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A HISTORY OF PERSIA.

although from his years he might have known better, had been very foolish to rebel against the Shah of Persia, and had received the due reward of his crime in seeing his city pillaged and twenty thousand of its inhabitants put to death or made slaves. The petition went on to say that although the father had been a stone, yet the son was a jewel,[1] and that in accordance with the lessons of history and the traditions of the Sefaveeans, he, Goorgeen, considered Georgia as belonging to the possessor of the crown of Persia, and himself as one of the officers of the Shah, under whom he held his government, and whose orders he was ready to obey. In reply Goorgeen received a royal firman expressive of the king's satisfaction.[2] The rebel conspirator, Jafer Kuli Khan, fled from Khoi at the approach of the Shah, and took refuge with the Pasha of Byazeed; and his majesty the king, having thus restored order in Azerbaeejan, returned to Tehran.

Mahomed Khan, the Zend chief, who had fled from Ispahan to the Bakhtiari mountains, there found the means of once more raising the standard of rebellion against Fetteh Ali Shah. The Kurdish tribes of Bajelan, Beeranah, and Nednez, elected him their chief, and he was joined by a number of bandits. The Shah issued orders to the governors of Malayer, Nehavend, Looristan and Burujird, to act in concert against him. After several engagements, Mahomed Khan was once more obliged to take refuge in the mountains, where he raised another force, with which he attempted to surprise the camp of Mahomed Veli Khan, the Shah's general, who was sent against him with 12,000 men. Being again

  1. Rauzat-es-Sêfa.
  2. A.H. 1213: A.D. 1798.