A History of Persia/Chapter 3

by Robert Grant Watson

CHAPTER III.

Origin of the Kajar Tribe—Its three Branches—Its settlements—Astrabad Branch of Kajars—Upper and Lower Kajars—Astrabad—Unsettled Condition of that Province—Ak-kaleh—Rhages—Rhei—Tehran—Its early Condition—Aga Mahomed Khan—His Brothers—Cruel Treatment to which Aga Mahomed was subjected—Kindness shown to him by Kereem Khan—Lutf'ali Khan—Cruelty of Aga Mahomed—Haji Ibraheem—His Defection from the Chief of the Zend—Decisive Battle—Siege of Kerman—Death of Lutf'ali Khan.

IF we give credit to the Persian historian of the Kajars we must believe that that tribe can trace its origin as far back as to the time of Terek, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah. But without referring to remote antiquity, it is sufficient to state that the tribe of Kajar has been known to exist for the last several hundred years. It is of Turkish origin, and was early divided into three branches, the Suldoos, the Tengkoot, and the Jelayer. The Suldoos never came to Persia. The Tengkoot branch, which only consisted of thirty or forty families, became incorporated with the Moghul tribes. The Jelayer became settled in Iran and Turan, and seem at first to have given their name to all the tribe.

A Kajar or Jelayer chief, called Sertak Nooyan, was, under the Moghuls, naib, or deputy-governor, of all the country from the Oxus to Rhei. He, himself, we are told, resided near the banks of the Goorgan River, and from this circumstance dates the connection of the Kajar tribe with the province of Astrabad. At his death his government was made over to his son Kajar Nooyan, who gave his name to the whole of his tribe; and his offspring became illustrious in Persia, and in the neighbourhood of the Goorgan. After the downfall of the descendants of Genghis Khan, the Kajars united with a Turkoman chief called Hassan Beg, who took service with the Sefaveean Shahs. The mother of Shah Ismail was of the Kajar tribe, which circumstance secured to them much influence during the reign of that sovereign. Shah Tahmasp deputed a Kajar on an embassy to the Sublime Porte, who concluded a treaty between the Sultan and his master.^[1]

In the Persian annals of the year of the Hejira 969, it is recorded that the provinces of Karabagh, Genja, Khorassan, Merve and Astrabad, were ruled over by the two great branches of the Kajars, called Zeeadloo and Kavanloo. Their influence seems to have rendered Shah Abbass somewhat apprehensive; and, in order to make it innocuous, he divided them into three branches. Of these, one was sent to Merve and Khorassau; another was established in Karabagh; and the third was settled at Astrabad, and on the banks of the Goorgan. In these exposed situations the Kajars soon became greatly reduced in, strength, on account of their losses in the frontier wars with Lesghis, Turks, and Turkomans.

The branch of the Kajar tribe which was settled on the Goorgan and in the province of Astrabad, became subdivided into two sections, which, from the relative position of their pasture-grounds, received the distinguishing names of Yukhari-bash, and Ashagha-bash, or the upper Kajars, and the lower Kajars. Another account states that the origin of this distinction arose from the circumstance that at the fort of Thebarekabad, the upper part was assigned to one branch, while the lower was given over to the other. The chief of the upper branch was considered to be the head of the whole division of the tribe until the time of Shah Tahmasp, the son of Hussein; but when Fetteh Ali Khan, who was the chief of the lower division, became one of the two generals of that prince, his position gave him a preponderating influence in his tribe, of the whole of which he then became the chief.^[2] When he was put to death by Nadir, the influence of that general was employed in favour of the chief of the upper branch of the Kajars, whom he made governor of Astrabad, while the son of Fetteh Ali Khan had to take refuge with the Turkomans. It has been already stated that Mahomed Hassan Khan by their aid at one time obtained possession of the city of Astrabad, and that in his final struggle with the general of Kereem Khan he was deserted by the chief of the upper division of the Kajars, and in his flight was recognized by the same person, and put to death.

After this event his sons took refuge with the Turkomans, but they yielded themselves later to Kereem Khan, who assigned Khasveen^[3] as a place of residence for the family. The two eldest sons, who were complained of by the inhabitants of that city, were removed to Sheeraz.

This branch of the Kajar tribe was settled near Astrabad. That province lies along the south-eastern extremity of the Caspian Sea. It is of limited extent, being in length not more than a hundred miles, while its breadth varies from four to forty miles. It possesses great natural resources, which are for the most part left undeveloped. Attached to the government of Astrabad are the nomad Turkoman tribes of Yemoot and Goklan, the latter of which is bound to contribute one half of the revenue. Only one town now exists in the province, but many ruins attest its superior prosperity in the time of Nadir. Ak-kaleh, Giour-kaleh Perez and Shahrek appear, from what remains of them, to have each greatly exceeded in circumference the present city of Astrabad. That place is now in a state of dilapidation, and its walls are in so ruinous a condition that parties of plundering Turkomans have often passed through the gaps into the city. Astrabad is about twelve miles distant from the sea, is situated on rising ground, which commands a view over a lovely plain, and is backed by wooded hills and snow-clad mountains. No landscape could be fairer than that presented by the neighbourhood of Astrabad; but no district has ever witnessed a more constant succession of deeds of blood and violence. The Persian peasants are at all times liable to be called from their out-of-door labour to take part in the defence of their villages, against parties of ruthless marauders who live on spoil, and who carry away with equal indifference either the produce of Persian rice-fields for their maintenance, or the inmates of the peasants' cottages to be sold as slaves in the marts of Khiva and Bokhara. Under no circumstances can a Persian ever venture to go unarmed from one village of the province of Astrabad to another; and even an escort is no sure protection, as the robbers come, for the most part, in numbers sufficient to enable them to combat any force which they are likely to encounter.

Ak-kaleh, near Astrabad, was the seat of government of Mahomed Hassan Khan, and from thence he gradually established his power over the whole region which lies between the Elburz mountains and the Caspian Sea. When the fortune of his son, Aga Mahomed Khan, had made him master not only of these provinces, but also of all central Persia from the frontier of Khorassan to the uttermost limits of Azerbaeejan, that chief was mindful of the events which had transpired in Persia in his own time. He had seen his father again and again obliged to retreat to Astrabad and fall back upon the support of his own tribe, and, on the death of Kereem Khan, he had seen the seemingly well-established power of the Zend princes successfully disputed by himself. However firmly, therefore, the Kajar rule seemed under him to be planted, experience did not warrant him in assuming that there would be no further changes in the line of the rulers of Persia. He or his successors might, like his father, have to retreat behind the Elburz, and trust to the assured fidelity of their clansmen. He did not, therefore, venture to establish his seat of government at a spot so far removed from the pasture-grounds of the Kajars, as was the ancient capital of Persia. Two hundred and fifty miles to the north of Ispahan, there was a town which, though before the time of Aga Mahomed it was comparatively a place of small account, yet possessed the advantage of lying at the foot of the Elburz mountains. The plain of which it was the chief city had in turn boasted of the very ancient town of Rhages,^[4] and of the modern Mahomedan city of Rhei, which is said to have contained a population of 1,500,000 souls,^[5] and to have been, after Babylon, the largest city the East ever saw. Of Rhages all that now remains is the name of Erij, and near where it stood are the fortifications of a Greek camp, supposed to have been constructed by Seleucus. Of Rhei we can still trace the walls, which enclose an enormous space; and two towers, with cufic inscriptions engraved on their bricks, still attract the attention of the traveller.

The earliest mention of Tehran^[6] occurs in the writings^[7] of an Oriental author of the twelfth century. At that time its inhabitants, like Troglodytes, had their dwelling-places entirely under ground; a state of things which continued until the fifteenth century of the Christian era. The people of Tehran of those times are said to have lived in a constant state of insurrection against their sovereign, waylaying those who passed by the neighbourhood, and retiring to their caves when pursued. There were no means of dislodging them from their subterranean city. The first European traveller who visited Tehran,^[8] describes it as being, in the year 1618, a spacious town which contained few inhabitants, and which was chiefly devoted to gardens. From the chenars which shaded nearly all the streets, he called it the city of plane-trees. In the time of the Sefaveean Shahs it was the chief city of a province, and it was at different epochs honoured by being the place of a temporary residence of those kings. It did not lie along the routes frequented by the chief caravans, and its industry was purely agricultural. Shah Tahmasp, the son of Hussein, took refuge with his harem at Tehran, during the Affghan invasion. That prince there received an embassy from the Ottoman Porte. The city was besieged by the Affghans, and was almost entirely destroyed by those ruthless invaders; but Tahmasp, whom they wished to secure, was able to effect his escape. From this period onwards the name of Tehran^[9] appears frequently in the annals of Persia. Nadir Shah, on his return from India, ordered the priests of all the professions of faith of the peoples of his dominions, to meet him at Tehran,^[10] in order that he might come to an understanding with his subjects regarding the adoption of a reasonable religion. It was at Tehran that that tyrant caused his son Reza to be deprived of his eyesight; and the unfortunate prince was subsequently massacred in the same town, by order of his cousin, Adel Shah. It was to Tehran that Kereem Khan retreated with the remnant of his shattered forces after his first defeat by Mahomed Hassan Khan.^[11] It was from Tehran that the general of All Murad attempted to put down the revolt of Aga Mahomed Khan. That town was then, for the first time, taken by the Kajar chief, who, however, was quickly driven out of it. On again obtaining possession of it, he made it the base of his future operations, and finding it conveniently situated for communicating with the central and western districts of Persia, while at the same time it was within a short distance of the habitation of the Kajar tribe, he determined to make it the capital of the country; a position which it has ever since continued to hold.

A French traveller, who visited Tehran in the reign of Aga Mahomed,^[12] gives a minute description of the appearance which that city then presented. From the fact that the bazars and the mosques, as well as the houses of the people and the palace of the king, were all new, it appeared that the place must, at a previous period not long past, have been almost completely destroyed by the Affghans. Aga Mahomed, having chosen Tehran as his capital, erected in it, for the convenience of travellers and merchants, commodious caravanserais and places for transacting business, which made the former provincial town one of the handsomest cities in Persia. Tehran was surrounded by a square wall of earth, and by a broad ditch. The extent of the walls was about seven miles, but only a small portion of the area therein inclosed was inhabited in the time of Aga Mahomed. Large vacant spaces and extensive gardens occupied a great part of the ground, and nearly a fourth of the city was devoted to the ark, or citadel, which contained only the palace of the king. In each of the four faces of the wall there was a gate, defended by a large round tower, three hundred yards in front of it, which towers were made to contain two or three pieces of cannon. But notwithstanding all the endeavours which Aga Mahomed made to people his new capital; notwithstanding the aid which he held out to the merchants and artisans who came to settle in it; the population which it contained towards the end of his reign did not exceed fifteen thousand souls, including the household and troops of the king, who amounted to three thousand.

Aga Mahomed Khan was the eldest of the nine sons of Mahomed Hassan Khan, Kajar, who lost his life, as we have seen, by the hand of the chief of the rival branch of the Kajars. It has been stated that some time after his death his family came to Kasveen, a city which lies ninety miles to the west of Tehran. At first only two of the sons were brought to Sheeraz; but it appears that other members of the family afterwards followed them to that place, where, though they were detained as prisoners at large, they were treated with the greatest kindness by the chief of the Zend. The second brother, Hussein, was afterwards entrusted with the government of Damghan. He rebelled, and on being defeated by the brother of Kereem, who was sent to put down his revolt, he fled to the Turkomans, and was put to death. He left two sons, the elder of whom, Fetteh Ali Khan, afterwards became king of Persia. This Hussein Khan was the only full brother of Aga Mahomed. Notwithstanding his revolt, the Zend chief conferred upon a younger member of the family the government of Astrabad; but he continued to detain Aga Mahomed and two of his other brothers as hostages at Sheeraz.

Aga Mahomed had in his early years fallen into the hands of Adel Shah, the nephew and successor of Nadir, against whom the Kajar chief maintained himself in revolt. Adel Shah had the cruelty to order that the boy should be reduced to the condition of an eunuch, and this atrocity turned all the victim's thoughts to the pursuit of his ambitious views. He accompanied his father, while still a boy, upon journeys and in various campaigns, and was left by him in charge of the important government of Azerbaeejan. When by his father's death he became the chief of his tribe, had he seen any chance of succeeding, it is probable that he would not have laid aside his efforts to establish the supremacy of the Kajars; but he had the sense to see that the power of Kereem Khan was too well established to admit of the slightest hope of success in such an undertaking during the lifetime of the Zend chief. He accordingly gave himself up with his brothers, and resolved to wait until a more favourable opportunity should present itself of realizing his dreams of ambition. While enjoying the favour and kindness of Kereem, he was used to vent his spite against the triumphant foe of his house by cutting, with a knife which he concealed beneath his robe, the rich carpets of the regent; not reflecting that he hoped that those same carpets would one day come into his own possession. At the death of Kereem he made his escape, along with two of his brothers, from Sheeraz, and raised the standard of revolt in the province of Mazenderan. After a protracted struggle, in which fortune at one time was with him and at another against him, he finally succeeded, as we have seen, in establishing his authority over the centre and the north of Persia, from the borders of Khorassan to the frontier of the Ottoman empire.

Aga Mahomed had still one rival to encounter, Lutf'ali, the grand-nephew of Kereem Khan. No contrast could be greater than that which these two men afforded. Lutf’ali was still a youth, but already he owed his power as much to the fame of his own achievements as to his descent from a race of rulers. He was a model of manly beauty, and was for the most part as just and generous as he was brave and energetic. Aga Mahomed was a man of mature years, and it was to the circumstance of his being the eldest son of his father that he was indebted for being able to overcome the almost insuperable obstacle presented by the fact of his being cut off from the possibility of transmitting his power to the offspring of his body. In person he was miserable to behold; and though he must be admitted to have been possessed of personal courage and of extraordinary energy, yet those qualities were stained by his injustice and ingratitude, his vindictiveness, his suspiciousness, his avariciousness and his cruelty. He owed his success in a great measure to the cooperation of two of his brothers, to whom he solemnly promised the governments of Ispahan and of Kasveen respectively; but when he had gained his object he deprived one of the two of his eyesight and the other of his life. It is revolting to read all the atrocities that are recorded of this monarch. One example will suffice to show the reader the extent to which tyranny and cruelty were carried in his reign. The French writer above referred to^[13] mentions that he was at Tehran at the time of Aga Mahomed's return from Meshed, when the king signalized his arrival by the following act of punishment: At Meshed he had consigned a picture to the care of one of his officers, and on his reaching Tehran he ordered it to be unpacked and brought into his presence. In the course of its transport on a mule or camel over six hundred miles, the glass of the frame had been broken, and the painting itself slightly damaged. For this the eyes of a deserving officer were torn from his head, and, after having been deprived of all he possessed, he was expelled from Tehran.^[14]

"When Aga Mahomed, after his first victory over his rival, had retired from before the walls of Sheeraz, Lutf'ali conceived the project of rendering himself master of Ispahan by a dashing movement which would take that city by surprise. He set out from Sheeraz towards the end of the month of November, at the head of ten thousand cavalry, unencumbered by tents or baggage, or other provisions than a small quantity of rice which each soldier was ordered to carry with him. But the severity of the season rendered this bold enterprise abortive, and after having made but two marches the force returned to Sheeraz. At this time all the south of Persia, from the united streams of Euphrates and Tigris on the west, to the confines of Yezd and Kerman on the east, acknowledged the authority of Lutf'ali. During the following winter he employed himself as well in raising an army for operations when the weather should relent, as in putting in order the different branches of the administration at Sheeraz, and in holding out encouragement to those who wished to extend their commercial transactions. In the following year, as Aga Mahomed did not again advance against Sheeraz, Lutf'ali Khan marched to Kerman, to compel the governor of that province to surrender the city to his authority. Declining to accept the advantageous compromise offered by that chief, he laid siege to Kerman at the beginning of winter, but was unable, owing to the weather, to make any impression upon the place. In the following spring, Lutf'ali Khan determined to advance upon Ispahan, and rescue that city once more from Kajar domination. He had not made more than a few marches from Sheeraz when an event occurred which had the effect of deciding the destinies of Persia.^[15]

The person to whose aid both Lutf'ali Khan and his father had been mainly indebted for the partiality displayed towards them in misfortune by the citizens of Sheeraz was the Kelanter, or civil governor, of Fars, who was named Haji Ibraheem. That magistrate—who was the descendant of a converted Jew—had been appointed to the high post he held by Jafer Khan; and, influenced by gratitude, he had greatly contributed to placing Jafer's son upon the throne. Lutf'ali Khan selected Haji Ibraheem to be his minister, and at first he seemed disposed to place every confidence in him. In view of the services rendered by the Vizeer, it is not extraordinary that his master should have regarded him in the light of his most faithful subject; for it is obvious that had he entertained any views of seizing the government, he would have taken advantage of the opportunity of his prince being destitute and a wanderer. But it is dangerous in Persia for a subject to render too great services to his king: if the latter be at all of a suspicious disposition, evil tongues are not wanting to misrepresent even the greatest services; and such was the case on this occasion. The head of Jafer Khan was said to have been mutilated after his assassination by a man whose ears Jafer had caused to be cut off. This man, however, obtained a full pardon from Lutf'ali, on the intercession of Haji Ibraheem, and he was afterwards included in a list of persons who received robes of honour from the prince. This latter circumstance so enraged the widow of Jafer, that she sent for her son, and violently reproached him with the baseness of his conduct. In Persia, it is considered to be a point of honour to avenge the blood of a relative; and it may be well imagined that this reproach from his mother stung the young prince to the quick. Sending at once for the man he had pardoned, he demanded of him what punishment a person should receive who had behaved badly to his sovereign and benefactor. The unhappy man is said to have replied that such an one deserved to be burnt alive; and Lutf'ali Khan, forgetful of his princely word, had the barbarity to order that this sentence should be forthwith executed on him who had pronounced it. This act caused him the loss of his crown and his life.

Haji Ibraheem, who had obtained the man's pardon, afterwards told the English historian of Persia,^[16] that from that moment he had lost all confidence in Lutf'ali Khan. Satisfied, by what followed, that his own existence was at stake, he took the resolution of removing the crown from the head on which he had placed it, and making over Sheeraz to Aga Mahomed Khan. For this end he took his measures so well that, without any blood having been shed, Lutf'ali was driven to seek safety by fleeing from his own camp with a handful of men, and retreating to the shore of the Persian Gulf. There, by the aid of an Arab chief, he raised a small force with which he appeared before the walls of Sheeraz. The deeds of heroic daring ascribed in Persian story to Rustem and the fabulous heroes of old were now surpassed by the real achievements of Lutf'ali Khan. Aga Mahomed sent a force under one of his generals to the support of Haji Ibraheem; but Lutf'ali, with his band of Arabs, attacked, and after a severe struggle put to flight, this numerous corps. The Kajar prince, on hearing of this defeat, sent another army against his rival, whose troops it outnumbered in the proportion of ten to one. Lutf'ali left his entrenchments on the approach of the enemy, and by his example so animated his men that they again gained a complete victory over the Kajars.

Aga Mahomed now advanced in person at the head of his main body, which was so numerous that we are told the soldiers of Lutf'ali were to it scarcely more than as one to a hundred. The Zend chief attacked and defeated the advanced guard of the enemy, and following up his advantage in the dead of night, he carried confusion and dismay into the camp of the Kajars. He had penetrated to the royal pavilion, where Aga Mahomed awaited him at the head of his guards, when he was assured that the Kajar prince had fled, and entreated not to permit his soldiers to plunder the treasure which his tents contained. Aga Mahomed awaited in calmness the approach of dawn, when the muezzin, by calling the soldiers to prayer, assured them that their king had never deserted his post. The small numbers of the Arabs, who were employed in plundering, were of course discovered by the daylight, and Lutf'ali Khan was compelled to seek safety in flight, which was continued until he reached the province of Kerman. Passing from there into Khorassan, he raised a force with which he was enabled to defeat a corps sent against him, and to lay siege to Darabjerd. On the approach of a Kajar army he raised the siege, and, after having sustained a defeat, once more took refuge in Khorassan. His last exploit was, with the aid of a few followers, to take possession of Kerman.

The city of Kerman, which was the place of refuge of the last Sassanian kings on the Arab invasion of Persia, is situated on the eastern side of a wide plain about half a mile from the foot of some heights, which, crowned by the ruins of an ancient castle,^[17] called the Kalla-i- Dokhter, or Virgin Fortress, extend for a short distance west of a range of high arid rocky hills bounding the plain on the east. As seen from these heights the town presents the following appearance: It is enclosed by a mean wall and dry ditch, both ruinous, and measuring in circumference about two and a half, or three, miles. On the western side stands the citadel, called Bagh-i-Nazar, which contains the residence of the governor and a few insignificant huts. On the eastern side the citadel has a gateway and seven towers on the walls; on its western side a gateway opening into the plain; on its southern face there are five towers, and it is surrounded by a dry ditch.^[18] The town possesses a gateway on each of its four sides. In point of population, Kerman was formerly the second city in Persia. Owing to the scarcity of timber, almost all the houses have arched roofs. The place and the surrounding scenery have a dreary aspect, which is the effect of the absence of trees, the little cultivation, and the few villages which the plain possesses. The space between the present town and the Kala-i-Dokhter was either the site of a former city, or a portion of one.

The heights command the place at a long range, and on these a Kajar army, led by Aga Mahomed Khan in person, took up its position, and set about the task of driving Lutf'ali from his last stronghold. The attack was opened on the western side; but the gallant Zend prince withstood, during a period of four months, all the efforts which the genius and experience of the Kajar chief could suggest for the purpose of compelling Kerman to surrender. It is said that during this time two-thirds of the besieged troops and of the townspeople perished from want of food and water. But the brave Lutf'ali was destined once again to be the victim of treachery. The chief to whom he had confided the charge of the citadel opened its gate to give admission to the Kajar troops, who poured in overwhelming force into the place, and defied all resistance. As the gates of the town were watched by bodies of men sufficiently numerous to prevent the passage of Lutf’ali, the hero threw a few planks over the ditch, which were removed as soon as he and three of his attendants had crossed it. Then, with his wonted impetuosity, he burst through the lines of the enemy, and he succeeded in reaching the town of Bem, in the district of Nermansheer, on the borders of Baloochistan. The brother of the chief of Nermansheer had been with Lutf'ali in Kerman, and three days having elapsed without his appearance, the chief became convinced that, if alive, he must be in the hands of the Kajars. In the hope of being able to save him,^[19] he basely determined to violate the laws of hospitality. Lutf'ali was warned of his danger, but he was loth to give credit to the report of intentions on the part of his host which were so much in contrast with the common practice of the Eastern nations. His few followers, finding him obstinate, consulted their own safety by taking to flight; and when armed men came to seize him, he was unable, alone, effectually to make head against them, notwithstanding a momentary panic which the influence of his presence caused. He had gained the back of his Arab charger, when the blow of a sabre brought the noble animal to the ground, and the rider fell wounded into the hands of his assailants.

In the meantime, Aga Mahomed Khan, by the vengeance which he was wreaking on the inhabitants of Kerman, was teaching other cities the consequences of giving shelter to his foes. He issued orders to deprive all the adult males of their life, or of their eyesight; and the females and children, to the number of twenty thousand, were granted as slaves to the soldiers. But when news reached the conqueror that his enemy had been captured, a stop was put to the slaughter; which had been dictated as much by policy as by cruelty. The vengeance of the royal eunuch was now partly diverted from the citizens of Kerman to be concentrated for the moment on his captive rival. The unsurpassed courage displayed by that ill-fated prince, and the constancy with which he had supported every reverse of fortune, might have been expected to inspire some gleam of pity in the breast of a soldier who had himself known adversity. But no trait of mercy was to be discovered in the conduct of the triumphant Kajar. The eyes of his wounded foe were torn from his head,^[20] and the further treatment to which he was subjected was such as could only have been conceived in the mind of a brutal barbarian.^[21] Aga Mahomed could not at first resolve to renounce the pleasure of knowing that his rival still lived in misery; Lutf'ali was, therefore, sent to Tehran, where, after a time, he suffered, by the bowstring, that death which he had so often braved in battle.

To commemorate the final downfall of the Zend dynasty, Aga Mahomed Khan is said to have decided on forming a pyramid of skulls on the spot where Lutf'ali Khan had been taken; and for that purpose, (according to the authorities I follow,) he decapitated six hundred prisoners, and despatched their heads to Bem, by the hands of three hundred other prisoners; forcing each man to carry the skulls of two of his former comrades. On arriving at Bem, the three hundred survivors met the fate of the other six hundred. The pyramid said to have been thus composed still existed in the year 1810; affording to an English traveller^[22]: a horrid evidence of the implacable and bloodthirsty disposition of the first Kajar Shah. It is beyond question that the city of Kerman was given up for three months to the incessant ravages and plunder of an exasperated army, which, under the sanction of its chiefs, committed the most unheard-of enormities. The wives and daughters of the citizens some of the latter being children of tender years were publicly exposed to the brutality of the soldiers in the very presence of their husbands and fathers, who were afterwards forced to receive them thus dishonoured, or to destroy them with their own hands on the spot. All the fortifications and the elegant structures with which Kerman had been beautified by the Affghans during the period of their possession of this part of Persia, were razed to the ground, and the famous city that had been the emporium of wealth, luxury and magnificence, was doomed to lie desolate for many years, to expiate the crime of having afforded a last shelter to the heroic rival of Aga Mahomed Khan.

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1. A.H. 969: A.D. 1561.
2. To avoid confusion I shall, in the succeeding pages, speak of the Astrabad Kajars as if they formed the whole tribe.
3. Rauzat-es-Sefa.
4. "Et interim tradidi in manū Gabeli fratris mei, qui erat in terra Medorum in urbe Rages, decē talenta argenti."—Tobias, cap. i. v. 14. Editio Sebast. Munsteri.
5. Chardin: vol. ii. p. 411.
6. Notice sur Thehran. Par Langles.
7. The Moadjemel Boldan.
8. "Taheràn è città grande, più di Casciàn, ma poco popolata, e poco habitata, per esser tutta piena dentro di grandissimi giardini, con infinità di frutti d'ogni sorte; i quali, principiando molto a buon' hore, per esser quella città in aria calda assai, si mandano a vender, per tutto 'l paese intorno, più giornate lontano. E sede di Chàn, e capo di provincia; … Son di più le strade ombrate tutte da Platani; di maniera che io chiamo Taheràn la città dei Platani."—Viaggi di Pietro Bella Valle. Roman edition of 1658, p. 306.
9. Chardin speaks of Tehran as being "une petite ville du pays que les anciens geographes appellent la comisene, entre la Parthide, l'Hyrcanie et la Sogdiane."
10. Voyage en Perse. Par Olivier. Vol. v. p. 418.
11. Voyage en Perse. Par Olivier. Vol. vi. p. 47.
12. M. Olivier.
13. M. Olivier.
14. "Mehemet était dans 1'usage, à 1'égard de ses serviteurs qui avaient le malheur de lui déplaire, de leur faire ouvrir le ventre, et arracher les entrailles. Il avait même poussé, à 1'égard de quelques'-uns d'entre eux, 1'atroce barbarie jusqu'à leur mettre les entrailles autour du cou, et les exposer dans cet état, encore vivans, à la dent des animaux carnassiers." … "Cruel, féroce, au-delà de toute expression, il faisait également ouvrir le ventre à ceux de ses sujets Musulmans qui étaient accusés de boire du vin." Voyage en Perse, par Olivier. C. v. p. 135.
15. A.D. 1791.
16. Sir John Malcolm.
17. Mr. Abbott's Notes on the Cities of Southern Persia.
18. "In the ditch," says Mr. Abbott, "I found three brass field-pieces and one brass howitzer. One of the former bore on it the initials of the East India Company. An old gun in a ruinous state lay near, with a crown and cross on it, and the figures 23.3.4. It is probably of Portuguese make."
19. In this hope he was disappointed.
20. "It is stated that Aga Mahomed himself put out the eyes of his rival."—Pottinger’s Travels.
21. "An old man whom I met at Sheerauz, who had served under Lootf Alee Khan in his youth, informed me of this. He had been an eye-witness of the dreadful treatment to which his unhappy master was subjected."—Binning: Two Years’ Travel in Persia.
22. The late Sir Henry Pottinger.—(With reference to this horrid monument, which was seen by Sir H. Pottinger, I have followed the generally received account that of the above-mentioned traveller and of Fraser; but I observe that Mr. Abbott, in his Notes on the Cities of Southern Persia, of which he has kindly allowed me to make use, throws some doubts upon the correctness of the story which attributes the erection of this pillar of skulls to Aga Mahomed Khan, as he could find no verification of this tale when he visited Kerman. It is to be presumed, however, that Pottinger, who travelled in that country nearly forty year's earlier, had good grounds for the statement he makes.)