In illustration of this remark, the limits of the country will be noticed under three epochs.—viz., previous to the accession of Cyrus, under Darius Hystaspes, and as they now exist. In the first-mentioned period Persia nearly coincided with the modern province of Fars. It was bounded on the W. by the Persian Gulf and Susiana, or by the Gulf, and a line drawn from a little to the northward of the point where the 30th degree of N. Lat. and 50th of E. Long. intersect each other, to the S. borders of Media; on the N. by Media, which came down to the 32d degree of N. Lat.; on the E. by Carmania (Karmān)—that is, by a crescent-shaped line from the 32d parallel and the 55th degree of E. Long., to the coast opposite the isle of Kishm in the 27th parallel; and on the S. by the Persian Gulf. Ancient Persia, then, properly so called, did not exceed 300 miles in length from N. to S., and 230 in breadth from E. to W. In the reign of Darius Hystaspes the empire had been so vastly extended that it contained all the countries between the Indus and Sir rivers, the Aral, Caspian, Black, and Ægean seas, the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf, and in addition, Thrace and Egypt, with part of Libya. It must be noted, however, that the original Persia, with probably somewhat increased dimensions, was still reckoned a distinct province; for it is specially mentioned as exempt from tribute, which the rest of the empire, divided into twenty satrapies or subordinate kingdoms, was compelled to pay to the amount of 14,560 talents, or about three and a half millions of our money. In the inscriptions at Behistun, Persepolis, and Nakshi-i-Rustam, lists of the provinces are given, of which it will be sufficient to mention the Behistun list. It is as follows:—Persia, Susiana, Babylonia, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt, Saparda, Ionia, Media, Armenia, Cappadocia, Parthia, Zarangia, Arias, Chorasmia, Bactria, Sogdiana, Gandaria, Sacia, Satagydia, Arachosia, Media. The Persia of the present day is bounded on the S. by the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf; on the W. by a line drawn from the 30th parallel along the left bank of the Shatul-i-Arab to Muhammarah, and thence along the Kabir Kūh, or "Great Mountain," a part of the Zagros range, which forms the western boundary of Luristan; thence, by a curving line which passes about 15 miles to the N.N.W. of Kizil Robāt; and then, running 20 miles to the W. of Lake Urumiyah, touches Mount Ararat a few miles to the E. of Bayazid. The northern boundary is the River Aras, from Mount Ararat to within 60 miles of the Caspian Sea; thence a waving line which touches the Caspian 5 miles to the N. of Astara, in Lat. 33° 40.; and finally the Caspian Sea and the desert of Khiva from Kasan Kuli to Sharakhs. On the E., Persia is bounded by a line drawn along the 61st degree of E. Long., from Sharakhs to the 33d parallel, when the frontier curves in to the W. to about 100 miles, and returns in an easterly direction along the mountains which form the eastern boundary of Karmān, finally curving back to the W. until it meets the Indian Ocean 10 miles to the E. of Cape Jask, in Long. 58° 5'.

With the exception of the provinces of Mazandarān and Aspekt of Gilan, and other parts of less extent, the general aspect of the country is that of poverty and barrenness. It has been termed a country of mountains; and a large portion of its surface is certainly mountainous, diversified with extensive tracts of desert plains, in which salt is the chief production, and, in small proportion, chiefly along the banks of the rivers, with beautiful valleys and rich pasture-lands. The valleys are not generally broad, but some are of great length, being often more than a hundred miles. The greater part of the country may be described as a table-land, supported on every side by high mountains. This table-land is shut in on the W. by the lofty mountain chain of Zagros; on the N. by that of Ālburj (Čēlburj), or "The Tower," which cuts off from it the provinces of Gilan, Mazandarān and Astarābād; and on the S. by a lower range of hills, which runs parallel to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, at a distance of from 50 to 150 miles all the way from Abūshahr (Būshīr) to Karachi. On the E. alone there is no continuous chain of hills until the Sulaimān and Hāla mountains are reached, in the countries bordering on the Indus; and the line of demarcation in that direction, between Persia, Afghanistan, and Bilāchistān, is not well defined. The average elevation of this plateau is nearly that of Tehran, or 4000 feet, and seldom sinks to 3000 feet, which is the elevation conjecturally assigned to it by Fraser. Two-thirds of this table-land are said to be desert. There are no rivers of any magnitude; and what streams there are, the majority of them at least, lose themselves in the sands. From Kāshīn, in Lat. 34°, E. Long. 51° 20., the Great Salt Desert extends eastward 400 miles to Lake Zarāh in Sīstān, and 250 miles from Karmān northwards to Mazandarān. The sandy desert of Sīgīstān is of about the same extent.

The aspect of the Persian mountains is peculiarly bare and forbidding, rising abruptly from the plain, and presenting nothing to the eye but huge masses of gray rock piled upon each other; and even when they are covered with a little mouldering rock, they are still without either wood or shrubs. If for about two months in spring a scanty verdure clothe their sides, it is scorched by the heat of summer, and the country soon resumes its former barren aspect, and dreary, monotonous, reddish-brown colour. Nor is the appearance of the plains more inviting, consisting for the most part of gravel washed down from the mountains, or of other equally unproductive matter, in deep and extensive beds, or of a hard clay, which, where water is wanting, as in most parts of Persia, is bare and barren. "The livery of the whole land," says Fraser, "is constantly brown or gray, except during the two months of April and May." Amongst other disadvantages, Persia labours under a general scarcity of water. The rivers are few and small, and rivulets by no means common, so that irrigation can only be applied to a small portion of the land. "In the best districts," says the above-mentioned traveller, "the small proportion of cultivated land resembles an oasis in the desert, serving by contrast to make all around it more

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1 Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i., p. 575. 2 Herodotus, book iii., ch. 89-98. 3 Ferriee's Caravan Journeys, p. 54. 4 Chesney's Expedition, vol. i., p. 78. 5 Kinnell's Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, pp. 20 and 22. drearly. Plains and mountains are equally destitute of wood; the only trees to be seen are in the gardens of villages or on the banks of streams, where they are planted for the purpose of affording the little timber that is used in building: they chiefly consist of fruit trees, the noble chinar or oriental plane, the tall poplar, and the cypress; and the effect which a garden of these trees produces, speckled with its dark green the gray and dusky plain, is rather melancholy than cheering.

As already mentioned, the provinces of Mazandarán and Gilán, adjoining the Caspian Sea, with parts of Azarbíján, form exceptions to this general description. These provinces are divided from the high table-land of Persia by the great range of the Alburj Mountains, which are connected with the mountains of Armenia, and with the mighty Caucasus chain, and eastward by a continuous chain, with the great ridge of the Hindú Kóh. They take an easterly course along the shore of the Caspian Sea, and send various ramifications southward; whilst other elevated ridges spring from the Caucasian Mountains, and penetrate the country in a S.E. direction, dividing the provinces of Trák and Khuzístán, and extending along the shores of the Persian Gulf, and with other parallel chains farther in the interior, into the province of Makrán. The Caucasian chain forms the barrier between the empires of Turkey and Persia; it occupies the space between the Black Sea and the Caspian; and it is inhabited by barbarous tribes, who owned at any time but an imperfect allegiance to Persia, and who have been now brought chiefly under the more rigorous sway of Russia. The Alburj Mountains, whose average height is from 6000 to 8000 feet, present their loftiest face to the interior desert; yet they sweep down in a manner so gradual, that the valleys and ravines which they form are found to contain rich and fertile lands, well watered by numerous rivulets, and well cultivated and peopled. The loftiest peak of this range is Mount Demawend, which rises to the height of 15,000 feet, and is covered with perpetual snow; while the rest of the range is covered only from November until Midsummer. Fifty-five miles S. and by E. of the peak of Demawend, according to Ferrier, is that remarkable pass, forming a strong barrier against the progress of an invader, which was denominated by the ancients the Caspian Gates, now called the Pass of Sardári, which for 23 miles was said to be a narrow road between high rocks, through which a single chariot could scarcely pass, and where a handful of men might oppose the advance of an army. The districts at the southern base of the Alburj range are beautifully diversified with wood, water, and mountains, in their most varied forms, and present a luxuriant verdure all the year round. In the slope of the mountains opposite to Tebrán is the delightful tract of Shamínir (or Shamín-i-Trún, "The Light of Persia"), about 20 miles in length, containing nearly forty villages, clustered together amid gardens and groves, with streams of water from the heights above, to which all the inhabitants of Tebrán, who can afford it, resort in summer. On the northern side of these mountains, the provinces of Mazandarán and Gilán, and the district of Astarábád, are equally fruitful and productive. Mazandarán is most celebrated for its culture of rice, which is of very superior quality. In the central provinces of Fárs, Trák, and Khurásán, the valleys are generally level; in Azarbíján, to the W. of the Caspian Sea, they lie between a succession of eminences; and Kurdistán, to the N., is almost one immense cluster of small mountains, intersected occasionally by loftier ranges, on which extend table-lands of great elevation, and subject to extreme cold, as in other parts of Persia. The mountain range which commences near Shíráz, approaches close to the sea in Long. 53°, and at Cape Jásk has an elevation of 5000 feet. It decreases in height as it runs eastwards. The salt deserts which occur in various parts of the country form one of the most striking objects in its scenery, and may be distinguished from the general dreariness of the country by a saline efflorescence, which is seen glistening in the rays of a fierce sun. This appearance, extending over an immense plain, varied by a black rock here and there protruding from its surface, its image contorted into a thousand wild and varying shapes by the effect of the mirage, which produces the most curious optical illusions on those wide extended level tracts, is a sure indication of the total desolation which reigns around. The Great Salt Desert, between Káshán and Tabbas, is the most remarkable of these tracts, and occupies a vast space in the centre of the country. It forms a long inlet between the district of Tebrán on the N., and Kúm on the S., commencing about E. Long. 50°, and on the 33rd parallel, and trenching on the districts of Káshán and Isfahán, expands after the 33rd degree of E. Long. to a vast breadth, as far E. as Tabbas, and on the S. insulating Yezd. On the N.E. it extends as far as Tursízí, but with somewhat more frequent interruptions; and on the E. it is encroached on by projections from the more cultivated districts of Farah, Sabzíwár, and Hirát. The appearance of these deserts is not altogether uniform. In some places the surface is dry, and produces plants which thrive in a salt soil; in others the saline efflorescence is seen on a cracking crust of dry earth; marshes occupy a considerable portion of this country; and there is accumulated in the winter months water, which is evaporated during the heats of summer, leaving a quantity of salt in cakes upon a bed of mud. In some places the soil is a perfectly hard-baked and barren clay; and in others, again, sand abounds, which is formed into hillocks in the shape of waves by the wind, and is so light and impalpable that it is blown aloft in clouds, as in the Arabian deserts, by the violent N.W. winds which prevail in summer, and proves dangerous, and frequently fatal to travellers.

Persia has hardly a single river that can be termed navigable, for the Euphrates and Tigris cannot be considered as running within its territory. The Kárún, which flows into the Euphrates through the province of Khuzístán, and the Aras or Araxes in Azarbíján, which flows into the Black Sea, and the Safíd Réd or White River, which falls into the Caspian, are its two largest rivers. The Kárún is the largest affluent received by the Tigris in Mesopotamia, and is formed of two streams. Of these, the Dízful rises in Lat. 33° 50', and after a course of upwards of 200 miles joins the Kárún in about Lat. 31° 40'. The Kárún rises in the Yellow Mountains, part of the Bakhtiyári range, in Lat. 32°, Long. 51°, near the river of Isfahán; and after emerging from the hills, flows to Shustar, where it is made by a canal to pass E. and W. of the town. From the point where these streams re-unite the Kárún is a noble river, exceeding in size the Tigris or Euphrates, and is navigable for steamers. Its course hence, for upwards of 150 miles, is very tortuous, and it then falls into the Shat-ul-Arab near Muhammarah. Its total course, reckoning from the source of the Dízful branch, is 430 miles; or from the source of the Kárún about 330. The Aras rises in N. Lat. 40° 40', E. Long. 42° 40', and flows almost due S. to Long. 44°, when it turns E., until near Eríván it again

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1 Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, p. 163. 2 Binning's Two Years' Travel in Persia, vol. II., p. 227. 3 Caravans' Journeys, p. 59. 4 Sir J. Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. I., p. 5. 5 Geo. Jour., vol. xvi., p. 50. 6 Ainsworth, Geo. Jour., vol. viii., part i., p. 112. 7 Binning, vol. II., pp. 230, 231; and vol. I., p. 157, note. 8 Fraser's Narratives, &c., chap. xi. 9 Chesney's Euphrates Expedition, vol. I., p. 10. Persia turns S., after receiving the waters of Lake Sivan. In Long. 46°, it again turns E., until in Long. 48°, 40°, it unites with the Kür at Jasat. Its total course is about 750 miles. The Safid Rûd rises in Ardèsin, in N. Lat. 35°, 45°, E. Long. 46°, 45°, and flows in a N.E. direction, but with a great sweep to N.W., between Long. 48° and 49°, into the Caspian. Its total course is 490 miles. The Helmand cannot with any propriety be termed a Persian river, as it flows eastward of Persia, through the independent territory of Afghanistan.

The principal Persian lake is Lake Urumiyah. This lake is 80 miles in length from N. to S., and 20 miles in breadth. Its chief feeders are the rivers Aji Su, or River of Tabriz, and the Jagetu and Tatanu. The Aji Su rises in N. Lat. 38°, 10°, E. Long. 47°, 45°, and after leaving the city of Talviz, 5 miles off its left bank, enters the Urumiyah Lake in Lat. 37°, 48°, Long. 45°, 40°. Its total course is about 180 miles. The Jagetu has a total course of 140 miles. It rises in Lat. 35°, 40°, Long. 46°, 30°, and enters the lake in Lat. 37°, 13°, Long. 45°, 52°. The course of the Tatanu is about 90 miles. The greatest depth of the Urumiyah Lake is 24 feet, but the average is not more than 12. It stretches from N. Lat. 37°, 5° to 38°, 15°, and lies 4300 feet above the sea-level. Ten miles to the W. of it is a town of the same name, the birth-place of Zartasht or Zoroaster. It contains 25,000 inhabitants, of whom 22,000 are Muhammadans, and the rest Jews and Nestorians. Several mounds of nearly 100 feet high, composed of ashes, show where the great altars were situated. The lake is now fast drying up, and around it for several miles are tracts of sparkling salt. The waters of the lake are intensely salt, and so heavy that the strongest wind has little effect upon them. If stirred by a tempest, they subside almost immediately when a lull takes place. The whole of Kurdistan is supplied with salt from this lake.

The nature of the soil in Persia may be inferred from the description given by travellers of the aspect of the country. Yet it is extraordinary how vegetation thrives in the country, even with the rudest cultivation, whenever there is the smallest supply of moisture. Morier mentions that in the plain of Abúshahr (Buddhre), which stretches into the interior from the Persian Gulf, which all travellers agree in calling a barren land, and which has no other moisture than the dews, and occasionally winter showers, the seed produces one hundred to seven; and that a sprinkling of seed, with the most superficial furrows, returns everywhere in this district abundant produce. The same traveller observed, in his journey from Tebriz to Tabriz, several spots where, by the aid of water, the country was one carpet of verdure. Water in Persia is so essential to vegetation, that almost the only species of improvement which is carried on is the construction of subterranean canals, for the purpose of conveying water to lands which are destitute of any natural supply. These canals, when they are finished, are often let at high rents. Fraser mentions one small stream which brought an annual rent of 4000 rupees, equal (the Persian rupee being valued at Is. 4½d.) to L.375; and another canal, opened by the governor of Kázirán, and employed in irrigating a fruit-garden, was rented at five or six times that sum. The products of Persia are—wheat of the finest quality, barley, and other grains. Rice might easily be produced in the southern provinces, were it not for the deficiency of water, of which this grain requires so large a supply. The vine flourishes in several provinces; and the wine of Shiráz has often been highly celebrated, as well as the wines produced from grapes raised upon the side of the Caucasian Mountains. The vines of Shiráz are trained as standard bushes, without any support, and are set, with some attention to regularity, from eight to ten feet asunder. The mulberry is produced in great abundance in the northern provinces of Mazandarán and Gilán, of which silk is one of the great staples, and also in other parts; and the rich and well-watered plains of Gilán and Mazandarán yield in abundance the sugar-cane, though the art of refining is not understood in this rude and semi-barbarous country. Amongst the other products of Persia which, being useful are articles of trade, are—gum tragacanth; assafetida, the plant of which grows in abundance on the plains and hills near Turshiz and all round the city of Hirát; yellow berries; saffron; henna, but not so fine as that of Egypt; madder roots, which grow wild upon the mountains, and are brought down for sale by the Iláts and other wandering tribes. Gazanjubín ("manna") abounds in the province of Karmansháh. It is a deposit by a green fly on the back of the leaf of the dwarf oak. The Persians mix it with flour and sugar, and make it into cakes, which are exported to all parts of Asia. In the district of Turbat Ishák Khán, S.W. of Mahmúdsábád in Khurásán, opium and tobacco are produced. Indigo is cultivated in Láristán, but is not so fine as the indigo of India, which is largely imported into Persia. The leaf is used for dyeing the beard, a curious fashion in Persia, as in other parts of the East. Cotton is produced to supply the internal consumption; also hemp and hops. Fruits are produced in the garden-grounds in great abundance and perfection. The date is one of the most important products, being used here, where the climate is extremely hot, as an article of food, in the same manner as in other parts of the East. Those produced at Dáláki, four stages N.E. of Abúshahr, in the province of Fárs, are celebrated over the country for richness and flavour. The other fruits are—pomegranates, a luscious fruit here, and much superior to those which are produced in Turkey, some that Morier saw being twelve inches in circumference; sweet and water melons; the shaddock; limes; oranges, for which the climate of the high table-lands is too cold, although they grow to perfection on the plains and on the banks of the Caspian Sea; apples; pears; apricots; pistachio-nuts; walnuts; and some others. The melons of Ishákán are the finest in the world. The species called Gurgáb is so large that two melons are a load for a donkey. The quinces also are very fine. Timber is scarce on the arid plains, but in more favourable situations the soil seems well adapted for the growth of wood, and indeed of trees of every description. The mountains of Gilán, Mazan-darán, and Azarbiján are clothed with the finest woods, amongst which are the oak, the beech, the elm, the alder, boxwood, with thickets of wild cherry and thorns, and luxuriant vines climbing up the trunks of the trees, and hanging in wild festoons from the one to the other. These form a striking contrast to the long ranges of naked and barren mountains in the central and southern provinces. In several provinces grows the poppy, from which is made opium of a very fine quality. The liquorice-plant covers the plains of Merdasht, and the neighbourhood of Shiráz. The tamarind, which flourished near the water-courses, and several of the thorny plants that sprinkled the same districts, had been superseded, when Fraser visited these parts, by various aromatic herbs, amongst which a species of fragrant rice was abundant. The most interesting of all the plants is that which yields the gum-ammoniac. It resembles hemlock, and rises to the height of from 3 to 6 feet. It is remarkable in its season for its rich dark-green verdure; and it is then so full of juice, that on the least scratch it flows in streams to the ground, and congeals on the stalk. It is thus gathered for sale. Such vegetables as carrots, turnips, cabbages, spinach, beet-root, and the like, are common. In the more fertile parts of Persia flowers grow

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1 Fraser, Appendix B, p. 25. 2 Ferrier, p. 26. 3 Ferrier, p. 137. 4 Blumeng, vol. ii., p. 332. to great perfection and luxuriance; the rose, and every variety of the crocus species, primroses, violets, lilies, hyacinths, and others no less lovely than unknown. Aromatic and thorny plants, and beautiful mountain shrubs, also abound, and clothe the ground in all the rich attire of luxuriant vegetation.

Notwithstanding the numerous ranges of mountains which intersect the country of Persia, its mineral resources are scantily developed, partly from ignorance of the art of mining, and partly from the general indolence of the inhabitants, owing to the discouragement of tyrannical and rapacious rulers. There are several mines in the vicinity of Yezd. One of lead at Baft, on the road to Kermán, is remarkably rich, and supplies the greater part of Persia with that metal. There are also some mines of fine rock-salt, and one of green marble. According to Mr Binning, "excellent coal is found in the Alburj Mountains, and is commonly used in preference to charcoal by the blacksmiths in Tehran and in the arsenal." There are also copper, lead, and iron mines in the mountains; and copper is extracted in such quantities as to render it an article of exportation. There is little doubt that gold and silver would be obtained if proper means were applied. In fact, M. Ferrier (p. 117) expressly says that it is owing to the want of science, and of fuel and water-power, that the gold and silver mines at Davind, close to Mashhad ("Sepulchre of the Gházís"), are not worked to advantage. About twenty years ago a party of Scotch miners brought by Sir A. Bethune Lindsay, were employed by the Persian government in working mines in the Káradagh Mountains, which contain most extensive veins, but the short-sighted authorities put a stop to their operations when most promising. The mineral production most common in Persia is salt, which, as has been already mentioned, covers vast tracts, and occurs everywhere in great abundance. All the lakes are salt, and every considerable collection of water is impregnated with this mineral. Salt mines are also found in different parts. At Naishápúr, in the north, there is a salt mine consisting of three excavations, in each of which a vein of salt is found from 6 to 18 inches in thickness. The salt is beautifully white, and the crystals so clear that Mr Fraser could see distinctly through a mass 2 inches in thickness, as through a pane of glass. This mine pays a small rent; and the salt is highly esteemed throughout the country. One of the most remarkable productions of Persia is naphtha or bitumen, which is burned by the natives in lamps instead of oil, and also answers all the purposes of pitch, being used in covering the bottoms of the vessels which navigate the Euphrates. It is found in pits 3 feet in diameter, and from 10 to 12 feet in depth, which are gradually filled from springs. There is also another species of white naphtha, different from the other, which is found floating like a crust on the surface of the water, and affords a more agreeable light than the black naphtha. A black and liquid petroleum of an agreeable odour flows in small quantity from a mountain in Kermán; it is reserved for the use of the king, and is given away in presents. The mines are carefully sealed and guarded. The northern mountains of Persia contain considerable varieties of valuable marble; and the turquoise stone, which is peculiar to the country, is found in the rocks near the village of Mádan, 32 miles W. of Naishápúr in Khurásán. The mines which produce this stone were visited by Fraser in January 1822, who (pp. 409-420) gives a detailed account of their produce, as well as of the very rude manner in which they are worked. The hills in which these stones are found consist of a very red and brown rock. The whole range is deeply tinged with iron. The substances of which the rock is composed are a dead gray earth, heavy, hard, brown rock, soft yellow stone, and a rock which is pervaded with specular iron-ore. There are five principal mines or pits from which the gem is taken. The mode of management in these mines, which from time immemorial have furnished these highly-valued gems, is the most wretched that can be conceived.

The climate of Persia, in which, according to its latitude, heat should predominate, is considerably modified by the height of the ground; so that, according to Kinneir, the traveller may pass in a few hours from the air of Montpelier to the cold of Siberia. It is intensely cold during the winter; indeed, the highest ranges of mountains are covered with snow during a part of the year, and some of the highest peaks throughout the whole year. Demawend, in the Alburj Mountains, was seen by Morier buried in deep snow in May; and in 1810, Kinneir mentions that the mountains were covered with snow in July. Severe storms also prevail. To the N. of Shiráz, especially, cold predominates, insomuch that in the vicinity of Tehran and Tabriz all communication is frequently cut off for several weeks between these cities and the adjoining villages. The cold commences in October, and the winter is ushered in with severe storms of snow. Fraser, after leaving Shiráz, suffered severely from cold in this month. The thermometer fell to 25°, and on the next morning, the 27th of October, to 20°; and in the following month he arrived at Tehran, after encountering so severe a storm of snow that a traveller was carried to a caravanserai frozen to death on his horse. In January, when Fraser was at Naishápúr, which is in the N. of Persia, in about Lat. 36° 25', the thermometer fell during the night to 16°, 19°, and 20°, and rose during the day to 40° in the shade; and in many parts the temperature varies between the night and the day from 64° to 25° and 26°. The cold, especially to the N. of Shiráz, continues, with short intervals of warmer weather, till March or April. At Tehran, which is in the N. of Persia, near the Alburj Mountains, Morier describes the progress of the seasons and the vicissitudes of the temperature. On the 10th of March there was a fall of snow, followed by an intense frost. On the 23rd, the mildness of spring was experienced. On the 19th of April the thermometer rose to 82° in the shade. At Shiráz, Morier mentions that after the middle of June the thermometer was scarcely ever under 100°. It then rose to 105°, 108°, and 110°. "When spring commences," says Sir J. Malcolm, "there is perhaps no spot in the world where nature assumes a more lovely garb than at Isfahán; the clearness of its streams, the shade of its lofty avenues, the fragrant luxuriance of gardens, and the verdant beauty of wide-spreading fields, combine with the finest climate to render it delightful." The regularity of the seasons in this part of Persia is extraordinary, and affords a remarkable contrast to the sudden changes which take place in the northern provinces. In Abúshahr, to the S. of Shiráz, Fraser states the range of the thermometer in July to be from 103° to 109°; but during the night it remained at 90°. About the end of August the weather became cooler, and the thermometer fell to 86° and 87°, and gradually during the day to 75° and 70°. In these southern regions, which include the provinces of Kermán, Láristán, Fárs, and Khuzístán, situated between the mountains and the shores of the Persian Gulf, the heat is increased by the barren and sandy plains with which this tract abounds. The hot winds known under the name of the simoom or sirocco prevail occasionally, but are not attended with danger, owing to the narrowness of the space between the sea and the mountains. In winter and spring the climate is delightful. It is never very cold; and snow seldom falls on the southern face of

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1. Fraser, chap. xxiii. 2. Fraser, Appendix B, p. 24. 3. Two Years' Travel in Persia, vol. ii., p. 227. 4. Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, p. 21. 5. History of Persia, vol. ii., chap. xxiv. the mountains by which these provinces are divided from the N. of Persia. Upon the whole, however, the climate of this country, notwithstanding the sudden transitions from heat to cold in some of the provinces, is very healthy; the air is dry, and the atmosphere always clear, so that the brightest polished metal may be exposed to it without being rusted. Nor are the dews insalubrious; whilst at night the planets shine with a lustre unknown in the cloudy skies of the N. It seldom rains, and there are consequently none of those damp and pestiferous exhalations so common in the woody parts of Hindustan. The fertile provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran, and the district of Astarabad, which are subjected to the periodical visitation of disease, form the only exceptions to this general character. The heavy rains which fall in these mountainous regions, stagnating in the deep forests, turn them into impassable marshes, which, becoming patrid from the quantity of vegetable matter that they receive, exhale during the heats of summer and autumn a most pestilential vapour; so that the wandering tribes of these countries fly from its influence, and prefer living on the verge of the burning sand, and carrying their water from the distant river, to the least exposure to these noxious effluvia. Those who are forced to remain suffer severely from fevers, putrid as well as intermittent, from dropsy arising from cold, rheumatic affections, palsies, and other maladies. The appearance of the people, however, Fraser remarked, did not indicate either weakness or disease, for they were remarkably stout and athletic.

The domestic animals of Persia are the camel, the horse, the mule, the ass, the goat, sheep, cow, &c. The Persians are expert and fearless horsemen; and they have different breeds of horses peculiar to the country. The native horse of Persia has been improved, both in strength and bottom, by an admixture of Arabian blood. But the original breed, which is now restored, is a tall, lank, ill-formed, and generally vicious animal, which often vents its rage upon its neighbours or its riders by kicking or biting them. It is useful, indeed, for hard work; but is not to be compared, for the purposes of riding, with the action and docility of the Arab. There is another race of horses, reared by the Turkaman hordes, not so much distinguished by grace or beauty as by its hardness and patience of fatigue, for which it is celebrated all over Asia. It is said to have been crossed with an Arabian breed imported by Nadir Shah. The native horses are noted for size and bone, which appear to be indigenous; but figure and blood they owe to their Arab progenitors. "They have," says Fraser, "large and powerful quarters, resembling those of the English horse; the shoulders are often fine; their legs clean and strong; though generally spare of flesh, what they have is firm and good;" and not being burdened with a load of fat, they support the weight of the rider for an astonishing length of time. Their powers of endurance are almost incredible. They will carry their riders for seven or eight days together at the rate of 80 or a 100 miles a day. There is also a breed of ponies, fully as remarkable, if not superior to the large horses in their powers of enduring fatigue. Such horses cost a sum of money equal in value to from £150 to £200 sterling, and those of the best quality from £350 to £400. These horses are used in plundering expeditions; and they are chiefly prized on this account for their hardy qualities. In the parched and sandy tracts of Persia exposed to great heats, camels are preferred, for carrying burdens, to other animals, and they constitute the chief wealth of the inhabitants; but in almost all the other parts of the kingdom mules are more generally used for transport, on account of their extraordinary strength and activity, and their power of enduring fatigue. Sheep are very abundant in Persia, and constitute the wealth of the wandering tribes; but the latter pay no attention to improve the breed. The dog, though esteemed an unclean animal by the Muhammadans, is yet found so useful that every prejudice has given way; and a very fierce breed is maintained by the wandering tribes, for guarding their flocks and tents, and aiding in their field sports. The desolate parts of Persia abound in wild animals, amongst which may be numbered the lion (which is seen along the woody banks of the rivers), the tiger, the wolf, the jackal, the hyaena, the fox (found in great numbers, of a white colour), the porcupine, the wild sheep, the mountain goat, the wild ass, the wild boar, the antelope, and deer in great variety. Tigers are seldom seen, but it is certain that they are to be found, as it is mentioned that the skin of a royal tiger, which was killed in the neighbourhood of Tabriz, was exhibited, and was in possession of Mr Campbell. A tiger was also seen by the shepherds at the time that he was at Tabriz; and one of the Persian princes had gone out to hunt, with a large retinue, in the hope of meeting it. The wild ass is common in Persia, but is extremely shy, and not easily caught. Morier mentions that one morning, in the desert, they gave chase to two wild asses; but these distanced the horses at such a rate that they stood still and looked behind at them, "snorting with their noses in the air, as if in contempt of our endeavours to catch them." The hunters sometimes succeed in killing them, but it requires great dexterity and knowledge of their haunts; and then it is only by relays of horses and dogs upon the track which they are known to pursue. The same traveller also observed large herds of antelopes, to which he gave chase, but could never come up except with one big with young; so great is the speed of this beautiful animal. The wild hog abounds in Persia, and is exceedingly fierce. Fraser, along with a party of well-mounted Turkamans, joined in chasing a herd of them; and one being singled out, was assailed with swords and spears, which made no impression on his tough hide; and though wounded by a pistol-shot, he continued his flight until an old man, mounted on a powerful Turkaman horse, rode up, and wheeled rapidly round, when the steed, trained to the work, struck the hog on the head with its heels, and tumbled it over dead on the spot. The wild sheep is a very fine animal, bold, portly, and very strong; thick like a lion about the neck and shoulders, and small in the loins; covered with short reddish hair curled loosely about the neck and fore quarters, and bearing an immense pair of crooked and twisted horns.

The northern division of Persia, or the ancient Hyrcania, comprehends three provinces—Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astarabad, which are here named as situated from W. to E. On the W. are four provinces, which, naming them from N. to S., are—Azarbijan (the ancient Atropatene), Ardalan or Kurdistan, Luristan, and Khuzistan. Of these, Luristan is divided into the Greater and Less. On the N., are Fars, Luristan, and Karmán (the ancient Carmania); on the E., Khurasán, corresponding to the ancient Aria and Bactria, and including the provinces of Yezd, Tabbas, Kāen and Birjūn, Tushbīz, Mashhad, Damghan, and Semnán, and the Great Salt Desert. Central Persia is named Trāk-i-'Ajam, and comprises on the N., Khamshah, Kasvin, and Tehran; and S. of these, Hamadan, Kūm, and Isfahan.

If the face of the country in Persia disappoint the European traveller, his expectations will be still less gratified by the aspect of the towns, which present to him one mass of misery, filth, and ruins; for which, forming his ideas of the eastern towns from what he has read of Istahian, Baghdad, Shiraz, Basra, and other famous cities, he can scarcely be prepared. He looks in vain for the hum of a crowded population and the bustle of business which ani-

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1 History of Persia, vol. ii., chap. xxiv. mate the cities of Europe. Instead of the road crowded with passengers, vehicles, and an active traffic, bordered with hedge-rows and green inclosures, and with gay habitations, he has to thread his way through narrow and dirty lanes, amidst ruins of mud walls and old buildings, amongst heights and hollows, and clay-pits that produce bricks, and high inclosures that conceal the only verdure the place can boast; till at last he reaches the dilapidated walls of the city, and, entering the gateway, watched by a few squallid guards, he finds himself in a mean bazaar, or more probably in a confusion of mere rubbish. There are no streets, and scarcely a house; for it is only the dwellings of the poor which are seen, the houses of the rich being carefully shrouded from the view by high walls of mud or of raw bricks; and outside of these are clustered, with the utmost contempt of order, the houses of the poor. There is scarcely room for a loaded ass to pass between the narrow passages that give access to these dwellings; and as no attempt is made to level the paths, the passenger has to make his way over all impediments, diving into hollows, scrambling amongst ruins, stumbling over grave-stones, or falling into holes, especially at night, as the only street-lighted in Persia is that which leads past the prime minister's house to the palace at Tehran. The bazars are the only thoroughfares which deserve the name of streets; and these have received merited praise from many travellers,—namely, those of Shiraz; the continuous bazars of Isfahan, which extend for miles; some of those at Tehran, Tabriz, &c., all of which are comparatively spacious, lofty, and built of materials more or less solid; though the majority of Persian bazars are as wretched as the towns. These bazars are generally arched over with well-constructed brick-work or clay, or, as in the inferior constructions, with branches of trees. Here, as in India, are collected all the different trades, the smiths, the braziers, the shoemakers, the saddlers, the cloth and chintz sellers, in their own quarter; but confectioners', cooks', apothecaries', bakers', and fruiterers' shops are dispersed in various quarters. Few houses in a Persian town exceed one storey; and the general coup d'œil presents a succession of flat roofs and long walls of mud, diversified, however, by gardens, with which the towns and villages are often surrounded and intermingled, and in which are seen the poplar, the cypress, and the oriental plane. Almost all the towns of Persia have some defence, consisting generally of a high mud wall, which is flanked by turrets, and sometimes protected by a deep dry ditch or a rude glacis. Caravanserais are built in every town for the accommodation of travellers, and are also found at every stage on the principal roads of the kingdom. These edifices are generally constructed of stone or brick, of a square form, and divided in the interior into separate apartments. They are surrounded with high walls and towers, as a defence against the attacks of robbers. The houses are generally built of mud, with terraced roofs; and their inner apartments are usually better than might be expected from their outward appearance. The villages are in general very rudely constructed. The common huts have often, instead of a terrace, a dome roof, in order to avoid the necessity of using wood, which is a very scarce article all over Persia, there being few trees on the arid plains.

Persia, though it has made no great or general progress in the mechanical arts, has nevertheless been distinguished for those finer manufactures which minister to the luxury of an eastern court. Raw silk is one of the most important staples of Persia, and it is produced more or less all over the country, but chiefly in the provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran. In the former alone the annual produce amounts to about 900,000 lb. Silk goods of a very fine quality are manufactured at Yezd; and those of Isfahan, Kashan, and Tabriz are held in great estimation, as are the velvets of these places and of Mashhad. Silk stuffs are also manufactured in Resht, Lahajjan, and other cities of Gilan, but, according to Sheil (p. 376), of inferior quality. Satins also are manufactured, but, as Fraser thinks, of an inferior quality; and those which are imported from China are preferred. The city of Shiraz is celebrated for its gold embroideries, though these are now surpassed in other places. Its damasked steel knives and daggers are still esteemed; and it manufactures a good deal of coarse glass-ware. The chintzes and prints which are manufactured in many places are coarse both in texture and pattern, and are only used for inferior purposes. They are nearly superseded by the printed cottons of India and Europe, particularly the latter. Calamkairs are distinguished by a pattern of wreathed flowers in gay colours, sparsely strewn upon a white, blue, red, or fawn-colour ground; they are used for inner waistcoats, linings of robes, &c., and are often of very high price. Wool is produced in great abundance all over Persia and the neighbouring countries in which pastoral habits prevail. The best wool is that of the province of Karman, the mountains of which, hot and arid in summer, and intensely cold in winter, sustain large flocks of sheep and goats, which yield the finest wool. The wool of the sheep is of an excellent quality; and the goats produce a down which grows in winter at the roots of the hair, in the same manner as that of the Thibet or shawl goats, and nearly of as good a quality. This is spun into various fabrics, which almost vie with the celebrated shawls of Kashmir in warmth and softness, as well as in fineness and beauty of manufacture. This fine wool is found not only in Karman, but more or less over all Khurasan and the countries to the eastward, the mountains of which are favourable to the animals which produce it. The other woollen goods of Persia consist chiefly of carpets, namads, felted goods, and a variety of fabrics of smaller importance used by the inhabitants as clothing.

Persia carries on a trade with Turkey, Baghdad, Arabia, Trade, and the countries situated on the Persian Gulf. Of the raw silk of Gilan, amounting, as already stated, to 900,000 lb., about one-fifth part is exported to Constantinople, Aleppo, and the other cities of Asia Minor; about one-fifth is manufactured in the cities of Isfahan, Yezd, Kashan, and other towns of Persia celebrated for their silk manufactures; and the remainder is partly purchased by the Russians, and partly sent to Baghdad. Persia exports to India specie, dried fruits, dates, tobacco, wine, drugs, asafoetida, sulphur, raw silk, carpets, Karman shawls, swords, combs, copper, saffron, &c. Horses form a considerable article of export to India. They are sent by sea from Abushahr, where they are collected from the breeding districts in the southern provinces of Persia, and from Khorasan and the north-eastern districts by land through Afghanistan and the Panjab; and they serve for mounting the Indian cavalry, and supplying the great private demand for riding horses by the British in India. The imports from India are cotton goods, chintzes, and muslins; though these have now been in a great measure superseded by the English, French, and German stuffs, introduced from the ports of the Levant, from India, and by way of Russia. Persia receives from India indigo, which comes chiefly by sea, by the way of Abushahr (Bushire), on the Persian Gulf, or by land through the country of Afghanistan, or Balkh, to Bukharia, and thence by Hirat to Persia. Spices are also amongst the Indian imports, as well as sugar and sugar-candy, the import of which forms one of the most valuable branches of trade between the two countries. The province of Mazandaran yields a coarse sugar; and there are many parts of Persia fitted for the growth of this article; yet the country depends chiefly on India for its supply. Gold and silver stuffs from Banaras, precious stones, Kashmir shawls, iron, lead, and copper, make up the remaining list of imports. Persia exports to Turkey grain, raw silk, tobacco, paper, cotton, lamb and fox skins, carpets, silk and cotton manufactures, Kerman shawls, and salt; and receives in return specie and European manufactures, brought from the ports on the Levant. From Europe, woollen, cotton, and silk goods are imported; also imitation shawls, gold lace, metal buttons, cutlery, watches, spectacles, spy-glasses, leather, earthenware, iron, copper, tin, quicksilver, and other articles. Iron is made in several parts of Persia; but the foreign iron is preferred, and it is imported from Russia, though it is but little used in these countries. Copper in sheets is much used, and is partly imported from Europe through Russia, and partly from India. There is a considerable demand for European silk goods, which are chiefly supplied by the French. Brocades and embroidery are also supplied from France; and Fraser mentions that of these he saw some magnificent samples at Teflis. In chintzes and printed cottons the French and German manufacturers have been more successful than the English in suiting the Persian taste. The European trade with Persia, as it is conducted at present, lies under the great disadvantage of an expensive land carriage. There are various channels through which goods may reach the Persian market. First, they may be sent through Russia, and thence be transported down the river Volga to Astrakan, and across the Caspian to the Persian towns of Resht or Astarabad. Accordingly, the countries around Astrakan are supplied with the produce and manufactures of Europe by means of this great stream; and the manufactures of Russia itself have greatly superseded ours.1 The Russian trade across the Caspian Sea is carried on by a number of small vessels, which bring to Astrakan the sturgeon cured on the coasts of Gilan and Mazandaran, besides returns of other Persian produce; and convey Russian or European goods to Resht, Lahajan, and Astarabad. Secondly, goods may be sent by the Mediterranean to the ports of Trebizond and Redoubt Kaleh, situated at the western extremity of the Black Sea, or to Constantinople; and a considerable quantity of European goods reach Persia by this channel; but in the course of a long route of 1200 miles to Erivan, 200 more to Tabriz, and other 360 to Tebriz,—in all 1760 miles,—they are subjected to an expensive land carriage, to arbitrary imposts in their transit through the territories of rapacious chiefs, and to occasional attacks from banditti, and are consequently brought to Tehran at an expense of sixty-five per cent. The distance from Trebizond to Erivan is only about 140 miles, the road lying across very rugged mountains, though not worse than the roads over which much of the Persian traffic is carried on. The route from Redoubt Kaleh to Teflis, the capital of Georgia, is but 280 miles, and is through a safe country, free from imposts. Teflis, under the government of Russia, has already, like Odessa, risen to be a great mart of trade; and caravans regularly travel to Tabriz in eighteen or twenty days. European goods are now sent to this place in considerable quantities,—namely, woollen cloths, cotton, printed and plain goods, some hardware articles, some refined sugar from Great Britain, silk and cotton manufactures from Lyons, and embroideries, cloths, &c., from other parts of France. There is another more direct channel through which a supply of European goods may be sent into Persia, namely, by way of Abushahr; and, in point of fact, British manufactures to a considerable amount, especially cottons, are imported into this place, and thence conveyed to all the southern cities of Persia.

The government of Persia is a pure despotism, which is subject to no control from the influence of laws or manners, and under which every man's life and liberty are at the mercy of the sovereign. He may exalt the lowest subject to the highest rank; or he may degrade, fine, imprison, maim, or put him to death, according to his will or caprice. He is taught from his infancy to consider his subjects as created for his pleasure; he is initiated in the grossest sensuality; and, as if to train him to habits of cruelty, his preceptors are in the practice of taking him to witness executions, which in Persia are conducted with extreme cruelty, as if to steel his mind against humane feelings, and to habituate him to scenes at which other men would shudder. In general, the kings of Persia profit by these early lessons; few of them are considerate or merciful; whilst with many, according to Sir J. Malcolm, "the habit of shedding blood becomes a passion, by a brutal indulgence in which human beings appear to lose that rank and character which belong to their species."2 Throughout the different provinces of the Persian empire chiefs and governors are everywhere seen improving upon the example of the sovereign,—beating, maiming, and rending their property from the unfortunate cultivators who are placed at their mercy. There is no such thing as any protection for life and property in any part of this country; and the officers of government everywhere rob the people, and further insult and maltreat them if they dare to complain. A monarch of Persia acknowledges no obligations but the ritual observances of his religion; and a blind superstition is thus substituted for the moral qualities of mercy, generosity, and justice. Every look being watched by parasites and flatterers, he becomes as impatient of the least opposition as he is insensible to the most devoted service. Distrust and terror reign amongst his courtiers, amongst whom falsehood, dissimulation, and specious show supply the place of truth and loyalty. They have no means of preserving the royal favour but by flattery and fawning; and hence their whole object is to deceive and pillage, and, if they can with safety and advantage to themselves, to betray their tyrant. The effects of this system may be traced through all ranks about the court, even to the lowest menial. Such is the character given of those who are attached to the various courts, and live in service with great men, including the military and other functionaries. The other classes into which the population of Persia is divided are,—those who live in towns, namely, merchants, shopkeepers, mechanics, and others; those who are engaged in agriculture; and, lastly, the clans or tils. The inhabitants of towns are less exposed than others to the tyranny of their superiors, and they are more industrious; and, though far from strict in their morals, they are not so actively vicious. They are, however, cunning, deceitful, false, eager after gain, and cautious and penurious. The clans are Titas or Tahktah Kopas, "dwellers in houses;"—i.e., stationary; or dwellers in tents. According to race, they are divided into Arab, Turk, Lek, and Kurd. An enumeration of these will be found in Shiel's Persia, p. 393. They are supposed to form half the population of the whole kingdom.

There is no class in Persia subjected to such tyranny and oppression as the farmers and cultivators of the soil. They are exposed to almost continual extortion and injustice; there is no definite limit to the amount of the demands made upon them. When the king demands money from his ministers, they have recourse to the heads of districts, who in their turn apply to the heads of villages, and these last wring it from the cultivators and farmers. Every

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1 Binning, vol. ii., p. 208. 2 History of Persia, vol. ii., chap. xxvi. tax, present, fine, or bribe, from whomsoever demanded in the first instance, ultimately falls upon them; so that the only measure of these demands is the ability to pay on the one hand, and the power to extort on the other. Yet there are exceptions to this uniform system of oppression; and when travellers have been admitted to view the Persian farmers in their houses and with their families, a degree of comfort and comparative plenty have been discovered, not quite compatible with the general tale of misery that was told. Land belonging to the cultivator pays nominally one-fifth, but really one-third of the value of its produce. The crown lands are rented at one-half their produce. Landed property is hereditary; but the tax must be paid whether cultivation is carried on or not; and, in case of non-payment, the land is liable to seizure and transference to other parties. The tax is paid partly in cash and partly in kind. Though the Persian peasantry are poor, their general condition would contrast favourably with that of many of the same class in Europe. Famine is unknown; and in so thinly peopled a country the small supply of food required for the wants of the inhabitants is easily raised. The Persian peasants are civil, obliging, and intelligent. The politeness of the Persians, for which they have been so much famed, seems to consist more in the observance of a troublesome routine of ceremonies, and the use of complimentary language in all the forms of eastern hyperbole, than in any real courtesy. A Persian will say to a stranger that he is his slave; that his house and all that it contains,—his horses, equipage, &c.,—are all at his service; but no one understands this in any other sense than an unmeaning form, which encumbers the intercourse of society without refining it. In their persons the Persians are handsome, active, and robust; lively in their imaginations, and of quick apprehension; but without any moral quality to attract esteem.

The effects of the cruel despotism under which Persia groans, in thus degrading the character of the people, and also in checking the progress of science and of every useful art, are truly melancholy. The insecurity of life and property is the dead-weight which oppresses the country. It represses the efforts of industry; it paralyses the powers of invention, and every ingenious improvement; for no man will sow where he is not sure of reaping, or will task his ingenuity to produce what he may be deprived of the next hour. It is a common practice to kidnap the best workmen in all trades for the use of the court and great men of the provinces, who never pay the workmen they employ. Hence every one avoids the reputation of excellence, except in the commonest trades; and thus, under the benumbing influence of this frugal despotism, improvement is nipt in the bud, and every useful invention is discouraged. There is no outlay of labour or of capital in expectation of any profitable return. No speculation is hazarded which promises any future advantage. Before closing this sketch of Persian character, one marked feature must be especially noticed. The Persians are the only Asiatics who are real sportsmen. They love the chase for itself; and will ride as hard, and with as much enjoyment, as an English fox-hunter.

The king of Persia has a great variety of personal duties to perform. He gives audience at an early hour of the morning to his principal ministers and secretaries, who make reports of all state transactions, and receive his commands. He holds a public levee, which is attended by the princes, ministers, and officers of his court, at which rewards are distributed and punishments awarded. He then gives one or two hours to his personal favourites, or to his ministers. After the morning is past, he retires to his inner apartments, where he is shrouded from observation. In the evening he holds a levee, and transacts business with his ministers and principal officers of state. This, however, is rather a sketch of what his employments ought to be, than of what they are. The prime minister, exclusive of emoluments, which treble the income, receives 42,000 tumans, or £21,000 a year; and when the Shah is a weak and indolent prince, has paramount influence, and transacts the affairs of state as he pleases. But he is ever exposed, like the meanest subject, to degrading punishments and a cruel death. Thus Fath Ali Shah strangled his faithful minister Háji Ibrahim; and Muhammad Shah, the late king, destroyed Mirza Taki, his brother-in-law, as well as minister, causing his veins to be opened, and leaving him to perish by loss of blood. Besides the chief ministers, the secretaries of state preside over the different offices or chambers of accounts; and regular accounts are kept of the receipts and disbursements of the whole kingdom.

The law of Persia, as in all other Muhammedan countries, is founded upon religion as contained in the Korán, and also upon tradition. Its rules are accordingly extremely vague and imperfect, and are administered by the priesthood, who often pronounce the most corrupt decisions. Many cases are also decided by the law of custom or tradition, which, having reference to local as well as to common usages, varies in different parts of the empire, and is, if possible, still more vague and imperfect code than the written law of the Korán. The ecclesiastical order in Persia, as in all other countries, eagerly grasping after power, insist that the law which they administer, being divine, should take cognisance of all cases. But the ordinary courts of common law, supported by the state, have succeeded in limiting their jurisdiction to cases of religious ceremonies, cases of inheritance, marriage, divorce, contracts, sales, and all civil matters; reserving to the ordinary courts the decision of criminal cases, such as murder, theft, fraud, breaches of the peace, and other offences. The order of priests have great influence in Persia. Before the reign of Nádir Shah, the whole power centred in the chief pontiff, who was deemed the vicar of the Imám, and engrossed vast wealth and influence. At the death of this high priest no successor was appointed by Nádir Shah, who besides seized the treasures of the priesthood in order to pay his troops. His grandson and successor appointed two persons to this high dignity, with a view of diminishing by dividing their power and influence. These priests are called Musháhid; and there are now usually three or four of this high dignity in Persia. They fill no office, receive no appointment, and have no specific duties, but are called by the voice of the public, from their superior learning, piety, and virtue, to be their guides in religion, and their protectors against oppression; and Sir John Malcolm observes, that they receive from the people a degree of respect and reverence to which the proudest kings would in vain lay claim. Their conduct generally agrees with the sacred character to which they owe all their importance, as they know that in deviating from the strictest purity they would lose all their influence. This order of priests exercise an important influence on the administration of the written law. Cases are constantly submitted to their superior knowledge; and there is no appeal from their sentence except to a priest acknowledged to be superior in sanctity and in learning. The sacred character of these priests gives an authority to the decrees of the tribunals over which they preside which the monarch is forced to respect. They are often effectual intercessors for mercy to the guilty; their habitations are considered as the sanctuaries of the oppressed; and "the hand of despotic power," says Sir John Malcolm, "is sometimes taken off a city because the monarch will not offend a musháhid, who has chosen it for his residence, but who refuses to dwell amidst violence and..." injustice." Next in rank to these high priests there is the Shaikhul-Islam, literally the "elder or chief of the faith," who acts as a supreme judge in the court of written law. One of this class resides in all the principal cities; and under him is the kázi, who has a council of mullás or learned men as his assessors. In the lesser towns there is only a kázi, from whom there lies an appeal, in cases of intricacy, to the kázi of the larger towns, and finally to the supreme judge of the provincial capital. But, as in all countries such as Persia, where there is no enlightened morality, and no control of public opinion, justice is venal and corrupt; the administration of the written law by the priests is extremely imperfect and inadequate to its ends, insomuch that the suitor is deprived of every hope of justice; and it is only the administration of the customary law that offers any security, however imperfect, for justice between man and man. Even here, however, the administration of justice varies with the character of the reigning despot; and the judges, in all their various gradations, are active and just, or corrupt and cruel, as the monarch happens to be vigilant or virtuous, avaricious or tyrannical. The European ideas of honour are scarcely known amongst any class. They are all venal and corrupt; and the iniquities which they themselves practise they but feebly condemn in others. Justice is often interrupted by the clashing authorities of the different courts,—an evil which neither the sovereign nor his ministers are anxious to remedy, seeing that it adds both to their power and profit. A suit is very soon brought to a termination, and not at great cost; but considerable sums are often paid for a favourable decision. The most barbarous rules are still followed in the administration of the criminal law. In cases of murder the heir-at-law demands vengeance for blood; and when the guilt of the criminal is established, he is delivered into the hands of the injured person or his relations, to deal with him as they think fit. The punishment of crimes in Persia is fixed by the written law, or when the king interferes by his arbitrary will. Fines, flogging, and the bastinado are the common punishments of lesser offences. The disclosure of hidden treasures is enforced by tortures; and the inhuman punishment of putting out the eyes has long been practised in Persia, as in other countries of the East, on the relations of the reigning family who may aspire to the throne, or on the chiefs of tribes whom it is desirable to deprive of power, though not of life, and sometimes on the male inhabitants of a rebellious town. Criminals are put to death by strangling, decapitation, or stabbing; but in aggravated cases the most inventive cruelty is practised in devising modes of torture. In Persia, women are seldom publicly executed, but they suffer dreadful violence in the recesses of domestic tyranny. When they are of high rank, the comprehensive injustice of the East often includes them in the punishment of their husbands or fathers; and they are given away as slaves to the lowest and most infamous classes of the community, such as mule-drivers. They are also sometimes tortured, in order to force from them a disclosure of wealth which they know to be concealed.

The collection of the revenue is intimately connected with the administration of justice, the same officer presiding over both; and this union is unfavourable to the inhabitants, as it enables the collector to prostitute the judicial power for the gratification of his avarice. Sir John Malcolm estimates, though not on any sure data, the revenue of Persia at three millions. According to Fraser, the amount varies with each successive sovereign; but Sheil, who had the best opportunities of learning the truth, states it at 3,177,000 tumans, or L1,747,350. The public income of Persia arises chiefly from the produce of crown lands, and from a tax on land. Landed property in Persia may be comprised under the following heads:—1st, Crown lands; 2nd, Those of individuals; 3rd, Those belonging to charitable or religious foundations; 4th, Those granted by the king for military service. The uncultivated tracts, which form so large a portion of Persia, are not claimed as property; but every individual who constructs one of the subterraneous canals called karadé, or who contrives to bring water to the surface, obtains a title to the land which he cultivates. The other titles are, inheritance, purchase, or a gift from the crown; and these rights are held sacred under all circumstances. There is, however, this peculiarity in the state of landed property in Persia, as in other eastern countries, that the cultivator shares with the proprietor in a common right to a certain portion of the soil, of which he cannot be deprived as long as he pays the customary rent. The proprietor has a title to one-tenth of the produce, ascertained by measurement, either of the surface before sowing, or of the standing crop. When the proprietor obtains an artificial supply of water, he has, besides, a right to all that he can procure by its sale. In cases where the proprietor furnishes seed, labour, or cattle to the cultivator, he receives, in addition to his tenth share, a portion of the farmer's profits. The government tax amounted at one time to one-tenth of the produce, but with the increasing expenses of the state other irregular taxes were imposed, till they were at last converted into an additional tenth; the less fertile lands being, however, subjected to a smaller impost. But other irregular and arbitrary imposts continued to be heaped upon the additional tenth by the bad faith of the government, and now form one of the cultivator's heaviest grievances. The other taxes are those on cattle, capitation taxes, transit and town duties, and various irregular impositions. Lands held in fief, or in lieu of military or other service, pay no tax to government; the assignee being entitled to two-tenths, which includes both the proprietor's rights and the government dues. When the assignment is given on the estate of another, the government dues alone are granted. Gardens near villages pay one-fifth of their produce in kind, whilst melon-grounds, tobacco, cotton, and such like fields, pay in money according to a valuation of their produce. Horses, asses, cows, sheep, and goats, are all taxed, at the rate of one real, or 1s. 4d. for each horse, four-fifths for asses and cows, one-third for sheep and goats, and one-sixth on the hive of bees. There is a capitation tax, which sometimes presses heavily upon Armenians, Jews, and Gabars, the ancient fire-worshippers. The rate was in some cases four reals, or 5s. 4d. for a family, and sometimes eight reals. Shops and bázara pay a duty of from two to twenty reals a year; and the tenant also pays in the proportion of from ten to fifty tumans a year, the value of the tumán being 11s. All merchandise is subject to a duty of 5 per cent. on entering the first Persian town, whether by land or sea, and to a variety of inland duties, which are levied at the different custom-houses, without any system, every governor endeavouring to extort all he can. Smuggling is very common. No estimate can be formed of the snadrát, or the irregular duties, which include every extraordinary expense of government, the expenses of all travellers and strangers, of members of the royal family, or government messengers, of transporting baggage, royal equipage, or presents, of repairing roads and bridges, of furnishing troops, and the like; for all which it is understood, though the practice is often different, that the village or province shall obtain credit on the annual settlement of their accounts; so that these heavy exactions, resembling those of the king's purveyors in ancient Europe for the maintenance of his court and retinue when they were travelling, fall without redress on the poor ryots. The Persian king's order

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1 *Narratives of a Journey into Khorasan*, chap. x. 2 Ibid., p. 74, note. is, in like manner, grievously abused to the oppression and vexation of his subjects. Presents, fines, and confiscations, form a considerable item of Persian revenue. At stated times, such as the new year, the courtiers are expected to accompany their respects to the king with a large present of money, which amounts in some cases to L30,000, L40,000, and even L55,000. Every one in any degree dependent upon the court endeavours to make up a purse on this occasion; and in lieu of money, goods, such as shawls, horses, jewels, and merchandise, are brought. The produce of this new year impost is estimated at L690,000. But there are various other lesser occasions for making presents, no suitor being expected to approach the throne empty-handed; so that about L275,000 may be received in addition to the presents of the new year. The produce of the crown lands Fraser estimates, though, he admits, on uncertain data, at L493,950.

According to Shell (p. 388), the total expenditure from the revenue is as follows:

| General expenditure, including presents, building, post-office, &c. | L184,536 | |-------------------------|-----------| | Amalajdar, or salaries at the capital | 443,992 | | Total military expenses | 672,520 | | Provincial expenses | 100,782 |

L1,461,130

The Persian army at present comprises 6000 artillery, about one-half of whom are natives of Azarbijan. The men are active, efficient soldiers, and carry their guns over any ground. There is one marked peculiarity in this arm of the service. The artillerymen are all mounted, and there are more than thirty with each gun; the guns in Persia being to defend the infantry, rather than, as with us, the infantry to defend the guns. For the foundation of an ordnance department on a modern footing, Persia is indebted to England. A foundry under Englishmen was first established at Tabriz, as well as a powder manufactory outside the town. These have since been transferred to Tehran. The regular infantry is rated at 100,000 men, but does not actually exceed 70,000. Of these, more than a third come from Azarbijan. Internal discipline is said by Shell to have no existence, and knowledge of evolution to be limited to movement from column into line, and vice versa, and to the clumsy formation of squares.

In the recent engagements, however, with the British forces, the Persian infantry did not appear to be so deficient in these points. The arms of the infantry are flint muskets, and bayonets, many of them out of order. The men wear blue linen jackets, with white cotton trousers and leather buskins; and in cold weather they often put on their own clothes under the jackets and trousers which are supplied by the state. Turks wear the lambskin cap, and Leks felt caps. Instead of knapsacks, thirty asses are allowed to each company for the carriage of the men's kit.

The infantry is divided into regiments, each of which, called a fanj, consists of 1000 men, of whom 800 are sarbóz or privates, 41 bandsmen, and 159 officers. The fanj, again, is divided into 10 dastah or companies, and in each there are 1 sultán, or captain; 2 naib, or lieutenants; 2 begzédáh, who ride in the rear; 4 rakíds, or sergeants; and 4 sarjándás, or corporals. The regiment is commanded by a sarhang, or lieutenant-colonel, who gets 500 tumáns (L275) a year; and 2 pérzás, or majors; and over two regiments is a sartip, or colonel, with 1000 tumáns a year. The yécar receives from 150 to 250 tumáns a year; sultán, 60 tumáns; the naib, from 30 to 40; the begzédáh, 20; the rakíd, from 10 to 12; and the sarjándás, 8 tumáns annually. The private receives 7 tumáns a year, and has, besides, a jirah, or ration of 3 lb. of bread daily. Each regiment has, besides, a mushríf, or head accountant, who gets 50 tumáns (L27,10s.); and four clerks, whose pay is from 30 to 40 tumáns each. Each member of the band gets from 8 to 15 tumáns. The regular cavalry is limited to 500 men; according to Shell, "an absurd, useless body." The Shah's bodyguard consists of 2500 irregular cavalry, well mounted and armed, and excellent horsemen. Their pay is 60 tumáns each yearly, with 14 manús of bread, 4½ lb. of barley, and 9 of straw for the horses, per diem. Over every 10 men is a delbeshi, or decurion; and over 100, a yuzbehsh, or centurion, who gets 500 tumáns annually. Besides these, there are from 30,000 to 50,000 irregular horse, called ghulám-i-sunúr, to distinguish them from ghulám-i-rikhái, the bodyguard. Shell considers them fully equal to the Cossacks. Six thousand of them come from Azarbijan. The pay of a private is from 10 to 15 tumáns, with half a manú of bread, 1½ lb. of barley, and 3 of straw, daily. A sultán, or captain of 50, gets 50 tumáns; a naib, or lieutenant, 50; rakíds and sarjándás, 15 tumáns; and a sarkardáh, or colonel of horse, 1000 tumáns per annum.

The regular Persian army owes its origin to the French, and dates from the mission of General Gardanne in 1808. The first levies were raised in Karmánsháh and Azarbijan. Shortly afterwards, Major Christie and Lieutenant Lindsay, of the Company's army, who accompanied Sir J. Malcolm's mission in 1808, undertook the charge of the new levies. Major Christie was killed in 1812, in the battle of Aslan-duz against the Russians, in which he distinguished himself so much that the victors raised a monument to his memory. He was succeeded by Major Hart of the royal army, who, under Abbás Mirzá, brought the infantry of Azarbijan to great efficiency. Lieutenant Lindsay, afterwards Sir H. Lindsay Bethune, did even more for the artillery; and the remains of the vigour he infused may still be traced. After the last war between Russia and Persia, several officers and sergeants of the Indian army were sent to carry on the work. Among the most distinguished was Sir H. Rawlinson. They aided in placing Muhammad Sháh on the throne; but that prince became jealous of them; and finally, on his marching against Híráh, they were recalled. After them came some French officers, who entirely failed; and they in turn were succeeded by a party of Italian, Hungarian, and German refugees.

The ancient religion of Persia was the worship of Hor-mazd, the Good Principle, or God. Fire, and especially the sun, being considered the fittest emblem of the deity, was the visible medium selected to receive adoration, but that this emblem was itself worshipped, is a vulgar error. This religion was subverted by the Arabs in A.D. 651, when that of Muhammad was propagated in Persia by the victorious Muslims. But the Persians are of the Shi'ah sect, who consider 'Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of Muhammad, as his lawful successor in the khilafat, to which he was appointed by the Prophet; and Abúbakr, 'Umr, and 'Uthmán, his actual successors, and reverenced as the khilafis by the Sunnis as nothing better than usurpers. It was this disputed succession which gave rise to these two hostile sects of Muhammadans. The doctrines of the former,—namely, the Shi'ahs,—have been for more than three centuries warmly espoused by the Persians, who vowed eternal hatred and war against all who profess the Sunni creed. The religion of Muhammad, amongst its other evils, is hostile to all improvement. It enjoins the destruction of infidels as an act of piety; and hence the blind zeal and persecuting spirit which prevails in all Muhammedan states, and which breaks out into reproach, outrage, and often into extreme violence, against their Christian visitors. All knowledge is, according to this system, rejected, beyond what is found in the Kurán; and the debasing influence of polygamy on the morals and manners of both sexes is calculated completely to poison all the remaining sources of social happiness. The baneful consequences of this false system have been as deeply felt in Persia as in any of the surrounding states. The fanatical influence of the Muhammadan religion has of late years, however, been modified in Persia by the progress of a free-thinking and irreligious spirit, chiefly amongst the nobility, the merchants, and those who have resided much in foreign countries, and even amongst the priesthood, who frequently and openly, before their particular friends, deride the superstitious observances of the Muhammadan creed. The zeal of the early Muhammedans has also been cooled by many causes. The work of conquest, and the extinction or conversion of infidel nations by the sword, is at an end. The enthusiasm of the modern followers of the Prophet is no longer influenced by the practice of persecution; and the whole system has declined into a set of useless forms and ceremonies, which, mingling with all the common affairs of life, have degenerated into a customary routine, without any appearance of reverence, and being in reality a mere mockery of religion.

In a state of society such as that which prevails in Persia we can scarcely look for any great progress in literature, science, or the arts. With the Muhammadan religion was introduced all the Arabian learning of the seventh century. But the Persians have not improved this original stock; on the contrary, it has gone to waste in their hands; the light of science is nearly extinct, and their literature consists chiefly in poetry and tales. They delight in tales, fables, and apophthegms, which Sir John Malcolm considers as the consequence of their despotic government, where knowledge must be veiled in order to be useful, as the direct truth would wound a despot's ear. The merits of Persian poetry have been very differently estimated. Sir John Malcolm, admitting its extravagance and hyperbole, still praises its tenderness and beauty; and many passages breathe all the sweetness of pastoral poetry. Firdausi is their greatest epic poet, whose poem (the Shah-nama) is a history of the ancient Persian kings. In it, according to Sir John Malcolm, "the most fastidious reader will meet with numerous passages of exquisite beauty. The narrative," he adds, "of this great work is generally very perspicuous; and some of the finest scenes in it are described with simplicity and elegance of diction." In the opinion of Persians, this poet excels in descriptions of the combats of heroes; but to those whose taste is offended with hyperbole, the tender parts of his work will have most beauty, as they are freest from this characteristic defect of eastern writers. Nizami, who celebrates the exploits of Alexander the Great, is considered as ranking next to Firdausi; and the subject affords ample scope to his genius and powerful imagination. Amongst the didactic poets, Sir John Malcolm assigns the next rank to Sadi, who is a moralist as well as poet, his works abounding in lessons of prudence and morality, and exhibiting a rare union of fancy, learning, urbanity, and virtue. The Masnavi of Jalalu'd-Din, the poems of Jami, and the odes of Hafiz, are amongst the most popular effusions of the Persian muse; but the names of Rudaki and others are nearly of equal rank; and some modern writers also have attained to great eminence. "Many of these poems," says Sir John Malcolm, in his excellent History of Persia, "are remarkable for harmony of numbers and luxuriance of imagination, but they all abound with the most extravagant and hyperbolical passages; and the enraptured dreams of their visionary authors can only be esteemed beauties by men whose imaginations keep pace with that of the poet, whom they deem inspired, and whose most obscene lay is often considered by their enthusiastic admirers as the gleaming of a sublime knowledge, which is far beyond the comprehension of the profane and unenlightened. Many discussions have arisen regarding the real and mystical meaning of the writers of this class, and particularly of Hafiz, whose odes are chanted as songs, to excite the young and dissipated to pleasure, and recited as hymns, to remind the old and devout of the rapture of divine love." The Persian poets excel in songs and odes, which are tender and passionate. Satirical effusions are not so common; though the verses of Firdausi on Maimud of Ghazni are remarkably bitter. There is a satirical poem, by an unknown author, on the passion of avarice, which is extremely humorous. The Persians are enthusiastic in their taste for poetry; and the meanest artisans can read or repeat the finest passages of their most admired writers. Sir John Malcolm mentions that his servants were familiar with Persian poetry; and when at Isfahan, he was surprised to hear a common tailor, who was repairing one of his tents, entertaining his companions with some of the finest mystical odes of Hafiz. Even the rude soldier will leave his tent to listen to songs of love or to a tale of war. The art of printing is unknown in Persia; and beautiful writing, which is carefully taught in the schools, is considered a high accomplishment, those who excel in it ranking with the literary class. They are employed in copying the works of authors; and a few lines written by a celebrated penman are often sold for a considerable sum. Almost all the tradesmen, and many of the mechanics in Persia, have received some education. Schools are established in every town and city, at which the poorest children are instructed, at fees sufficiently reasonable, in the rudiments of the Persian and Arabic languages. The pupil after he has learned the alphabet, reads, as a religious duty, the Kurán in Arabic; next some fables in Persian; and, lastly, is taught to write a legible hand, which completes his education. Unless amongst those who follow a studious life, and thus put in practice what they have learned, these lessons are in many cases forgotten. Yet this course of study, superficial as it appears, improves the habits, and introduces a refinement of manners amongst the scholars, which is unknown to their ruder countrymen. No proper encouragement, however, is given to schools; nor can it be expected that a grasping, despotic, and rapacious government, like that of Persia, should be any way anxious for the education of its subjects. The literary men are numerous. They pursue their studies till they are entitled to the name of Mulls, and to all the honours of a Persian college, though they are not classed with the priesthood. They follow various occupations. To the studious and literary classes a very high rank is assigned. An eminent historian, astronomer, or poet is highly honoured, and has a place of distinction assigned him in every company which he honours with his presence; and this as much for his social qualities as for his supposed talents as an author. The conversation of these persons, replete with anecdotes and information, amuses and instructs; and even the pretenders of this class, who are numerous, possess agreeable manners and a ready wit. A swarm of students is thus produced, who pass their useless lives in indolence and poverty. Isfahan in particular abounds with these literary mendicants; and from its colleges, and those of Shiraz, issue a crowd of vagrant poets, who lie in wait for men of rank and wealth, or for any stranger from whom they expect a reward.

In music and painting the Persians have made little progress. They have a gamut and notes, and a melody that is adapted to various strains; and they sing to the accompaniment of warlike instruments, of which they have a number. Their strains are often pleasing, but they are always monotonous. They are equally backward in the art of painting, in which they have advanced but little within the last three centuries. They use the most bril-

Persia. liant colours; and in portrait-painting they usually succeed in taking likenesses; and in some of their lesser drawings, which are highly glazed, and painted on wood, they also display industry and taste. But they are entirely unacquainted with the rules of perspective or of just proportions. The despotic and unsettled government arrests all improvement; and in the fine arts the existing race have not advanced one step beyond their forefathers, as appears from the figures in the palaces at Isfahan, executed in the reign of Shah Abbâs, and equal to any of their modern productions.

In science the Persians have advanced no farther than in the arts. Their knowledge of mathematics or astronomy is very limited; and the latter science is chiefly studied for the sake of judicial astrology, in which the whole nation, from the king to the peasant, evince the greatest faith. Their notions of the forms and motions of the heavenly bodies, and the shape and surface of the earth, are borrowed from Ptolemy; and though some efforts have been made to instruct them in the Copernican system and Newton's demonstrations, prejudices are too firmly rooted to be dispelled, except by time. Of geography they do not understand the first principles; for, independently of their error regarding the figure of the earth, they know little of its surface, even of that which lies within their view; nor could their knowledge of surveying enable them to lay down any portion of it with exactness. There cannot be a stronger proof of the ignorance which prevails than the eagerness with which all classes seek the aid of astrology. Any one who can take an altitude with an astrolabe, or knows the names of the planets, with a few technical phrases, and understands the astrological almanacs, considers himself as quite adequate to offer his services to all who consult him; and nothing of consequence is transacted, especially by the great, without consulting stars. A new dress must be put on, or a journey must be commenced, at the lucky or unlucky moment.

As the science of astronomy is thus rendered subservient to astrology, so chemistry is followed for the sake of alchemy, a favourite pursuit of the learned, whose avarice is stimulated by the hope of discovering the philosopher's stone. The alchemists make their experiments in the profoundest secrecy, that they may themselves engross the whole benefits of the wonderful discovery which they expect to make; and whether they may be themselves deceived, certain it is they deceive others, and practise the most serious frauds on the credulous and the wealthy. Of medicine and surgery the Persians are thoroughly ignorant, and, when they are ill, become the prey of quacks, who rob them of their money, and often of their health. They are entirely ignorant of anatomy and the circulation of the blood. They have an arbitrary theory, by which they classify all diseases under four heads—viz., hot, cold, moist, or dry; and the great principle on which they proceed is, that the remedy must be of an opposite quality to the disease; dry remedies being applied to an illness occasioned by moisture, and cooling medicines to hot diseases. To this practice they are so bigoted, that, with all their respect for European physicians, they dislike any prescriptions that contradict this paradox. Inoculation for the small-pox, though it is known, is seldom practised, though whole towns are often threatened with depopulation by the ravages of that dreadful disease. Mr Jukes, who accompanied Mr Fraser into Persia, was remarkably anxious to introduce the practice of vaccination; for several years his efforts were unremitting; but they were defeated, fully as much from the cruel indifference of the government to the good of their subjects, as from their prejudices. The practice of physic in Persia is mere quackery, for which all the knowledge necessary is that of the qualities and effects of a few simples; and hence a grave air, and a few lucky cures, often brought about by the temperate habits of the patient, complete the fame of a physician. The gains of the physician are, however, trifling. The priests and astrologers succeed better; their art is more suited to the taste of the inhabitants; and it is only in cities and towns that there are regular physicians. Those who dwell in tents are generally attended by an old man or woman, who rely more on superstitious charms than on medical remedies. One of these charms consists in laying a few pieces of bread covered with oil upon a rock, as an offering to a saint.

The Persians are remarkably ceremonious in their intercourse. They receive the visit of a superior by rising hastily and meeting him at the door of the apartment; of an equal, by rising and standing erect; of an inferior, by only making the motion of rising. The apartments are not so luxuriously furnished as in Turkey. The sofas and easy pillows of the latter country are not known in Persia, where the seat is on a carpet or mat, without any soft support on either side, or anything except the hands, or the accidental support of a wall, to relieve the galling posture of the legs. The fashion in presence of a superior is to sit upon your heels, as they are tucked up under your hams, after the manner of a camel. The length of time during which a Persian sits untired upon his heels is to an Englishman quite extraordinary. He will remain half a day, and sometimes he will even sleep, in this posture. They never think of changing their positions; and are as much surprised by the locomotive dispositions of the Europeans as we are by their habits of rest.

It is a singular trait of Asiatic manners that so great a proportion of the people still retain the vagrant habits of the pastoral life. For this purpose the wide wastes of Khurasan, varied with spots of fertility, are well adapted; and the pastoral tribes are accordingly found chiefly to border on this district, which has long been the debatable ground between several great monarchies, where their rival chiefs contended for victory in fierce and bloody wars; and on these occasions the wandering tribes are enlisted on one side or the other. Thus they are inured to blood and to pillage, and contract habits which have been strengthened by time, and have at last become interwoven with their whole pursuits and character. They often attack surrounding states, carry off the people, and sell them for slaves; and most of the wandering tribes of Turkmans being Sunnis, who have sworn eternal hatred to the Persians, who are Shâhs, thus add religious hatred to all their other incentives to murder and pillage; so that their character is described as ferocious and blood-thirsty in the extreme. To the north of Khurasan there are various tribes of Turkmans, who, occupying the country behind the Alburj and the steppe of Khârazm, pour from their deserts upon the surrounding and cultivated districts, plundering villages and caravans, with every circumstance of atrocious outrage. The old, the feeble, and the helpless are murdered on the spot; those who are fit for labour are carried into slavery; and whole districts of country are left desolate. From the east other tribes equally barbarous make inroads into Persia, and carry away their captives to the slave-markets of Khiva and Bukhâra; and on the south and east are found the wild Bilchis, who formerly murdered and plundered, but now, preferring their avarice to their cruelty, carry their prisoners to the slave merchants who frequent the great northern markets. The Afghân, also, though not naturally cruel, "assumes," says Fraser, "in this ominous neighbourhood a fierce character, and adds to robbery and plunder the crime of murder." By these dreadful inroads a considerable portion of the country to the north and east is laid waste; the terror of these tribes is spread far and wide; and their depredations have become more formidable in proportion to the corruption and increasing weakness of the Persian monarchy. These tribes vary considerably in their physiognomy. The Goklán, Yámút, and Takeh Turkmáns, who occupy the country behind the Alburj Mountains, bordering on the Caspian Sea, are tall, stout, and well made, and have all the Tátár features,—namely, the scanty beard, the small eye drawn up at the corners, the high cheek-bones, and the small flat nose. Some, on the other hand, have handsome features, rather resembling those of the Asiatics than of the Europeans. The arms used by these tribes are chiefly the sword and the spear. They are dexterous in the use of the sword, which is curved in the Persian fashion, and very sharp. Several of the tribes use bows and arrows. They have very few fire-arms; only such as they have taken from travellers whom they have plundered.

seat of learning, of wealth, and of improvement, whilst the greater part of the world had scarcely emerged from barbarism, might naturally be expected to abound in the precious relics of ancient art; and although many such memorials have perished amidst the ruthless devastations of war to which this and other Asiatic countries have been exposed, yet numerous monuments of taste still remain. Of these, the ruins of Persepolis belong to the earliest era of Persian history. It was in this city, which they took a delight in improving and embellishing, as the great metropolis of the East, that Cyrus and his immediate successors resided. It has for centuries presented only a scene of decay and ruin. The most remarkable remains in Persepolis, or, as it is called by the natives, Istakhor, Takht-i-Jamshid ("The Throne of Jamshid"), are the Chihil-minar, or forty "minarets or pillars," which are situated about 35 miles N.E. of Shiráz. Sir R. K. Porter recognised in these ruins, en masse as well as in detail, a strong resemblance to the architectural taste of Egypt; and he conjectures that some of the architectural ornaments may have been partly brought from that country by the Persian monarchs, as trophies of their victories. These magnificent remains appear to be part of the great castellated palace of Darius, which was set on fire by Alexander whilst he was under the influence of intemperance. They are placed as if in an amphitheatre, on a fine plain, inclosed by semicircular mountains. The terrace on which the ruins of this immense royal citadel or palace are at the foot of a steep rock called the Kakh-i-Rahmat, or "Hill of Mercy," and overlooks the wide plain of Mervdasht. It is nearly 500 yards in length (according to Binning, vol. ii., p. 4), 312 in breadth, and from 10 to 20 high. Its form is irregular, and it faces to the west. "The strength and beauty of its construction," says Sir R. K. Porter, "cannot be exceeded. The steep faces of the rocky terrace are formed of dark-gray marble, cut into gigantic square blocks exquisitely polished, and, without the aid of mortar, fitted to each other with such closeness and precision, that when first completed, the perfected platform must have appeared as part of the solid mountain itself." The exterior wall is built of black stones, much harder than marble, finely polished, and of such a prodigious size, that it is difficult to conceive how the workmen, without the aid of machinery, were able to move them. The only access to the summit of the platform is by a double flight of stairs of a very gentle ascent, on its western side. There are fifty-five steps, each step being 3½ inches in height, formed of blocks of marble so large that each of them is cut into ten or fourteen steps. The first flight of steps leads to an irregular landing-place of 37 feet by 44, from which springs a second double flight of forty-eight steps, which terminate on the ground level of the platform in a second landing-place, occupying 64 feet. On reaching the platform, the first objects that arrest the attention of the traveller are the lofty walls of an enormous portal, the interior faces of which are sculptured into the colossal forms of two immense quadrupeds, resembling bulls, which are elevated on a pedestal 5 feet in height. The heads of the animals are entirely mutilated, so that Fraser says it is impossible to determine what species they were intended to represent. Round their necks collars of roses are executed with critical nicety; and over the chest back, and ribs, short curling hair, cut with that peculiar correctness and delicacy of chiselling which Sir R. K. Porter states to be a distinguishing characteristic of the ancient Persian sculpture. The wall that forms one side of this magnificent portal is 5 feet in breadth, 21 feet in length, and 30 feet in height. The one wall is distant from the other about 12 feet, and the space between is flagged with beautifully-polished slabs from the neighbouring rock.

Eastward, at the distance of 24 feet in a direct line from the portal, once stood four magnificent columns, of which only two now remain. Their capitals are singularly beautiful. At the distance of 24 feet is a second portal, exactly resembling the former, only that it is 18 feet instead of 21 in length. Its inner sides are adorned with similar sculptures. But the animals here represented are of a gigantic size, and of a monstrous formation; the body and legs of a bull, with similar trappings to those already described, and enormous wings, the feathers of which are exquisitely cut. The heads of the animals, though greatly defaced, show the faces of men; the countenance has a cast of deep gravity, and a long and carefully-curled beard adds to the general majesty. The head is adorned with a diadem, on both sides of which horns are represented winding from the brow upwards towards the front of the crown; the whole being surmounted by a sort of coronet, formed of a range of leaves like the lotus, and bound with a fillet beautifully carved in roses.

Between the right of this portal and the magnificent terrace that supports the range of columns from which it takes its name, there is an area of 162 feet, in which is a cistern hewn out of the solid rock, in dimensions 18 feet by 16. The approach to the terrace is superb, consisting of a double staircase covered with the most beautiful decorations, and projecting considerably before the northern face of the terrace, which is 212 feet in length. At each extremity E. and W. rises another range of steps; and about the middle, projecting from it 18 feet, appear two smaller flights, rising from the same points. The extent of the whole range, including a landing-place of 20 feet, amounts to 86 feet. The ascent is extremely gradual, each flight consisting of some 30 low steps, 4 inches in height, 14 feet in breadth, and 16 in length. The whole front is covered with sculptures so thickly that the eye is bewildered amid the various groups. They consist chiefly of figures and emblematical devices. These sculptures are executed with a nicety of detail which gives them historical interest, as they mark with accuracy the costume of the time and the people, and the form and variety of the armour used at different periods.

But the most splendid division of the ruins is the magnificent colonnade, which occupies the terrace, and which, having survived the devastations of war and the wreck of empires, remains on the desolate plain a most impressive image of departed grandeur. The terrace upon which these pillars stand stretches N. and S. 350 feet, and from E. to W. 380 feet; the greater part of the intervening space being covered with broken capitals, shafts of pillars, and numerous fragments exquisitely sculptured. There were formerly four divisions of columns, namely, a central group of thirty-six pillars, with two rows of six each on

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1 Fraser's Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan, pp. 256, 257. 2 Gallistán of S'adí, ch. lv., story 12. The word in its first sense means "pool," but it is now obsolete (Binning, vol. ii., p. ii., note). 3 Travels in Persia, Georgia, &c., vol. i., p. 583. either side, as well as in front; in all seventy-two columns.

Of the division in advance only one was standing in 1818 when Sir R. Porter visited the spot. About 38 feet from the western edge of the terrace appears the second double range of columns, of which only five remained in 1818. The distance is 268 feet to the corresponding eastern rows, of which only four columns remained in the above year. At a distance of 60 feet from the eastern and western colonnades stood the central range of columns, to the number of thirty-six; but of these no more than five remained at the said period entire. The three exterior double rows of columns are of uniform architecture, and described by Sir R. K. Porter as being perfectly beautiful.

The total height of each column is 60 feet, the circumference of the shaft 16 feet, and its length from the capital to the top 44 feet. The shaft is finely fluted in fifty-two divisions; at its lower extremity begins a cincture and a torus; the former 2 inches, the latter 1 foot in depth. From thence devolves a pedestal, in form of the cup and leaves of a pendant lotus. It rests upon a plinth of 8 inches, and measures in circumference 24 feet 6 inches; the whole, from the cincture to the plinth, comprising a height of 5 feet 10 inches. The capitals which remain, though much injured, suffice to show that they were also surmounted with a double demi-bull. The heads of the bull forming the capitals take the directions of the faces of the respective fronts of the terrace; and I think there can be no doubt that the wide hollow between the necks received a beam, meant to support and connect an entablature, over which has been placed the roof. The dimensions of the central pillars are the same as those of the others, only that they are 55 feet in height, whilst the others are 60 feet. The capitals, however, which surmount them are of quite a different character, being of the same description with that in the great portal where the crowned and winged bull is so conspicuous an object. The two lower divisions of the capital (it being of a triad form) are evidently constructed of the hollowed lotus. The upper compartment has only two volutes. The middle compartment which is one division of lotus, appears to have had some extraneous body introduced into the opening between it and the lower compartment of the flower; and the angular and unfinished state of that side of the capital seems to testify the same. "Here then," says Sir R. K. Porter, "the connecting-line must have been whence the roof could spring."

The nearest building to the palace of the forty pillars occupies a space of 170 feet by 95, and it is approached by a double flight of stairs, which are almost in complete ruin; but from the fragments it appears to have been adorned with sculptures resembling the royal guards and other figures. The side to the E. is so choked up with ruins that no corresponding trace of stairs can be found. To the S. the whole face of the terrace which supports this building is occupied with another superb flight of steps, which terminates in a landing-place 48 feet by 10. Its front is divided by a tablet bearing an arrow-headed inscription, on each side of which are seen spearmen of a gigantic stature. There appear to have been also other apartments with lofty entrances, composed of four solid upright blocks of marble of a colour nearly black, within the portals of which are bas-relief figures of two guards sculptured on the sides of the walls, besides various other figures, one of a monarch clad in royal robes; whilst in other parts there are representations of single combats between a man and a lion, a griffin, or some other imaginary creature. In another division of the same building may be seen a variety of inscriptions, cuneiform, Kufic, Arabic, and Persian. Still farther to the southward appear other elevations or terraces covered with vast masses of ruin, under which scarcely any traces of the original structure can be discovered; but here may be seen the remains of colonnades of elaborate sculpture. From the extremity of the eastern colonnade on the terrace of Chihil Minar is an expanse of 315 feet, the plain of which is interrupted by an immense pile of ruins, which has the appearance of having been heaped up for centuries, and which Sir R. K. Porter conjectures to cover a division of the palace answerable to that immediately to the S., and containing, as he supposes, the banqueting-chambers and other apartments; and this conjecture he supports by many special reasons and learned authorities. South of this is another terrace, on which he supposes that there stood those portions of the palace in which the monarch resided. Here are the bases and plinths of pillars, and fragments of beautiful sculpture, scattered about. The ponderous doorways and huge marble frames are yet in their places; they are of the finest workmanship, and are adorned with sculptures and figures such as those which have been already noticed, and of which our limits do not admit of a more detailed description. A considerable way N. from the columns stands a structure which is next in extent to the Chihil Minar, or the "Palace of the Forty Pillars." It is a perfect square of 210 feet on each side, and is entered by two doorways on each side, and by a grand porch 13 feet in width, whilst the others are only 7. These are all richly adorned with sculptures, representing scenes of state or of royal parade, or emblematical figures of lions and imaginary animals.

Among other remarkable antiquities of Persia, the tombs, supposed to be those of her ancient kings,—namely, Cyrus and his posterity,—have attracted the particular attention of travellers. These excavations or tombs are generally cut out of the solid rock. About 500 yards eastward from the Hall of Columns, in the face of the mountain, is found a niche 72 feet in breadth by 130 feet in height, divided into two compartments, and covered, as usual, with sculptures of nondescript animals, royal personages, and symbolical figures. Three quarters of a mile southward from Takht-i-Jamshid, a tomb was discovered by Niehehr, and visited by Morier, which seemed to have no entrance, from which he supposes that those receptacles for the dead were entered by subterranean passages. The sepulchres of Nakshi-Rustam, which have been visited by various European travellers, are also very curious. There are four excavations cut out of the perpendicular cliff, at the height, according to Sir R. K. Porter, of 60 feet from the ground. The one he examined, and to which he was drawn up by ropes, consists of an excavation in the solid rock of about 14 feet, in the form of something like a Greek cross. The length of the cave, which forms the whole tomb, is 34 feet, and the height 9. It is adorned, like all the other ancient monuments, with a variety of richly-sculptured figures of men and animals, and emblematical devices. There are likewise numerous remains of antiquity in the plains of Marghish, 49 miles N.N.E. of the ruins of Persepolis, and probably belonging to the same era, which are fully described by Morier and Porter. The most remarkable of these is the supposed tomb of Cyrus; an interesting monument, of which the latter writer gives an account with his usual accuracy. It is surrounded by other ruins, which bear traces of the same antiquity, as they contain numerous inscriptions in the ancient arrow-headed character.

The very curious sculptures on the mountain called Bisitun have already been noticed. Some have thought the words mean "without pillars;" but it is probably a corrup-

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1 Pietro della Valle was the first European who visited Istakhar. Morier found but 16. This was in 1621, and 25 pillars were then standing. In 1809 tion of a more ancient designation. Just over the fountain-head of a beautifully clear stream, which bursts from the mountain about 50 yards from this rocky platform, are seen the remains of an immense piece of sculpture, so greatly defaced that no continued outline can now be made out; but by close examination the rude forms of several colossal figures may be traced. The principal cause of the mutilation seems to be, that additions have been made to the original. In one place a Greek inscription has been introduced, and has, in its turn, been erased to make way for one in Arabic. These rude sculptures are generally supposed to be of high antiquity, some referring them to the age of Semiramis. Above these appears an interesting piece of sculpture, containing fourteen figures, one of a king trampling on a prostrate body, probably of some of his captives. He has a diadem and all the other badges of sovereignty; and a row of nine persons, having their hands bound behind them, and being themselves bound together by a cord round their necks, are seen approaching him in a suppliant posture, and with a dejected expression. Sir R. K. Porter supposes that these ten persons, including the one under the feet of the monarch, represent the ten tribes which were carried into captivity; and the design of the sculpture, which is executed in a style not inferior to any at Persepolis, is to commemorate the final conquest of Israel by Salmanasar, King of Assyria and the Medes. Above the head of each individual is a compartment with an inscription in the arrow-headed writing, full translations of which will be found in Rawlinson's *Herodotus*, vol. ii., p. 590.

There are other monuments of antiquity, as at Taki Bostan, already noticed, and at Shahpur, which belong to the era of the Sassanian kings, and which afford important and curious illustrations of these times. Fifteen miles north of Kazaran are the ruins of Shahpur, once the capital of Persia. At the entrance of the valley where it is situated stands an insulated hill, which exhibits portions of its ancient walls and towers; and the precipitous cliffs are carved with sculptures. On the southern side of the river which waters the plains, a much-mutilated bas-relief is carved on the surface of the rock, consisting of two colossal equestrian figures. Their height appears to be about 15 feet. A tablet, divided into three compartments, contains the second sculpture. In the central compartment is an equestrian figure, with the usual badges of Sassanian sovereignty. A suppliant is on his knees before the horse's head, his hands extended, and his face expressive of entreaty; whilst another figure with Egyptian features stands, likewise in the attitude of a suppliant, to the right of this compartment. The right-hand section contains three figures in attitudes of supplication. A greater number of tablets are still to be seen on the opposite side of the river. They contain various figures and designs, one of which is an elaborate representation of the triumph of a Persian over a Roman army. Colossal horsemen are pictured on others, with the royal emblems of Persia. In the Shahpur valley is a mountain, which is crowned by a perpendicular precipice of limestone 700 feet in height. Here is a cavern of enormous extent; its communication intricate and endless, with every form and variety of stalactites diversifying the different chambers, some of which are wonderfully lofty and spacious, and, when entered by torch-light, present the most brilliant reflection of all sorts of fantastic shapes. The entrance to the cave is about 140 feet above the base of the precipice; and here, in a spacious archway 150 feet broad, and nearly 40 feet in height, within which is a sort of natural ante-chamber, stands the pedestal of a statue, which lies mutilated and prostrate, with the head downwards. Both have been cut out of the solid rock. The

figure, which, when erect, must have been from 15 to 20 feet in height, represents some one of the Sassanian kings—Shahpur, as is supposed. There are various other Sassanian relics in the vicinity of Persepolis,—namely, the tombs of the kings, where the sculptures, by the natives called Naksh-i-Rustam, are to be found; also the sculptures named Naksh-i-Rajib. The sculptures of Naksh-i-Rustam are contained in six tablets cut on the perpendicular rock, and containing many bas-reliefs of the triumphs or victories of the Persian arms under the Sassanian kings, with figures of the sovereign in various attitudes, and of horsemen engaged in hostile collision. The sculptures at Naksh-i-Rajib consist of three tablets containing seven colossal and two diminutive figures. One of the sovereigns is on horseback in his greatest pomp; and underneath is a Greek inscription, which has been restored and translated by M. de Sacy. It runs thus:—"This is the resemblance of the servant of Ormazd, the divine Shahpur, king of kings, of Iran and An-Iran, of the race of the gods, son of the servant of Ormazd, the divine Artaxares, king of kings, of Iran and An-Iran, of the race of the gods, grandson of the divine Babek the king." The remaining tablet contains but a repetition of the two horsemen holding a ring. There are other ancient monuments in different parts of Persia, consisting of sculptured rocks and other remains resembling Druidical erections.

The early history of Persia is lost in remote antiquity, and for History, authentic accounts, the uncertain gleanings of oral tradition, or the fictions of poets, have been substituted. The *Shahnameh* of Firdausi, the Homer of Persia, a legendary history of the Persian kings, composed of such materials, comprises all the information possessed by the Asiatic nations prior to the Mahommedan conquest. From this poem, and similar authorities, Sir J. Malcolm has compiled the early annals of Persia, and to it we refer our readers for some account of that dim era.

It will be sufficient here to mention that, according to the *Dādehānīs*, there were four dynasties before Kalimars, whom the Mahommedan histories, such as the *Zātūr-i-dawrākh* declare to have been the grandson of Noah, or Noah himself. These four dynasties, viz.—1. That of Māshāhid; 2. The Jalāian; 3. That of Shāh Kalīv; and 4. That of Yessār,—are very ancient. The dynasty founded by Kalimars is called the Pishārān, and must be regarded as legendary and pre-historic; though doubtless there is a basis of truth in what is said regarding it in the *Shahnameh*, of which it forms the chief subject. The kings were—1. Kalimars; 2. Hūsāng, the discoverer of fire, and inventor of useful arts; 3. Tahmīs, the legendary founder of Babylon, Nineveh, and Isfahan; 4. Jamāhid, the founder of Jatākhar or Persepolis, and inventor of wine; 5. Zakkāh, the Syrian or Arabian, whom some take to be Nimrod; 6. Faridān; 7. Minchūr; 8. Nauzār; 9. Afridān; 10. Zār; 11. Karshāp; 12. Afridān II., who was defeated by Rustam, and the victor placed Kai Khosrow, a descendant of Minchūr, on the throne, and with this prince commenced the Kalanian, or second dynasty of kings, who belonging to which bore the following names—1. Kai Khosrow; 2. Kai Kāsār; 3. Kai Khurān; 4. Izahrān; 5. Izahrān, in whose reign Zarata or Zoroaster introduced the fire-worship; 6. Bahman, or Ardashir Dārādāst; 7. Dārād I.; 8. Dārād II., or Darius Codomannus of the Greeks.

From the evidence of the cuneiform inscriptions, and other monuments, the true history of the rise of the Persian power appears to be as follows:—At a very remote period, during the existence of a powerful Assyrian monarchy, there took place a great migration of the Aryan nation westward from beyond the Euphrates towards Persia and Media. In 880 B.C., the migration being still incomplete, that part of the Aryan race which was subsequently called the Medes encountered a great Assyrian king named Shal-Mannahar, whose history is recorded in the cuneiform character on a black obelisk and has been deciphered. From this period, a struggle continued between the Medes and Assyrians till B.C. 710, when Sargon, the third king of the Lower Assyrian empire, completely subdued the newly-arrived tribe, and planted a number of cities in their territory, some of which were filled with Israelites, whom Sargon had carried off from Samaria. The Medes, however, constantly endeavoured to assert their independence; and in B.C. 633 Cyaxares shook off the Assyrian yoke, and, having taken Nineveh in B.C. 625, laid the foundation of the Aryan empire, which, sixty-

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1 Rawlinson's *Herodotus*, vol. i., p. 406. seven years afterwards, was fully established by Cyrus. It has been shown by Mr Grote, in his History of Greece, vol. iii., pp. 307, 308, that the account given us by Herodotus of Darius is foreign to the oriental character, and savours far more of the Greek; and Colonel Rawlinson remarks that "the very name of Darius is a mere repetition of that of Astyages, the one being a corruption of Dādū, 'biting,' and the other, Āf-dādū, or the biting snake." Further, it does not seem possible that Cyaxares would have been so universally celebrated as the founder of the Median empire, had he been preceded by Phraortes. On the whole, therefore, it seems reasonable to consider what is said of the two first-named kings as mere fiction, and to look upon Cyaxares as the first leader of the Arian hordes, who founded a kingdom after their migration westward from the Indus, and the same as the Kai Kabed of the Persian writers. Kai Kāsū, then, would be Darius the Mede of the book of Daniel, that is, Cyaxares, grandson of the first Cyaxares, and son of Astyages by Arienis, the daughter of Alyattes, King of Lydia; and Kai Khurān is Cyrus. Lāzārūs, which is found in the inscriptions Kāhālīya, and Gāmātā, or Khātānā, must be regarded as the same as Cambyses and Darius Hystaspes, and the Pseudo-Smerdis is called in the Bistun inscriptions Gāmātā Gu-mātā. It is very remarkable that there is no mention of Xerxes, or of his famous expedition to Greece, to be found in the Persian writers or the legends of that country. Instead of Xerxes, a Queen Homāl is mentioned as having reigned thirty years in succession to Bahman or Ardšir Dārdāst, the Artaxerxes Longimanus of the Greeks. A further examination of the inscriptions is required to unravel these difficulties, and also to reconcile the Persian account of Alexander the Great with that which has been adopted from the Greek writers. According to the former, Alexander was the elder brother of Dārā or Darius II., being the son of Dārā I., by the daughter of Phillip of Macedon. In the meantime, enough has been discovered to show that there is much fiction in the accounts of this Persian dynasty furnished by the Greeks. With these observations in view, we proceed briefly to notice the chief circumstances mentioned by those writers.

Arbaces, according to Prideaux, who makes this prince the Tiglath-Pileser of Scripture, was the first sovereign of Media. He flourished B.C. 747, and conspired with Belisis, governor of Babylon, and other nobles, against Sardanapalus, with whose death terminated the Assyrian monarchy. Without attempting to reconcile this view with that which makes Darius the first, or that which, regarding Darius as a fabulous character, substitutes Cyaxares for him, we proceed to note the statement made by the Greek historians. Cyrus, according to them, was the chief of a pastoral horde, who, quitting their own comparatively barren and unproductive country, subdued the territories of their wealthy and luxurious neighbours. He was the conqueror of Babylon, and on the ruins of that great kingdom founded that of Persia, which was gradually extended by conquest from the Mediterranean to the Indus and the Oxus. Cyrus was succeeded, in the year 629 before Christ, by Cambyses, the Ahaseurus of the Scriptures, who gave himself up to sensuality and cruelty. Still he extended his empire, having reduced Egypt to the state of a colony, and also conquered a great part of Northern Africa. Pseudo-Smerdis, feigning himself to be the murdered Cambyses, who had been murdered, was by a faction of the Magi raised to the throne B.C. 522. Joannès, a Persian nobleman, finding out the deceit, consulted with all other chiefs, who agreed to assassinate him, which they effected, after he had reigned eight months. Along with him, they put to death a number of the Magi; and having decided on a monarchical form of government, they resolved to assemble next morning at sunrise without the city, on horseback; and it was agreed that he whose horse should neigh first should be chosen king. The well-known trick of Abares, the groom of Darius Hystaspes, secured the throne to his master, 521. He brought his master's horse the evening before, with a mare, to the appointed spot; and the horse, as soon as he arrived next morning, recollected the mare, neighed, and he was immediately saluted king. The Greek character and fabrication of this tale is self-evident. Darius Hystaspes reigned over Persia thirty-six years, and was distinguished as a legislator as well as a conqueror. His division of the countries into satrapies or provinces, each liable for the payment of a fixed tribute. Over these provinces satraps were set to preside, with the delegated authority of the king. Their duties were, to collect the revenue, to improve agriculture, and to perform all the royal commands. They were afterwards invested with military commands; and securities were devised against their usurpation of independent authority. An establishment of couriers was at the same time instituted, for expediting orders through every part of the empire. A regular and efficient military force was also organized by this monarch, and maintained at the expense of the different provinces. In process of time, Greek mercenaries were taken into pay; and when the country was engaged in war, the army was recruited from the people.

The reign of Darius was distinguished by several important Persian expeditions. Crossing the Thracian Bosphorus, he invaded Europe with 700,000 troops. But the Scythian tribes between the Danube and the Don successfully resisted his attack, and forced him to retreat with loss. He then overran the territories of Thrace and Macedonia, and left Megabyzus to complete the subjection of those provinces. He next invaded the countries on the east of Persia with a powerful army, and conquered some of the provinces bordering on the Indus, which he formed into a twelfth satrapy, under the name of India; and his vast armies were also sent to overwhelm the rising power of Greece. But his troops, though they far outnumbered their enemies, were completely overthrown on the plains of Marathon by the forces of the Greeks. Amidst these disasters the reign of this monarch terminated; and he was succeeded by his son Xerxes B.C. 486.

Xerxes carried on a successful war against the Egyptians, whom he gave over to the vengeance of his brother Achæmenes; and he resolved to avenge himself on the Greeks. With this view, he fitted out a mighty armament, in which he embarked an army amounting to 3,000,000 of troops, or, with all the camp followers, to above 5,000,000; and with this vast force he resolved to annihilate the independence and liberty of Greece in a single blow. But he was met by the devoted bands of Grecian patriots, and experienced a signal defeat at the celebrated pass of Thermopylae, which was defended by 300 Spartans against his whole army, and which he only carried by an immense sacrifice of men; and his fleet and army were finally overthrown at Salamis, Platæa, and Mycale, he himself escaping from the scene of action in a miserable fishing-boat. He was assassinated, after a reign of twenty-one years.

He was succeeded, in 464, by his grandson Artaxerxes Longimanus, the Ardšir Dārdāst, or Longhands of the Persian historians. He is celebrated for the internal regulation of his empire, and for the intelligence which he acquired relative to all the concerns of the kingdom, by means of agents whom he employed. He is represented among the Ahaseurus of the Scriptures, because he is said to have treated the Jews with lenity and kindness, and to have married one of that nation. The two succeeding sovereigns were Xerxes II. and Darius II., whose reigns were short. The latter was succeeded in 605 by Artaxerxes Mnemon, his eldest son, who had to contend for the crown with his younger brother Cyrus. It was in his reign that the famous retreat of the Ten Thousand took place under Xenophon, who has given a narrative of the expedition. His reign, which continued twenty years, was a scene of intrigue, in which favourites bore the chief sway, and during which those symptoms of decay became visible which terminated at last in the overthrow of the kingdom. He was succeeded by Darius or Dārā I., who reigned for twelve years. In the year 536 B.C. Darius Codomannus, or Dārā II., of the Persian historians, assumed the throne. It was in his reign that Alexander of Macedon, having subdued the different principalities of Greece, and consolidated their power into one, invaded Persia. He crossed the Hellespont in the year 334 B.C., with a well-disciplined and veteran force of 35,000 men, and encountered and defeated the Persian host on the banks of the Granicus. The hasty levies of Persia were again routed in the fatal battle of Issus, in which 100,000 were slain; and the family of Darius fell into the victor's hands. The battle of Arbela, which succeeded, completed the triumph of Alexander. The Persian armies were routed and dispersed, and the unfortunate Darius, flying from the field of battle, was seized by his nobles, at the head of whom was Bessus, who bound him in golden chains, and were carrying him to Bactria in a chariot covered with skins; but being overtaken by the conqueror, they stabbed their victim to the heart, and left him in the chariot weltering in his blood. With Darius terminated the dynasty of Cyrus, which had subsisted 206 years, according to the Greek writers.

After the death of Alexander, Asia continued for a long period a scene of war and commotion, owing to the contests which arose amongst his successors for the dominion of the country. But about the year 307 B.C. Seleucus Nicator by his success had acquired the dominion of all the countries which lie between the Euphrates, the Indus, and the Oxus, and had even carried his victorious arms to the Ganges, and established a friendly alliance with Sandrocottus, or Chandra Gupta, King of Patialputra, who reigned on the Ganges, near Allahabad. In B.C. 279 Seleucus was succeeded by Antiochus Soter, who again, in 261, was succeeded by Antiochus In the eleventh year of his reign, or according to Thomas, in A.D. 255, the Parthians revolted under Araces, who founded the third Persian dynasty, the Arsacid or Ashkaniian, — Ashk being the name given to Araces by the Persians. Araces, enraged at an affront offered to Tiridates his brother, put the governor of Parthia, Agathocles, to death, and declared himself independent.

The following, as given by Thomas, vol. ii., p. 299, is the list of the Ashkaniian kings, of whose authentic history little is known:

| No. | Name | Reign | |-----|---------------|-------| | 1 | Ashk, or Araces I | 255 | | 2 | Tiridates I, or Ashk II | 253 | | 3 | Artabanus I, or Shapour I | 196 | | 4 | Phraataces I | 196 | | 5 | Phraataces II | 196 | | 6 | Mithradates I | 173 | | 7 | Phraataces III | 173 | | 8 | Artabanus II | 156 | | 9 | Mithradates II | 156 | | 10 | Mazdakos | 80 | | 11 | Sinatruces | 77 | | 12 | Phraataces III | 77 | | 13 | Mithradates III | 77 | | 14 | Orodes I | 77 | | 15 | Phraataces IV | 77 | | 16 | Phraataces V | 65 | | 17 | Orodes II | 65 | | 18 | Vologases I | 65 | | 19 | Artaxerxes, King of Persia, first of the Sassanian line | 235 |

The alternative appellations are those given by the Persian historians, who, it will be seen, omit the majority of these princes altogether. They are also silent as to the wars between this dynasty and the Romans. We learn, however, from the historians of the West that Pacorus, the 26th king, sent an embassy to Sylla in A.D. 90; and that in A.D. 53, Crassus, having passed the Euphrates a second time to carry on a war he had commenced against the Parthians, was defeated and slain, with 20,000 of his men, and 10,000 were made prisoners. Next year Cassius, his quaestor, who had carried off the remains of the army, repelled from Syria an invading Parthian army; and in 51, on their returning and besieging Antioch, he defeated them again with great slaughter.

In the year 198, however, they returned and conquered all Syria, and took Jerusalem, slew Phanuel, made Hyrcanus prisoner, and settled Antigonus on the throne of Judas. In 29 Ventidius defeated the Parthians in a great battle, and drove them out of Syria; and in 35, Antony having invaded Parthia, was repulsed with the loss of the larger portion of his army. In 20 B.C. the Parthian king sent an embassy to Augustus to seek his friendship, and restored the standards taken from Crassus and Antony, and all the surviving prisoners.

In 165 A.D. the generals of the Emperor Marcus took Seleucia, which had become the Parthian capital, and sent 300,000 of the inhabitants to death. Thus at the same time pillaged and destroyed Ctesiphon; but this latter city, in 198, had become so populous and strong, that it maintained an obstinate defence against the Emperor Severus, and, when stormed, supplied him with 100,000 captives. Even after this, Ctesiphon recovered, and became the winter residence of the Parthian monarchs. About the year 217, the Emperor Macrinus purchased a disgraceful peace for Parthia by the payment of a sum equivalent to three millions of our money. This is all that is known of a period which is justly declared by D'Herbelot to be the most obscure in Persian history.

The Sassanian dynasty of kings forms a new era in the history of Persia. These monarchs were engaged in long and bloody wars with the Roman emperors; and hence we are enabled to correct the imperfect records of the past by the authentic narrative of the Roman historians. The first of these, Artaxerxes, or Ardshir, as he is called by the Persian historians, began his reign A.D. 226, and, having pacified the province of Pars, made himself master of Irak. Having defeated and slain Aravan or Artabanus, who ruled over the mountainous country about Hamadan and Karmanshah, he was hailed in the field with the title of Shâhâzâdâh, or "King of Kings," — a name which has ever since been assumed by the sovereigns of Persia. In the course of his reign he extended and consolidated his newly-acquired dominions, and waged, with various success, a war against the Roman emperor Alexander. He laboured to renew the religion of Zoroaster, and the authority of the Magi, with which he enforced the most stringent discipline. He was succeeded by his son Shâhpur or Sapor, A.D. 228, who carried on a successful war against the Romans, whose emperor, Valerian, in an attempt to relieve Edessa, was defeated and taken prisoner. Shâhpur gained many victories over the Roman armies; but towards the latter part of his reign he suffered reverses. His army was attacked by Odenathus, prince of Palmyra; and his country was afterwards invaded by Aurelian, the warlike Emperor of Rome. Hormuzd his son, the Hormizdas of Greek authors, reigned only one year, and was succeeded by Bahram or Varanes I. In 271, who ended his zeal for the ancient religion of Persia by the execution of Mani, founder of the sect of Manicheans. He reigned three years and three months, and was succeeded by Bahram or Varanes II., a weak prince. He engaged in a war with the Emperor Carus, who conquered Mesopotamia, carried his arms across the Tigris, and made himself master of Ctesiphon. Bahram or Varanes III. reigned only three months. His brother Narsi (the Nares of the Greeks) reigned nine years, and abdicated in favour of his son Hormuzd or Hormizd II. He subdued Armenia, and signalized the Empire of Galerius on the fatal field on which Crassus had been slain. The Romans invaded Persia the next year, and defeated Narsi, who fled, leaving his tents and family in possession of the conquerors. An inglorious peace followed, by which Mesopotamia and five districts to the eastward of the Tigris were ceded to the Romans. No events of any consequence occurred during the succeeding reign of Hormuzd II. He was succeeded in 308 by Shâhpur or Sapor II., who was crowned king from his birth, and during a reign of seventy-one years maintained the integrity of his kingdom. His first operations were directed against the Arab tribes, on whom he took a severe vengeance for having invaded his territories. He was involved in bloody wars with the Romans in the course of which he experienced serious reverses. Constantine advanced into Persia with a formidable army, and was joined by the Arab forces. A dreadful conflict took place, in which the Persian army was routed with great slaughter; and the king himself narrowly escaped, with a few followers, from the fatal field. But having recruited his army, he again took the field; and in a night attack he recovered some of the advantages which he had lost. He was also successful in repelling the invasion of Julian, who was killed by an arrow; and his successor Jovian was fair to purchase a peace by the loss of all the provinces east of the Tigris, which had been ceded in the former reign. He was succeeded by Ardshir or Artaxerxes II., who was defeated by Shâhpur, the son of the late monarch, after a reign of four years. He reigned only five months, when he was killed by the fall of a tent, which was blown down by one of those whirlwinds which sometimes occur in Persia. Bahram or Varanes IV., who succeeded, reigned eleven years, and was at length killed in 399 by an arrow, in endeavouring to quell a mutiny in his army. The throne of Persia was next filled by Yazdijird, the Greek Indegird. He is very differently represented by the Persians and Greeks; by the former as cruel and abandoned to luxury, and by the latter as wise and virtuous. He was killed by a kick of his horse, after a reign of twenty years. Bahram Gûr, or Varanes V., succeeded, and became celebrated for his munificence and magnificence. His dominions were invaded, and partly overrun by the Tûshîr, who, being flushed with victory, had got themselves over to a false security, and were one night surprised and defeated with great slaughter by Bahram. The only fruit which he sought from this victory was peace with all his neighbours, after which he returned to his capital. He was engaged in wars with the Romans under Theodosius, in which neither party had any cause to boast. His ruling passion was the chase, and he was fond of hunting the wild ass; and it was in pursuit of one of these animals that he lost his life in a deep well near Asepsa, above three marches from Shiraz, according to Tabari. According to the Shâhnâmeh, however, and other authorities, he died a natural death. He was succeeded in 449 by his son Yezdijird, who followed in his father's footsteps, and during his reign of eighteen years was only once engaged in war with the Romans.

The succession to the throne was now disputed between Hormuzd or Hormizdas III., the younger son of Yezdijird, who was appointed heir by his father, and Firuz or Peroes the Elder, who, being supported by an army of Tûshîr, to whose king he fled for support, and by the chief nobles, succeeded in wresting the sceptre from his brother's hand, and in putting him to death after reigning one year. He lost his life in an expedition which he undertook against the Tûshîr prince, who had been treated with so much generosity. Balash or Balash, the son of Firuz, now ascended the throne (480), and was succeeded by Kubâd or Cavades, who, though he was deposed by his discontented subjects, re-conquered his lost dignity. He carried on a successful war with Anastasius the Roman emperor, and died, after a long and troublesome reign, in 531.

His son and successor Khurâan Nâshîrvân, or Choroes, is celebrated by the Persian historians as a model of justice, generosity, and sound policy. He is said to have been the fruit of a casual amour of Kubâd, who, flying from his brother Firuz, then established on the throne, halted for a night with a beautiful girl at

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1 *Indian Antiquities*, vol. ii., p. 299. 2 *Binning*, vol. ii., p. 377. Four years afterwards, on his return to that city, his fair mistress presented him with a boy, who was one day to reign so gloriously on the Persian throne. His first care after his accession to the sovereignty was to extirpate the pernicious sect of Mazdak, encouraged by his father, one of whose leading tenets was a community of property and of women. The founder of the sect and many of his followers were put to death; and the women and property which they had appropriated were restored to those to whom they belonged. He was indefatigable in promoting the prosperity of his dominions, in building and repairing bridges, in restoring and re-peopling decayed towns and villages, in founding schools and colleges, and in giving a high degree of encouragement to learned men, and even to the Greek philosophers who resorted to his court. His empire was divided into four great governments—namely, Ist, Khurassan, Sistan, and Karmán; 2d, The lands dependent on the cities of Isfahan and Kám, the provinces of Gilán, Azarbadjan, and Araratia; 3d, The provinces of Fars and Ahwáz; and 4th, 'Irák, which extended to the frontier of the Roman empire. A well-digested system of provincial government was introduced into these provinces, and every check adopted that could prevent the abuse of power. He imposed a fixed and moderate land-tax all over his dominions, and a capitulation-tax on Jews and Christians; and the strictest regulations were adopted for preserving the discipline of his army.

The reign of Nushirván was illustrated as well by his conduct abroad as by his wise policy at home. He compelled Justinian to conclude a disgraceful peace at the price of 30,000 pieces of gold; and the reduction of Syria, the capture of Antioch, and the advance of the Persian armies to the shores of the Mediterranean, attested his triumphant reign. Though he was checked in his career of conquest towards the west, yet his sway was finally extended over the countries beyond the Oxus, some provinces of India, and the finest districts of Arabia. He reached the advanced age of more than eighty years.

Hormuzd or Hormisdas IV., the son of Nushirván, ascended the throne in 579. His administration was wise and prosperous for a time, whilst he acted under the advice of his minister; but on the death of the latter, he fell into every excess, and, after a short and disastrous reign, as dethroned and put to death by one of his generals, Bahram Chubín, who usurped the supreme authority. But Khurassan Parviz, or Choiores II., the son of the late king, fleeing to the Roman emperor Maurice, his adopted father, was, by his assistance, re-instated in the throne (591), and Bahram was forced to seek refuge amongst the Tatars, whose armies he had formerly defeated, and amongst whom he died. The new monarch showed his gratitude to the Roman emperor, by scrupulously fulfilling all the engagements he had contracted with him. He sent him Dárá and several other strong places on the frontier, and besides, sent him costly presents. But no sooner did he hear of the death of Maurice, than he invaded the Roman territories with a large army; pillaged and destroyed Dárá, Mardin, Edessa, and Amida; laid waste Syria; took the holy city of Jerusalem; and set fire to the magnificent churches of St Helen and Constantine. The true cross, which had been inclosed in a golden case, and buried deep in the earth, was discovered, and borne in triumph to Persia; and a crowd of captive priests and bishops swelled the train of the conqueror. Egypt was added to his other conquests; his troops entered Alexandria in triumph; and, after carrying his victorious arms westward to Carthage and Tripoli, and finally extinguishing the Greek colonies of Cyrene, he returned in triumph through the sands of the Libyan desert. In the same camp he employed arms advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bosphorus; and, after taking Chalcedon, his veterans were remained encamped for twelve years in the vicinity of Constantinople. But, whilst his generals and his armies were thus gaining laurels in the field, Khurassan was indulging at home in the most unheard-of luxury. Every season a splendid palace was raised; and his thrones were made of the most exquisite materials, one being formed to represent the twelve signs of the zodiac and the hours of the day. His treasures; his wives, amounting to 12,000, besides the incomparable Shirin, or Irene the daughter of Maurice; his horses, amounting to 50,000; his Arabian chargers of surpassing beauty; and his musician Barbud,—furnished inexhaustible topics for the pen of the historian, and for the hyperbolical praises of his countrymen. But his reign, hitherto glorious, was, towards its conclusion, closed with misfortunes. Heraclius, the Roman emperor, alike remarkable for learning and indulgence in the palace, and for valour and military skill in the field, was roused to a sense of the public danger by the victories of Khurassan, and with a powerful army suddenly invaded Persia. In the course of six years he succeeded in stripping the Persian king of all his foreign conquests; he defeated his armies in every encounter; marched without opposition into the heart of his country; destroyed his splendid palaces, and plundered his hoarded treasures. His subjects, headed by his own son, at last rebelled against him, and put him to death, after a reign of thirty-eight years. Persia, after the death of this prince until the accession of Yezdijird III. in 632, was a scene of confusion and misery, from the combined evils of famine, pestilence, and desolation. A succession of weak sovereigns, rather, as Sir J. Malcolm terms them, papagons of power, and from the threatened attack of the Arabian tribes, who, under the standard of the Muhammedan faith, had now become very formidable to all surrounding states. In their attacks on the Persians, the Muslim armies were repulsed, and their leader Abu Obaid was slain. The Arabs, reinforced, were again defeated by Mehrán the Persian general. But in another action the Persians were defeated, and their general slain. Yezdijird, who was now elevated to the throne, was the last hope of the sinking state. An ambassador was sent to him from the Arabian tribes, proffering peace on condition that he should accept their religion, and pay the taxes which all Mahomedans bound to pay. These terms were rejected with disdain. Great armies were now assembled by the Persians, and met on the plains of Nahavand, A.D. 641, where the Muhammedans gained a remarkable victory that ever decided the fate of Persia. The Persians brought 150,000 men into the field, of whom 30,000 perished on the field, and many more were drowned in a deep trench which surrounded the camp. Persia, from this date, fell under the dominion of the Arabian khalifa. Yezdijird, the last monarch of the Sassanian line, fled from the field of battle to Sistan, to Khurassan, and lastly to Marv, from which being also forced to fly, he concealed himself in a mill eight miles distant. But the miller, tempted by his rich robes and armour, murdered him whilst he slept, and thus ended, A.D. 651, the dynasty of the Sassanides, and the Magian religion, which had existed in Persia for more than two centuries.

After the flight of Yezdijird, the armies of Persia, scattered and disunited, were able to oppose only a feeble resistance to the hardy children of the desert, skilfully commanded, and, besides, inflamed by a fanatic enthusiasm: and in a short time, accordingly, they overran and laid waste the whole country with a bigotry that had no parallel, sparing neither sex nor age, and subverting in one common ruin the laws, manners, and most sacred institutions of the country. Many were contented to purchase life by embracing the new faith; and others fled to the mountains and fastnesses of the country, or to a distant land. "The progress of the conquerors," says Sir John Malcolm, "was rapid and successful; for the burning deserts of Arabia were extended over the cool countries of Khurassan and Balkh; and they flourished on the soil on which they were transplanted." The conquest of the country being completed, it was divided into different provinces, over which lieutenants were appointed; and it was thus held for more than two centuries under the dominion of the khalifa.

Towards the year 869 A.D. the dominion of the khalifa began to totter to its fall. In that year an adventurer expelled the governor of the khalifa from Persia. He was Yakáb-bín-Lais (or Safór), whence this dynasty was called the Suffarides), the son of a pewterer of the name of Lais, in Sistan. He worked, when young, at his father's trade; but he was prodigal of his money; and, tempted by his necessities, he became the leader of a despotic party, which gradually increased with the success of his enterprises. He soon attained power and consideration; and his aid was solicited by Silábah-bín-Káhir, the ruler of Sistan, against his fellow-ruler of Khurassan. He was afterwards raised to be commander of Silábah's army; and the first use he made of his power was to seize on the chief who had conferred it on him, and to send him to Baghdad—a service for which he claimed and received the government of his native province, as the servant and lieutenant of the Faithful. He afterwards took the important fortress of Híráh, reduced the province of Karman, making thence to Shíráh, and finally made himself master of the greater part of Persia. The khalifa, secretly dreading his power, sent him a formal investiture of certain territories as governor, which he rejected with disdain. In A.D. 873 the khalifa Muhammad declared war against the rebel chief which that ambitious chief marched against Baghdad, but was obliged to retire with the loss of a great part of his army. In 877 he marched again to the attack, but was overtaken by disease, and died, leaving almost the whole kingdom of Persia to his brother 'Amrú, who reigned twenty-three years, but was defeated and taken prisoner by Isma'il-bín-Abmad, a Táhir chief with whom he was at war, and, being sent to Baghdad, was there executed. With Amrú fell the fortunes of his family; and though two more princes maintained a precarious authority, the empire of Persia was divided between two families, Sámízid and Dílámí. The power of the first extended over Khurassan, Sistan, Balkh, Transoxiana, including the cities of Bakhshira and Samarqand. The Dílámí princes exercised sovereign power over the greater part of 'Irák, Fars, Karmán, Khuzístán, and Láris.

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1 Ouseley's Travels, vol. iii., p. 3. 2 History of Persia, vol. i., chap. viii. Of the Sasanian dynasty, Isma'il was the most celebrated. His grandfather was a Tatar chief named Sāmān, who claimed descent from Bahram Chūbin, the Sassanian. He extended his conquests both eastward and westward, and died in 907, at the age of sixty. In the reign of Amir Nūh, the fifth Sasanian king, Alpāgīn, his viceroy in Khurāsān, purchased a Turkish slave named Sabektigīn, and, finding him to possess great qualities, gave him the highest offices, and at last bequeathed to him all his estate. Sabektigīn was thereupon chosen to succeed to the viceroyalty of Khurāsān; and in A.D. 367 made war upon Himādān with such success that Nūh recognized him as an independent prince, and, as such, called him to his court. Sabektigīn, the King of Turkistān, Sabektigīn died in A.D. 387, and left his son Mahmūd to succeed him. This prince was the celebrated Mahmūd of Ghaznī, whose Indian wars are so celebrated. He died in 1208; and his successor Mas'ūd was defeated by the Seljuk Turks; and in the next reign the House of Ghaznī lost the whole of their Persian possessions. These Tatar tribes were numerous and powerful; they were a nation of shepherds, inured to fatigue, to long marches, and to every kind of hardy exercise, and trained from their infancy to the use of arms. Their numbers and discipline enabled them to overpower the civilized inhabitants of more fertile countries. Accordingly, in the year 1042, the Tatar tribes subdued Ghaznī and their sovereign, Togral Beg, and the tribe of Saljuq, assumed the state of a sovereign at Nāshāpūr. In the succeeding twenty years Togral overran all Persia, made himself master of Ḥaghdōb, and took prisoner the sovereign pontiff, the commander of the Faithful. He approached him, however, with every outward mark of reverence, and was constituted the temporal lieutenant of the eastern and western divisions of the empire. This alliance was further cemented by a marriage with the daughter of the khalif. But Togral Beg, who had by this time attained to his seventieth year, died a few months after the marriage. He was succeeded in 1063 by his nephew Alp-Arslan, the Valiant Lion, who has been praised by all historians for his justice, valour, and magnanimity. He successfully defended his dominions against an invasion by the Romans, defeated their armies, and, having made their emperor prisoner, generously set him at liberty for a fair ransom. He was killed by a rebellious chieftain whom he had ordered to be put to death, but who, having shaken off his guards, assailed him on the throne with all the fury of despair. Alp-Arslan, an unerring archer, seized his bow, and commanded his guards to stand aloof; but for the first time his arrow missed its mark, and he fell under the assassin's stroke.

The celebrated Malik Shah, his son, succeeded to the throne in 1072; and his reign rivalled, and even surpassed, in glory that of his father. Syria and Egypt were subdued by his victorious generals. Hindustān, Khorāsān, and Khīrāzān yielded to his sway; and he received homage and tribute from the tribes beyond the Jāzārāt, and from the distant country of Kashghār. Including the territories of all those princes whom he had conquered, and obliged to do him homage and to pay tribute, his dominion extended from the Mediterranean to the wall of China. The country was greatly improved during his reign; many colleges and mosques were built; and agriculture was promoted by the construction of canals and water-courses. Learning was also encouraged; and an assembly of astronomers from every part of Malik Shah's wide dominions were employed for several years in making a calendar; and their labours are commemorated in the Sālātūn, or "Glorious Era," as a proof of the attention which was given at this period to the noblest of all sciences. For thirty years after the death of Malik Shah, Persia was distracted by the wars of his four sons, who contended for the supreme power; but Sanjar having at length triumphed over his competitors, was elevated to the throne. His reign was for a time successful and prosperous. He resided in Khurāsān; and from this spot, as from a centre, his dominion extended in one direction beyond the Indus, and in another to the Jāzārāt. Towards the latter end of his reign, he experienced the most signal reverses of fortune. Advancing into Fārsān, he was completely defeated by the monarch of Kāsa Kāthāl, his family were made prisoners, and all his baggage was plundered. He afterwards marched against the Turkmān tribe of Ghar, who had refused their royal tribute, and in a decisive action which ensued he was defeated and taken prisoner. After being long detained and cruelly treated, he made his escape, and returned to his own country, where the spectacle of his wasted dominions, ravaged and destroyed by barbarous invaders, so preyed upon his spirits, that he died of melancholy in 1175, at the age of seventy-three. After his death, Persia continued during forty years distracted by the strife between different branches of the Seljukian dynasty. The last, but exerting sovereign power was Ahmad III., who was slain by the monarch of Khīrāzān, as he went into battle flushed with wine.

From the decline of this dynasty to the conquest of Persia by Hūsain Khān, son of the great conqueror Jangiz or Genghis, the country was distracted by the contests of these rival chiefs, who are known under the name of Atābāks. They were petty princes, who, taking advantage of the weakness and anarchy which prevailed, extended their authority over some of the finest provinces of the country. A detailed account of the progress and decay of these various dynasties would exceed our limits; nor would it contain either amusement or instruction. But there is one chief who requires to be noticed, who, by means of assassins devoted to his cause, caused the most powerful sovereigns to tremble, and spread far and wide the terror of his mysterious power. His followers were reckoned at 50,000; they were called mysterious and devoted; and each was bound, under the most dreadful sanctions, to sacrifice, at the command of their chief, either his own life or that of another. Hasan Sabāh was the first of these chiefs. He had been mace-bearer of Alp-Arslan; but being displeased with his minister Nizām-T-Mulk, he retired to Rih, and afterwards to Syria, where he entered into the service of a chief of the family of Iṣma'il, and adopted that title and surname. He raised the descendants of Iṣma'il to the holy dignity of Imām, instead of the younger branch of Iṣma'il. He afterwards returned to Rih, his native place, where, leaguing himself with other malcontents, he succeeded in gaining possession of the mountain fort of Allāhāmast, whence he commenced a series of depredations on the surrounding country. Malik Shah Seljuki sent a force against him, which was repulsed. He was soon afterwards exposed to a more serious attack from the Sultan Sanjar, who resolved to extirpate a race whose murders and depredations spread terror over all Persia. But he was warned to desist from his fatal project by secret threats of assassination. He had made some preparations in the direction of Allāhāmast, when one morning, as he awoke he discovered a poniard stuck in the ground close to his bed-side, and read with surprise, written on the handle, "Sultan Sanjar, beware. Had not the poniard been respected, the hand that stuck this dagger into the hard ground could with more ease have plunged it into thy soft bosom." The warrior who had often faced death in the field of battle trembled at this mysterious threat; and it is certain that he desisted from his meditated attack. Hasan Sabāh brought several other hill-forts under his sway; and was styled "Shah-e-Jalāl," "Chief of the Mountain," or, as his Arabic title has been erroneously translated, "The Old Man of the Mountain," the name by which he and his descendants are distinguished in the European histories. Khalīfs, viziers, and nobles fell under the blows of these assassins; and the power and dominions of Hasan Sabāh were laid low, despite a series of sovereigns who ruled for 170 years, the terror and disgrace of Asia, and who, in 1256, were finally extirpated by the overwhelming and victorious armies of Ḥulākū Khān, who rivalled his sire in the rapidity of his conquests. His first design was to turn his arms against the declining empire of the Greeks; but he was diverted from this object by an astrologer, who directed his hostility against Bagdad, the seat of the khalif's authority. This place was speedily stormed by the Tāfīr armies, and its inhabitants were put to the sword; the Khalif Mutamās, with his family and attendants, was slain; and thus was for ever extinguished the celebrated empire of the Arabian khalifs. The conquest of Persia, Mesopotamia, and all Syria, was achieved by Ḥulākū in the same year, who meditated other ambitious schemes of conquest in the East. But the defeat of his army in Syria by the prince of the Mamelukes in Egypt compelled him to abandon his design; and having restored his affairs in Syria, he fixed his residence at Marāghā, a beautiful town of Azarbaijan, where he spent his declining years in the cultivation of letters and philosophy. He built an observatory on the summit of a mountain, the foundation of which still remains, "and where," says Sir John Malcolm, "his favourite, Nāṣiru-d-Dīn, formed those astronomical tables which have become so celebrated under the name of the Tables..." of Il-Khánát, and are still referred to for the latitude and longitude of such places as are not fixed by European observations. He succeeded his Abúl Khán in the year 1284, who was anxious by cultivating the arts of peace, to repair the ravages of war, and to heal the still bleeding wounds of his wasted empire. He was assailed from the E. by the powerful armies of the Táhir chiefs; but he succeeded in repelling all their attacks, and in maintaining the integrity of his empire. He died, it is supposed by poison, in the year 1281. The Mughul lords having held a council, raised to the throne his brother Nikudár Oglan, seventh son of Háfíká, who, though he was baptized in his youth, afterwards renounced the Christian faith, which he persecuted with the violence of a renegade, and assumed the name of Ahmad Khán. But his persecution of the Christians was so obnoxious to his subjects, that they conspired against him, and deprived him both of his kingdom and of his life. Argílán, son of Abúl Khán, whom he had thrown into prison, was raised to the throne by the Mughul nobles, but did not assume the name until he received the investiture from the emperor of Táhirát, by whom he was hailed as sovereign of Persia, Arabia, and Syria. His reign was marked by no event of any consequence; and on his death, which occurred in 1291, his brother Kal Khátú was raised to the throne by the majority of the amirs. The latter was indolent, sensual, and extravagant; and his short and inglorious reign would hardly merit notice, were it not for an attempt by an officer of the revenue department, of known talent, to introduce a paper-currency, in order to supply the means of royal extravagance. But such a foundation of paper-currency, cannot endure a despotism which affords no opportunity either for life or for property. The scheme was therefore altogether vain, and appears to have been the device of a tyrant for cheating or plundering his defenceless subjects. From this period until the conquest of the country by Timur Lang or Ta-mirán (Timur the Lame), the history of Persia presents one continued scene of intestine commotion. Timur was descended from Korshar Nevian, who had been variz to Chaghtáí the son of Jangiz, and also claimed kindred with that great conqueror. He was counsellor and general to the Táhir prince, Oulemas Khajá, who ruled over the territories between the Oxus and the Jaxartes. But having soon thrown off his allegiance to this prince, he led a wandering life, with only a few faithful followers, enduring great hardships and privations. He had been closely allied with Amir Husain, one of the most powerful nobles of Transoxiana. Their joint object was, to expel the enemies of their country; and Oulemas, though he had conquered in the field, having been forced to retire with disgrace from the siege of Samarqand, the countries between the Jaxartes and the Oxus were freed from the foreign enemy. A war for the possession of Transoxiana now ensued between Timur and Husain, and was only interrupted by a short and hollow peace, which terminated in the overthrow of Husain, who was taken prisoner, and, as is generally believed, put to death, with the secret sanction or by the orders of his rival. Eleven years elapsed before Timur had fully reduced to tranquillity his newly-acquired dominions, and had extended his power over Khorásán, Khurasán, and Kádár, after which his whole reign was one unvaried course of the most triumphant success. He subdued Kádárán, Kandahár, and Kából, and laid the two latter cities under heavy contributions. He invaded Persia, which, being now ruled by the degenerate descendants of Háfíká, was entirely barren and wasted. He extended the limits of his empire to the farthest bounds of Táhirát; and whilst one body of his troops spread dismay to the wall of China, another army penetrated to the banks of the Irtish, and a third to the Volga. Timur next marched against Baghdad, which he stormed, and also took the remarkably strong fortress of Takrit; after which his vast armies were dispersed over Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and Georgia. He afterwards invaded Russia, and advancing to Moscow, took and plundered that city. Returning to his own country, he prepared for the invasion of India. His war with Jaláluddín Khán, and his defeat and capture of that warlike chief, were amongst the latest exploits of his active reign; and he had embarked on the arduous enterprise of the conquest of China, when he was arrested by an enemy which he could not conquer. He was seized with a violent illness at the city of Otrar, where he expired in 1405, declaring Pó Muhammed Jahángir his successor. The latter, however, had a competitor for the crown in Khalil Salim, his cousin, by whom he was deposed and murdered; and, in his turn, Khalil, infatuated by his attachment to the beautiful Shékhí Mulk, on whom he squandered the vast treasures of Timur, was deposed by the nobles. He was attached to the arts of peace, a philosopher, a man of science, and a poet; and his works will be read the world over as long as the Persian language endures.

Sháh Ismáil was the first monarch of the Safávéd line. He traced his descent from Musá Kázím, the seventh imám. The first of the family who attained to any celebrity was Sháh Safín-Il, who resided near the town of Ardébil, and from whom the dynasty took its name of Safávéd. His son Sadrán-d-Dín inherited the sanctity of his sire. The great conqueror Timur even condescended to visit him in his cell, that he might receive his blessing; and on his asking whether he, Timur, could do ought for his comfort, "Give up," replied the saint, "those Turks whom thou hast carried off as captives." The disinterested request was granted, the saint was dismissed with presents, and the descendants of these captives ever afterwards acknowledged their gratitude by their ardent support of the Safávéd dynasty. The immediate descendants of Sadrán-d-Dín, Khwájá 'Ali, Junaid, and Haidár, acquired also a great reputation for sanctity. The former, during the pilgrimage to Makká, visited Jerusalém, where he died. His grandson Jamá' assumed the sacred mantle or patched garment worn by the Súfi teachers after their father's death; and so numerous were his disciples, that Kára Róhín, who at that time ruled in Azarján, took the alarm, and banished him from Ardébil. He returned to Shíráz, where he was killed by an arrow in a conflict with the troops of that province. He was married to a sister of Azán Hasoun, chief of the Turkamánis of the White Sheep; and this lady was the mother of Sultán Haidár, who succeeded him, and became a warrior as well as a saint. His uncle Azán Hasoun gave him his daughter in marriage, by whom he had three sons, Sultán 'Ali, Isháhí Mírzá, and Sultán Sháh Ismáil. Haidár was defeated and slain in an attack which he made on the town of Shíráz in order to revenge his father's death. Sultán 'Ali succeeded; but he and his brothers were sent away to Ardébil, by Yúháb, one of the descendants of their grandfather Azán Hasoun, who had been deprived of their influence, and confined in a fort, where they remained prisoners for four years. They afterwards made their escape, and were soon joined by numerous adherents. But in the meantime they were attacked, Sultán 'Ali was slain, and his brothers fled in disgrace to Gilán, where Isháhí Mírzá died. These events occurred during the infancy of Ismáil, the third son of Haidár, of whom we know little till he attained the age of fourteen, when he collected his adherents, and marched against the great enemy of his family, the ruler of Shíráz, whom he defeated. Alwand-Bég, a prince of the dynasty of the White Sheep, marching with his troops to crush the young warrior, shared the same fate; and the triumph of the provinces was given to the himself master of the province of Ardébil, fixed his residence at Tabríz. Next year he vanquished Sultán Muríd, one of the military competitors for supreme dominion in Persia; and in less than four years from his leaving Gilán he was acknowledged the sovereign of Persia.

Sháh Ismáil, not being born the chief of a tribe, had no hereditary feuds to avenge; his family were objects of hostility to none; and he united in his person the reverence and affection of all his subjects. He was a firm adherent of the Shí'ahs. The Turkish tribes to whom he owed his elevation were highly honoured. They were distinguished by a red cap, from which they received the name of Kazíbtásh, or "red heads," which has descended to their posterity. Persia, Khurasán, Baghdád, and Balhá, submitted to his arms. His territories were afterwards enlarged by Sultán Salím about the year 1514, with a numerous and well-disciplined army; for the battle which took place, the Persian monarch, after performing prodigies of valour, was entirely defeated, which affected him so deeply that he was never afterwards seen to smile. After the death of Salím he crossed the Araxes, wrestled Georgia from the possession of Turkey, and died at Ardébil in the year 1523. He was succeeded by his son Támisáp, who ascended the throne when he was only ten years of age. His reign, which continued fifty-three years, proved prosperous. He repelled the invasions of the Uzbeks on the north, and of the Turks on the west. It was from him that Humayun, emperor of India, when he fled from his rebellious subjects, received the aid which enabled him to regain his throne. It was to him also that Elizabeth sent her envoy, Anthony Jenkinson. But the intolerance of the Muhammadan monarch could not brook the presence of a Christian. His family was numerous; and after several years of disputed succession, and of brief and troubled reigns, 'Abbas, his grandson, was proclaimed king in 1582, when a minor. During the earlier years of this monarch's reign, the country was alternately alarmed by internal dissensions and foreign aggression, each party in their turn using the name of the sovereign. But as he advanced to manhood, he vindicated his rights; and in the course of thirty-five years he reigned the undisputed sovereign of the country. His reign, which lasted forty-three years, was highly successful and glorious. He was engaged in wars with the Turks and with the Uzbeks, whose armies he defeated in several actions; and it was during his time that an amicable intercourse commenced between Persia and Europe.

Sir Anthony Shirley, a gentleman of family, was persuaded by the Earl of Essex to repair to the court of Persia; and, with twenty-six followers, gallantly mounted and richly attired, he presented himself to the king, who received him with every mark of distinction. The military skill of the foreigner had enabled him to discipline his army and to lead into his artillery, so that with an army of 60,000 men he obtained a decisive victory over 100,000 Turks. In this battle, which was fought on the 24th of August 1605, Sir Anthony Shirley was thrice wounded. This victory gave a decided check to the Turks, who were driven from Azarbijan, Georgia, Kurlistan, Baghdad, Mosul, and Dersbeker, all of which were re-annexed to the Persian empire. This monarch also entered into an alliance with the English for the destruction of the flourishing Portuguese settlement of Hurmuz, which unhappily proved but too successful; and this place, long renowned as the seat of wealth and a great commercial emporium, was plundered and left to decay.

'Abbas expended his revenues in the improvement of his domains, and erecting caravanserais, bridges, aqueducts, bazars, mosques, and colleges; he embellished Isfahan, his capital, built splendid palaces, the ruins of which still attest his taste and magnificence. He was also distinguished by his toleration, especially to Christians; and he was liberal in his foreign policy. To his family he proved a sanguinary tyrant. He had four sons, whom he caressed, whilst in infancy, with parental fondness; but who, as they arrived at manhood, were viewed with jealousy and hatred. The oldest son was assassinated, and the eyes of his other children were put out, by his orders. One of these, Khurshid Shah, had a daughter, Fatimah, innocent and lovely, and the delight of her grandfather, who could not endure that she should be out of his sight. The prince, learning the fondness of his father for this his child, seized her one day with all the fury of a maniac, and deprived her of life. The rage and despair into which 'Abbas was thrown by the death of his grand-daughter gave a momentary joy to the son, who concluded this bloody tragedy by swallowing poison. 'Abbas died soon afterwards, in 1629, at the age of seventy, worn out with affliction of mind.

By the desire of the aspiring prince, Sám Mirzâ, one of the sons of Safi, who had been murdered, was placed on the throne, which he occupied fourteen years. His son 'Abbas II. succeeded him at the age of ten, and reigned prosperously twenty-five years, though his health was frequently impaired by illness. He was succeeded by his eldest son 'Abbas in the year 1641, who, under the title of Shah Sulaiman, reigned twenty-nine years. He was, like his father, the slave of dissolute habits; and his drunken orgies were often stained with blood. He was succeeded by Husain Mirzâ, a weak prince, who was ruled by eunuchs and priests, and whose measures tended to destroy the little spirit which yet lingered amongst the nobles and chiefs. The first twenty years of his reign passed over in tranquillity, but it was only the prelude to a political storm. The Afghan tribes who inhabit the mountainous tract between Khurasan and the Indus had long been at war with Persia, and having often suffered great oppression, at length broke out into rebellion, assisted by the governor of Gurjin Khan. The insurgents were headed by Mir Vâiz, an Afghan chief. They invited the obnoxious governor Gurjin Khan to a feast, where he was suddenly attacked and put to death; and Mir Vâiz, collecting his followers, surprised and stormed the fortress of Kandahâr. He then proceeded to strengthen himself in his newly-erupted power. Whilst the weak monarch endeavoured by negotiation to pacify this formidable insurgent, Mir Vâiz imprisoned his ambassador, and set his power at defiance; and a second ambassador met with no better treatment. The court of Persia now assembled an army under the command of Khumran Khan, who advanced against Mir Vâiz, defeated his army, and laid siege to Kandahâr. The insurgent chief having assembled another army, compelled the Persian general to raise the siege of that place, and afterwards defeated him in a decisive action, in which he was slain. In the midst of his successes Mir Vâiz died, and was succeeded by his brother Mir Abdul'lah, who was assassinated by Mahmud, son of Mir Vâiz. The troubles which now afflicted Persia on every side gave ample leisure to Mahmud to pursue his plans, and to consolidate his power. The Uzbeks were ravaging Khurasan; the tribes of Kuristan were gathering at the gates of Isfahan; the Abdali Afghans had taken Hirât, and afterwards Mashhad; the islands in the Persian Gulf had been subdued by the Arabian governor of Maskat; and the rude tribes of Georgia had attacked Shirwan. A prediction by an astrologer, of the total destruction of the capital by an earthquake, completed the public dismay, when intelligence was received that Mahmud Ghilzy had entered the country at the head of 25,000 Afghans. He was met by the royal army of 50,000 troops; and an action took place, which ended entirely in favour of the Afghans. The consequence was that the whole body of Isfahan, which, after enduring all the miseries of famine, surrendered on the 21st of October 1722, after a siege of seven months. On the same day, the fallen monarch of Persia, Husain, took a solemn leave of his subjects, and signed a capitulation, by which he resigned the crown to Mahmud. Husain, with his nobles, after doing homage to the Afghan sovereign, was confined for seven years in a small palace, when his enemies, threatened with a reverse of fortune, caused him to be assassinated; and in his person may be said to have terminated the Safavean dynasty, as his son, Tahmasp, though he assumed the title of king, never possessed any real power, and only struggled a few years against his inevitable fate.

Mahmud having thus succeeded in acquiring the sovereignty of Persia, now endeavoured to extirpate the people whom he had subjugated. But as he had rejected the Afghan yoke; and, as they recovered from their first dismay, they began to attack and cut off scattered parties of the invaders. At the same time Persia was invaded both by Russian and Turkish armies. The Russian army advanced into the country and took possession of Darband, and the Turkish army was already on its march to Hamadan, when the inhabitants of Karvin rose in insurrection, and expelled the Afghan garrison from the place. Mahmud was now seriously alarmed. The probable revolt of the capital seemed to be the most immediate danger; and his gloomy mind, alarmed and enraged by these signs of vengeance, conceived the horrible idea of exterminating the conquered people. He commenced with the massacre of three hundred nobles and their children, who were treacherously invited to a feast. He afterwards put to death three thousand of the late king's guards, whom he had taken into his pay; and at length every person who had been in the service of Shah Husain was included in one bloody proscription, and put to death without mercy.

After this, Mahmud, being aided by the Kurdish tribes, succeeded in making himself master of some of the principal cities of Irâk and Fars. But his affairs appeared to enter the decline; his kingdom was threatened from various points, and his mind proved at last unequal to the difficulties with which he was assailed. In this extremity he resorted to relief to the most abject and degrading superstitions; he shut himself up in a vault for fourteen days and nights, fasting and enduring the severest penances; and, under the influence of this gloomy fanaticism, he lost his reason, and fell into the most furious paroxysms of madness. In this melancholy situation his mother, out of compassion to him, directed him to be smothered. But this event did not take place till, under his fatal orders, thirty-nine princesses of the Safavean blood, and suffered an untimely death. He was succeeded by Ashraf, the son of Mir Abdul'lah, and nephew of Mir Vâiz. The first period of Ashraf's reign was successful. He gained repeated victories over the Turkish armies, who were compelled to retire; and he concluded the war by compelling the Turkish court to acknowledge his title to the throne. But he was now assailed from another quarter by more serious dangers. Tamâsp, the son of Shah Husain, and the representative of the Safavean princes, was in Mazandaran, where he was joined by a distinguished chief, Nâdir Khan, a valiant warrior, who now declared his resolution to expel every Afghan from the soil of Persia. Tamâsp, hearing of the fall of his father's abdication, had assumed royal sway, and knew that he was supported by Nâdir and the nobles of Khurasan and the Mazandaran, he found himself in a position to exercise the authority of a sovereign. Nâdir, being invested with the sole command, soon succeeded in reducing Mashhad and Hirât, and at length all Khurasan, under the authority of Tamâsp. Ashraf now prepared for the defense of his sovereign authority; and having raised an army, he advanced into Khurasan against his enemy, whose followers, he knew, were daily increasing. The Afghans were defeated in a series of sanguinary actions, and pursued, first to Tehran, and finally to the gates of Isfahan. It was at first proclaimed in the city that the Afghans had obtained the victory; but the loud wailing of the women from the citadel soon disclosed the result of the battle. The night was passed in preparations for flight. The old men, women, and children, were mounted on mules and camels, and having packed up all the treasure and spoil which they could carry away, they took the route to Shiraz by break of day; the tyrant Ashraf having in the meantime cruelly murdered Shah Husain, who was still detained a prisoner, and the pressure of circumstances only prevented a general massacre, which was fully intended. Nadir lost no time in pursuing the discouraged and flying Afghans. They were overtaken at Persepolis, and immediately fled towards Shiraz, where though there were still 25,000 swordsmen they were deserted by their leaders, who fled hitherwards with only two hundred followers. The army was dispersed in wandering bands, which were closely pursued and cut down by their exasperated foes; and Ashraf himself, whilst wandering in Sistan, was recognised and slain by Abdulla Khan, a soldier of Biduchistan, who sent his head, with a large diamond which he found on his person, to Shah Timsaip. The Afghan invasion was one of the most cruel calamities which ever befell the Persians. Within the short period of seven years they had massacred nearly a million of the inhabitants, laid waste the finest provinces of the country, and levelled the proudest edifices with the dust.

Nadir Khan, afterwards known as Nadir Shah, was born in the province of Khurasan, on the 14th of November 1688. His father was in a low condition, earning a livelihood by making coats and caps of sheep-skins. He was taken prisoner by the Uzbeks at the age of seventeen, but made his escape from them after a captivity of four years. He was for a considerable period the chief of a band of robbers; and being a plunderer of known valour and resolution, had collected 3000 followers, by whose aid he laid under contribution the extensive province of Khurasan. His friendship was now courted by his uncle, who was the chief of Kelat. Nadir pretended to listen to his overtures, but treacherously slew him with his own hands, and proceeded to employ the power which he had thus acquired against the Afghans, the enemies of his country. And with this did he succeed, in this populous and fertile province, that the Afghans were entirely expelled from the country; whilst, for his services, he received from his sovereign, Timsaip, the provinces of Khurasan, Mazandaran, Sistan, and Kerman. He then proceeded to attack the Turks, who still occupied the western provinces of Irik and Azarbijan, and having defeated them in various actions, took possession of Tabriz, Ardabil, and all the principal cities. He returned to quell an alarming insurrection of the Afghans, who were unable to withstand his victorious armies; and in the meantime the imbecile Timsaip commenced a war with the Turks, which ended in a disgraceful peace. He had for some time been a mere pageant in the hands of Nadir; and this unfortunate prince with other complaints of him, had raised a plausible pretence for his death, which took place on the 16th of August 1732. He was succeeded by Khurshid, where he was afterwards put to death by Biza Kuli, the son of Nadir, with the knowledge, if not by the secret orders, of the father. His son, an infant eight months old, was seated on the throne; but Nadir was now in substance, as he was soon to be in form, the real sovereign. In 1736 the death of this infant removed the only obstacle to his ambition; and in a vast assembly of his nobles and troops, he was, after much pretended reluctance, prevailed on to accept of the crown. This high dignity served only to give a fresh stimulus to his active and enterprising habits. In the course of a new war with Turkey, after having regained the provinces which had been wrested from the imbecile Timsaip, and concluded a peace between his arms eastward, Karim Khan and Bakhtiar were besieged and taken by his son Biza Kuli, who joined the Osmans, and defeated the ruler of Bakhara and the Uzbeks. Afghanistan was afterwards subdued; and Nadir finally completed his military glory by the conquest of Delhi. A single battle was sufficient to disperse the Mughal host; and Nadir, with his triumphant legions, entered the capital, which made no resistance. Its treasures were plundered; and its inhabitants, who rose on the Persian soldiery, were, in revenge, given over to an indiscriminate massacre, in which neither age nor sex was spared. Nadir returned in triumph, loaded with the spoils of one of the richest capitals of the East. He continued to prosecute his conquests on every side, and restored the ancient glory of the Persian empire, when it extended from the chain of the Caucasus eastward to the Indus.

But the glory of foreign conquest was tarnished by domestic tyranny. In an expedition against the Lezighs, a mountain tribe upon the western frontier, Nadir was wounded by an assassin, who fired on him from a wood. His suspicion fell on his son Biza Kuli, or had been instilled into his mind by artful intriguers. Under this impression he commanded his son into his presence, and immediately caused him to be deprived of his eyesight. But so struck was he with remorse after the deed had been done, that he vented his fury upon all around him; and fifty noblemen were put to death by his orders, because they had not come forward to sacrifice their lives for the young prince, the hope of his country. "It is not my eyes," says the prince, "that you have put out, but those of Persia." The mind of Nadir was deeply affected; he became gloomy and ferocious; all his future actions were deeds of horror; and he exceeded in barbarity all that has ever been recorded of the most bloody monarchs. His cruelty languished under his control; and when he at last raised the people to insurrection, his fury knew no bounds, and he not only murdered individuals, but gave up whole cities to the destroying sword. Several of the principal officers of his court, learning that their names were in a proscribed list, resolved to anticipate the vengeance of the tyrant. The execution of the plot was committed to four chiefs who were employed about the palace, and who, on the pretext of business, rushed past the guards in the inner tents, and found the tyrant asleep. He was awakened by the noise, and had slain two of the conspirators, when he was deprived of life by a blow from Salah Beg, the captain of the guards.

The sudden death of Nadir Shah involved the country in the greatest distraction. He was succeeded by his nephew 'Ali, who took the name of 'Ali Khan. But his reign was short and inglorious. He was taken prisoner by his brother Ibrahim Khan, and put to death at Mashhad, as his captor himself also was, being slain by the officer who guarded him. Shah Rukh, the grandson of Nadir, succeeded; but the throne was now usurped by Mirza Sayid Mohammad, by whom Shah Rukh was taken prisoner and deprived of sight. The usurper being defeated and taken prisoner by Yusuf 'Ali, the principal general of Shah Rukh's army, was immediately put to death. The blind Shah Rukh was again raised to the throne; but the measures of his general, Yusuf 'Ali were opposed by two chiefs, the respective heads of the Safi and an Arabian tribe, and, by their joint efforts, the faithful general of Shah Rukh was defeated and killed. The usurper himself was sent from a throne to prison. The two chiefs, however, soon quarrelled; and Mirza 'Ali, the Arabian, triumphed, but only to fall before the daring power of the Afghans under Ahmad Khan 'Abdali. This leader might at the time have easily accomplished the reduction of Persia. But judging more wisely, he assembled the principal chiefs, and proposed to them that the province which gave birth to Nadir should be given as a principality to his grandson. To this all the chiefs agreed, and Shah Rukh was again established in the undisturbed possession of Khurasan. At this period Persia was in a complete state of distraction, from the contentions of rival chiefs. Mohammad Husain Khan, chief of the tribe of Khoja, had established himself at Astarkhan, and had brought under his authority the whole province of Mazandaran. The province of Azarbijan was under the rule of Azad Khan, an Afghan leader, who had been one of the sons of Nadir Shah. Gilan was independent, under one of its own chiefs, Hidayat Khan. At this time 'Ali Mardan Khan, a chief of the tribe Bakhtiyari, took possession of Isfahan, and, resolving to elevate a prince of the house of Safi to the throne, he invited the nobles to join his standard. The principal of those chiefs was Karim Khan, of the tribe of Zand, a man distinguished by his sagacity and courage, and between whom and 'Ali Mardan Khan a rivalry for power soon took place. Karim Khan, dreading the enmity of 'Ali Mardan, took the field against him. But his assassination soon afterwards left Karim unopposed master of the south of Persia. He was joined by most of the tribes from the north, and Ahmad Khan, who was entirely defeated by him in a general action, and so discouraged by the unpromising state of his affairs that he meditated a retreat into India. But he was dissuaded from so unworthy a course by the remonstrances of his general Rustam Sulzai, the chief of Khoja, who attacked the enemy in a narrow pass, and obtaining a complete victory, re-established the power of Karim Khan, who again occupied the city of Shiraz, where he employed his utmost efforts to recruit his army. Azad Khan, throwing himself on the clemency of his conqueror, was received into his service, and became one of his most attached followers. The most powerful enemy of Karim Khan was Mohammad Husain Khan, the chief of the Khoja, who ruled in Mazandaran. He advanced against Karim with a powerful force; but the city of Gilan was defended, he was compelled to raise the siege, and to retreat to Isfahan. He afterwards engaged Karim in a general action, in which, being deserted by part of his troops, he was defeated and slain. The whole province of Mazandaran then submitted to the conqueror, and this was followed by the submission of Gilan and the greater part of Azarbijan. Khurasan was the only province which he did not subdue; and his forbearance is ascribed to compassion for the blind Shah Rukh, who still retained this remnant of his extensive dominions.

Karim Khan was distinguished by a love of justice and a moderation not usual amongst eastern princes. He died in the year In the eighteenth year of his age, after a reign of twenty-six years, His administration was generally just and benevolent. He encouraged agriculture and commerce, which greatly revived during the latter years of his reign; and he protected by his justice Christians as well as Muhammadans. He never refused mercy to a fallen foe, though he sometimes punished severely, that he might strike terror into his enemies. The humane disposition of this prince prompted him to acts of mercy; and the generous confidence with which he treated those whom he forgave never failed to attach them to his person.

After the death of Karim Khan, the succession to the crown was, as usual, disputed; and in the course of these contests his four sons either perished under the daggers of assassins, or were sacrificed in the intrigues of ambitious chiefs contending for the crown. Zaki Khan, the moment his father died, assumed the reins of government; whilst Sadak Khan at the same time evacuated Basrah, and advanced towards Shiraz. But he was unable to contend against Zaki, and was soon forced to retire. In the meantime, Agha Muhammad Khan Kajar, who had been detained prisoner at Sardar, and who was daily apprised by his sister, an inmate of the royal harem, of the progress of Karim Khan's successor, and of his death, contrived to escape to Mazandaran, where he proclaimed himself a conqueror for four days. The cruellest of Zaki, who had previously murdered a number of his rebellious nobles, after pledging his faith for their safety, soon provoked revenge, and he himself was put to death at Yazdikast. Abul Fateh Khan was proclaimed king of Persia the moment Zaki Khan was put to death. Sadak Khan hastened from Karmán to Shiraz, when he heard of the assassination of Zaki and proclaimed himself king, arresting the person of Abul Fateh Khan, and causing his eyes to be put out. He was besieged in his capital by his nephew 'Ali Murad Khan, his most formidable enemy, and, being obliged to surrender, he was put to death, with most of his followers. 'Ali Murad was, in his turn, put down by another rival, Jafar Khan, nephew of Karim, and Agha Muhammad, who at length the only rivals left to contend for the throne. The former having disputed one of his chief supporters, Háji 'Ali Kuli, he engaged in a conspiracy against him; and having put poison in his victuals, he and others rushed into his chamber when he was writhing under its effects, and put a period to his existence. He was succeeded by Luft 'Ali Khan, who was one of the most remarkable characters recorded in the Persian annals. His appearance was greatly in his favour; his fine countenance full of animated expression; his form tall and graceful, and, though slender, active and strong. He was at Karmán when he heard of his father's murder, which took place in the year 1769; and though Sayyid Muhammed Khan was first proclaimed king by the conspirators, yet, by the aid of Háji Ibrahim, appointed by his father the first magistrate of the province of Fars, he was soon enabled to assert his claim to the crown. He was bold in counsel and fearless in action, and maintained a long and well-sustained struggle for the sovereignty, in the course of which he performed prodigies of valour. But he wanted prudence and temper, and had no control over his passions. Unbending in his pride, and harsh and unconciliating in his manners, he employed terror as the chief source of his influence. His great error was in quarrelling with and disgusting his faithful minister Háji Ibrahim, a star of consummate prudence and talent, who abandoned his service for that of his rival and most formidable enemy, 'Ali Murad Khan, and was ever afterwards his most formidable enemy. 'Ali Murad maintained the contest for six years; but he was at length overwhelmed by the superior forces of his enemy. Flying from Persia, he was treacherously seized, after a brave resistance, in which he was seriously wounded, and being delivered into the hands of Agha Muhammed Khan, was treated with a brutality of insult which is too shocking to be described, and which, Sir John Malcolm adds, disgraced human nature. His eyes were torn out, and he was sent to languish out a miserable existence in Tebriz, where an order was soon afterwards sent for his execution. Luft 'Ali terminated his extraordinary career in 1795, in the twenty-fifth year of his age. Nor was Agha Muhammed's cruel treatment of the inhabitants of Karmán less shocking. The place was the last stronghold of Luft 'Ali. It was defended by him with his usual bravery, and being at length taken by treachery, became the scene of the most dreadful atrocities. The place was almost depopulated. Many women and children, to the number of 20,000, were carried into slavery. The men were murdered, and numbers were deprived of sight, many of whom were afterwards seen by Sir John Malcolm begging their bread. Luft 'Ali was the last of the Zand family of princes, who had ruled over Persia for nearly half a century.

Agha Muhammed Khan having now firmly established himself upon the throne of Persia, his first care was to restore order throughout his dominions, and to repel foreign aggression. Having tranquillized the southern and central provinces, he invaded Armenia and Karabagh, and, marching straight to Tiflis, he defeated Heraclius, prince of Georgia; and having taken the city, he sacked it, and made a dreadful slaughter of the inhabitants, carrying away into slavery 20,000 women and children. He then turned his arms eastward, subdued Khurásán, and repressed the incursions of the pillaging Turkméns in the vicinity of Astarbád, as well as of the Uzbaks in Bukháría. But however rigorous his administration, and however active in the field, all his exploits were stained with cruelties. His avarice was unbounded; and he spared at no atrocity to gratify it. He had long thirsted after the jewels of which Nádir Sháh had despoiled India, and these he wrested without remorse from their unfortunate possessors. From the aged and blind Sháh Rukh he extorted, by the severest tortures, several of those which were the most precious, particularly a ruby which had belonged to Sháh Sháh, and which was of enormous rarity size and value. This precious stone was conveyed to the last, until boiling lead had been poured upon the head of the unhappy prince, when, in his intolerable agony, he declared where it was hidden. He was afterwards conveyed to Damghán in Khurásán, where he died in a few days, in the sixty-third year of his age, in consequence of the tortures to which he had been subjected.

Agha Muhammed Khan succeeded in tranquillizing the country, partly by policy, and still more by terror. He often spared his enemies, and conciliated them, not however from any feelings of humanity, but from a sense of his own interests; for his disposition was stern, cruel, and vindictive, and his reign presents a series of atrocities scarcely equaled by the bloody annals of the East.

'Ali Khan, chief of the Afshar tribe, had opposed Agha Muhammed in the field. He was decoyed into his power by the deepest treachery, and being arrested amidst fawning and caresses, his eyes were put out. The brave and generous Jafar Khan, his own brother, was in like manner seduced, by the kindest assurances, to visit the court of Tebriz, where, after being welcomed with every appearance of cordiality, he was cruelly assassinated. This act stamps upon Agha Muhammed the character of a remorseless tyrant. In truth, a temper naturally cruel had been still more soured by cruelties he had himself undergone in his youth.

Agha Muhammed being apprised of the invasion of Persia by Russia, sent his army to defend the frontier; but the death of the Empress Catharine relieved Persia from the serious danger with which it was threatened. Agha Muhammed then determined to move towards Georgia; and having received a friendly deputation from the inhabitants of Shíráz, he proceeded with some light troops, and took possession of this important fortress. Three days afterwards, a dispute having occurred between a Georgian slave, a personal attendant on the monarch, and another slave, regarding some money that was missing, the king, enraged at the noise which they made, directed that they should both be put to death. Sadak Khan Shékháki, a nobleman of the highest rank, solicited their pardon, which was granted; but as it was the night of Friday, sacred to prayer, their lives were spared till next morning, and, with a singular infatuation, the despot permitted them to perform their religious services about his person. Despair gave them courage; and whilst the monarch was asleep, they entered his tent, accompanied by an associate, and stabbed him with their poniards. He was then in the sixty-third year of his age, and had ruled for upwards of twenty years, though he had enjoyed the disputed sovereignty of the country for only a small portion of that time.

Agha Muhammed was a man of no mean talent; he appeared like a youth of fourteen or fifteen. His face was beardless and shrivelled, resembling that of an aged and wrinkled woman; it was at most only tolerable, or agreeable, and when clouded with indignation, as it often was, its expression was horrible. He was so sensible of this that he could not bear any one to look at him. He was harsh and abrupt, and often cruel to his ministers and to his domestics. Háji Ibrahim, however, was uniformly treated with unbounded confidence. "The penetration of the monarch," says Sir J. Malcolm, "discovered at once the merit of that extraordinary man, whose plainness of manner, blunt speech, manly fortitude, and astonishing knowledge of public affairs, led Agha Muhammed to give him his entire confidence, and no confidence was ever better rewarded. The minister, though he contrived to gratify the avarice of his master, and to promote his ambition, often obtained favour for others through the kindness of his disposition, whenever he could interfere without danger to himself."

By the influence and wise management of Háji Ibrahim, the crown was secured to the nephew of the deceased monarch, who assumed the sovereignty under the title of Fath 'Ali Shah. Sandak Khan made a feeble effort to oppose him, but was attacked and defeated. Two other attempts to usurp the crown, the one made by the king's brother Husain Kuli Khan, and the other by Muhammad Khan, a prince of the Zand family, were subdued; and since this period the internal tranquillity of the country has not been disturbed. The most important events in the reign of Fath 'Ali were connected with the wars which he entered into with Russia, and which generally proved unfavourable to Persia. In 1826 Persia finally submitted to the dominion of Russia, and in 1830 Mingrelia was subjected. Georgia was the last, and although the invaders were unable to raise the siege of Erivan they overran Daghestan and Shirvan; and in 1825 Kirghiz yielded to their victorious arms. The interference of Great Britain arrested the progress of Russian conquest; and Persia was saved from further inroads by the treaty of Gulistan, concluded in October 1813, which fixed the relative boundaries so indefinitely, as, after much tedious negotiation, to give rise to a new war. In this war, which commenced in the month of July 1826, Abbas Mirza, the prince royal of Persia, took the field, with 40,000 men, 12,000 of whom were regulars; and at the outset he gained several important advantages. But the superior discipline of the Russian armies, and the wars of Europe, triumphed in the end; and in 1829, seeing no prospect of maintaining the war with success, peace was again sought for through the mediation of Great Britain. It was concluded on the 21st of February at Turkamanchai. Besides large cessions of territory,—namely, the Khanat of Erivan, and that of Nakhchivan, and the greater part of Talish, including all the islands which fall within its direction,—Persia agreed to pay 5,000,000 of roubles, as an indemnification for the expenses of the war. Since this treaty the peace of the two countries has not been disturbed; and the prince royal, turning his attention to the internal concerns of his kingdom, has succeeded in reducing the rebellious chiefs of Khurasan. By the aid of a Polish refugee, equally skilful and brave, he acquired possession of Tees, both Turkish and Khurasan, by force, and reduced to obedience all the other chiefs in that quarter.

Fath 'Ali Shah was about forty years old when he succeeded his uncle Aga Mohammad on the throne. He reigned nearly thirty-eight years, and died in October 1834. With the exception of his wars with Russia, the tranquillity of his long reign was almost undisturbed. By the treaty of Turkamanchai in 1828, the Russian frontier had been advanced to Mount Ararat, and thence to the left bank of the Aras. This acquisition was regarded by Russia as only a step to further advances; and as soon as Muhammad Shah, the eldest son of Abbas Mirza, had been securely settled on the throne of his grandfather, Fath 'Ali, he had Russian influence at Tehran, commenced negotiations with the object of inducing the new shah to advance against Hirsch. As the shah had been placed on the throne by the aid of English arms and influence, in opposition to the efforts of his numerous uncles and nephews, this movement, so contrary to the interests of the British, was a piece of base ingratitude. The shah was fully aware how displeasing any attempt upon Hirsch would be to the English government; for in 1832 Fath 'Ali had been induced by the English envoy to abandon an expedition against that city, in spite of the encouragement of the Russians, who even sent Baron Ache, an officer of engineers, to accompany it. In the winter of 1833, however, Muhammad Shah announced his intention to march against Hirsch; and the English ambassador, using every effort to dissuade him, and to compel the dismission of the shah and the ruler of Hirsch Prince Kamaran. Nevertheless, the shah persevered in his intention, and marched, accompanied by the Russian minister, in August 1834; but having attacked the Turkomans on his way, his army was so much harassed by them as to be obliged to return towards Persia in October of the same year. About this time Sir John McNeill had replaced Mr Ellis at the court of Tehran, and continued to remonstrate with the shah on the subject of Hirsch. On the 23rd of July 1837, however, the shah marched again against Hirsch; and on the 10th of October Captain Vicovich, a secret agent of the Czar, joined the Persian camp, and proceeded thence to Kandahar and Kabul, announcing that a Russian force had arrived at Astrakhan to co-operate with the shah. This report led to such an effect upon the Afghans, that it was thought advisable to recall the British agent Mr Murray, who resided at Kandahar, and Captain A. Burnes from Kabul. Kandahar Khan, the ruler of Kandahar, now bound himself by treaty to become the subject of Persia, and the Russian minister, Count Simenovitch, took the command of the Persian troops in the trenches before Hirsch, and a regiment of Russian deserters were allowed to take part in the assault. The siege of Hirsch lasted ten months, and the defence was one of the most memorable in history. The sufferings of the inhabitants were dreadful; and the population was reduced from 70,000 to about one-tenth of that number. But every assault was repulsed, chiefly through the courage and skill of Lieutenant Eldred Pottinger, an officer of the East India Company's artillery. At the same time the Anglo-Indian government, to counteract the designs of Persia, despatched an armament to occupy the island of Kharg in the Persian Gulf, and concluded a treaty with Shah Shuja'a and Dost Mohammad to destroy the Bārakzai chiefs, Kohandil and Dost Mohammad, and place Shah Shuja'a, the ally of the British, on the throne of Kabul. This treaty was signed on the 23rd of June 1838; and the whole of Afghanistan was shortly after occupied by British troops. These operations, and the determined defence of Hirsch completely overthrew the ambitious designs of the shah. He returned to Tehran, and the Russian government hastened to disavow all intentions hostile to the British. In 1839 a Russian army of 15,000 men marched from Orenburg, under General Perofski, against Khiva. It had been collected in anticipation of the shah's advance on Hirsch; but it failed against Khiva, nor less significantly did the shah do in the other directions; and the greatest part of the troops perished in the snows. In 1841, immediately after the destruction of the English army at Kabul was known, the Russians again commenced their ambitious movements on the side of Persia. They established a naval station at Ashurabad, an island in the Gulf of Astarahabad, about 12 miles from the coast, and established a complete supremacy in the Caspian, in which sea they are now supposed to have four or five steamers, and several brigs and schooners of war.

Muhammad Shah died in August 1848 at Tehran, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Nasrud-din, the present shah. Colonel Farrant, an English officer serving in Persia, was the main instrument in securing the quiet accession of the new king, and held the capital for him till he arrived from Kermānshāh, of which province he was governor. Friendly relations had been renewed between the English and Persian governments; but the subject of Hirsch had not been lost sight of by the court of Tehran. Shah Kamaran had been murdered by his vizir, Yār Muhammad Khan, and this vizir chief had long before engrossed the chief power in that principality. His policy was to maintain independence, while he soothed the shah by courtesies which cost him little. But in 1851 Yār Muhammad died; and his son Sayyid Muhammad, less confident of his position, sent envoys to Tehran offering to become the subject of Persia. In response to these offers, a Persian force was prepared under Sultan Murad Mirza, the governor of Khurasan, nominally against the Turkomans, but really for the acquisition of Hirsch. Colonel Smith, the British envoy, at once remonstrated against this expedition; and on August the 7th, 1851, distinctly announced to the Amir Nizam, or prime minister, that a perseverance in the proposed course would bring on a rupture with Great Britain. After a long correspondence, the Persian government, on the 25th of January 1853, signed an agreement not to send troops to Hirsch until that place should be attacked by a foreign force. New difficulties, however, soon arose. In 1854 Mr Thomson, in charge of British affairs, appointed Mirza Hashem to be first Persian secretary of the mission, an appointment so obnoxious to the shah that the Persian government declined to receive the mirza, and, on his destination being changed to Shiraz, notified to Mr Murray, who was now the British envoy, that the shah the mirza set out for his post, he would be seized, and forcibly removed. This menace was given on the 6th of November 1855, and immediately afterwards the mirza's wife was seized by order of the Persian minister. On the 17th Mr Murray officially intimated, that unless the lady was released, the flag of the mission would be hauled down, and friendly relations would cease; and as this menace produced no effect, the flag was struck on the 20th of November, and on the 5th of December the mission withdrew from Tehran. The Persian government then published a justification of its conduct, which set forth that Mr Murray was carrying on an intrigue with the wife of Mirza Hashem; and in an autograph note to his prime minister the shah indulged in the most intemperate language against Mr Murray, charging him with "treachery" and speaking of him as "stupid, ignorant, and insane." In the same month of December Prince Sultan Murad Mirza put himself at the head of 3000 men intended to act against Hirsch. It must be admitted that there was some colour for this expedition, as a tribute had been guaranteed to the shah from the city, and, further, Prince Muhammad Yusuf, the son of Kamaran, who, after putting Sayyid Muhammad to death, had recovered his heritage, had applied to Persia for aid, alleging that he was threatened with an attack by Dost Mohammad of Kabul. On the 27th of February 1856 the Persian government, doubtless encouraged by the Russian success