414 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. against Turkey, the Shah's forces were to invade the Ottoman dominions at both points. They were to seize Kotoor, and endeavour to occupy the city of the Caliphs ; and when peace should be restored in Europe, the Sublime Porte should be compelled either to leave in the hands of the Shah all the territory he might have taken, or to ransom it by the payment of a suitable sum. Further than this, the Shah was to be released from the pecuniary obligations he was under to Eussia, for the balance of the money due under the Treaty of Turko- manchai, in the event of his going to war ; and in the event of his not being called on actually to declare war, all the cost of his military preparations was to be deducted from his debt. Kussia was also to furnish warlike stores and money, in the event of the duration of the war being protracted. These were tempting propositions for a Persian king to listen to. Should he agree to them he would be admitted to play a part in the great drama in which the chief monarchs of Christendom and the Sultan were the actors. He would be gratified by the con- sciousness of his being the first Persian prince of modern times who should have been able to emancipate himself from the second-rate position of a ruler whose sphere of action was confined to Asia. Furthermore, he would escape for ever from the degrading pecuniary obligations under which he was held by Kussia. He would wrest from the unrighteous grasp of Turkey the strong stra- tegical position of Kotoor ; and he would endear himself to his subjects, and his memory to their children, by adding to his dominions the holy cities that contain the shrines of Ali and of Hussein. Such were the prospects to which the Shah now called the attention of his prime
