Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/663

HISTORY.] PERSIA 633 for himself what was the real "empire" of Husain Mirza, and what the limit of the "Persia" of Uzun Hasan. The second could not well be included in the first, because the Turkmans were in possession of the greater part of the Persian plateau, as understood in modern geography, while the " sultan " was luxuriating in Herat, to which Khurasan belonged. It may be assumed as a broad fact that an empire like that acquired by Timiir could not long be maintained by his descendants in its integrity, even though separate kingdoms or sovereignties were formed in its more important divisions. The retention of particular provinces, or groups of provinces, must have depended not only on the loyalty but on the capability of particular rulers and their subordinate governors ; and it was manifestly impos sible for an emperor at Samarkand or Herat to know what revolutions were taking effect at Baghdad, Tabriz, or similarly remote places, inland or on the seaboard, which passed away from the original "empire" through the Aveakness or treachery of unfit agents, even when these Avere lineal descendants of its distinguished founder. The Turkish adjective uzun, ij)jy "long," applied to Hasan, the Turkman monarch of Persia (called also by the Arabs Hasanu t-Tawil), is precisely the qualifying Persian word ) j used in the compound designation of Artaxerxes Longimanus ; and Malcolm quotes the state- r e tian ment of a Venetian envoy in evidence that Uzun Hasan n T s - Avas "a tall thin man, of a very open and engaging counte nance." This reference, and a further notice in Markham s more recent history, supply the clue to a store of valuable information on the place and period made generally avail able by the publications of the Hakluyt Society. The narratives of Caterino Zeno, Barbaro, and Contarini, envoys from Venice to the court of Uzun Hasan, are in this respect especially interesting, and throw much light on the personality of one Avho Avas a genuine shah of Iran. Zeno Avas sent in 1471 to incite this Avarlike ruler against the Ottoman sultan, and succeeded so far in his mission as to bring the tAvo poAvers into open AA T arfare. That the result AA r as disastrous to the shah is not surprising, but the Avhole affair seems to hold a comparatively unimportant place in the annals of Turkey. Uzun Hasan had married Despina (Gr. Aeo-Trotva), daughter of the emperor of Trebizond, Calo Johannes of the house of the Comneni ; and Zeno s Avife AA r as niece to this Christian princess. The relationship naturally strengthened the envoy s position at the court, and he Avas permitted to visit the queen in the name of the republic which he represented. Barbaro and Contarini met at Ispahan in 1474, and there paid their respects to the shah together. The description of the royal residence " in the middle of a field, through Avhich a river floAved, in a very delightful locality " recalls the palaces in that city, such as the Haft Dast, where strangers of distinction are lodged in the present day. Moreover, the continual and excessive instalments of "good confections " brought to satisfy the travellers appetites show that the lavish hospitality of the local authorities is a time-honoured institution. Kum and Tauris or Tabriz (then the capital) Avere also visited by the Italian envoys following in the royal suite ; and the incidental notice of these cities, added to Contarini s formal statement that " the extensive country of Ussun- cassan [sic] is bounded by the Ottoman empire and by Caramania," and that Siras (Shiraz) is comprehended in it, proves that at least Adarbaijan, Irak, and the main part of the provinces to the south, inclusive of Fars, Avere within the dominions of the reigning monarch. There is good reason to suppose that Jahan Shah, the Black Sheep Turkman, before his defeat by Uzun Hasan, had set up the standard of royalty ; and Zeno, at the outset of his travels, calls him "king of Persia" 1 in 1450. 1468-1499. Chardin alludes to him in -the same sense ; but, even ad mitting the validity of his precarious tenure, the limits of his sovereignty Avere too confined to Avarrant more than casual mention of his name in an historical summary. Hasan the Long is a far more prominent figure, and has hardly received justice at the hands of the historian. Indeed, his identity seems to have been lost in the various modes of spelling his name adopted by the older chroniclers, Avho call him indiscriminately 2 Alymbeius, Asembeius, Asembec, Assimbeo, or Ussan Cassano. He is said to have earned the character of a wise and valiant monarch, to have reigned eleven years, to have lived to the age of seventy, and, on his death in 1477 or (according to Krusinski and Zeno) 1478, to have been succeeded on the throne of Persia by his son Ya kub. This prince, Avho had slain an elder brother, died by poison, after a reign of seven years. The dose was offered to him by his Avife, who had been unfaithful to him and sought to set her paramour on his throne. Krusinski thus tells the story. "Notwithstanding the assurance she put on at the very moment she was acting the crime, the king her husband fancying he saw an air of confusion in her countenance, had a suspicion of her, and required her to drink first. As she could not get oil of it without condemning herself, she swallowed the poison with an affected intrepidity ; which deceived the king, and so encouraged him that after he had drunk of it himself, he commended it to the lips of the prince his son, then with him, who was eight years of age. The poison was so quick, that all three died of it that night in the year 1485." Writers differ as to the succession to Ya kub. Zeno s Anarchy, account is that a son named Allamur (called also Alamut, Alvante, El- wand, and Alwung Bey) Avas the next king, Avho, "besides Persia, possessed Diarbekir and part of greater Armenia near the Euphrates." On the other hand, Kru sinski states that, Ya kub dying childless, his relative Julaver, one of the grandees of the kingdom, seized the throne and held possession of it for three years. Baisingar, it is added, succeeded him in 1488 and reigned till 1490, AA hen a young nobleman named Rustan (Rustam 1 ?) obtained the sovereign poAver and exercised it for seven years. This account is confirmed by Angiolello, a traveller Avho folloAved his countrymen Barbaro and Contarini to Persia ; and from the tAvo authorities combined may be gathered the further narration of the murder of Rustam and usurpation of the throne by a certain Ahmad, Avhose death, under torture, six months aftenvards, made AA*ay for Alamut, the young son of Hasan. These discrepancies can be reconciled on reference to yet another record bound up AAdth the narratives of the four Italians aforesaid, and of much the same period. In the Travels of a Merchant in Persia the story of Ya kub s death is supplemented by the statement that " the great lords, hearing of their king s decease, had quarrels among themseKes, so that for five or six years all Persia Avas in a state of civil Avar, first one and then another of the nobles becoming sultan. At last a youth named Alamut, aged fourteen years, Avas raised to the throne, AA hich he held till the succession of Shaikh Ismail." Who this young man AA-as, is not specified ; but other Avriters call Alamut and his brother Murad the sons of Ya kub, as though the relationship Avere unquestioned NOAV little is knoAvn, save incidentally, of Julaver or Rustam ; but Baisingar is the name of a nepheAV of Umar Shaikh, king of Farghdna (Ferghana) and contemporary of Uzun Hasan. There Avas no doubt much anarchy and confusion in the interval betAveen the death of Ya kub and the restoration, for tAA-o years, of the dynasty of the White Sheep. But the tender age of Alamut Avould, even in civilized countries, have necessitated a regency ; and it may be assumed that he Avas the next legitimate and more See also Ramusio s preface. 2 Knolles, Purchas, Zeno. XVIII. 80