AZOV  , or Asov (in

Turkish, Asak), a town of Russia, in the government of the Don Cossacks, on the left bank of the southern arm of the Don, about 20 M. from its mouth . The ancient Tanais lay some lo m. to the north . In the 13th century the Genoese had a factory here which they called Tana . Azov was long a place of great military and commercial importance . Peter the Great obtained possession of it after a protracted siege in 1696, but in 1711 restored it to the Turks; in 1739 it was finally united to the Russian empire . Since then it has greatly declined, owing to the silting up of its harbour and the competition of Taganrog . Its population, principally engaged in the fisheries, numbered 25,124 in 1900 .