Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/670

 640 PERSIA [MODERN 1715-1736. ready to overwhelm the doomed Safawi dynasty. The Siiduztii tribe revolted at Herat, and declared itself independent in 1717 ; the Kurds overran the country round Ilamadan ; the Uzbeks deso lated Khurasan ; and the Arabs of Maskat seized the island of Al- Bahraiu and threatened Bandar - Abbas. Thus surrounded by dangers on all sides the wretched shah was bewildered. He made one vain attempt to regain his possessions in the Persian Gulf; but the Portuguese fleet which had promised to transport his troops to Al-Bahrain was defeated by the imam of Maskat and forced to retreat to Goa. Afghan The court of Ispahan had no sooner received tidings of this invasion, disaster than Mahmud, with a large army of Afghans, invaded Persia in the year 1721, seized Karman, and in the following year advanced to within four days march- of the city of Ispahan. The shah ottered him a sum of money to return to Kandahar, but the Afghan answered by advancing to a place called Gulnabad, within 9 miles of the capital. The effeminate and luxurious courtiers were taken completely by surprise ; no preparation had been made, and the capital was unprovided with either provisions or ammunition. The ill -disciplined Persian arm}, hastily collected, advanced to attack the rebels. Its centre was led by Shaikh All Khan, covered by twenty-four field-pieces. The wali of Arabia commanded the right, and the itimadu d-daulah, or prime minister, the left wing. The whole force amounted to 50,000 men, while the Afghans could not count half that number. On 8th March 1722 the richly-dressed hosts of Persia appeared before the little band of Afghans, who were scorched and disfigured by their long marches. The wall of Arabia commenced the battle by attacking the left wing of the Afghans with great fury, routing it, and plundering their camp. The prime minister immediately afterwards attacked the enemy s right wing, but was routed, and the Afghans, taking advantage of the confusion, captured the Persian guns and turned them on the Persian centre, who fled in confusion without striking a blow. The wall of Arabia escaped into Ispahan, and Mahmud the Afghan gained a complete victory. Fifteen thousand Persians remained dead on the field. A panic now seized on the surrounding inhabitants, thousands of country people fled into the city, and the squares and streets were filled with a helpless multitude. Ispahan was then one of the most magnificent cities in Asia, containing more than 600,000 inhabit ants. After his victory Mahmud seized on the Armenian suburb of Julfa, and invested the doomed city ; but Tahmasp, son of the shah, had previously escaped into the mountains of Mazandaran. Famine soon began to press hard upon the besieged, and in September Shah Ilusain offered to capitulate. He agreed to abdicate in favour of Mahmud, and to deliver himself np as a Mali- prisoner. Having been conducted to the Afghan camp, he fixed mud s the royal plume of feathers on the young rebel s turban with his usurpa- own hand ; and 4000 Afghans were ordered to occupy the palace tion. and gates of the city. 1 Mahmud entered Ispahan in triumph, with the captive shah on his left hand, and, seating himself on the throne in the royal palace, he was saluted as sovereign of Persia by the unfortunate Husain. When Tahmasp, the fugitive prince, received tidings of the abdication of his father he at once assumed the title of shah at Kazvin. Turkey and Russia were not slow to take advantage of the cala mities of Persia. The Turks seized on Tiflis, Tabriz, and Hamadan, while Peter the Great, whose aid had been sought by the friendless Tahmasp, fitted out a fleet on the Caspian. 2 The Russians occupied Shirwan, and the province of Gilan on the south-west corner of the Caspian 3 ; and Peter made a treaty with Tahmasp II. in July 1722, by which he agreed to drive the Afghans out of Persia on condition that Darband (Derbend), Baku, Gilan, Mazandaran, and Astrabad were ceded to Russia in perpetuity. These were all the richest and most important northern provinces of Persia. Meanwhile the cruel invader was deluging Ispahan with the blood of its citizens. Dreading rebellion, in 1723 he invited three hundred of the principal Persian nobility to a banquet and massacred them. To prevent their children rising up in vengeance they were all murdered also. Then he proceeded to slaughter vast numbers of the citizens of Ispahan, until the place was nearly depopulated. Not content with this, in February 1725 he assem bled all the captives of the royal family, except the shah, in the courtyard of the palace, and caused them all to be murdered, com mencing the massacre with his own hand. The wretched Husain, 1 We have an account of the Afghan invasion and sack of Ispahan from an eye-witness, Father Krusinski, procurator of the Jesuits at that place, whose interesting work was translated into English in the last century. - In 1721 Sultan Husain sent an embassy to the Russians, seeking aid against the Afghans. In May 1722 a flotilla descended the Volga commanded by Czar Peter, and on 19th July the Russian flag first waved over the Caspian. Gilan was occupied by 6000 men under General Matusdikin. 3 The Russians remained in Gilan until 1734, when they were obliged to evacuate it, owing to the unhealthiness of the climate. frantic with grief, rushed to this scene of horror, and was himself wounded in endeavouring vainly to save his infant son, only five years of age. All the males of the royal family, except Ilusain himself, Tahmasp, and two children, are said to have perished. At length the inhuman miscreant Mahmud died, at the early age of twenty -seven, on 22d April 1725. With scarcely any neck, he had round shoulders, a broad face with a flat nose, a thin beard, and squinting eyes, which were generally downcast. Mahmud was succeeded in his usurpation by his first cousin Ashraf, the son of Mir Abdallah. He was a brave but cruel Afghan. He gave the dethroned shah a handsome allowance, and strove, by a mild policy, to acquire popularity. In 1727, after a short war, he signed a treaty with the Turks, acknowledging the sultan as chief of the Moslems. But the fortunate star of Tahmasp II. was now beginning to rise, and the days of Afghan usurpation were numbered. He had collected a small army in Mazandaran, and was supported by Fatli AH Kluin, the powerful chief of the Kajar tribe. In 1727 the fugitive shall was joined by Nadir Kuli, a robber chief, who was already famous for his undaunted valour, and who was destined to become the mightiest conqueror of the age. He murdered Fath Ah, and, having easily appeased the shah, received the command of the royal arrny. In 1729 Ashraf Expul- became alarmed at these formidable preparations in the north, andsion of led an Afghan army into Khurasan, where he was defeated by Afghan Nddir at Damghan, and forced to retreat. The Persian general followed close in his rear, and again entirely defeated him outside Ispahan in November of the same year. The Afghans fled through the town ; and Ashraf, murdering the poor old shah Husain on his way, hurried with the wreck of his army towards Shirdz. On 16th November the victorious Nadir entered Ispahan, and was soon followed by his master, the young shah Tahmasp II., who burst into tears when he beheld the ruined and defaced walls of the palace of his ancestors. His mother, who had escaped the numerous massacres by disguising herself as a slave, and performing the most degrading offices, now came forth and threw herself into his arms. Nadir did not give his enemies time to recover from their defeat. He followed them up, and again utterly routed them in January 1730. Ashraf tried to escape to Kandahar almost alone, but was murdered by a party of Balucli robbers ; and thus, by the genius of Nadir, his native land was delivered from the terrible Afghan invaders. The ambition of Nadir, however, was far greater than his loyalty. On the pretext of incapacity he dethroned Tahmasp II. in 1732, and sent him a prisoner into Khurasan, where he was murdered some years afterwards by Nadir s son, while the conqueror was absent on his Indian expedition. For a short time the wily usurper placed Tahmasp s son on the throne, a little child, with the title of Abbas III., while he contented himself with the office of regent. Poor little Abbas died at a very convenient time, in Fall of the year 1736, and Nadir then threw off the mask. He was pro-Safawis. claimed shah of Persia by a vast assemblage on the plain of Moglian. By the fall of the Safawi dynasty Persia lost, as it were, her race of national monarchs, considered not only in respect of origin and birthplace but in essence and in spirit. The Persians have never been governed by more truly representative kings than Lsma il, Tahmasp, and Abbas ; and, whatever their faults and failings, they were Persian and peculiar to Persians. Thoroughly to realize this truth we must endeavour for a moment to change our own for the Oriental standpoint, and accept even the murders and excesses committed as an outcome of the age, place, and circumstances, and as natural as are the freaks of unrestrained childhood. Regarded in a sober English spirit, the reign of the great AbbAs is rendered mythical by crime. No sovereign could be great in the estimation of civilized Europe who acted as lie did on certain occasions. No victory or healthy legislation could compensate for moments of madness, which, under Western orthodoxy, must mar a whole career. But something liberal in the philosophy of their progenitors threw an attractiveness over the earlier f^afawi kings which was wanting in those who came after them. In course of time the old philo sophical element disappeared ; and one of Shdh Husafn s immediate predecessors not only disavowed all sympathy with Sufism but threatened to crush it where detected. The fact is that, two centuries after Shdh Isma il s acces sion to the throne, the ^afawi race of kings was effete ; and it became necessary to make room for a more vigorous if not a more lasting rule. Nadir was the strong man for