A History of Persia/Chapter 9

by Robert Grant Watson

CHAPTER IX.

Provisions of the Treaty of Turkomanchai—Alteration of the Treaty between England and Persia—General Confusion in Persia—Supineness of the Shah's Government—M. Grebaïodoff—Murder of the Members of his Mission—Terror of the Shah Embassy to Petersburg of Prince Kosroo—Severe Earthquakes in Persia—Campaign of the Crown Prince in Khorassan—Fall of Ameerabad and of Kabushan—Assault on Serrekhs—Origin of the Affghan War—Death of Abbass Meerza—The Kaim-makam—Last Days of Fetteh Ali Shah—His Character—Burial-place of the Persian Kings

As the provisions contained in the treaty of peace concluded between the plenipotentiaries of Russia and Persia respectively, at Turkomanchai, now form the basis of the intercourse between Persia and the nations of Europe, it is desirable to examine this treaty with some care. By the fourth article the following line of frontier is laid down as that which was thenceforward to separate the territories of Russia and of Persia. From the frontier of the Ottoman dominions nearest in a straight line to the summit of the lesser Ararat a line was to be drawn from that mountain to the source of the lower Karasou, which runs from the southern slope of the lesser Ararat, and it was to follow its course as far as to its junction with the Araxes opposite to Cheeroor. Having reached that point, the line was to follow the bed of the Araxes to the fortress of Abbassabad, round the outer works of which a line of three versts was to be traced, and all the ground enclosed in this line was to belong to Russia. From the place where the eastern extremity of this line should have rejoined the Araxes the frontier was to continue to follow the bed of that river as far as to the ford of Yediboulak, from which the Persian territory was to extend along the Araxes for the distance of twenty-one versts. From there the frontier was to lie on the right of the plain of Moghan to the river Bolgarou, to twenty one versts below the confluence of the Adina-bazar, and the Lava Kamysche. From there the line was to follow the left bank to the junction of these two streams, and to stretch along the right bank of the eastern Adina-bazar to its source, and thence to the summit of the heights of Jikoir, so that all the waters that flowed towards the Caspian should belong to Russia, whilst those that flowed in the other direction should belong to Persia. As the watershed of the mountains marked the limit of the dominions of the two states, it was agreed that all the northern slope should belong to Russia, whilst all the southern slope should belong to Persia. From the crest of the heights of Jikoir, the line of frontier was to extend to the summit of Karakonia, the mountain which separates Taleesh from the district of Archa. Here also the crest of the mountain was to mark the division as far as to the source of the river of Astera, which was to complete the line of demarcation. By the sixth article of the treaty the Shah of Persia engaged to pay to Russia as an indemnity a sum of twenty millions of roubles, or five millions of tomans. By the seventh article Abbass Meerza was designated as the heir to the Persian monarchy, and Russia agreed to recognize him as Shah from the date of his accession to the throne. By the eighth article the Russians were secured in the right of freely navigating the Caspian sea and landing on its coasts. As to vessels of war, as those of Russia had from of yore enjoyed the exclusive privilege of traversing the waters of the Caspian, the same privilege was to be continued to them. By the tenth article it was stipulated that Russia should possess the right to name consuls or commercial agents wherever the demands of commerce should require them, and that each of these consuls was not to have a suite of more than ten persons. By the thirteenth article of the treaty it was agreed that all the prisoners of war made on either side, as well as the subjects of either power in captivity, should be liberated within the term of four months. The two governments reserved to themselves the right of at any time claiming prisoners of war or subjects of either power respectively, who might, from some accidental reason, not be restored within the specified time. By the fifteenth article the Shah granted an amnesty to the chiefs of Azerbaeejan, who were given the term of one year to remove to the Russian dominions, without any hindrance, should they decide upon doing so. By the second article of a protocol to the same treaty, it was regulated that three crores, or a million and a half, of tomans should be paid by Persia in the course of the first eight days succeeding the conclusion of the treaty, and that two crores of tomans should be paid fifteen days later; three crores by the 13th of April of that year, and that the two crores which should remain still due to Russia, should be liquidated by the 13th of January of the year 1830. By the third article of the same protocol it was determined that in the case in which the sums due by Persia should not be paid to Russia on or before the 15th of August of 1828, the whole province of Azerbaeejan should for ever be separated from the kingdom of Persia, and either added to the Russian dominions, or erected into a separate Khanate. Khoi was to remain in the possession of the Russians after they should have quitted the rest of Azerbaeejan, as a material guarantee for the payment of the portion still to be paid of the indemnity.

By another protocol it was agreed between the contracting parties that so soon as the Persian Minister should receive notice of the arrival at Tiflis of a Russian ambassador, he should make choice of an individual of a rank corresponding to that of the ambassador, and send him to meet the envoy at the frontier, and act as his Mehmandar, becoming responsible for his safety in his journey to the court, and also being responsible for the rendering of all the honours due to his rank. By the same protocol it was arranged that the ambassador was to be received at each station by an istikball, or deputation, composed of the chief man of the place; of the dignitaries, and a suitable suite. In the case of the ambassador passing through a city of which one of the Shah's sons should be governor, his vizeer was to be sent to meet the envoy. On the day following that of his arrival at the capital, the Shah's Ministers were to call on the ambassador, who on the next day was to have an audience of the Shah. In the case of the arrival of a minister plenipotentiary, or of a charge d'affaires, the same ceremonial was to be observed, with the exception that the Shah's chief Minister was not to pay the first visit.

By the commercial treaty of Turkomanchai, concluded on the same date, it was fixed that Russian traders should enjoy in Persia all the privileges accorded to the subjects of the most favoured nation. Goods passing from one country to the other were to be subjected to one sole duty of five per cent.,^[1] levied at the frontier. Russian subjects were to have the right to acquire en toute propriété habitable houses and magazines into which the employés of the Persian government should not have the right of penetrating by force, except by the sanction of the Russian Minister or Consul. The representatives of Russia, with the gentlemen attached to them, and the consuls of the same nation, were to have the privilege of being allowed to import, free from duty, all kinds of articles which should be intended solely for their own use, and Persians employed by the Russian officials were to enjoy Russian protection in the same manner as Russian subjects. The settlement of all disputes between Russian subjects in Persia was to be entirely confided to the Minister or Consul of his Imperial Majesty; the treatment of them to be according to the laws of Russia. Disputes between subjects of the two governments were to be settled by the two courts of religious law and of equity, but a Russian employé was to be present during the hearing of each case.

Such were the provisions of the Treaty of Turkomanchai, concluded between General Paskiewitch and Monsieur Obrescoff on the part of Russia, and Prince Abbass Meerza on that of Persia, and signed in the presence of the Asef-ed-Dowleh and the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs. The chief difficulty in carrying the provisions of this treaty into effect lay in the extreme unwillingness of the Shah to part with his treasure. His Majesty consented to give six crores of tomans, and the British envoy on the part of his Government consented to give 200,000 tomans, with the provision that on the one hand the Persian territory should be at once abandoned, and that on the other the third and fourth articles of the then existing definitive treaty with England should be expunged from that document, and the stipulations therein contained be thenceforward deemed null and void. The Russian general at length agreed to evacuate the province of Azerbaeejan, with the exception of Khoi, on the receipt of six and a half crores of tomans, or 3,250,000£., and the 50,000 tomans wanted to complete this sum were supplied by Prince Abbass Meerza.

The Persian Government held that the original occupation by Russia of the district of Gokcheh constituted an act of aggression, and that, therefore, Persia was entitled to receive from Great Britain a subsidy for the whole period of the war. This claim, however, was not admitted by the English Government, who held that Persia by invading Russia had been the real aggressor in the war. It is beyond question that Russia, in occupying the district of Gokcheh, had no thoughts of making war upon Persia, and there can be no doubt also that no war would have occurred but for the religious outcry which was raised in the Shah's dominions. The decision, therefore, of the British Government was in conformity with justice; but at the same time they saw the delicacy of the situation in which they would have been placed had Russia in reality commenced the war, as in such a case, they would have been in the position of supplying Persia with a subsidy for the purpose of carrying on war with a Power in friendly alliance with England. It was a signal service on the part of Sir John Macdonald to extricate his Government from such an obligation, and the necessities of Persia made the receipt of 200,000 tomans of peculiar value to her at that crisis. But for the payment of that sum, General Paskiewitch would have continued to hold Azerbaeejan.

In the meantime troubles arose in several parts of Persia. The Turkomans, as might have been anticipated, rose in rebellion. The people of Yezd drove the Shah's son, their governor, from that city, and took possession of his effects. The inhabitants of Ispahan refused the payment of the revenue due by them, and the great province of Kerman presented a scene of open revolt; to crush which the Prince Hassan Ali Meerza was now sent at the head of an army. The crown-prince at this time intended to proceed in the autumn of the same year upon an embassy to Russia; and in the month of May he visited Tehran, to consult personally with the Shah, over whom he regained all that influence which had been dormant for a time in consequence of the events of the late war. The king now conferred upon him the governments of Kermanshah and Hamadan, in addition to that of Azerbaeejan, which he had up to this time held, and he triumphed over his late colleague Allah-yar Khan, the Asef-ed-Dowieh, who was dismissed from the post of prime minister and publicly degraded by receiving the punishment of the bastinado. It was the Shah's command that the prince should superintend the infliction of this chastisement, and it is illustrative of the anger with which the recollection of the ex-Vizeer's pusillanimity filled him, that the prince inflicted with his own hand several blows on the feet of the prostrate man.

The court of Persia was now occupied in speculating on the probable results of the war between Russia and Turkey. The Shah was besought by both sides to take a part in the contest. There was little fear of his again provoking the anger of Russia, but his son desired that in the event of the downfall of the Ottoman empire, the frontier of Persia might be extended to Erzeroum and to the Tigris. It was determined to remain neutral for the present, but to be prepared to take advantage of any events that might occur. In the meantime the Shah, whose thoughts dwelt on the advantages he might gain by the downfall of the Sultan, was on the point of forfeiting the most valuable of his own provinces. By the treaty of Turkomanchai it was stipulated that in the event of the third instalment of the pecuniary indemnity due by Persia not being paid to the Russian agents by the 27th of August of the year 1828, the whole of Azerbaeejan should for ever be separated from Persia. Notwithstanding this clause, the Shah's government, with a recklessness entirely characteristic of Persians, took no thought up to the last moment as to the manner in which the required money was to be raised; indeed, the Vizeer of Azerbaeejan was unaware of the obligation into which the Shah had entered, until the specified passage of the treaty was brought to his notice by Sir John Macdonald. At the eleventh hour the required sum was gathered together the British envoy becoming security for the payment of 100,000 tomans and the district of Khoi was evacuated by the Russian troops.

In another direction the aspect of affairs was such as to lead the Shah to the reflection that it became him to attend to the conservation of the dominions he already possessed, rather than to seek to extend them on the ruins of the empire of the Sultan. The sons of Hassan Ali Meerza, who were left in charge of Khorassan, appeared in arms against each other, and this was the signal for several of the turbulent chiefs, amongst them those of Boojnoord, Koochan, Kelat, and Turbat, all inveterate enemies of the Kajars, to raise the standard of revolt. One of these entered the city of Meshed in August 1828, and got possession of the citadel and of the person of the governor. The venerable Sirdar, formerly of Erivan, a warrior of ninety years of age, was despatched to Khorassan; but his military talents had not the effect of reducing the unruly chiefs to order.

Persia was still in a troubled and disordered condition when an event occurred which might have furnished a pretext for the forcible dismemberment of the monarchy and the overthrow of the Kajar dynasty. Monsieur Grebaiodoff, a Russian gentleman related by marriage to the count of Erivan, had been selected as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the Czar to the court of Persia. He arrived at Tabreez in the month of October, 1828, and there leaving Madame Grebaiodoff and a part of his splendid suite, he proceeded to Tehran, with the purpose of presenting his letters of credence to the Shah, and of shortly returning to Azerbaeejan. The imperial mission was received with the utmost distinction by the king, who commanded his nobles to do their best in order to render the stay of the strangers at the Persian capital as agreeable as it might be made. The Order of the Lion and Sun was conferred on the gentlemen of the embassy; and the limited resources of Tehran were employed to the utmost extent in order to increase the good-humour of the representative of the Czar.

That representative was a gentleman of an honourable and upright disposition, and he was fully determined to uphold the dignity of, and to exact the rights due to, his imperial master. He was, perhaps, of too unbending a character to have qualified him for being a suitable representative to such a court as that of Persia; but if this were a fault with which he might have been charged, he paid a heavy penalty for his firmness. It is said that the fact of his Cossacks being often seen in a state of intoxication in the streets of Tehran, raised a feeling of disgust against the Russians in the minds of the people of the Persian capital, and that this was increased by the refusal of the Minister to grant redress in the case of some complaints against the conduct of his followers which were brought to his notice. But any discontent which may have existed was not permitted to display itself openly; and the Minister had obtained from the Shah his audience of leave, and was on the point of setting out on his return to Tabreez, when Yakoob Khan, the second chief eunuch of the royal harem, came to the house of the Imperial Mission, and claimed protection, on the plea of his being a native of Erivan. By the treaty of Turkomanchai, he had the right to return to his native place within a specified period, which had not then expired; but M. Grebaiodoff used all the arguments that occurred to him for the purpose of persuading him to relinquish his intention of returning to his native place, pointing out that he had been long estranged from the habits in which he had been brought up, and that he would find himself in an altered position should he return. But the eunuch, fired with spite against his recent masters, insisted on the enjoyment of the privilege to which the treaty entitled him, and he at length obtained shelter in the Russian Mission. This most unfortunate occurrence placed the Imperial Legation in direct opposition to the household of the Shah, and caused much ill-feeling; but it was of small importance compared to another event to which it led.

The shelter afforded to Yakoob Khan induced the Shah's Ministers to press certain claims on the Russian representative, and the annoyances to which he was subjected roused his haughty spirit to desire to enforce the claims which he, on the part of his own Government, was legally entitled to advance. Two days after the flight of the eunuch from the Shah's harem apartments, M. Grebaiodoff advanced a demand that two Armenian women from the ceded provinces, and who were now Mahomedans and inmates of the house of the Asef-ed- Dowleh, should be delivered up to the Russian Mission. An attempt was at first made by the Persian Government to evade this requisition; but on its being pressed, Allah-yar Khan was ordered to give up the women, who were accordingly taken to the house occupied by M. Grebaiodoff, and committed to the care of the eunuch Yakoob Khan. The Asef-ed-Dowleh had all along been the inveterate foe of the Russians, and it is probable that he did his utmost to fan the flame which now burst forth. It is probable also that the knowledge possessed by M. Grebaiodoff of the sentiments of Allahyar Khan had led him to press a request so humbling to the pride of that nobleman as the demand for the delivery of two of the ladies of his harem. The case was referred by the roused populace to the decision of the priests; and the chief mujtehed gave a fetwah, or statement of his opinion, that it was lawful to rescue from the hands of infidels two women professing the faith of Mahomed, and who belonged to the household of a true believer.

On being informed of the rising tumult, the Shah directed the Minister for Foreign Affairs to entreat the envoy to enter into some arrangement which might have the effect of calming the excited populace. M. Grebaiodoff agreed to do so on the following day; but this delay proved fatal to himself, and was the cause of an indelible disgrace befalling the people of the capital of Persia. Between eight and nine o'clock on the morning of the 11th of February, 1829, the bazaars of Tehran were closed, and the inhabitants flocked in wild confusion toward the residence of the Russian envoy, with the intention of taking the law into their own hands, releasing the disputed women, and seizing the eunuch Yakoob. No sooner had the crowd succeeded in forcing its way into the court of the house of the Russian Legation than the envoy's stern resolution at length gave way, and he ordered that the ladies should be restored to their lord. But a contest ensuing between some of his followers and the foremost of the crowd, who were dragging the eunuch towards them, a fatal shot was fired, by which a citizen of Tehran was killed. His body was forthwith conveyed to the neighbouring mosque, and there the bigoted priests proclaimed the disgrace that would follow the omission of exacting blood for the blood that had been spilt. The envoy made every effort to appease the infuriated mob, so long as peaceful measures seemed likely to be attended with success: he even caused his treasure to be thrown amongst the crowd; but this only quickened the desire for plunder, and when the eunuch Yakoob was torn to pieces, the Cossacks of the envoy's guard were ordered to fire upon the murderous rabble. The resistance offered by M. Grebaiodoff and the members of his mission prevented the Persians from entering the room they occupied; but with ill-timed ingenuity it occurred to the assailants to remove a portion of the roof of the apartment, and by throwing down sticks and stones and clods of earth from above, they forced the Russian gentlemen to seek safety in the courtyard, where they were soon overpowered, and despatched by the daggers of the infuriated throng. All that the house contained was then carried off, and on one of the populace crying out that the horses of the Russian Mission were in the stable of the British Legation, a simultaneous rush was directed towards the English palace. The gates withstood the efforts that were made to burst them open; but the cupidity of the mob was not thus to be thwarted, and an entrance to the stableyard was effected from the adjoining house, the wall of which was scaled. It is remarkable that any traces of moderation should at that moment have been discernible in the conduct of the Persian rioters; but they drew a fine distinction between what in their opinion was, and what was not, their lawful prey. Whilst they possessed themselves of all the horses and all the horse-clothing belonging to the Russian Mission, they inflicted not the slightest injury upon a single article of British property. Having put to death a Georgian groom and two Cossacks, they led out the horses, and, departing to their homes, the tumult suddenly subsided.

On the first news of this outbreak reaching him, the Shah instantly ordered the governor of Tehran and the commander of the forces to do their utmost to quell it; but it appeared that the authority of these princes was utterly set at defiance, since, after having received personal insults, they retired to the citadel, the gates of which were shut under the apprehension lest the rising should extend itself even to the precincts of the abode of the Shah. The king overwhelmed with shame and dismay upon learning what had taken place, hastened to protect the person of M. Malzoff, the first secretary to the Russian Mission, and the only survivor of the party.

That gentleman had been lodged with the Persian in charge of the Mission, in a house, or rather a suite of rooms, adjoining the scene where the catastrophe occurred. From his windows, according to his own statement, he saw the crowd pour into the court of the Minister's house, and the gathering at once became so dense as to deprive him of the means of proceeding to join his comrades. Seeing the extremities to which the multitude resorted, he retired with his servants to an upper room, where he might more easily defend himself if attacked, and there he distributed the sum of two hundred ducats amongst the Mahomedan guards attached to him. These men and his servants now ranged themselves in front of the room where he had taken refuge, and told some inquiring Persians that the apartment was occupied only by Mahomedans. The number of Russian subjects massacred is stated to have been thirty-five, including M. Grebaiodoff, M. Adelung his second secretary, the physician of the mission, the Persian secretary, a Georgian prince attached to the mission, an officer in the Russian service, eleven Cossacks, an European servant, and several Armenians and Georgians. The body of the murdered envoy was handed over to the care of the Armenian clergy, and it was subsequently transported to Tiflis. The fate of this talented gentleman was the more melancholy from the reflection that but a few months before he had wedded a Georgian princess of remarkable beauty, who was thus early doomed to bemoan his untimely death. M. Grebaiodoff was a poet of considerable celebrity, and his works are still perused widely throughout the Czar's dominions. It may have been to this circumstance that he owed, as he is said to have done, the dislike of his Imperial master, who looked upon the pursuit of literature as being a mere waste of time, and unworthy of a soldier or a statesman.

Nothing could exceed the dismay into which the intelligence of this deplorable occurrence threw the crown- prince, Abbass Meerza, who was at the time at Tabreez. In the middle of the night a servant of the harem was despatched for the British envoy, to whom the prince, after many exclamations expressive of despair, declared that a deed had been done at Tehran, the stain of which all the waters of the Euphrates could not efface. The prince could find a grain of consolation only in the fact that the Mehmandar attached to the late Russian Minister had been severely wounded in his defence, whilst several of his Persian guards had been killed in the act of attempting to resist the rabble. The Shah and his government spared no effort to convince the Czar of their entire innocence of the slightest participation in the recent occurrences which had terminated so fatally at Tehran. M. Malzoff was able to testify to the same purport, and the British envoy was entreated to request the Minister of his Government at the court of Russia to add his assurances to those of the persons mentioned. In addition to this, it was determined to send an ambassador charged with full powers to offer any reparation that might be demanded by the Czar. But this embassy was looked upon as a service of the greatest danger. The Persians believed that the Czar would very probably exact life for life, and none of them at first cared to act the part of Curtius on the occasion. At length Kosroo Meerza, a son of the crown-prince, was selected for filling the post of the Shah's representative, and he accordingly proceeded to Petersburg. The demands of the Czar were regulated by the exigencies of the situation in which Russia was then placed, rather than by the enormity of the crime which had been committed at Tehran. The imperial armies had sustained reverses on the Danube, and it was feared that Persia,^[2] if pushed too far, might unite her force to that of Turkey, for the purpose of driving back the troops of the North from the plains of Armenia and the borders of the Euxine. The Emperor, therefore, was prepared to accept the assurance of the Shah's representative that the Persian government had been neither actively nor passively in any way concerned in the late lamentable occurrence at Tehran, which, his Royal Highness said, they looked upon with the utmost regret and horror.

The Shah's ambassador had been well chosen. At the audience which Kosroo Meerza obtained of Nicholas, the Persian presented the handle of his scimitar to the Czar, and declared himself willing to give his life for the life which had been taken from the Czar's representative in Persia. The Emperor was contented with a more moderate reparation; namely, that the persons mainly concerned in the murder of the members of the Mission should be punished; that the priest who had given the fetwah, or order for taking the Armenian women from the house of M. Grebaïodoff, should be exiled; and that the plundered property should be restored. Compliance with these demands was readily promised, and Kosroo Meerza returned to his country after having obtained from the Czar the relinquishment of his claim for one of the two crores of tomans, which, under the terms of the treaty of Turkomanchai, were still due by Persia to Russia. By this act the Emperor wiped away a stain which till then had adhered to the good faith of a Russian officer. At the time of the conferences which preceded the signing of the treaty of Turkomanchai, General Paskiewitch had requested the British envoy to tell the king that in the event of the due and regular payment by Persia of the amount of the indemnity owing to Russia, he would take it upon himself to make the Shah a present of 100,000 tomans. But so great had been the need of ready money on account of the Turkish war, that the performance of this promise was evaded by the Russian agents. However, the Czar now made ample amends for any shortcomings on the part of the Governor-General of Georgia, since he relinquished his claim for 500,000 tomans.^[3] At the same time, it must be borne in mind that Russia had already received from Persia about two millions of pounds sterling—a sum which exceeded the losses and expenses that her subjects and her government had incurred during the Persian war. Prince Dolgorouki was now sent as Minister to Persia, and on his declaring himself in the name of the Emperor to be satisfied with what had been done by the Shah in atonement for the massacre of the members of the Imperial Mission, the troops in garrison at Tabreez were paraded in the presence of the Minister and of the Crown-Prince, when a royal salute of twenty-one guns from the artillery, and a feu de joie from the infantry, announced the reconciliation of the two governments.

The year 1830 was marked in Persia by the occurrence of a series of shocks of earthquake. In the month of April the town of Demavend suffered severely; not less than five hundred persons are said to have been buried under the ruins of the houses which were overthrown. The towns of Semnan and Damghan, and the villages in their neighbourhood, likewise sustained great injury; and in all seventy towns and villages are said to have been partially destroyed. The Shah at this time undertook a journey to Ispahan and the south of Persia, and the crown-prince was entrusted with the government of Khorassan, in addition to those he already held. He was summoned from Azerbaeejan to Tehran with a view to his being sent thence to the eastwards for the purpose of arranging the affairs of his new province. On his arrival at the capital, however, it was deemed expedient that he should proceed in the first instance to Yezd, at which place the habitual energy of Hassan Ali Meerza had not been attended with the result of a restoration of public tranquillity. Abbass Meerza proceeded thither, and the chief people of the town came out to meet him, and tendered the declaration of their submission to his will. His brother upon this proceeded with his troops to Kerman, to which place he was followed by the crown-prince. The latter had received instructions to send Hassan Ali to the presence of the Shah, and a regiment of infantry was ordered to accompany his Highness, nominally as an escort, but in reality to prevent his evading the orders of his sovereign so jealous is despotism, and so forgetful of past services, provided that at the present time one's evil star be in the ascendant! The crown-prince was welcomed by the citizens of Kerman, and after having established some sort of government and public confidence in that place, he returned to Ispahan, to which city the Shah had again repaired, and where his Majesty issued orders to the prince to proceed forthwith to Khorassan, and to do his best to reduce the refractory chiefs of that province to obedience. On his way to Meshed, the prince succeeded in taking two forts which were held by rebel chiefs.

The young Kosroo Meerza had led his father's army from Kerman across the desert to Toon and Tubbaz—an undertaking which was attended with great difficulty, and the successful accomplishment of which bears testimony to the patient endurance of the troops, and to the capacity of their youthful general. The Persian army on this occasion had to carry with it for long distances even a supply of water. The instructions given to Abbass Meerza were to reestablish the Shah's authority up to the river Oxus, which had been fixed by Nadir as the boundary of Persia. With this view his Highness wrote to the Khan of Khiva, or Kharesm, demanding that he should renounce all pretension to that portion of territory which was claimed by the Shah. The envoy, however, who was the bearer of this note, could proceed no further than Kelat, where he was detained by illness. In the meantime prince Kosroo Meerza undertook the siege of the fortress of Tursheez, by the reduction of which an effective blow was struck at the powerful combination of the Khorassan leaders, who now sought to make terms with the representative of the Shah.

The most powerful of the chiefs of Khorassan was the Eelkhani of the Kurdish tribes of that province. Seeing that the prince had been able to win over some of the more considerable of the other chieftains, this Khan entered upon a negotiation for becoming reconciled to the governor; but failing to come to terms the latter marched to the fortress of Ameerabad, which belonged to the former, and took it by assault. On this occasion the commandant of the prince's artillery was killed, and this occurrence served to add to the fury with which the Persian soldiers were inspired. Launching themselves upon the unhappy inhabitants of the fort, they slew all whom they encountered, notwithstanding the orders of the prince to cease from slaughtering. The carnage was only at length put a stop to by Abbass Meerza entering the place and purchasing from his infuriated soldiers the lives of the surviving inhabitants for the sum of twenty thousand tomans. The Khan of Khiva had advanced by this time to Serrekhs, and Mahomed Meerza was detached with a force to encounter him but the news of the fall of Ameerabad had the effect of frightening the Khivan ruler, and he retreated without having risked the result of an action with the Persians. But the Eelkhani still held out, and Abhass Meerza advanced to besiege his last stronghold, the fort of Khabooshan. The forces of the Eelkhani and of the prince were nearly equal, each army consisting of twelve thousand men; but Abbass Meerza had the superiority in artillery, and the Eelkhani was discouraged by the retreat of his ally, the Khan of Khiva. The ruler of Herat, too, who had promised to assist him, had, on seeing the turn that affairs had taken, sent his Vizeer to the prince's camp to announce his sympathy with the cause of the Shah. For all this, the Eelkhani would not surrender his fort, and the Persians accordingly prepared to assault the place. A mine was laid under the outer ditch, which, on being sprung, opened the way for the advance of the assailants up to the foot of the wall; and their courage was animated by the arrival, at that juncture, of the son of the Asef-ed-Dowleh, the afterwards well-known Salar, who had been sent by the Shah as the bearer of a number of royal khilats, or robes of honour, conferred by his Majesty on those who had distinguished themselves at the taking of Ameerabad.

It is the custom in Persia for those who are honoured by being made the recipients of royal khilats to show respect to the Shah by making an istikball, or formal reception, to the robe of honour. Notwithstanding the critical position in which the Salar, on his arrival at Khabooshan, found the besiegers of that place, the custom of going to meet the Shah's khilats could not be departed from, and accordingly Abbass Meerza caused the assault to be postponed in order that he and his officers might take part in the istikball. But this ceremony was not regarded with equal reverence by the Eelkhani, who, to the intense mortification of the prince, rudely disturbed the slowly-winding procession by the discharge of a gun on the rampart of the fort. Even after this affront terms of accommodation were still offered to the Eelkhani, and on their being declined, the order was given to assault Khabooshan simultaneously on each of its four sides. But now the Eelkhani came to the conclusion that he had done enough for honour, and he accordingly sent a messenger to the prince to intimate his willingness to agree to terms of arrangement. In reply he was told that he must surrender at discretion, or take the consequences of not doing so. He came to the Persian camp and was received with distinction by the prince. His Royal Highness entered Khabooshan, and permitted to himself the relaxation of going to the Eelkhani's bath, on coming out of which he was received by the son of that chieftain, who, in the name of his mother, presented him with an offering of ten cashmere shawls, and as many of the finest horses that were to be found in the tents of the tribe. The prince embraced the opportunity of exercising the power which success in arms had given him, without calling upon the tribesmen to change the allegiance which they had till now owned to the family of their chief. The Eelkhani was deposed; but his son, Sam Khan, who was the bearer of the offering, was then named Eelkhani in place of his sire. The fortifications of Khabooshan were destroyed, and the Persian army received orders to march to Ak-derbend, to which place the prince proceeded after having visited Meshed.

The object to which he now turned his attention was the reduction of the city of Serrekhs.^[4] That place is considered by the Persians to be one of the four chief cities of Khorassan. From its situation in the desert between Meshed and Merve, its possession is a matter of necessity to an invader approaching from either side with the purpose of possessing himself of one or other of the abovementioned cities, and Prince Abbass Meerza could not have reasserted the power of Persia to regain the line of the Oxus as her frontier without having first possessed himself of Serrekhs. That city is said to have derived its name from Serrekhs, the son of Gooderz, a chief of Turan. It was held by the Saloor tribe of Turkomans, and its possession had been successively disputed by the Khan of Khiva and by the Ameer of Bokhara, respectively. The Saloors are called after the title of Tuli Khan,^[5] the son of Genghis, and they form one of the most powerful divisions of the Turkomans. They are not addicted to the practice of making excursions into Persia for the purpose of plundering, but they were accused by Abbass Meerza of being in the habit of supplying arms to other tribes, to be used against the peaceful subjects of the Shah. In return for those arms, or for other commodities, they received many Persian prisoners, whom they detained as slaves, or sold to the inhabitants of Khiva and Bokhara. At this juncture there were three thousand captive Sheeahs within the city of Serrekhs.

Abbass Meerza appeared before that fortified place, and summoned it to surrender. In reply, Adina Khan, one of the chief of the Saloor tribe, proceeded to the camp of the prince, taking with him the wives and children of a number of Turkomans who had previously been sent as hostages to Persia. The chief of the Saloors agreed to liberate the Persian captives on receiving back the hostages, and his proposals were emphasized by the tears and entreaties of the women and children. But these failed to make any impression on the prince, who informed the chief that the hostages were not in his camp, and who went so far as to detain Adina Khan and those he had brought with him; the Persian commander being of opinion that men-stealers, such as the Turkomans, were not entitled to the benefit of the usages established for war between civilized nations. The Persian artillery opened fire on the city, and the Turkomans thereupon had recourse to the expedient of placing their Sheeah captives men, women and children in such a position as that they should be exposed to the full effects of the fire of the besiegers. This device caused the prince to suspend for a time the cannonade from his artillery. But he was roused to fresh measures against the Turkomans by the perusal of a petition which he received from his father's captive subjects, imploring him to rescue them from a captivity in which they were constantly exposed to hear the Sheeah faith blasphemed, and to see their wives violated. Adina Khan was sent into the city as the bearer of the prince's ultimatum; which was, that the place should be surrendered to him, unconditionally, within one hour, or that it should feel the effects of his power. The hour elapsed, and the prince gave his troops the order to assault Serrekhs, and to execute a Katl-i-am, or general massacre upon its stubborn inhabitants. The onset did not terrify the brave tribesmen of Saloor, who met the assailants with the Suni war-cry, "La Allah-il-Allah;" but the Turkomans were overcome, their chief was slain, and no quarter was asked by the vanquished, or offered by the victors. For the space of one hour the carnage raged, but at the end of that time the hunger after plunder prevailed over the thirst for blood, and the soldiers left off slaughtering in order that they might secure the spoil with as little delay as might be possible. The riches found in Serrekhs are said to have exceeded all computation, and the troops were permitted to retain for themselves whatever fell into their hands. Four hundred and fifty slave-dealers were given over to the liberated slaves, by whom they were torn in pieces, and after the walls of Serrekhs had been levelled with the ground, the prince turned back towards Meshed. His successes had inspired such terror throughout Central Asia, that it is said Turanian mothers could hush their children by pronouncing the dreaded name of Abbass.

The last recusant chieftain of Khorassan—the ruler of the Kara tribe—now submitted to the representative of the Shah. He was deprived of his government, and detained in custody along with the former Eelkhani. The declared intention with which the crown-prince had set out from Ispahan, of reasserting by force the right of the Shah to all the country lying between Khorassan and the Oxus, had not been carried into execution: not even as far as to Merve had the arms of Abbass penetrated; but yet he was now in some sort enabled to carry out the instructions he had received from the Shah. Five thousand prisoners of the tribe of Saloor still remained in his camp, and for their ransom the Khan of Khiva offered to pay the sum of fifty thousand tomans. Abbass Meerza consented to liberate them only upon the condition that he should receive, besides the ransom-money, a paper wherein it was stipulated that Persian merchants proceeding to Central Asia should be conducted as far as to the Oxus by guards of the Saloor tribe, who should be responsible for their safety; that that tribe should undertake to prevent the Turkomans of the tribes of Tekeh and Saroock from making incursions into Khorassan; that if they could not in all instances effectually prevent these incursions, they should at any rate give timely notice to the nearest Persian authorities to take measures for their own defence; that they should agree never to receive or have any dealings with slave-dealers of any country; and finally, that they should consent to furnish tribute and horsemen to the Shah at stated intervals. These conditions were accepted by the Turkomans, who probably had no intention at all of adhering to them; but the document in which they were embodied remained in the hands of the prince, and the honour of the Persian government was vindicated.

After this, Prince Abbass Meerza, elated by the success which had attended his arms in Khorassan, turned his attention to the scheme of conquering a portion of Affghanistan. Yar Mahomed Khan, the 266 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. Vizeer of Prince Kamran of Herat, was then in the Persian camp, and Abbass Meerza desired him to inform his master that the Shah, being now not engaged in Russian wars, was at leisure to assert by force of arms the claims of the Kings of Persia to dominion over Affghanistan. This declaration on the part of the Persian crown-prince was the beginning of a series of events which greatly contributed to bring about the subsequent Affghan war. Prince Kamran was required to acknowledge the authority of the Shah, and to pay tribute to him as a vassal, or else to be prepared to feel the effects of his power. The ruler of Herat endeavoured by means of a soft answer to turn away the prince's wrath, but this did not have the effect of inducing his Highness to forego the resolution he had taken of marching upon Herat. His son, Mahomed Meerza, was at his request appointed Vali of Khorassan, so that the crown-prince might be at liberty to devote his exclusive attention to the great scheme of conquering Affghanistan. He wrote to the Shah, requesting large reinforcements for the realization of his brilliant plans; but the king, while approving of the resolution to add Herat to his dominions, and while sending the required forces to Khorassan, directed that they should be led by Mahomed Meerza, and that the crown-prince should return to Tehran. He doubtless felt that his own days were numbered, and was therefore unwilling to risk the occurrence of the confusion which he knew would ensue in Persia in the event of his dying while the heirapparent should be far away in Affghanistan.

The crown-prince returned to Tehran, bringing with him the fallen chiefs of Khorassan. He also brought with him Abdul Rezak Khan of Yezd, who had risen in rebellion against the Shah during the occupation of Azerbaeejan by the Russians, and who had forced the governor of Yezd, Mahomed Veli Meerza, to make his escape from that place. This Khan had also insulted and ill-used the family of the prince, and had expelled the members of his harem from Yezd. Abbass Meerza had promised to intercede with the Shah for the pardon of these prisoners of rank; but Abdul Rezak Khan so much dreaded the effects of the revenge of Mahomed Veli Meerza, that, ere reaching Tehran, he twice attempted to commit suicide, in the first instance by taking a large quantity of opium, and afterwards by inflicting upon himself a wound with his dagger. In this state he was brought before the Shah, and having been, along with the other two captives, severely reprimanded, he was made over to the custody of Mahomed Veli Meerza, with the distinct understanding that, though he was to be disgraced, his life would not be taken, and that he was to receive no bodily injury. What follows is illustrative of the barbarism which still lingers in the Persian character. The prince was beset by the women of his family who had been ill-treated by Abdul Rezak, and, no longer able to restrain his desire for the blood of his foe, he entered the apartment where the Khan was being attended by doctors, who were endeavouring to bandage the wound which his own hand had inflicted on his person. These were ordered to retire, and Mahomed Veli nearly severed the Khan's head from his body with one blow of his sabre. Upon this the women of his family rushed into the apartment, and after having mangled the body, caused it to be thrown out into the street. I nowhere read that this shocking act drew down upon the perpetrator any censure from the Shah.

Abbass Meerza was now bent upon returning to Khorassan, but the state of his health was such as to alarm the king, and the prince was earnestly entreated by his friends to act upon the advice of his medical advisers, and to repair to some place where he might hope to enjoy the repose which he so much required. He replied that the necessities of his position were such as to put it out of his power to retire from affairs for a time, as the report would in that case get abroad that he was dangerously ill, and would have a prejudicial effect on his interests. He accordingly, much against the wish of the Shah, set out once again for Khorassan, and he saw his father's face no more. Efforts were at this time made on the part of the Russian Government to bring the crown-prince to throw himself into the hands of that power. His Highness’s fickle and wavering mind was swayed to and fro between the schemes of ruling by the favour of the Czar, or of owing his crown to his own efforts, and to the aid of some English officers who were now sent from India for the purpose of drilling and commanding his troops. He chose the nobler part, and declined to become the slave of the power whose legions he had so often faced in battle.

His Highness proceeded towards Meshed, and on the way he had the misfortune to hear of the death of his English physician, Dr. Cormick, who had attended him during a period of twenty-three years, and who, by his professional skill and his intimate acquaintance with the prince's constitution, might perhaps have been the means of saving his life. After his arrival at Meshed his illness rapidly increased, and he became aware that his end was approaching. He now devoted his few remaining hours to the services of religion. Twice each day he proceeded on foot to the shrine of Imam Reza, and when his last hour was come he turned his face to Mecca, and, worn out by war and woes, calmly yielded up the ghost. He had, amongst one hundred and fifty-nine children, been ever the favourite of his father, and though he was fickle and easily worked upon and passionate, he was, notwithstanding, the noblest of the Kajar race. Abbass Meerza had attained the age of forty-six years, when his ashes were consigned to the sacred earth beneath the shrine of Imam Reza.^[6]

The difficult task had now to be performed of announcing to the Shah the intelligence of his son's demise. At all times to be the bearer of ill news is a duty most repugnant to the feelings of a Persian, but on this occasion the news to be conveyed were of so peculiarly mournful a nature, that it was feared the Shah in the first outburst of his grief would order the bearer of the evil tidings to be put to death. During two whole days no one could be persuaded to undertake the task, and at the end of that time the king's two youngest sons were together sent to lisp to their aged father the tale of the demise of the heir to his throne.

The outrageous grief of the Shah was not occasioned solely by the loss for ever of his beloved son's society. Some time before this the king, it is said, had commanded the royal astrologer to cast his horoscope, so that he might gain some knowledge of the fate that awaited him. The astrologer, in the performance of this delicate duty, was, perhaps, guided by his common sense more than by any conjunction of the stars. In all probability the crown-prince would survive his father, and therefore he would not be put to shame before the latter by the answer which he delivered. It was that the prince's death would precede by about a year that of the king. He could have little calculated on the literal fulfilment of his prophecy.

Before the death of the heir-apparent, his son Mahomed Meerza had advanced upon Ghorian, in the territory of Herat, and having found that place obstinately defended, had left it in his rear and proceeded to attack the capital of Prince Kamran. The inhabitants of Herat defended themselves with the courage and steadiness which they have manifested during each of the numerous sieges of that fortress. On one occasion they sallied out from the place and defeated one of the divisions of the Persian army; but Mahomed Meerza was assisted by the talent and experience of Monsieur Beroffsky, a Polish officer who had come to Persia with the design of inducing that power to league with Turkey against Russia at the time of the Polish insurrection. The siege of Herat would probably ere long have been conducted to a termination favourable to the Persians, but it was brought to a sudden close in consequence of the death of the crown-prince. The ruler of Herat agreed to pay tribute to the Shah, and Mahomed Meerza returned to Meshed, and proceeded to Tehran, where he was pronounced the heir-apparent to the throne, and appointed to be governor of Tabreez. The removal of the crown-prince from the scene gave fresh hope to those who had intended to dispute with him the accession to the regal dignity, and, from the feeble health of the king, men were prepared soon to witness the miseries of civil war.

Prince Mahomed Meerza, now the acknowledged heir to the Persian throne, returned to Tabreez to undertake the government so long held by his father. This prince was at this time twenty-eight years of age, but, young as he was, he was already enfeebled in constitution, and he paid the penalty of his devotion to the pleasures of the table by having to submit to frequently-recurring attacks of gout. The province of Azerbaeejan had suffered greatly from the excessive peculation of his brothers, two of whom, Jehangeer and Kosroo, were now sent to well-merited confinement in the fortress of Ardabeel. Of these two young men their own mother is said to have declared that it was impossible to tell which was the worst; and we are therefore not surprised to read that Kosroo Meerza, who had been ambassador to the court of Russia, was afterwards condemned to be deprived of sight. But though Mahomed Meerza was the nominal governor of Azerbaeejan, the real authority over that province lay at this time in the hands of Meerza Abdul Kassim, the Kaim-Makam, who had long filled the important office of vizeer to Abbass Meerza, and who was subsequently called to the still higher post of Grand Vizeer of Persia. This nobleman stood unrivalled for talent in the estimation of his countrymen. He was an able financier, and was well acquainted with the condition of every province in the kingdom, and was moreover versed in the relations between Persia and the foreign States; but the quality in the possession of which he was chiefly pre-eminent, was the power of deceiving others a power which it would seem was in no way lessened by the circumstance that his falseness was widely known. He made it a principle never to refuse a request made of him, and by these easy means he contrived to send away petitioners contented, for the time being. The Kaim-Makam estimated others by what he knew of his own character. He would trust no one, and as he insisted on himself transacting all affairs of importance, the business confided to him remained always in arrears, and the people of Azerbaeejan were left to vent in grumbling the discontent engendered by the miserable system of government under which they were condemned to live.

The aged Shah had for some time past been in indifferent health, and his demise was thought to be not far distant. Under these circumstances his son, Hassan Ali Meerza, the Firman-Firma, or governor-general, of the province of Fars, who had made up his mind to be king after his father should die, thought it would be wasting money to pay in the arrears which he owed to the royal treasury. In order to compel him to do so, Fetteh Ali, whose ruling passion of avarice was as predominant as ever, determined upon undertaking another journey to the south of Persia. His march would also, he hoped, have the effect of putting down the rumours of his death which had been circulated for some time past, and which were the cause of much lawless disorder in the provinces at a distance from the capital. The Bakhtiari mountaineers had even gone to the length of inflicting a poignant blow on the Shah by seizing on a portion of the royal treasure which was being conveyed to Tehran from Ispahan. A large force, said to have amounted to thirty thousand horse and foot, was assembled for the purpose of accompanying the Shah. In the autumn his Majesty quitted Tehran, and at Koom went to inspect the gorgeous sepulchre which he was destined soon to fill. At Kashan he remained for eight days in the delightful palace of Feen, and thence proceeded to Ispahan. The monarch, whose life had been spent in travelling from place to place, had now made his last journey. He was met near the city by the whole population of Ispahan, and a gorgeous carpeting of cashmere shawls was spread on the ground to be pressed by the feet of the king as he entered the palace of Sadetabad. Six days later the Firman-Firma arrived from Sheeraz, but in place of the 600,000 tomans^[7] which were due from the revenue of Fars, the prince brought with him only 13,000 tomans. This was too trying for the Shah's patience, and after having vented his anger in abuse of his son, he ordered him to be confined until the remaining arrears should be collected by the commissioners whom he appointed to that duty. The Grand Vizeer was ordered to proceed to Fars with ten thousand men, and there to employ the severest measures for coercing the inhabitants into a settlement of the claims against them. The Firman-Firma, having been thus temporarily superseded, was permitted to return to the south.

After this the Shah held a public salam, or levée, at which he desired the governors and vizeers present to dismiss from their minds the vain idea that he was too old to be able to enforce the payment of what was due to him. Three days later, his Majesty suffered from a slight attack of fever, which increased to an alarming extent in the course of the two following days, but up to the last hour of his life the Shah continued to transact the business of the state. On the day before his death he held the usual levée, and gave his prime minister his audience of leave. On the next day the third of his illness,—he sent his eunuchs with messages to the different officers of the government whom he could not see personally; as his fever obliged him to remain in his harem apartments, where he was nursed by his favourite wife, the Taj-ed-Dowleh, a lady whom his will had raised from the condition of a dancing-girl to that of the ruling sultana of the royal family. When on this day, the 23rd of October, 1834,^[8] the hour of evening-prayer arrived, the king endeavoured to perform his accustomed devotions; but his strength was exhausted, and all that remained for him was to ask that his feet might be placed in the direction of Mecca. As the sultana hastened to perform the dying request of her lord, the Shah fell lifeless at her side, having expired without a groan or a sigh.

Fetteh Ali had attained to the age of sixty-eight, and he had ruled over Persia for thirty-seven years. His character may be described in a few words. Where money was not in question he was pronounced by competent authority to be the most sensible man in his dominions; but his violent lust after gold obscured his common sense, and caused him to sacrifice some of the most important provinces of his kingdom, rather than supply the means necessary for their defence. Throughout his whole reign this passion was predominant, and for its more complete gratification he was ready to put aside the suggestions of dignity and the promptings of gratitude. Thus we read that when his Britannic Majesty's Government decided upon handing over to the authorities in India the management of the relations between Great Britain and the Persian court, the Shah consented to the change under the belief that the envoy from India would lay before him an offering upon the same costly scale as that which Sir John Malcolm had brought from the shores of Hindostan. But the Government of Fort William no longer felt the necessity of paying a very heavy price for the good-will of the Shah and his ministers, and accordingly their envoy was instructed to limit his offering to the sum of fifty thousand rupees. The anxiety of Fetteh Ali on this point was so great that he directed those who had access to the envoy on his way towards Tehran, to endeavour to extract from him some information regarding the amount of the present which he intended to lay before the king. These endeavours were not attended with success, and the envoy arrived at the court without having given any hint as to his intentions. Upon this the Shah sent two of his ministers to wait upon the envoy with the express purpose of asking him how much money he intended to offer to the king; and when these vizeers had ascertained that the offering was to be fifty thousand rupees, they did not scruple to affirm in the name of their master that the Shah, by being offered so small a sum, would consider himself to have been almost deceived, since in accepting the proposal made to him to receive an envoy from the subordinate Government of India, he had of course taken it for granted that the offering to be made to him would be on the same scale as that of the former envoy from Calcutta. The result of this barefaced proceeding was exactly what the Shah wished since the envoy was bullied into exceeding the amount which his government had assigned as that which might be offered to the Shah.

With the exception of the one glaring vice of avarice, Fetteh Ali's character did not exhibit many very objectionable traits, and on the whole it will bear a favourable comparison with that of the generality of Oriental monarchs. That he was not without the qualities requisite for a Persian King, is proved by the fact of his having been able to put down the numerous competitors who disputed with him the possession of the throne, and by his having been able to maintain himself upon that throne for thirty-seven years; but he was indebted for his successes more to the precautions taken by his uncle than to any merits of his own. His talents were rather of a kind suited to an Oriental statesman than to a soldier. There is no reason to doubt that he possessed in his youth a sufficient share of courage, but after he had firmly secured possession of the throne, he did not care to expose his person too much to the chances of battle; and in his later years, by deserting the army opposed to the Russians, near the Araxes, he laid himself open to the charge either of inexcusable apathy towards the national cause, or of an unworthy desire to place himself beyond the reach of the inconveniences attending a residence in a camp before the enemy. But if Fetteh Ali was not without faults, he was also gifted with several good qualities. His affection for his children was excessive, and there is something touching in the constancy with which he clung to Abbass Meerza, even at a time when that prince was the cause, or the victim, of great national disasters. Fetteh Ali was attached to the Mahomedan religion, but he was by no means a fanatic, nor did he evince any dislike to the society of those who were not of Islam. He was unremitting in his attention to the discharge of the business of the state, and if in reading the history of his reign we find some acts of barbarity recorded, we must make due allowance for him on account of the character and customs of his subjects; the unsettled nature of the times on which he was cast, and the necessity of making himself feared by those who would have wished to ascend his throne. The Shah's body was conveyed from Ispahan to the tomb which he had caused to be prepared at Koom.

Koom is a city which was built in the year of the Hejira 203,^[9] and which lies about eighty miles to the south of Tehran, on the road from that place to Ispahan. It at one time^[10] possessed a considerable population, but it owes, in modern times, its celebrity to the mosque of Fatima, which makes it a favourite place of burial. In one of the finest of the gardens adjacent to the city was the mausoleum of Rustem Khan, a prince of the royal house of Georgia, who had embraced the tenets of the Mahomedan religion in order to obtain the viceroyalty of his native country. In the time of the Sefaveeans, Koom boasted of handsome quays along either side of its river, a well-built bridge across it, and large bazaars for the transaction of commerce, both wholesale and retail; also of commodious caravanserais and beautiful mosques. It was, however, subsequently almost completely destroyed by the Affghans in 1722, and only a portion of it has been since rebuilt.

It owes, as has been said, its celebrity to the possession of the mosque and sanctuary erected to the memory of Fatima, the daughter of Imam Reza, and which for centuries past has been the burial-place of the Kings of Persia. Attached to this sacred edifice are four courts, and the dome of the building, which is of gold, bears witness to the piety of Fetteh Ali Shah. The tomb of the Holy Virgin of Koom is protected from the defilement of the vulgar by a railing of massive silver, crowned at the corners by balls of gold. In adjoining chapels lie the ashes of several of the Persian monarchs: amongst them those of two of the Sefaveeans; Sefi the first, and Abbass the second. Nothing can exceed the beauty of these places of burial. The flooring is of tablets of porphyry painted in gold and in blue, and the vaulted roofs are equally rich and picturesque. The tomb of Sefi is composed of ivory, ebony, camphorwood, aloes and other sweet-smelling timber worked together in mosaic, and fastened by ligatures of fine gold. The chapels of the more recent royal personages whose ashes repose at Koom are attended by a service of priests, who by day and night read from the Koran and pray for the souls of those whose tombs they guard. To one of these chapels, and to the reverend care of the priests of Koom, were consigned the mortal remains of Fetteh Ali Shah, in the full hope and confidence that when the last trump should sound and the dead should rise to life, the monarch would be found to be under the all-availing protection of the Holy Virgin Fatima.

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1. Cinq pour cent.
2. M. Fonton states, at page 404 of La Russie dans I'Asie Mineure: "Les embarras du moment s'aggravèrent encore par une démarche précipitée du consul de Russie à Tebriz : cédant aux insinuations des Anglais, il avait quitté son poste sans en avoir reçu l'ordre." It would be more in accordance with facts if he had said that, "yielding to his own fears, M. Ambourger had quitted his post." The same author goes on to state that, on the receipt of the news by Abbass Meerza of the defeat of the Turks by the Russians at Akhaltsikh, the Persian prince assumed a more humble tone towards General Paskewitch. "Il fit répandre le bruit qu'au cas où les intrigues de ses frères amèneraient une collision, il chercherait avec les siens refuge et protection auprès du genéral-en-chef Russe. Tout sa cour prit en même temps le deuil à l'occasion de l'assassinat de Téhéran. Cette demonstration fut bientôt suivie d'une demarche plus significative encore. Ali Yusbachi, l'un des confidens d'Abbass Mirza, vint à Tiflis; il exprima, au nom de son maitre, les regrets que lui avaient fait éprouver les mésintelligences surventies entre les deux pays, protesta du dévoùment de l'héritier présomptif du trône, et se dit chargé de recueillir de la bouche du Comte Paskévitch les conseils de son expérience dans la situation difficile où il se trouvait." The following is the reply of the Count of Erivan :—"Votre Altesse me demande, comment elle doit agir dans les circonstances difficiles qu'a amenées pour elle la rupture des relations amicales avec la Perse?... Le très puissant Schakh, votre père, veut commencer la guerre. Supposons qu'obéissant à ses ordres, et cédant aux intrigues de vos frères, vous commenciez les opérations; vous ne rassemblerez dans le royaume que soixante mille combattans au plus. Nos provinces limitrophes n'ont pour défense, il est vrai, que les troupes qui occupent les forteresses. Vous pourrez, donc, pénétrer dans le pays ouvert; vous pourrez le ravager, mais vous ne prendrez pas les places fortes.
   "De mon côté.... je me porte par Baïazeth et Khoï sur Tebriz... Je fais la conquête de ce pays, pour ne plus jamais vous le rendre. Tout espoir de monter un jour sur le trône de votre père sera dès-lors perdu pour vous. Il ne se passera pas un an que la dynastie des Kadjares aura cessé de régner. Ce qui a eu lieu dans la dernière guerre aura lieu encore à présent. Ne comptez ni sur les promesses des Anglais, ni sur les assertions des Turcs. ... Les Anglais ne vous défendront pas; leur politique n'a eu vue que les intérets de leurs possessions dans les Indes. Nous pouvons, en Asie, conquérir un royaume, et personne ne s'en inquiétera. En Europe chaque pouce de terrain peut donner lieu à des guerres sanglantes: la Turquie est nécessaire a l'équilibre Européen; mais les puissances de l'Europe ne regardent pas qui gouverne la Perse. Votre indépendance politique est entre nos mains. ... Il n'est qu'un moyen d'effacer le souvenir de l’attentat qu'elle déplore, c'est de solliciter le pardon de notre grand monarque, pour la perfide trahison de la populace de Téhéran. Vous pouvez atteindre ce but en m'adressant un de vos frères, ou un de vos fils, à Tiflis, d'où je l'expédierai en ainbassade a St. Pétersbourg. Je prends sur moi de faire agréer cette démarche à notre souverain.
3. About 250,000£. sterling.
4. A.D. 1832.
5. "The Harem of Zingis was composed of five hundred wives and concubines; and of his numerous progeny, four sons, illustrious by their birth and merit, exercised under their father the principal offices of peace and war. Toushi was his great huntsman, Zagatai his judge, Octai his minister, and Tuli his general."—The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, c. lxiv.
6. A.D. 1833.
7. About 300,OOO₤. sterling.
8. The 19th of Jemadi-es-Sani, A.H. 1250.
9. Macdonald-Kinneir’s Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire.
10. See Chardin’s Travels, vol. ii.