these mercenary and unprincipled troops, but his schemes were disconcerted by the arrival of Jafer, the son of Sadek and the nephew of Kereem Khan. That chief was requested by the inhabitants of Ispahan to take upon himself the task of restoring order, and having done so he wrote to invite Sheikh Veis, the son of Ali Murad, to come and to assume command in the place of his father. Ali Murad and Jafer had been half-brothers, and in full confidence in the good faith of the latter, the son of Ali Murad outstripped his soldiers and came on almost alone to Ispahan. But on his alighting at the palace-gate he was seized by order of Jafer and loaded with chains ; and, seeing that his father had put Jafer's father and brothers to death, it seems unaccountable that Sheikh Veis should have so far trusted Jafer. He paid for his temerity by the loss of his liberty and of his eyes.
The pretenders to the vacant Persian throne were now reduced in number to two; namely, Jafer Khan of the Zend tribe, the nephew of Kereem, and the persevering Aga Mahomed, the Kajar chief, who had so far repaired his disasters as to be able to penetrate with a considerable force to Kashan, from whence he threatened Ispahan. Jafer sent against him an army commanded by one of his officers, and which included many of the troops that had abandoned their ranks at Astrabad. These Kurds for the second time played into the hand of Aga Mahomed. They deserted their standards and retired towards their mountains, leaving their comrades unable to make head against the Kajar, who was thus enabled to march on without opposition to Ispahan, from which city Jafer fled to Sheeraz. Aga Mahomed next turned his attention to bringing into subjection
