A History of Persia/Chapter 5

by Robert Grant Watson

CHAPTER V.

Sadek Khan endeavours to make himself King—Is defeated at Kasveen by the Shah—Kasveen—Province of Fars—Sheeraz—Sadek Khan delivers the Crown Jewels to the Shah, and is pardoned—The body of Aga Mahomed Khan conveyed to Nejjef in Arabia—His Assassins are put to Death—Fetteh Ali crowned at Tehran—Rebellion of Mahomed Khan—Ispahan Rebellion of Sadek, Jafer Kuli and Mahomed Kuli Khans—Goorgeen of Georgia—Fresh Rebellion of Mahomed Khan—Rebellion of the Shah's Brother—Defection of Mahomed Veli Khan and Suleiman Khan—Clemency of the Shah—Revolt of Ishak Meerza—Herat Rebellion of Nadir Meerza—Mission from India—Khorassan—Last Rebellion of Sadek Khan—His Fate—Mission of Captain Malcolm—Fall of Haji Ibraheem—Kashan—Fresh Rebellion of the Shah's Brother—Siege of Meshed—Fall of Nadir Meerza.

THE assassins of Aga Mahomed Khan had possessed themselves of the two famous diamonds, the Taj-Mah,^[1] and the Derya-i-Noor,^[2] and of the other royal jewels, which they handed over to Sadek Khan Shekaki. That general being thus the master of one of the chief roads to power in Persia, set out, on the breaking up of the camp at Sheeshah, in pursuit of the dispersed bodies of men who were proceeding towards Tehran. An Oriental army, on the death of its chief, becomes like a rope of sand, and Sadek Khan found no resistance to his own compact division, which he was soon able to increase to the number of fifteen thousand men. This aspiring general seems then to have begun to assume the attributes of royal power. He appointed his eldest brother general of Karachadagh, and his younger brother darogha of Tabreez, while he himself marched towards Kasveen, where his family had been left. It was necessary for the young Shah to take immediate measures for putting down so formidable a rival, and accordingly a council was held at Tehran for the purpose of deciding on the steps which should be adopted for this end. In view of the fact that the king could not oppose the rebel general with a force so numerous as that under his orders, the majority of the royal advisers were of the opinion that the risk of the enterprise was too great to be allowed to fall upon the Shah, and that the service should be entrusted to one of his officers. The news of the arrival of Fetteh Ali at Tehran had made it more necessary for Sadek Khan to make himself master of Kasveen; but the governor of that city resisted his endeavours to enter it, and his distress was increased by hearing that his two brothers had been overcome by the governor of Khoi, and reduced to seek safety in flight.

The young king first despatched a servant to encourage the people of Kasveen in their efforts to defend themselves; but on the following day he declared that Aga Mahomed had appeared to him in a dream during the night, and had reproached him for not doing battle in person for the possession of his crown. He accordingly marched to Kasveen four days after he had ascended the throne, taking with him a force of seven thousand men. The rebel general, on the approach of the king, drew up his force in battle array, and, clothing himself in armour, prepared to abide the issue of the contest. The engagement, which lasted for two hours, ended by Sadek Khan having to abandon the field, from which he contrived to proceed in haste to Sarab in Azerbaeejan; his army being totally defeated, and his camp equipage falling into the possession of the Shah. The news of this victory had the best effect throughout Persia, as it discouraged men from taking part in any schemes of rebellion which may have been entertained. The Shah entered Kasveen in triumph, and thanked the citizens for their devotion to his cause. That city, celebrated as being the birthplace of Lokman, stands on a broad plain, about ninety miles to the west of Tehran, and dates its origin from an early period in the history of the nations. It was the point to which the Emperor Heraclius penetrated in his third expedition into Persia. It was the capital of the earlier Shahs of the house of Sefi, and in connection with that name it has been immortalized in the page of Milton.^[3]

For services rendered in the battle at Kasveen, the Shah appointed his brother to be governor of the province of Fars. As this was the most important post in the kingdom, it may be thought not out of place to give at this point a short account of the province in question. Sheeraz, the capital city of Fars, is situated towards the centre of a narrow, fertile plain, shut in by mountains on the north-east and south-west,^[4] The circumference of its walls is about three and a half miles. They are surrounded by a wide ditch, partly filled from underground springs and from ruinous canals; the water having no outlet, stagnates round the city,—a circumstance that accounts for its periodical unhealthiness. The form of the city is very irregular, the walls presenting numerous faces. On the northern side stands the citadel, a small, well-built inclosure, with towers at the angles, and a ditch around it. The citadel was constructed by Kereem Khan. Sheeraz, like most towns in Persia, gives the traveller the impression of being a city in decline. Its houses are crowded together, and they are built on a smaller scale than those of most Persian towns. The dwelling-places belonging to the more wealthy citizens are handsomely ornamented within with gilding and painting. The streets are remarkably narrow and uneven, and loop-holed turrets and barricades are frequently seen on the walls and roofs of the houses; indicating the presence of insecurity and danger. The habitations are built for the most part of burnt-brick, an improvement on the general style of Persian houses. The roofs are flat, and in spring they are covered with a growth of grass. The court-yards and gardens are planted with orange, lemon, and sycamore trees. The population of the city is estimated at thirty-five or forty thousand souls, and it is composed of Mahomedans, Jews, Armenians, and Guebres. The people of Sheeraz bear the reputation of being turbulent and prone to insurrection. Once a week, on Friday, the inhabitants of the two divisions of the population called Hyderi and Neametali, repair to the open ground beyond the city walls, and engage in a skirmish with slings and stones; an exercise which is not unfrequently followed by a close fight with swords and daggers.

Fars is one of the largest provinces of Persia, and it includes several dependencies, such as Laristan, Kohghiluyeh, and the districts subject to Bunder-Abbass. The province of Fars extends northwards to Yezdikhast; to the north-west it extends beyond Ram-Hormuz. The province embraces the whole of the Chab country to the Karoon river; although that district is now attached to the government of Shuster. On the west and south, Fars is bounded by the Persian Gulf; and the south-east beyond Bunder-Abbass, by the mountains of Beshakird. The districts of Shehr-Babek and Seerjan, belonging to Kerman, form its eastern boundary; while in the direction of Yezd the limit of the country is at Aberzoo.

There are three regions in Fars, each of which possesses a distinct climate. North of Sheeraz is the Serhad, or cool region, while to the south of the parallel of Fessa is the Germiseer, or hot region, which possesses two very different degrees of temperature the withering heats on the shores of the gulf, and the cooler atmosphere of the higher plains, which are denominated the Serd-seer. The face of the high country is for the most part occupied by mountains, between which lie vast cultivated plains. Some parts of the province are sparingly wooded, more particularly the hilly tract between Servistan and Fessa; while Desht-i-Arjin possesses its forests of oak. To the south of Fessa, the palm-tree is found in abundance, and the high country to the south of Sheeraz produces a variety of trees and other vegetable productions; including amongst the former, the cherry-tree, the apple-tree, the pomegranate, the plum-tree, the apricot-tree, and almost all varieties of those producing nuts; and, amongst the latter, wheat, barley, cotton, and gum-plants, besides tobacco and rice, the finest grown in Persia. The face of the country is diversified by some small lakes of salt water in the vicinity of Sheeraz, and by a fresh-water lake near Kazeran. This fine province contains also much mineral wealth, including copper and lead; but in this respect its riches have been but partially explored. The inhabitants of Fars are divided into the settled occupants of the towns and villages, and the wandering tribes, or Eelyats, whose chief resides in the city of Sheeraz.

Such was the government the Shah bestowed upon his brother. Sadek Khan, who had carried the crown and the royal jewels away with him from the field of Kasveen, was enabled by their means to make his peace with the king, who appointed him governor of a province.

Ibraheem Khaleel Khan, the chief of Sheeshah, caused the body of Aga Mahomed to be placed in that fortress until the Shah's orders should be received for its disposal. An officer was despatched for the purpose of bringing it to Tehran, and it was placed temporarily in the holy shrine of Shah Abdul Azeem. In this sanctuary his father's ashes reposed; but Aga Mahomed had more to answer for than his father, and it was therefore necessary that his corpse should be removed to a holier spot. From the shrine of Shah Abdul Azeem, it was conveyed with great state to Baghdad, and was finally deposited at Nejjef, in Arabia, at the shrine of Ali. The three assassins, Sadek, Khodadad and Abbass Ali, were, one after another, captured; and when they had been put to death with torture, their bodies were consumed by fire.

On the first of the month of Shaval, 1212, it being the 21st of March, or Nowroz, and also the feast of Bairam, Fetteh Ali Shah was crowned king of Persia.

Mahomed Khan, the son of Zeki Khan, and nephew of Kereem Khan, had been for some years in exile at Baghdad, but, on hearing of the death, of Aga Mahomed, he returned to the south of Persia, and, in the district of Nermansheer, he contrived to raise a force sufficient to enable him to possess himself of Ispahan. His army was soon afterwards defeated by the troops sent against him by the Shah, and he himself narrowly avoided being made prisoner in a garden, from whence he contrived to make his escape to the Bakhtiari mountains. An officer of rank was sent by the Shah to reprove the people of Ispahan for having yielded to the usurper, and with orders to put to death all those in the place who had taken an active part in the insurrection; a fate from which the Imam-i-Jumah had influence sufficient to save his fellow-citizens.

The celebrated city of Ispahan was no longer what it had been in the days when it contained the court of the Sefaveeans, and its decline was the more marked from the enormous space to which, in the time of its splendour, its streets and buildings had extended. It stands near the southern extremity of a vast plain, covered with a fine, light soil, and which is terminated in this direction by low mountains and rocks. It now occupies a space of about six miles from east to west, whilst its breadth is about one-third of its length. It is, however, difficult to determine where its limits lie, as its gardens, groves, and buildings, blend with the neighbouring villages. It is no longer a walled city, but open on all sides; its ancient defences, mentioned by an European traveller^[5] as being twenty thousand paces in circumference, having been destroyed by the Affghan invaders more than a century ago. The fort, however, which was afterwards built by Ashreff, and which encloses the centre of the town, is still standing. The river Zenderood skirts the city on its southern side, and is traversed by three bridges. Its waters, after fertilizing several fine districts, flow eastwards, and are, after a comparatively short distance, lost in the ground. When viewed from a height, the scene presented by this great city, embosomed in umbrageous gardens and vineyards, is one of much beauty; the surface of the plain in its vicinity is also diversified by large and picturesque villages, and dotted with pigeon-towers. The population of the place has been estimated by an observant modern traveller,^[6] as not exceeding a hundred thousand souls; its bazaars and parishes are of great extent, but a large portion of them being ruinous and uninhabited, gives one the impression that it is thinly populated. The seemingly interminable extent of its lofty, arched bazaars, gives an idea of the former grandeur of this once proud city. The surrounding country affords in abundance all the requisites of life; provisions, therefore, are cheap. The fruits are of the finest description; amongst them are to be found melons, peaches, pomegranates and pears, and grapes of no fewer than thirty-nine varieties: thirteen pounds of the last-mentioned fruit are procurable for the equivalent of fourpence sterling. The wine of Ispahan is considered to be the best in Persia.

The once flourishing Armenian colony of Julfa is now reduced to about three hundred and fifty families, the result of a long course of oppression and of the consequent decay of commerce.

It was to be expected that on the death of Aga Mahomed some effort would be made by the chiefs of the tribes of Zend to recover their paramount influence in Persia; and therefore it is not surprising to read of the attempt made by Mahomed Khan to dispute the peaceable accession to power of Fetteh Ali Shah: but that monarch had also to encounter rivalry from far different quarters.

Sadek Khan, Shekaki, with Jafer Kuli Khan, the Beglerbegi of Azerbaeejan, and Mahomed Kuli Khan, the governor of Uroomeeah, formed a conspiracy against the king, and appeared in the field at the head of twenty thousand men. Suleiman Khan, Kajar, was despatched against them with twelve thousand men, and he was followed by the king in person. Suleiman Khan, however, contrived to sow dissension in the councils of the conspirators. Mahomed Kuli Khan went to Uroomeeah, and Jafer Kuli to Khoi, while Sadek Khan came to throw himself at the king's feet at his camp of Nekpeh, where he made over to his majesty the last of the crown jewels, which he had detained, and where he once more obtained the royal pardon. Mahomed Kuli Khan sent his Georgian page to the Pasha of Baghdad, and demanded assistance, which the Pasha positively refused to give him. He then attempted to escape from Uroomeeah, but, finding himself intercepted, he returned to that place and shut himself up in the citadel, where he remained a prisoner until the Shah's arrival, when he was taken to Tehran and put to death.

At this time the Shah received the submission of the chiefs of Genja, Derbend, and Koobeh, and also that of Goorgeen Khan, son of the late Czar of Georgia, who addressed a petition stating that his father Heraclius, 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,^[7] 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.^[8] 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 defeated, he attempted to reach Bussora, near which place he was made a prisoner and blinded.

The list of rebellions against the authority of the young Shah was not yet made up. The next person he had to contend against was no other than his own brother, Hussein Kuli Khan, whom he had appointed to be governor of the province of Fars. It is hard to conceive what could have induced the young prince to forget his duty to his sovereign and his brother, for, whilst he saw the king obliged to contend in so many quarters with envious rivals, we are assured by the Persian historian^[9] that the governor of Sheeraz passed his time in peace and in the enjoyment of unbounded luxury. His garments were said to be of cloth of gold; his board was furnished with all that Oriental magnificence could devise; his stable contained the finest steeds that the breeds of Nejd and Aneysa could produce; and the loveliest women of Sheeraz beguiled, with dance and song, the tedium of his harem hours. His manner of living was reported to the king, and as his majesty probably did not think that such a governor was very likely to consolidate Kajar influence in the south of Persia, he relieved him of a portion of his charge, and appointed an experienced general to be chief of the province of Looristan and of the troops of Fars. Upon this the prince sent for some counsellors, and put to them the question whether or not they would advise him to attempt to secure for himself the sovereign power. Three of these had the honesty to show him the folly and wickedness of such an attempt; but their candour was ruinous to themselves, for they were instantly deprived of sight. The prince then marched to Ispahan, where he gave out that he was going to wait upon the Shah; hoping by this tale to induce the nobles of the province to go with him in his train.

Information of these proceedings reached the royal camp as the Shah was on the point of setting out from Khoi in the direction of Sheervan and Daghestan; the news caused a change of route to be adopted, and the king returned to Tehran. On his way he was met by the blinded prisoner, Mahomed Khan of Zend, whom the Shah ordered to be handed over to some soldiers of a tribe which had suffered much at the hands of Mahomed's father. Contrary, however, to the savage Persian usage of rigorously exacting the rights of retaliation, these men thought the blind man unworthy of being despatched by their daggers, and they therefore set him at liberty. We are told that he begged his way to Bussora, displaying in his person the baneful results of blasted ambition. The young Shah must have been utterly at a loss whom to trust. On his way to Tehran he received intelligence of the defection of two of the generals in whom he had till then reposed the utmost confidence. One of these was Mahomed Veli Khan, who had put down the rebellion of Mahomed Khan, Zend, and who now espoused the cause of the Shah's rebel brother. The other was the chief, Suleiman Khan, whom the king had left in charge of the government of Azerbaeejan. This Suleiman Khan, who was the Shah's first cousin, despatched his force in the direction of Tehran, with the intention of first allowing the two brothers to fight and afterwards attacking the victor. The two brothers drew near to each other in the plain of Taraghan, and by the influence of their mother an interview was brought about between them, at which the prince set forth that the revenues of the province of Fars were insufficient for his expenditure, and demanded to be appointed governor of Kerman also. The Shah did not refuse this request, and the prince on returning to his camp made the further stipulation that he should be invested with the government of the whole of Irak, and in addition that he should share the royal dignity with his brother. To these extravagant demands no answer was returned, and the prince proceeded to draw up his forces in order of battle. The Shah, while preparing to oppose his brother, sent repeated messages exhorting him to return to his duty. These, however, were disregarded, and the two hosts met face to face. But there was one privileged person whose influence was at the last moment sufficient to prevent the bloodshed that had been about to ensue. This was the mother of the two youths, who rushed between the opposing ranks, and with tears and cries forbade the soldiers to be participators in this unnatural strife. The prince by this time had had leisure to perceive that his forces were not sufficient to enable him to contend successfully with the army of the Shah, and he therefore sent to implore the royal clemency. This was granted upon the sole condition that the traitor, Mahomed Veli Khan, should be given over for the purpose of being put to death; a stipulation to which the prince acceded.

Suleiman Khan, who had been awaiting on the borders of Azerbaeejan the news of the result of the expected engagement between the Shah and the prince, was completely disconcerted at the turn events had taken, and, being in fear for his own life, he came on to Tehran and took sanctuary in the royal stable. From thence he wrote a petition, in which he stated that he had been the victim of circumstances, and the Shah was generous enough not only to forgive him his act of treason, but further to restore him to the dignity he had forfeited. He further displayed his royal clemency by appointing his brother to be the governor of Kashan, and by sparing the life of the traitor, Mahomed Veli Khan.

The Affghans at this time took advantage of the troubles in Persia to invade the province of Kerman from the direction of Seistan, but they were expelled from it by Hussein Kuli Khan.

Another of the aspirants who disputed with Fetteh Ali the possession of the crown of Persia was Ishak Meerza, the great-grandson of that Ismail, the pretended descendant of the Sefaveeans, in whose name Kereem Khan had originally fought. He was, however, quickly overcome, and his subsequent treatment afforded a further instance of the generous disposition of Fetteh Ali Shah.

Previoasly to this, Prince Mahomed, the brother of Zeman Shah of Cabul, and the grandson of the founder of the Affghan kingdom, had taken refuge in Persia. He now wrote to ask for help in recovering the government of Herat, which province he offered to hold under the orders of the Shah, whom he further offered to serve in extending his dominion in the direction of Turkestan. The Shah accordingly gave him the troops he required, and with their aid he succeeded in establishing himself at Herat.

The Shah's arms were also victorious in another quarter, where Persia had been invaded by a force collected by that Jafer Kuli Khan who had taken refuge with the Pasha of Byazeed, and whom the Shah forgave and appointed governor of Khoi. The king showed his gratitude to Heaven for these successes by repairing the golden domes of Kerbela and Kazemain, and by furnishing a door of the same metal for the mosque of Fatima at Koom.

The Shah had now put down the rebellions of Sadek Khan; that of his own brother; that of his cousin; that of one of his generals; those of a chief of the Zend, and that of a pretended descendant of the Sefaveeans. It remained for him now to crush yet another pretender to sovereign power. This was Nadir Meerza, the son of Shahrukh, and the great-grandson of Nadir Shah. That prince, on the occasion of the visit of Aga Mahomed to Khorassan, had taken refuge with the Affghans, and on the death of the first Kajar Shah he had returned to Khorassan, and assembled troops about his person. Fetteh Ali sent to warn him of the consequences of his conduct, and, misdoubting the effect of his remonstrance, prepared to proceed to Khorassan with an army sufficient to enable him to enforce obedience to his wishes. On his way to Meshed he took by storm the town of Nishafoor, the governor of which place shut its gates against him. He also took the town of Turbat, whose chief refused to attend at the royal camp. On the army reaching Meshed, the Sheiks, the Syeds, and the Ulema, sent to implore the king to respect the sanctity of the town, and of the shrine of Imam Reza. The discontented prince tendered his submission, received the Shah's pardon, and gave his daughter in marriage to a Kajar general; by which alliance the feud between the two princely houses was put an end to.

The Shah then made haste to return to Tehran, and on the way there occurred an incident which shows that he was not unworthy of the exalted post which he had been called on to fill. In the vast desert between Bastam and Shahrood, comprising a distance of nearly sixty miles, the different divisions of the royal army were obliged to march in small parties, on account of the scarcity of water. On arriving at his encampment of the day, the king found to his great distress that the ladies of his harem, who had preceded him, had lost their way. Tired as he was after his day's journey under the Persian sun, the monarch, taking with him five thousand horsemen, set out to search for them in the desert. But his search was unavailing, and the hot sun caused so much distress amongst his troops, that the soldiers were forced to assuage their thirst by drinking the last of the water which they had brought with them in their bottles. They continued their march, and their sufferings increased. One small piece of ice only remained, which was reserved to cool the lips of the Shah; but the sovereign showed himself on this occasion to be capable of heroic self-denial. Like the Macedonian conqueror, in the desert of Gedrosia, he declined to drink whilst his warriors were still parched with thirst. With his dagger he broke the little lump of ice into fragments, and with his own hand he placed them one by one in the mouth and on the temples of a youthful chief who had fainted, and who, by these means, was sufficiently revived to be able to continue the ride with his comrades towards the encampment; where they had the satisfaction of finding that the ladies of the harem had already arrived.

Shortly after the return of Fetteh Ali Shah from Meshed, he was informed of the coming of an envoy who had already opened diplomatic communication between the British authorities in India, and the court of Persia. This envoy was named Mehdi Ali Khan, and he had been deputed to Tehran by the Governor of Bombay. The object of his mission was to endeavour to persuade the Shah to attack Afghanistan, and thereby relieve, for the time being, the minds of the European rulers of India from the apprehension under which they laboured lest India should be invaded by Zeman Shah. The envoy entered upon his task with a mind free from the restraint of a too scrupulous adhesion to truth. He took care to inform the chief minister of the court of Persia that the English authorities in India were not at all afraid of the Shah of Afghanistan, but that, on the contrary, they rather wished him to put into execution his repeated threat of invasion, in order that they might show how easily he could be defeated. The envoy tells us that, in his correspondence with the Persian Government, he artfully avoided pledging the name of the Honourable East India Company, but that he represented unofficially the ravages of the Affghans at Lahore, and mentioned that thousands of the Sheeah inhabitants of that quarter had fled from their cruelty, and had found an asylum in the East India Company's dominions; and he added that, if the King of Persia possessed the ability to check the career of such a prince as Zeman Shah, he would be serving God and man by doing so. He further endeavoured to hurry the advance upon Afghanistan of Prince Mahmoud and Prince Ferooz-shah, two brothers of the monarch of Cabul, who were at that time refugees seeking the aid of Fetteh Ali against their relative. Mehdi Ali Khan seems to have been by no means backward in incurring responsibility. He had been entrusted by the Governor of Bombay with a letter to the King of Persia, by which he was empowered to conclude any arrangement he might choose to enter into. But had the contents of these credentials reached the eyes of the Shah's ministers, they would have led them to believe that the English authorities were willing to purchase their aid against the Affghans. Mehdi Ali Khan found the Shah sufficiently disposed to attack the Affghans without the inducement of an English subsidy, and he therefore determined to suppress the letter by which he was accredited, and to substitute in its place another document, purporting to come from the Governor of Bombay, in which that officer offered to the Shah his condolence on the death of his uncle, and his congratulations on his accession to the throne. The mission of this envoy met with full success, and he returned towards Hindostan, exulting in the assurance he had received regarding the king's schemes of conquest in Affghanistan, and in the orders that had been issued for seizing the persons of any Frenchmen who might venture to show themselves in Persia.

Zeman Shah about this period caused his vizeer to send an officer to Haji Ibraheem, the prime minister of Persia, with a request that Fetteh Ali would make over to Afghanistan the province of Khorassan. Such a suggestion could not fail to draw out an explanation from the king as to the policy he intended to pursue. He instructed his minister to reply that it was his intention to restore the south-eastern limits of Persia to the condition in which they had existed in the time of the Sefaveean Shahs: that is, he proposed to overrun, and to retain possession of, Herat, Merve, Balkh, Cabul, Candahar, Thibet, Kashgar and Seistan. Nor was this meant to be an idle threat; for orders were at once given for the royal forces to assemble at Tehran. These orders were punctually obeyed by all the tribes, with the exception of that of the former rebel Sadek Khan Shekaki. That chief seems never to have fully relinquished the dream of obtaining the supreme power in Persia, and he held back until the army should have quitted Tehran. One of his followers conveyed to the Shah the intelligence that it was the chiefs intention then to proclaim himself king. The royal clemency had been already stretched to the utmost limit in favour of this general, who was strongly suspected of having instigated the murder of Aga Mahomed Khan, and who had undoubtedly afforded protection to the actual assassins; and the long-pent-up flood of vengeance was now to be poured forth on the head of the infatuated rebel. He was sent for to the presence of the king, and was condemned to be bricked up in a room at Tehran, and there left to starve to death.^[10]

Fetteh Ali Shah proceeded to Sebzewar and Nishapoor, where his army was engaged for some time in the task of punishing the insurgent governors of those places. While in Khorassan the king received an ambassador, laden with presents, from Zeman Shah, who requested him, on the part of his master, to return to Tehran; this Fetteh Ali agreed to do, on the condition that the Princes Mahmoud and Ferooz should be received back in Aflghanistan in a manner suitable to their rank.

In the meantime various reasons induced the English authorities in India to despatch to the Court of Persia a mission of a more imposing character than that which had been entrusted to Mehdi Ali Khan. The success which had attended the negotiations of that envoy in his endeavours to prevail upon the Shah to attack the Affghans, had not been known at Calcutta when the Earl of Mornington selected Captain Malcolm for the purpose of proceeding to the Court of Tehran. No English diplomatist had until this time been employed in Persia since the reign of Charles the Second.^[11] Captain Malcolm was charged to make some arrangement for relieving India from the annual alarm occasioned by the threatened invasion of Zeman Shah; to counteract any possible designs which the French nation might entertain with regard to Persia; and to endeavour to restore to somewhat of its former prosperity a trade which had been in a great degree lost. The mission landed at Bushire on the first of the month of February of the year 1800, but it was not until the month of November of the same year that it reached the presence of the Shah. As a preliminary measure the envoy distributed presents to the various Persian officers with whom he was thrown in contact on the route from Bushire to Tehran, and on arriving at that city he laid at the feet of the king a costly offering of watches, arms, mirrors and jewels.

Two months later a commercial treaty and a political treaty were concluded between the envoy from India and the prime minister of Persia, the observance of which was made binding on all Persians by a firman from the Shah. This firman contained orders to the rulers, officers, and writers of the ports, sea-coasts, and islands of the provinces of Fars and Khuzistan, to take means to expel and extirpate any persons of the French nation who should attempt to pass these forts or boundaries, or desire to establish themselves on these shores or frontiers. By the commercial treaty it was stipulated that English and Indian traders and merchants should be permitted to settle, free from taxes, in any Persian seaport, and should be protected in the exercise of their commerce in the Shah's dominions. The English were likewise to be at liberty to build and to sell houses in any Persian port or city, and English iron, lead, steel, and broad-cloth were to be admitted into Persia free from duty, while the existing imposts on other goods were not to be increased. By the political treaty the Shah engaged to make no peace with his Affghan neighbour excepting upon the condition that the latter should agree to renounce all designs of attacking the Anglo-Indian possessions. On the other hand, the treaty bound the English authorities to furnish warlike stores to the Shah in the event of his majesty being attacked by the French or by the Affghan nation. After this the British envoy returned to India, leaving behind him in Persia, as we are assured by the Persian historian, a well-established reputation for common sense and justice, and knowledge of the world.

Shortly after this period there occurred in Persia one of those examples of the exercise of despotic power, which show at the same time the strength and the weakness of an Oriental monarchy. The Itimad-ed-Dowleh, Haji Ibraheem, the prime minister of Persia, had acquired such a degree of influence throughout the country as gave his enemies' statements the appearance of reasonableness, when they whispered to the Shah that it was the intention of his minister to depose him. There is no ground for believing that Haji Ibraheem actually did harbour any such design, but in justice to the character of Fetteh Ali Shah it must be remembered that he had been again and again betrayed by those in whom he had placed the utmost confidence, and from whom he had least reason to expect the conduct of which they had been guilty. He had shown clemency in so many instances that he cannot be suspected of having wished to shed needlessly the blood of one who had performed signal services to his family. A tradition is current in Persia, that Aga Mahomed Khan charged his heir not to allow the grey head of Haji Ibraheem, who had betrayed his first master, to go down in peace to the grave; but for such a statement I can find no authority. When, however, Haji Ibraheem was accused to the king of harbouring the design of displacing his master from the throne, it must have weighed heavily against him in the mind of Fetteh Ali that he had once shown himself to be sufficiently powerful to displace a Zend prince from his government, and to substitute a Kajar in his stead. His treason to Lutf'ali Khan was now to be avenged by the heir of Aga Mahomed. But Haji Ibraheem was too powerful to be openly attacked. Nearly the half of Persia was governed by his sons or other relatives, who would at his command have at once raised the standard of revolt against the Shah. An order was therefore issued that, on a given day, the prime minister and all his kindred should be seized or put to death. Two of his youngest children were brought from Sheeraz to Tehran, to share the fate which had overtaken the other members of their family. Of these one was a handsome and spirited boy, and when his life was interceded for, the stipulation was made that he should be reduced to the condition of an eunuch: the other child was considered to be so little promising that his life was conceded without its being thought necessary to take the same precaution as in the case of his brother. He lived to perpetuate the race of the king-maker of Persia; and is at the present hour the guardian of the shrine of Imam Reza, at Meshed.

Fetteh Ali Shah determined to send a mission to India, in return for that which had recently visited his court. Haji Khaleel Khan was selected as his envoy; but this nobleman was unfortunately killed at Bombay, in a scuffle between his servants and the guards who were appointed to attend him. This event, which caused a profound sensation in India, seems to have been looked upon in Persia as an accident which had happened in the usual course of things. The steps taken by the Government of India to make what reparation was possible to the family of the deceased envoy, more than satisfied the Shah, who is said to have observed that the English were at liberty to kill as many of his ambassadors as they might have a mind to dispose of, provided they should always pay as liberally as they had done on the present occasion. Mahomed Nebi Khan was selected to proceed to Hindostan, in the room of the deceased nobleman.

The hurricane of rebellion which had, as we have seen, swept over Persia after the downfall of the Sefaveean dynasty, had not yet expended all its force. Restless spirits were still striving to upset the authority of the Shah, and they gathered round the king's brother, whom they proposed to set up as the head of their conspiracy. That prince had been, as I have said, appointed governor of Kashan, a city not more than 130 miles distant from the capital. Kashan is situated on the skirts of a great desert, on the high-road between the northern and southern provinces of Persia. It lies about six miles away from a range of mountains, bounding the level country on the south, and it stands on a plain, which is in some parts extremely fertile, while in others it is stony and perfectly sterile. The walls of Kashan are stated to be about three-and-a-half miles in circumference, and they are, now at least, in a ruined state. The large area within them is but imperfectly occupied, and ruins meet the eye at every turn. All the houses have arched roofs, rafters being objectionable on account of the ravages of the white ant; and the habitations are usually situated much below the level of the streets. The population may probably amount to 30,000 souls. The bazaars of Kashan are extensive, and their principal street is well-built, lofty, and closed in with a domed roofing; but the shops, though numerous, are mean in appearance. Indeed, Kashan is more a manufacturing than a commercial town. Its fabrics of silks, velvets, printed cottons, copper utensils, &c. have long been known, and the present prosperity of the place depends upon them. The climate, notwithstanding the excessive heat of summer, is said to be extremely salubrious.^[12] Those who can afford at that season to quit their occupations retire to the neighbouring hills, and those who remain in the city take refuge in the underground cellars. The city was in a great measure destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Kereem Khan. The men of Kashan have the disgraceful reputation of being more effeminate and cowardly than those of any other town of Persia. On this account troops are very seldom raised from amongst them.^[13] In the midst of such a population, the king's brother may have been thought to be but little likely to renew his attempt to establish himself on the Persian throne. The prince, however, did not trust to the men of Kashan for success in his ambitious undertaking. Furnished with a forged royal order, appointing him to be governor of Ispahan, he proceeded to that city, and assumed the authority which was made over to him by the former governor. By these means he made himself master of the provincial treasury, and extracted much money from the citizens. He then shut up his treasure in the fortress of Ispahan, and proceeded to the Bakhtiari mountains, to endeavour there to raise an army.

When the report of these proceedings reached Tehran, the Shah took immediate steps for crushing this new rebellion. Leaving his son at the capital, the king proceeded to Ispahan, travelling almost incessantly, and performing the march of 250 miles in the exceedingly short space of four days. There he detached one of his officers for the purpose of reducing Ispahan, while he himself set out in pursuit of his brother. It would appear that such prompt measures had not been anticipated by the prince; for the Shah, on reaching Gulpaeegan, received the intelligence that his brother was making for Kermanshah, with the purpose of reaching the Turkish dominions. Upon this the king despatched one of his generals, with orders to proceed to Kermanshah by forced marches, and to throw himself between the frontier and the followers of the prince. This movement, which was promptly executed, had the desired effect of driving the rebel into submission. He fled to the sanctuary of Koom, where, upon the Shah's arrival, he placed a drawn sword upon his neck in token of repentance, and once more received the royal forgiveness. This was his last attempt at rebellion; and he soon afterwards died in retirement, in the vicinity of Tehran.

After the suppression of this revolt of his brother, the Shah once more turned his attention to the affairs of Khorassan.^[14] Nadir Meerza, the son of Shahrukh, had been left in the government of that province, and he had sent his brother Abbass to Tehran, to be a hostage for his good behaviour. The Shah Was disposed to treat these princes with lenity, on account of their illustrious descent; but a petition which was addressed to him by the chieftains of Khorassan, imploring his protection against Nadir Meerza, obliged him to interfere. He accordingly despatched his son-in-law to Meshed, at the head of twelve hundred horsemen, and he himself prepared to follow with a more considerable force. On arriving at Meshed, he at once closely blockaded the city, but he was prevented by religious scruples from permitting his artillerymen to open fire upon the holy place. This state of things continued during a whole month, at the end of which period the people of Meshed were reduced to a state of considerable suffering. They would have yielded the place to the Shah, had not the gates and the citadel been occupied by the troops of Nadir Meerza. Under these circumstances the chief priest of Meshed was deputed to wait upon the king, and to intercede for his fellow-citizens. The Syed came to the royal camp, and won from the Shah a declaration that he wished no evil to the citizens of Meshed, and was only desirous of securing the person of Nadir Meerza. It was arranged that the Shah was to retire from before the city, while the chief priest, on the part of his fellow-citizens, engaged that the prince should be seized and brought to the presence of the king. Orders were accordingly given to raise the blockade, and the royal forces returned to Damghan, from which town they marched to Mazenderan.

The news of the massacre of the Persians at the sacred city of Kerbela by the Wahabi Arabs,^[15] recalled the king to Tehran. The Shah at first proposed to march with his army to avenge this wanton proceeding, but reflecting on the grave import of invading the Sultan's dominions, he contented himself with despatching a special envoy to the Pasha of Baghdad, who promised to exterminate the whole nation of Wahab. The Shah's presence was then called for at Astrabad, to put down the incursions of the Turkoman tribes of the Attreck and the Goorgan districts. These he completely defeated, after which exploit he returned to Tehran. In this year^[16] also the Affghans of Seistan invaded the province of Kerman from Bem and Nermansheer.

In the meantime, one of the king's officers had been left before the walls of Meshed, with a corps of observation. This general, seeing that Nadir Meerza was not delivered over to him as had been stipulated, called upon the Shah to furnish him with reinforcements to renew the blockade of the city. One of the king's sons accordingly marched to his aid, and pressed the men of Meshed to open their gates to the king's lieutenant. But Nadir Meerza was determined to hold out so long as he might have a chance of being able to resist the Shah's authority. Familiarity with the shrine of Imam Reza seems to have removed from his mind the superstitious dread with which even the most hardened Persians would contemplate an act of sacrilege against so holy a mosque. In order to enable him to defray the expense of maintaining troops for the defence of the walls, he boldly proceeded to the sacred precincts where the priests chanted the song of praise of the Imam whose ashes were there entombed. Entering the Holy of Holies at the head of a band of men as unscrupulous as himself, he hewed away the silver bars that kept off the crowd of devotees from pressing on the tomb of the Imam. The dome of the mosque itself, before which, as it glitters in the Eastern sun, thousands of pilgrims from the utmost parts of Asia bow their heads in silent awe, the dome itself was stripped of its golden splendours to supply the demands of the lawless soldiery. After the commission of an act so entirely in defiance of public feeling, Nadir seems to have become utterly reckless. The infuriated crowd rushed upon the band of despoliators, and, by superior numbers, forced them to desist from further aggression on the holy places.

Nadir attributed this resistance to his authority to the promptings of the venerable Syed Mehdi, the priest who a few weeks before had been the means of delivering his fellow-citizens from the blockade that had been established by Fetteh Ali Shah. This descendant of the lawgiver of Mecca was seventy years of age, and was, from his remarkable piety, considered to be the foremost saint in Persia. To this man's house the ruthless prince forced his way at dawn on the morning succeeding the day of his attack on the shrine. Not finding him in his outer chambers, the intruder was not to be deterred by the imperious custom of the East, which forbids strangers to penetrate into the apartments of the women. There the Syed was found kneeling on his carpet, in the act of addressing the appointed morning prayer to the Deity. But neither his character nor his occupation was sacred in the eyes of Nadir, who with his battle-axe hewed the aged man to the ground. A general outburst of horror was excited by this act, and the people with one accord opened the city gates to admit the troops of the Shah. Nadir Meerza made his escape through the public drain, but he was closely pursued, and was taken at the distance of four parasangs from Meshed. Chains were placed on his arms and legs, and he was conveyed in that condition to Tehran, and brought to the presence of the Shah. Public opinion demanded that he should receive the utmost punishment which it was in the king's power to give, and the summary way in which this punishment was inflicted was in accordance with Persian custom. When asked what excuse he had to offer for having slain the saint of God, he could only deny having committed the act attributed to him. Upon this the Shah ordered that his tongue should be torn from his head, and that his hands should be cut off. A red-hot wire was then drawn across the culprit's eyes, and those who had abetted him in his sacrilegious acts received the punishment of death. It is illustrative of the peculiar tenacity with which Persians follow up blood-feuds, that the historian of the Kajars remarks with complacency that by this affair the Shah avenged the fate of his great-grandfather, Fetteh Ali Khan, who had been put to death by Nadir Shah.

Fetteh Ali Shah was now at the zenith of his power and glory. He had put down all the internal insurrections that had disturbed his reign, and he had done much to maintain the integrity of the ancient kingdom of Persia. From the shores of the sea of Oman and the borders of Beloochistan, the wide extent of Iran to the waters of the Caspian obeyed his undivided sway. The young Czar of Georgia, though he had since yielded to Russia, had formally acknowledged him as his rightful paramount lord, and he had been encouraged by a powerful foreign government to extend his empire in the direction of Affghanistan. The monarchs of Persia had adopted the proud title of Shah-in-Shah, or king of kings, from the circumstance of their having claimed allegiance from four Valis, the hereditary rulers of Affghanistan, Georgia, Kurdistan, and Arabistan. Of these four subordinate Shahs, one that of Affghanistan, as we have seen had for ever thrown off the Persian yoke. The territories of the Vali of Arabistan had been incorporated with the country of Persia proper; but as the Shah still claimed allegiance from the remaining two subject-kings, he might still lay claim to the title of Shah-in-Shah. He was surrounded by a family of sons, one of the most promising of whom had been named crown-prince^[17] and heir-apparent of Persia. The Shah's revenue at the time I write of, was computed by an English author^[18] as amounting to little less than six millions sterling. The crown jewels of Persia in the possession of Fetteh Ali have been estimated as being of more intrinsic value than those of any contemporary prince of Christendom.^[19]

But a dark cloud was gathering in the north, which soon overshadowed this fair prospect, and which in due time poured forth its violence over the kingdom of Persia. The events of this period shall be recorded in a separate chapter.^[20] mules. After this came the present from the Prince of Yezd, another of the king's sons, which consisted of shawls and the silken stuffs, the manufacture of his own town. Then followed that of the Prince of Meshed; and, last of all, and most valuable, was that from Hajee Mahomed Hossein Khan, Ameen-ood-Dowlah. It consisted of fifty mules, each carrying a load of one thousand tomans." MORIER'S Travels in Persia.

"The royal procession made its appearance. First, the elder sons of the king entered, at the side on which we stood, Abbass Meerza taking the left of the whole, which brought him to the right of the throne. His brothers followed, till they nearly closed upon us. Directly opposite to this elder rank of princes, all grown to manhood, their younger brothers arranged themselves on the other side of the transverse water. They were all superbly habited, in the richest brocade vests and shawl-girdles, from the folds of which glittered the jewelled hilts of their daggers. Each wore a robe of gold stuff, lined and deeply collared with the most delicate sables, falling a little below the shoulder, and reaching to the calf of their leg. Around their black caps they also had wound the finest shawls. Every one of them, from the eldest to the youngest, wore bracelets of the most brilliant rubies and emeralds, just above the bend of the elbow.

"At some distance, near the front of the palace, appeared another range of highly revered personages—mollahs, astrologers, and other sages of this land of the East, clothed in their more sombre garments of religion and philosophy. There was no noise, no bustle of any kind; every person standing quietly in his place, awaiting the arrival of the monarch. At last, the sudden discharge of the swivels from the camel corps without, with the clang of trumpets, and I know not what congregation of uproarious sounds besides, announced that his Majesty had entered the gate of the citadel. But the most extraordinary part of the clamour was the appalling roar of two huge elephants, trained to the express purpose of giving this note of the especial movements of the great king.

"He entered the saloon from the left, and advanced to the front of it, with an air and step which belonged entirely to a sovereign. I never before had beheld anything like such perfect majesty; and he seated himself on his throne with the same indescribable, unaffected dignity. Had there been any assumption in his manner, I could not have been so impressed. I should then have seen a man, though a king, theatrically acting his state: here I beheld a great sovereign, feeling himself as such, and he looked the majesty he felt.

"He was one blaze of jewels, which literally dazzled the sight on first looking at him; but the details of his dress were these:—A lofty tiara of three elevations was on his head, which shape appears to have been long peculiar to the crown of the great king. It was entirely composed of thickly-set diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, so exquisitely disposed as to form a mixture of the most beautiful colours in the brilliant light reflected from its surface. Several black feathers, like the heron plume, were intermixed with the resplendent aigrettes of this truly imperial diadem, whose bending points were finished with pear-formed pearls of an immense size. The vesture was of gold tissue, nearly covered with a similar disposition of jewelry; and crossing the shoulders were two strings of pearls, probably the largest in the world. I call his dress a vesture, because it set close to his person, from the neck to the bottom of the waist, showing a shape as, noble as his air. At that point, it devolved downwards in loose drapery, like the usual Persian garment, and was of the same costly materials with the vest. But for splendour, nothing could exceed the broad bracelet round his arms and the belt which encircled his waist; they actually blazed like fire when the rays of the sun met them ; and when we know the names derived from such excessive lustre, we cannot be surprised at seeing such an effect. The jewelled band on the right arm was called 'the mountain of light,' and that on the left, 'the sea of light.'

"The throne was of pure white marble, raised a few steps from the ground, and carpeted with shawls and cloth of gold, on which the king sat in the fashion of his country, his back supported by a large cushion, encased in a network of pearls. The spacious apartment in which this was erected is open in front, and supported by two twisted columns of white marble, fluted with gold. The interior was profusely decorated with carving, gilding, arabesque painting, and looking-glass, which latter material was interwoven with all other ornaments, gleaming and glittering in every part, from the vaulted roof to the floor. Vases of water-flowers, and others containing rose-water, were arranged about the apartment.

"While the great king was approaching his throne, the whole assembly continued bowing their heads to the ground, till he had taken his place. A dead silence then ensued, the whole presenting a most magnificent and, indeed, awful appearance; the stillness being so profound among so vast a concourse, that the slightest rustling of the trees was heard, and the softest trickling of the water from the fountains into the canals.

"In the midst of this solemn stillness, while all eyes were fixed on the bright object before them, which sat, indeed, as radiant and immovable as the image of Mithras itself, a sort of volley of words, bursting at one impulse from the mouths of the mollahs and astrologers, made me start, and interrupted my gaze. This strange oratory was a kind of heraldic enumeration of the great king's titles, dominions, and glorious acts, with an appropriate panegyric on his courage, liberality, and extended power. When this was ended, all heads still bowing to the ground, and the air had ceased to vibrate with the sounds, there was a pause for about half a minute, and then his majesty spoke. The effect was even more startling than the sudden bursting forth of the mollahs; for this was like a voice from the tombs so deep, so hollow, and, at the same time, so penetratingly loud."—Sir R. KEB PORTER'S Travels.

---

1. Crown of the moon.
2. Sea of light.
3. "Or Bactrian Sophi from the horns
   Of Turkish crescent, leaves all waste beyond
   The realm of Aladule, in his retreat
   To Tauris or Casbeen."
   
   
4. Mr. Abbott's Notes of the Cities of Southern Persia.
5. Chardin.
6. Mr. Abbott, her Majesty's Consul-General at Tabreez.
7. Rauzat-es-Sêfa.
8. A.H. 1213: A.D. 1798.
9. Reza Kuli Khan.
10. The room in which this sentence was carried into execution is now a portion of the house provided for one of the secretaries to the British Legation at Tehran. An old servant who has lingered about the premises for the last sixty years, informed me that on the fifth day after Sadek Khan had been walled in, he was found to have pulled up the cement of the flooring of the room in his despair.

    The Shah's reason for adopting this cruel mode of punishment was a superstitious dread of breaking an oath which he had formerly made, never to shed the blood of Sadek Khan.

11. "L'envoyé de la compagnie Françoise ayant eu avis qu'un agent de la compagnie Angloise, qui était à Ispahan, devait aussi avoir audience, et qu'il avait de longue main ménagé secrėtement les ministres, pour la préséance sur lui... il représentait que le droit de la nation Françoise etait d'avoir la préséance sur toutes les nations chrétiennes,"—Chardin. Vol. iii. p. 168.

    "L'agent Anglois disoit qu'ayant une lettre du roi d'Angleterre à rendre... une lettre de roi devait aller devant celle d'un corps de marchands."—Idem.

    Mr. Kaye, who has overlooked this mission, will excuse me for correcting the statement in his Life of Sir John Malcolm that no English envoy had visited the Persian court since the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

12. Mr. R. E. Abbott's Notes.
13. The following circumstance, which, I am informed, actually happened, illustrates the proverbial cowardice of the Kashis, as the men of Kashan are called: A hundred recruits from that city were brought to Tehran, but they there gave signs of such incapacity for military service that it was decided to send them back to their native place, and there to disband them. On receiving the order to return, this company demanded that a sergeant's party should be sent with them to Kashan for the purpose of protecting them from violence by the way.
14. A.D. 1802.
15. For an account of the events that led to the attack on Kerbela by the Wahabis, see Palgrave's Journey in Central and Eastern Arabia. Vol. ii. pp. 41-43.

    "A fanatic of Ghilan offered himself for the work of blood. He received suitable instructions in Tehran, whence he journeyed to Meshed Hoseyn, the authentic Mecca of Shiya'ee devotion. There he procured a written pardon for all past and future sins, and a title-deed duly signed and sealed, assuring him the eternal joys of paradise, should he rid the earth of the Nejdean tyrant (’Abd-el-'Azeez).... He one day took his stand in the ranks of evening prayer immediately behind 'Abd-el-'Azeez, went through the first two reka'as of Islamitic devotion, and, at the third, while the Sultan of Nejed was bowed in prostrate adoration, plunged his sharp Khorassan dagger in his body.... These events took place, so far as my informants could supply a date, about 1805 or 1806.... 'Abd-Allah marched northward against Meshed Hoseyn or Kerbelah, the main object of his hatred. Here the impetuosity of his onset overcame all resistance; the town was stormed, and a promiscuous massacre of garrison and inhabitants appeased the manes of 'Abd-el-'Azeez.'

16. A.D. 1803.
17. "Abbass Meerza was not the eldest son of Fetteh Ali Shah. He had been selected to be the prospective heir to the throne by Aga Mahomed Khan. His elder brother, when a mere child, was asked by his grand- uncle what he would do if he were Shah; when, with more candour than prudence, looking on the hideous face of the eunuch, the child replied, "I would put you to death." The answer had nearly cost him his life, and it lost him his chance of a crown.
18. Sir J. Malcom.
19. The author of Monarchs Retired from Business makes a statement the incorrectness of which is proportionate to the confidence with which it is advanced to the effect that the modern Shah of Persia, like the shrine of the three kings at Cologne, is surrounded by tinsel, glass, and false jewelry. This well-informed author further tells his readers that the Shah is bullied by Russia, cajoled by France, and not treated with over civility by England.
20. The following descriptions, by two modern travellers, give us some idea of the Oriental splendour of which the Court of Fetteh Ali Shah was, on festive occasions, the scene:—

    "The first ceremony of the festival of Norooz was the introduction of the presents from the different provinces. That from Prince Hossein Ali Meerza, governor of Shiraz, came first. The master of the ceremonies walked up, having with him the conductor of the present and an attendant, who, when the name and titles of the donor had been proclaimed, read aloud from a paper the list of the articles. The present from Prince Hossein Ali Meerza consisted of a very long train of large trays placed on men's heads, on which were shawls, stuffs of all sorts, pearls, &c.; then, many trays filled with sugar and sweetmeats; after that many mules laden with fruit, &c. The next present was from Mahomed Ali Khan, prince of Hamadan, the eldest-born of the king's sons, but who had been deprived by his father of the succession, because the Georgian slave who bore him was of an extraction less noble than that of the mothers of the younger princes. His present accorded with the character which is assigned to him: it consisted of pistols and spears, a string of one hundred camels and as many