Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/667

 HISTORY.] PERSIA 637 a letter from Queen Elizabeth to the shah. He was to treat with his majesty of &quot;Trafique and Commerce for our English Marchants,&quot; l but his reception was not encour aging, and led to no result of importance. Tahmdsp died in 1576, after a reign of about fifty- two years. He must have been some sixty-six years of age, having come to the throne at fourteen. Writers describe him as a robust man, of middle stature, wide- lipped, and of tawny complexion. His long reign was hardly a profitable or glorious one to Persia, especially in respect of the losses to Turkey. He was not wanting in soldierly qualities ; but his virtues were rather negative than decided. While one writer acquits him of any re markable vices, and even calls him prudent and generous, another taxes him with love of ease, avarice, and injustice. If it be true that he abandoned his old capital, Tabriz, for Kazvin because the former was too close to Ardabil, his birthplace, and reminded him too keenly of the mean con dition of his grandfather, Shaikh Haidar, his morale must have been low indeed. 2 The deceased shah had a numerous progeny, and on his death his fifth son, Haidar Mirza, proclaimed himself king, supported in his pretensions by the Kizil-bash tribe of Ustiijulu. Another tribe, the Afshdr, insisted on the succession of the fourth son, Isma il. Had it not been that there were two candidates in the field, the contention would have resembled that which arose shortly after Tahmasp s accession. As it was, the claim to guardian ship of the royal person was put forward, but each tribe declared for its own particular nominee. Finally Isma il, profiting from his brother s weak character and the in trigues set on foot against him, obtained his object, and was brought from a prison to receive the crown. The reign of Isma il II. was a short one, less than two years. He was found dead in the house of a confectioner in Kazvin, having left the world either drunk, drugged, or poisoned. No steps were taken to verify the circumstances, for the event itself was a cause of general relief and joy. He has been represented as a tyrant of the worst type, but it is only right to observe that his youth and part of his manhood had been embittered by injustice and ill-treatment. A prisoner in a dreary fort for years, if his accession to power was marked by cruelties such as disgraced the name of Tiberius, he had, like Tiberius, been brutalized by a hard and continuous provocation. He was succeeded by his eldest brother, Muhammad Mirza, otherwise called Muhammad Khudabanda, whose claim to sovereignty had been originally put aside on the ground of physical infirmity. A few words will dispose of this prince s career as a sovereign of Persia. Historians are divided as to his qualities, though he certainly failed to prove, in any shape, equal to the opportunity opened to him. He had the good sense to trust his state affairs almost wholly to an able minister ; but he was cowardly enough to deliver up that minister into the hands of his enemies. His kingdom was distracted by intestine divi sions and rebellion, and the foe appeared also from without. On the east his youngest son, Abbas, held possession of Khurasan ; on the west- the sultan s troops again entered Adarbaijan and took Tabriz. His eldest son, Hamza Mirza, nobly upheld his fortunes to the utmost of his power, reduced the rebel chieftains, and forced the Turks to make peace and retire ; but he was stabbed to death by an assas sin. On the news of his death reaching Khurasan, Murshid Kuli Khan, leader of the Ustujulu Kizil-bash, who had made good in fight his claims to the guardianship of Abbas, at once conducted the young prince from that province to Kazvin, and occupied the royal city. The object was evi dent, and in accordance with the popular feeling. Abbas, who had been proclaimed king by the nobles at Nishdpur 1561-1609. some two or three years before this occurrence, may be said to have now undertaken in earnest the cares of sovereignty. His ill-starred father, at no time more than a nominal ruler, was at Shirdz, apparently deserted by soldiers and people. Malcolm infers that he died a natural death, but when 3 or where is not stated. Alluding to him at this period, he writes, &quot; He was never afterwards mentioned.&quot; The stories originated by Olearius that Hamza and a second son, Isma il, each reigned a few months may refer to attempts on the part of the Kizil-bash chiefs to assert, for one or the other, a share of sovereign power, but do not seem to merit particular consideration. Shah Abbas, the Great, commenced his long and glorious Abbds reign (1586) by retracing his steps towards Khurasan, which tlie had been reinvaded by the Uzbeks almost immediately after : ea his departure thence with the Kizil-bash chief. They had besieged and taken Herat, killed the governor, plundered the town, and laid waste the surrounding country. Abbas advanced to Mashhad, the provincial capital and great resort of Persian pilgrims as the burial-place of Imam Riza, but owing to internal troubles he was compelled to return to Kazvin without going farther east. In his absence Abdul Munim Khdn, the Uzbek commander, attacked the sacred city, obtained possession of it while the shdh lay helplessly ill at Tehran, and allowed his savage soldiers full licence to kill and plunder. The whole kingdom was perplexed, and Abbds had much work to restore confidence and tranquillity. But circumstances rendered impossible his immediate renewal of the Khurasan warfare. He was summoned to Shiraz to put down re bellion in Fdrs ; and, that being over, before he could give his individual attention to drive out the Uzbeks, he had to devise the best means of securing himself against Turkish inroads threatening from the west. He had been engaged in a war with Murdd III. in Georgia. Peace was con cluded between the two sovereigns in 1590 ; but the terms were unfavourable to Persia, who lost thereby Tabriz and one or more of the Caspian ports. A somewhat offensive stipulation was included in the treaty to the effect that Persians were not to curse any longer the first three khalifs, a sort of privilege previously enjoyed by Shi ahs as part and parcel of their religious faith. In 1597 Abbds renewed operations against the Uzbeks, and succeeded in recovering from them Herat and Khurasan. Eastward he extended his dominions to Balkh, and in the south his generals made the conquest of Bahrain (Bahrein), on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, and the territory and islands of the Persian seaboard, inclusive of the moun tainous province of Lar. He strengthened his position in Khurdsan by planting colonies of Kurdish horsemen on the frontier, or along what is called the &quot; atak &quot; or skirt of the Turkman mountains north of Persia. In 1601 the Avar with the Ottoman empire, which had been partially renewed prior to the death of Sultan Murdd in 1595, with little success on the Turkish side, was now entered upon by Abbds with more vigour. Taking advantage of the weak ness of his ancient enemy in the days of the poor volup tuary Muhammad III., he began rapidly to recover the provinces which Persia had lost in preceding reigns, and continued to reap his advantages in succeeding campaigns under Ahmad I., until under Cthman II. a peace was signed restoring to Persia the boundaries which she had obtained under the first Isma il. On the other side Kandahar, which Tahmdsp s lieutenant had yielded to the Great Mughal, was recovered from that potentate in 1609. The following slightly abridged extract from Clements Markham s history of Persia, relating to dis tinguished Englishmen of the period, will be an appro- 3 Krusinski says iu 1585.
 * Purchas. - Krusinski.