836 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. circuitous route to take possession of a defile in the rear of Abdullah's camp, and at the same time Mahmoud inarched towards Suleimanieh. Information respecting the latter move was conveyed to Abdullah Pasha, in the expectation that, on hearing of it, he would at once return to Suleimanieh, and so be surprised in the defile by the troops detached by the Vali. Abdullah, however, ren- dered this calculation futile by advancing to attack the Vali's own camp. By so doing he was obliged to invade the Persian territory ; but he was forced to take this step by the seizure of the pass within the Turkish territory by the troops of Ardelan. He was successful in his attack on the Yali, and the Yizeer of Kurdistan hastened to misrepresent the matter to the Persian government, in the hope that it might be committed to hostilities against the Porte before his own share of culpability in the affair should be ascertained. The Shah, on reading the reports sent to him from Ardelan, was so highly incensed that he at once gave orders for the assembling of a number of troops at Hamadan, with which it was his intention to march to the Ottoman frontier. He also ordered that all Persian merchants should forthwith quit the dominions of the Sultan. There was, indeed, at this time a long list of grievances, on account of which Turkey and Persia complained each of the other State. A brother of the Shah had made a wanton incursion into the district of Byazeed and plundered several villages. In that same district a large and valuable Persian caravan had been despoiled by the Kurds. At the close of the year 1835, Khan Mahmoud, a Kurdish chief, dwelling near the Lake of Van, had ravaged the districts of Kutoor and Khoi. About the
