mentioned by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, appears from the context to be meant of a part of Egypt. Boeckhart thinks it denotes the Higher Egypt; the Septuagint translate it the country of Pathures; in Pliny we have the Nomos Phaturites in the Thebais; in Ptolemy, Pathyrus, probably the metropolis. From the Hebrew appellation Patros comes the gentilious name Pathyrim, (Moses).

PATANS, PATANS, or AFGHANS, a very warlike race of men, who had been subjects of the vast empire of Bokhara. They revolted under their governor Abilagi, in the 10th century, and laid the foundation of the empire of Ghizni or Gazna. In the Dissertation prefixed to vol. iii. of Dow's History, we have this account of the Pattans.

"They are divided into distinct communities, each of which is governed by a prince, who is considered by his subjects as the chief of their blood, as well as their sovereign. They obey him without reluctance, as they derive credit to their family by his greatness. They attend him in his wars with the attachment which children have to a parent; and his government, though severe, partakes more of the rigid discipline of a general than the caprice of a despot. Rude, like the face of their country, and fierce and wild as the storms which cover their mountains, they are addicted to incursions and depredations, and delight in battle and plunder. United firmly to their friends in war, to their enemies faithless and cruel, they place justice in force, and conceal treachery under the name of address."

The empire, which took its rise from the revolt of the Pattans, under a succession of warlike princes rose to a surprising magnitude. In the beginning of the 11th century, it extended from Ispahan to Bengal, and from the mouths of the Indus to the banks of the Jaxerets, which comprehends at least half of the continent of Asia. They had fled to the mountains on the borders of Persia, that they might escape the sword, or avoid submitting to the conquerors of India; and there they formed their state, which the Moguls were never able thoroughly to subdue. Indeed they sometimes exercised depredations on the adjacent countries; nor was it possible for the Moguls either to prevent it or to extirpate them. They were sensible that the climate and foil of the delinquent plains would only serve to rob them of that hardihood they contracted in the hills to which they were confined; they, therefore, for a long time gave no indications of a desire to exchange them for more pleasing abodes, or a more accessible situation. This enabled them to brave the victorious army of Nadir Shah, whose troops they quietly suffered to penetrate into Hindoostan, and waited his return with the spoils of that country.—They then harafted his army in the straits and defiles of the mountains, and proved themselves such absolute masters of the passes, that they forced him to purchase from them his passage into Persia.

In the beginning of the 18th century, they had spread themselves over the adjoining province of Kandahar; and such was the imbecility of the Persian empire at that time, that many other provinces and tributary states were also induced to revolt. When the king or shah of that time, whose name was Hafiz, opposed the growing power of this warlike people, he was totally defeated, and Ispahan was besieged and obliged to surrender, after having suffered dreadful calamities, to an army consisting of only 30,000 men. In consequence of this, they brought about a revolution in Persia, and subjected it to themselves. This sovereignty, however, they only held for seven years and 21 days, having fallen a sacrifice to the enterprising spirit of Kouli Khan, or Nadir Shah. See Persia and Afghans.