struggle which ensued was long and bloody, but we can scarcely give our credit to the Persian historian,[1] who asserts that fifty thousand Turks were left dead upon the field of battle. The corps of one of the Pashas suffered severely, and its commander's flight decided the day in favour of the Persians. The siege of Toprak-Killeh was immediately raised, and the three Ottoman camps, with all that they contained, fell into the hands of the crownprince. So little prepared were the Turks for the flight to which they had betaken themselves, that many jewelled coffee-cups were found in their tents, which had only been half-emptied. After this victory the crownprince once more offered terms of peace to the Seraskier of Erzeroum, but that Pasha nobly replied that, so long as the Persian general should maintain a threatening attitude upon Turkish soil, to talk of peace was impossible. Abbass Meerza accordingly withdrew his army to within the Persian frontier, and the Seraskier was empowered by the Porte to conclude a treaty with the plenipotentiaries nominated by the Shah. But during the time that the war still raged, great confusion prevailed along the length of the Turko-Persian frontier. In the direction of Baghdad the disputed province of Shehr-i- zoor became "once again the theatre of military operations, and with a view, at the same time, to put down his opponents in this quarter, and to secure for himself a sufficient escort during a pilgrimage which he wished to make to the shrines of Hussein and of Ali, the Shah gathered around his standard a military force, at the head of which he marched to Hamadan. On the one hand,
however, the Turks were defeated near the border by the
- ↑ Riza Kuli Khan.
