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
