from the oil-wells eight or nine miles north of the town, and where it is refilled for the market.
The climate of Baku is rather mild, its harbor having frozen but once in eighty years. The city owes its prosperity to its petroleum, whose output has grown from 40,000 tons in 1860 to more than 9,000.000 in 1809. In addition to oil refineries there are a number of mills, tobacco factories, and chemical-works. The ad vantageous position of Baku. on the Caspian
Sea near the Persian frontier and at the east ern terminus of the Trans-Caucasian Railway, has made it the entrepot for the Russo-Persian trade. Cotton, rice, silk, wine, dried fruits, and walnut wood pass through Baku from Persia on their way to Russia and Western Europe, in exchange for various goods of Russian manu facture. The growth of Baku's population has kept pace with that of its industry. In 1860 it numhered only 13,800; in 1897, 112,000, or more than a sevenfold increase in less than forty years. The predominating element in the population of Baku is Tartar. This race constitutes the bulk of the laboring and small trading class of the community: the Russians are next in number, and fill the official positions as well as sonic of the commercial and financial posts: the Armeni ans are the most influential class, controlling the business of the city. The petroleum industry is largely in the hands of foreign capitalists.
Baku has been known under its present name since the Seventh Century, though founded at an earlier date. The easily igniting gases, aris ing front the soil saturated with petroleum, seem to have been known to the ancient Parsis, or fire worshipers, and attracted great numbers of pH grims. In the Eighth Century, Baku with the surrounding country was held by the Arabs: then it fell ender the rule of the Khans of Shirvan, and from the Sixteenth till the Nine teenth Century was in the possession of the Persians. It finally passed to Russia in 1806, and was made the chief town of the district; in 1859 it became the seat of administration for the entire Trans-Caucasian territory. A vast conflagration took place here in 1901. Con sult: Marvin, The Region of Eternal Fire (Lon don, 1S83) Louis, "The Baku Petroleum Dis trict," in the Engineering Magazine, No. XV. (New York. 1898).