CHAPTER II.
IN order rightly to understand the history of the accession to power of the princes of the Kajar dynasty in Persia, it is necessary to go back to the revolution, which was brought about in that country by the Affghan invasion early in the eighteenth century, and by the subsequent successes and conquests of Nadir Shah. Never did a line of kings rule with more full consent of their subjects than did the Sefaveean Shahs of Persia.[1] They were endowed as a house with every claim which could command the obedience and the reverence of the people. They followed the Moslem faith, and were of the national Sheeah sect. They were, moreover, sprung from a descendant of the lawgiver of Mecca; and to the advantages belonging to a descent from the Prophet, from a saint, and from kings, several of them added the attribute of distinguished personal merit. For the hundred years which immediately preceded the outbreak of the storm that ended in the destruction of this royal house, the greatest tranquillity had prevailed throughout the realm of Persia.
It was under the weak administration of Shah Hussein, that the authority of the government first ceased to be felt at the extremities of the empire, and that at length the Affghan tribes threw off the Persian yoke. After a strife, in which fortune was for some time divided betwixt the combatants, the Affghans, under Mahmoud, invaded the dominions of the Shah, and laid siege to his capital, Ispahan. After a protracted blockade, during which the inhabitants had to endure every species of hardship and suffering, the city fell into the hands of the invaders, whose monarch, Mahmoud, made himself master of the crown and the throne of the Sefaveeans. But this warlike Affghan was not possessed of the qualities necessary to establish and perpetuate a foreign rule in Persia. His career of ferocity was brought to a close by the conspirator's dagger, and his relative Ashraff, who succeeded him, profited so little by the warning that he and all of his nation were driven out of the country within six years from the date of the conquest of Ispahan. This release was brought about by the energy and perseverance of Nadir, who from being a petty robber in Khorassan had risen to command the armies of Persia, and to replace on the throne the heir of the Sefaveean kings. It was, however, by means of the spell which the name of that famous race carried with it, that the unknown soldier of Khorassan was able to effect such mighty deeds. All that he did was done in the name of the rightful heir to the throne; and had Tahmasp possessed either judgment or abilities, not all the services which Nadir had rendered to the State would have sufficed to make it safe for him to supplant the family which were considered, and are by many Persians still considered, to be the Agas, or masters, of the country. Even when Tahmasp, by his errors and incapacity, had given Nadir the opportunity of dethroning him, the wary general did not yet venture himself to take the vacant seat. The infant son of the late king was put up as a puppet, under the guardianship of the general, and he continued to be the titular Shah until such time as the new victories of Nadir had given that ambitious man a surer hold on the affections of the army and on the fears of the nation. Even then his characteristic caution was not lost sight of. Instead of openly seizing the regal power, he preferred the manner of acquiring it by the consent of the deputies of the people, whom he assembled on the plain of Moghan.
There, like Cæsar, he went through the form of refusing a proffered crown, which he at last agreed to accept, as it were against his inclination, and solely for the public good. This sagacious politician made it a rule, while usurping the possessions of monarchs who were unable to hold them, to ally his own family with those whose descent and position commanded the deference of men. His eldest son was married to the sister of Shah Tahmasp. His second son espoused the daughter of the Emperor of Delhi, with whose hand he obtained the sovereignty of all the provinces of that empire which lay to the west of the Indus. His nephew contracted an alliance with the daughter of the King of Bokhara, the descendant of Genghis Khan.
Nadir, in his last years, laid aside the prudence by the practice of which he had found his way to the throne. Turning on his most faithful friends in quick succession, he made it impossible for any of his subjects to have the slightest security for life and property, and from such a state of things it followed, as a matter of course, that, sooner or later, those who feared for their own lives would rid themselves of an inhuman tyrant. The blow which the conspirators struck was approved of by all the nation, excepting the followers of an Affghan chief, named Ahmed Khan, who commanded 10,000 Oozbegs and Affghans, and who determined to avenge the death of his friend. Ahmed Khan, however, was over-matched, and he returned with his force to Kandahar, where he founded a kingdom of his own. The empire of Persia was thus shorn of all the conquests of Nadir, and reduced to the limits of the ancient realm of the Sefaveeans, without the province of Affghanistan. I fear that the narration of the events which followed the death of Nadir Shah, may somewhat perplex the reader; but in order to enable him to appreciate the present; state of things in Persia, it is necessary that he should have some idea of the chaos out of which it was evolved.
Nadir was succeeded by his nephew Ali, who took the name of Adel Shah. The first act of this prince on acquiring power was to put to death the whole actual and possible progeny of his uncle, with the exception of one boy, named Shahrukh Meerza, who was the son of the eldest son of Nadir, by Fatima, the daughter of Shah Hussein, and who was, therefore, at the same time, the heir of the Sefaveeans and of the conqueror who had supplanted them. Adel Shah gave out that this lad, too, was dead: indeed, his only object in sparing Shahrukh's life was that he might make him a nominal king, in the event of the people demanding a ruler sprung from their former sovereigns. Adel Shah was dethroned by his brother Ibraheem, who was, in turn, defeated by the adherents of Shahrukh. This youth then mounted the throne, and put to death the destroyer of his father and of all his house, save himself.
It might have been predicted that Persia would now, under an amiable king, enjoy a reign of peace; but there was to be no peace as yet for the unhappy land. Besides the youthful Shah, there remained another descendant of the Sefaveean kings, and one who had in his veins none of the Suni blood of Nadir. A sister of Shah Hussein had been married to the custodian of the shrine of Imam Reza at Meshed, and her son conceived that he had a better claim to the throne of Persia than had the descendant of Shah Hussein's daughter. His creatures raised the cry that Nadir's grandson intended to renew the efforts made by that conqueror for substituting in Persia the faith of the Sunis for the Sheeah doctrines which are so dear to the nation. By these means he collected a party with which he was able to defeat the army which the king led in person against him. Shahrukh was taken prisoner and at once rendered incapable, as was supposed, of remounting the throne, by being deprived of his sight. His successor was very soon afterwards in turn defeated by Shahrukh's general, Yoosuf Ali, who first deprived the rebel of eyesight, and then put him and his two sons to death.
Yoosuf replaced the blind king on the throne, and proposed to act as regent, but he soon found himself under the necessity of trusting once more to the chances of battle. Meer Alum Khan and Jafer Khan, two chiefs who commanded respectively a corps of Arabs and one of Kurds, joined together for the purpose of overturning the newly-constituted government. On gaining a victory, they consigned the king once more to prison, and deprived the regent of eyesight. But it was not to be expected that the two victorious chiefs would long continue on friendly terms with each other. A fierce battle was fought between them, and Meer Alum remained master of the field, and caused the eyes of his enemy to be torn from his head.
The supreme power in Persia, in those times, when once obtained was anything but secure, Two enemies in opposite directions were prepared each to contest with Meer Alum the prize; to lose which was, at the same time, to lose the light of day. One of these two was Ahmed Shah of Affghanistan, who, after having conquered Seistan, laid siege to Herat towards the close of the year 1749. Shahrukh had sent Yoosuf, his general, to the relief of this place, and it was while absent on this expedition that that chief had heard of his master's defeat. By his retirement, Herat fell into the hands of the Affghans, whose king advanced from thence to try with Meer Alum the fortune of battle. The event of the contest was decided by a lance which transfixed the breast of the Persian, and the Affghan king forthwith laid siege to Meshed, a place which was defended by a garrison of nearly 8,000 Sheeahs.
During this time there was in the field in Mazenderan, at the head of a considerable force, another pretender to power, whose name demands especial notice.
Mahomed Hassan Khan, Kajar, was the hereditary chief of the lower branch of that portion of the great tribe of Kajar which was established near the south-eastern corner of the Caspian Sea. His father, Fetteh Ali Khan, had espoused the cause of Shah Tahmasp, and had afforded to that prince effectual shelter from the Affghans in his native domain in Astrabad. He was a soldier of experience and reputation, and he shared with Nadir the command of the army by the aid of which Tahmasp sought to regain the throne of his fathers. Nadir, jealous of so meritorious a rival, put Fetteh Ali Khan[2] to death, and he afterwards, in order to cause jealousy in the tribe, appointed to the government of Astrabad the chief of the upper branch of the Kajars. The son of Fetteh Ali Khan took refuge with the neighbouring Turkoman tribes, by whose aid he captured Astrabad, which city, however, he was unable to hold. Returning to the desert, he remained with the Turkomans until the death of Nadir, when he raised the standard of revolt in Astrabad and Mazenderan. In the course of a few months, he was at the head of a force with which he was enabled to oppose the progress of Ahmed Shah, of Afghanistan. He defeated a body of troops sent against him, and succeeded in extending his authority over the three provinces which lie between the Caspian Sea and the Elburz Mountains; namely, Astrabad, Mazenderan, and Gilan.
In the meantime, Ahmed Shah compelled Meshed to surrender; but in sight of the anarchy which prevailed over Persia, he did not think fit to pursue his conquests further, or even to retain all he had taken. Herat and Seistan were joined to the Affghan kingdom, to which by their position they naturally belong, but Khorassan was formed into a separate state, to be governed by Shahrukh, the blind grandson of Nadir.
The important province of Azerbaeejan was at this time held by an Affghan chief called Azad, who for some time carried on a war with the Czar of Georgia, but who afterwards agreed to a treaty of peace with him by which the frontier between their respective possessions was to be the river Araxes. The southern part of Persia, also, was not without its pretenders to the vacant seat of government. Ali Merdan, a chief of the Bakhtiari, produced a real or pretended grandson of Shah Hussein, in whose name he raised a force with which he was enabled to lay siege to Ispahan. After a time that city opened its gates to the besiegers, and the young Ismail was put on the throne under the guardianship of Ali Merdan. This state of things continued for a year, Persia being divided into four governments; the south obeying Ismail; Azerbaeejan, Azad; the Caspian provinces, Mahomed Hassan; and Khorassan, the blind Shahrukh.
But it ought to be observed that the authority of Ismail over the south of Persia was never more than nominal. The two men who ruled in his name were Ali Merdan and Kereem Khan. The latter was a young chief of the Zend, a tribe of Kurds, and it was to his cooperation that the success of Ali Merdan was mainly due. So long as these two chiefs remained on good terms with each other all went well; but at length Ali Mercian issued orders for the arrest of Kereem, and on the same day he was himself assassinated by one of the many admirers of the young Zend chieftain. After this event Kereem assumed the sole direction of affairs, and by his justice, moderation and activity, he soon acquired the confidence of the people. The harmless grandson of Nadir was now left undisturbed in his principality, while the three rivals, Kereem, Azad, and Mahomed Hassan, proceeded to settle, by means of the sword, the question as to which of them was to be the sole master of Persia. A three-sided war then ensued, in the course of which each of the combatants in turn seemed at one time sure to be the final conqueror. Kereem, when he had arranged matters at Ispahan, marched to the borders of Mazenderan, where the governor of that province was ready to meet him. After a closely contested battle victory remained with Mahomed Hassan; who, however, was unable to follow up the foe, as he had to return in order to encounter Azad. That leader had invaded Gilan, but, on the news reaching him of the victory which the governor of Mazenderan had gained, he thought it prudent to retrace his steps to Sultaneeah. Kereem re-united his shattered forces at Tehran, and retired to Ispahan to prepare for a second campaign. When he again took the field, it was not to measure himself once more with the Kajar chief, but to put down the pretensions of Azad. That wary Affghan, however, shut himself up in Kasveen, a position from which he was enabled to inflict much injury on the army of Kereem, while his own troops remained unharmed behind the walls of the town. Kereem retired a second time to Ispahan, and in the following spring advanced again to meet Azad. A pitched battle took place between them, in which the army of Kereem was defeated. He retreated to the capital, closely pressed by the foe. Thence he continued his way to Sheeraz, but Azad was still upon his traces. He then threw himself upon the mercy of the Arabs of the Germeseer, or hot country, near the Persian Gulf, to whom the name of the Affghans was hateful, and who rose in a body to turn upon Azad. Kereem, by their aid, once more repaired his losses and advanced on Ispahan, while Mahomed Hassan with fifty thousand men was coming from the opposite direction, ready to encounter either the AfFghan or the Zend. The Aifghan did not await his coming, but retired to his government of Tabreez.
The Zend issued from Ispahan, and was a second time defeated in a pitched battle by the Kajar. Kereem took refuge behind the walls of Sheeraz, and all the efforts of the enemy to dislodge him from there were ineffectual. Mahomed Hassan Khan in the following year turned his attention to Azerbaeejan. Azad was no longer in a position to oppose him in the field, and he in turn became master of every place of importance in the province, while Azad had to seek assistance in vain first from the Pasha of Baghdad, and then from his former enemy, the Czar of Georgia. Next year the conquering Kajar returned to Sheeraz, to make an end of the only rival who now stood in his way. It appeared, indeed, that the struggle between them was too unequal to last long. On the side of the Kajar were eighty thousand men, commanded by a general who had twice defeated the Zend chief on an equal field. Kereem was still obliged to take shelter in Sheeraz, and to employ artifice in order to supply the place of the force in which he was deficient. Nor were his efforts in this respect unattended with success: seduced by his gold, many of the troops of the Kajar began to desert their banners. In the meantime the neighbourhood of Sheeraz was laid waste, so as to destroy the source from which Mahomed Hassan drew his provisions; by degrees his army vanished, and he had finally to retreat with rapidity to Ispahan with the few men that remained to him. Finding his position there to be untenable, he retreated still further to the country of his own tribe, while his rival advanced to Ispahan, where he received the submission of nearly all the chief cities of Persia. The ablest of Kereem's officers, Sheikh Ali, was sent in pursuit of the Kajar chief. The fidelity of the commander to whom that chieftain had confided the care of the pass leading into Mazenderan, was corrupted; and, as no further retreat was open to him, he found himself under the necessity of fighting. The combat which ensued resulted in his complete defeat, although he presented to his followers an example of the most determined valour. While attempting to effect his escape, he was recognized by the chief of the other branch of the Kajar tribe, who had deserted his cause, and who had a blood-feud with him, in pursuance of which he now put him to death.
For nineteen years after this event Kereem Khan ruled with the title of Vekeel, or regent, over the whole of Persia, excepting the province of Khorassan. He made Sheeraz the seat of his government, and by means of his brothers put down every attempt which was made to subvert his authority. His brother, Zeki Khan, presented the complement of his own character, being as resolute and unsparing as Kereem was wanting in that quality. The rule of the great Zend chief was just and mild, and he is on the whole, considering his education and the circumstances under which he was placed, one of the most faultless characters to be met with in Persian history. He died at Sheeraz, in the year 1779, at a very advanced age. It is probable that Kereem thought that from the great services which he had rendered to the country, and from his unceasing endeavours to administer justice and to encourage commerce and industry, the succession to his authority would without question be secured to his eldset son a youth who is said to have shared the amiable qualities possessed by Kereem himself. But it was to be regretted that the regent should have made no more definitive settlement for carrying on the administration of the country in case of his demise an event which, from his advanced age, could not have been expected to be very long deferred. Kereem left behind him two brothers. The younger of these, Zeki Khan, while governor of Ispahan, had been guilty of the folly and ingratitude of revolting against his eldest brother. The revolt was soon quelled, and Kereem, not contented with saving his brother from the fate which his crime deserved, had carried clemency to the mistaken length of raising him to as high a position as the one he had forfeited. The result was that that ungrateful man, on the death of his benefactor, seized his two sons, and usurped the government. He next massacred many of the chief inhabitants of Sheeraz, including a number of officers who had taken possession of the citadel for the son of Kereem, and who had only surrendered it to the usurper on the solemn promise that their lives would be spared. Zeki Khan, however, found that he would have to contend with two enemies before he could reign in peace. One of these was his elder brother, Sadek, whom he found means to put to flight; the other was his cousin, Ali Murad, against whom he advanced with an army. Ali Murad had been beforehand with him in levying the taxes due by the city of Yezdikhast; and when the inhabitants declined to pay their duties a second time, the tyrant was so inflamed with rage that he ordered a number of the principal citizens to be thrown from the rock on which that city stands. These and other equally inhuman orders were the means of bringing the tyrant's career to an abrupt close. His guards cut the ropes of his tent at night, and whilst he was encumbered beneath the folds of the pavilion, they despatched him with their daggers. The son of Kereem was now for a second time placed upon the seat of power, but he did not long enjoy it in peace. He was soon doomed to experience the ingratitude of his other uncle, Sadek, whom he treated with favour, and who in return caused him to be arrested and placed in confinement. But Ali Murad once more took up arms in his cause. After fighting for some time with varied fortune, he pretended to the kingdom in his own name, for Sadek, by way of putting an end to one cause of the war, had deprived the sons of Kereem of their eyesight. Ali Murad after a time advanced on Sheeraz, and after a protracted siege obtained possession of the city, while Sadek took refuge in the citadel, which he was soon obliged to surrender, an act of submission which was followed by his being deprived first of his eyesight, and later, of his life. His sons and grandsons, with one exception, shared the same fate. The only one of the family who was spared was Jafer, the half-brother of Ali Murad by his mother. He had disapproved of his father's ambitious designs, and he lived to fill his throne.
In the time of Kereem the government of Damghan had been confided to Hussein Kuli Khan, the second son of Mahomed Hassan Khan Kajar, who had taken advantage of a favourable opportunity to revolt. He was defeated by the brother of Kereem, and forced to fly to the Turkomans, by whom he was seized and put to death. At the death of Kereem, Aga Mahomed Khan, the eldest of the nine sons of Mahomed Hassan Khan Kajar, made his escape from the city of Sheeraz, where he had been detained as a hostage.
The following is the manner in which this escape was effected. The sister of Mahomed Hassan Khan, after the death of that chief, became the wife of Kereem Khan. This lady, Khadeejah Begum Khanum, was the mistress of the harem of the Zend chief and was consequently in a position to befriend her nephew, Aga Mahomed, with whom she was in the habit of communicating through his page, Soleiman Khan Kajar. When her husband was at the point of death[3] she sent a message to her nephew that if he remained in Sheeraz he would, after the demise of Kereem, be put to death by the chiefs of the Zend. Aga Mahomed, upon learning this, left Sheeraz on a hunting excursion in the neighbourhood. When news was brought him of the death of the regent he returned at sunset to the Ispahan gate of Sheeraz in order to learn the confirmation of the event, which he did from the officers of the guard. As he was entering the city he allowed the falcon which was on his wrist to fly away as if by accident, and this gave him a pretext for galloping after it to the spot where his favourite steed was in readiness. The gate was then closed and his flight was not suspected until the following day. Returning to the country of the tribe of which he was now the chief, his first enterprise was to expel his younger brother from Astrabad, and to seize the government of that province. He then raised a force of Kajars and of Turkomans sufficient to enable him to conquer the adjoining province of Mazenderan, and he further gained over the governor of Gilan, so that the whole of the country between the Caspian Sea and the Elburz Mountains soon owned his authority alone. Ali Murad, while laying siege to Sheeraz, sent a force of twenty thousand men against Aga Mahomed, but this army was unable to force the pass in the Elburz which was defended by the Kajar’s troops. After this success Aga Mahomed advanced from behind the mountains and obtained possession of the cities of Tehran and Kasveen. On news of this reaching Ali Murad at Sheeraz he immediately despatched his son with a force of thirty thousand men in order that he might effect a junction with his other troops and compel Aga Mahomed to retire. Ali Murad himself at the same time removed to Ispahan, to which place he transferred the seat of government. Aga Mahomed, unable to make head against the large force sent against him, once more retired behind the mountains, while Sheikh Veis the son of Ali Murad attempted to force an entrance both into Mazenderan and into Gilan, but was unsuccessful in both cases and was constrained to retire upon Tehran for the winter. Ali Murad in the meantime succeeded in persuading the governor of Gilan to desert the cause of the Kajars, and Aga Mahomed's next efforts were directed to punishing his unstable adherent. The town of Resht was taken by him and the governor's palace reduced to ashes, but that functionary himself had time to escape by sea. In the following year[4] the troops of Ali Murad succeeded in penetrating into Mazenderan and in compelling Aga Mahomed to shut himself up in the city of Astrabad, in which he had collected his treasures. It seemed as if he would be soon reduced to the last extremities when a sudden change of fortune once more set him at liberty. A mutiny occurred in the invading army, and the son of Ali Murad, in order to save his life, retreated to Tehran, while his disbanded troops set out for Ispahan. Ali Murad left his son Sheikh Veis Khan at Tehran and marched with another army to overtake and punish the insurgents, and to encounter his half brother, Jafer, who had revolted; but the severity of the weather during this march was more than he could support, and he expired before the army reached Ispahan. After this event that city once again became the scene of the wildest anarchy. The soldiers who had quitted their ranks at Astrabad plundered the capital at their discretion, and the troops who had been under the immediate command of Ali Murad found themselves at his death without a leader. The governor of Ispahan attempted by largesses to win the support of these mercenary and unprincipled troops, but his schemes were disconcerted by the arrival of Jafer, the son of Sadek and the nephew of Kereem Khan. That chief was requested by the inhabitants of Ispahan to take upon himself the task of restoring order, and having done so he wrote to invite Sheikh Veis, the son of Ali Murad, to come and to assume command in the place of his father. Ali Murad and Jafer had been half-brothers, and in full confidence in the good faith of the latter, the son of Ali Murad outstripped his soldiers and came on almost alone to Ispahan. But on his alighting at the palace-gate he was seized by order of Jafer and loaded with chains ; and, seeing that his father had put Jafer's father and brothers to death, it seems unaccountable that Sheikh Veis should have so far trusted Jafer. He paid for his temerity by the loss of his liberty and of his eyes.
The pretenders to the vacant Persian throne were now reduced in number to two; namely, Jafer Khan of the Zend tribe, the nephew of Kereem, and the persevering Aga Mahomed, the Kajar chief, who had so far repaired his disasters as to be able to penetrate with a considerable force to Kashan, from whence he threatened Ispahan. Jafer sent against him an army commanded by one of his officers, and which included many of the troops that had abandoned their ranks at Astrabad. These Kurds for the second time played into the hand of Aga Mahomed. They deserted their standards and retired towards their mountains, leaving their comrades unable to make head against the Kajar, who was thus enabled to march on without opposition to Ispahan, from which city Jafer fled to Sheeraz. Aga Mahomed next turned his attention to bringing into subjection the mountainous countries inhabited by the Bakhtiari and Loors. Having obtained some successes over these tribes, he treated them with such severity, and permitted his soldiers to be guilty of such barbarities towards them, that the revengeful feelings of the mountaineers were deeply stirred, and a new army was raised to act against him. The soldiers composing this force were animated by the wrongs of men whose wives and daughters had been the prey of those they now stood against in the field. Their ardour carried all before it, and Aga Mahomed fled in disorder to Tehran, in which city he intrenched himself, and from which point his future operations were directed. This struggle in one part of Persia gave time to Jafer to recruit his strength in another part of the country. On hearing of the rout of the army of the Kajar, the Zend chief quitted Sheeraz and once more took possession of Ispahan, the garrison of which place, who had been left by Aga Mahomed under the command of a trustworthy partisan, retired to the citadel where they defended themselves with courage to the last extremities. Jafer was next employed in endeavouring to reduce to subjection his cousin Ismail, who raised an army in his interests in the Bakhtiari mountains. This force was defeated by Jafer, but Ismail, with the aid of fresh levies, compelled his cousin to seek safety in flight, though he was himself soon afterwards deserted.
While the Zend tribes were thus wasting their strength in fighting against each other, a contrary policy was inaugurated on the side of the Kajars, who had at one time been arrayed under the hostile banners of Aga Mahomed and of two of his brothers, but who consented at length to own allegiance to the head of the family alone. Aga Mahomed was thus enabled to advance with an overwhelming force to Ispahan, from which city Jafer once more fled to Sheeraz. When Aga Mahomed, after having passed some time in arranging the administration at the capital, at length followed his enemy to Sheeraz he found that place impregnable; and, failing in all his attempts to reduce it, he returned to Ispahan. Jafer in the following spring directed his efforts to the acquisition of the city of Yezd. This object was not effected, and during the months that it occupied his arms his enemy had time to establish his authority over all the North of Persia. Jafer next sent his son, Lutf'ali, to subdue the Germiseer, and that gallant youth after a siege of three months took the almost impregnable citadel of Lar, from whence he passed into Kerman. At the same time Jafer himself was making a final effort to reestablish the Zend domination over the Northern part of Persia. Having taken Yezdikhast, Abada, and Koomeshah, he saw the way open to Ispahan, which city was evacuated by the brother of Aga Mahomed. But Jafer only regained this capital to abandon it for the third time on account of a rumour of the advance of a Kajar army, and on his return to Sheeraz he was assassinated in the month of January, 1789. The murderers of Jafer usurped the inheritance of his son, and Lutf'ali was obliged to flee from his own army and to take refuge with the Arab chief of Abooshehr, a place which is better known under the abbreviated name of Bushire. There this young hero raised an army with which he speedily marched to Sheeraz, where, after having defeated the force sent against him, he ascended the throne of his father. Aga Mahomed Khan saw with well-grounded apprehension the progress of a young soldier who was beloved by his adherents and who had shown himself to be so well fitted for command. The Kajar chief had been invited by a certain number of the principal men of Sheeraz to advance to that place and drive his rival from his government. He accordingly left Tehran in the early part of the summer following the period in which had occurred the death of Jafer, at the head of an army of fifty thousand men, but finding that the Zend chief was firmly established in Sheeraz he did not take any active measures against that city. Lutf'ali, however, found himself strong enough to be able to attack Aga Mahomed in the field. The battle which ensued would in all probability have ended in the defeat of the Kajar had not a portion of Lutf'ali's troops retired towards their native mountains before the rout was complete. This unforeseen conduct, while it dispirited the remaining Zend soldiers, gave Aga Mahomed the opportunity of rallying the Kajars, who eventually obliged Lutf'ali to retire with precipitation to Sheeraz. Aga Mahomed, after this action, remained for six weeks before the city, but, finding that he was not able to produce any impression upon it, he returned to Tehran for the winter.
As Aga Mahomed thenceforth continued to be the master of the north of Persia, and as Tehran was fixed upon by him as the capital of his dominions, it is now time to give some account of the Kajar tribe which supplied the dynasty that took the place of the Sefaveeans; of the city which was selected to supersede the ancient metropolis of Persia; and of Aga Mahomed Khan.
- ↑ "L'autorité des Sophis est sans bornes; ils ont droit de vie et de mort sur leurs sujets, et il n'est point de souverains qui soient si absolument et si promptement obéis."—Memoires de Perse. Amsterdam, 1749. :See also in the historical portion of CHARDIN'S Persia.
- ↑ "This chief left two sons, Mahomed Hassan and Mahomed Hussein. The younger died, and the elder took refuge with the Turkomans." — Translated from the Rauzat-es-Sefa.
Sir J. Malcolm makes Mahomed Hussein to have been the survivor. - ↑ Rauzet-es-Sefa.
- ↑ 1784.