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 of store-rooms. Besides these there are thirty-seven caravanserais for the special accommodation of muleteers and their animals.

To the third of the Shah's elder sons, Hassan Ali Meerza, was assigned the third of the four most important provinces of Persia, Sheeraz; and to the fourth, Mahomed Veli Meerza, was given the almost equally important government of Khorassan. It was in that quarter that the next danger threatened the safety of the kingdom. The Turkomans of the neighbourhood of Astrabad were roused to war by a man called Haji Yoosuf, a native of Central Asia, who had been outlawed by the King of Bedekhshan. These marauders, however, in a fight which ensued with the Shah's forces, were discouraged by the loss of their leader; and as they could not restore him to life, they thought that the next best thing to do was to cut off his head, in order to secure to themselves the reward which had been offered for it by the King of Bedekhshan. A more serious rebellion, which occurred at the same time, was that of the chiefs of Khorassan, who took the opportunity of Abbass Meerza's defeat to rise against Prince Mahomed Veli. They possessed themselves of Meshed, and whilst they continued to act in concert the prince was unable to oppose any obstacle to their proceedings; but the son of the deceased Syed Mehdi opportunely espoused the cause of the Shah, and by adroitly sowing the seeds of jealousy in the minds of the chiefs, he caused the temporary breaking up of this formidable combination. The chiefs dispersed to their respective strongholds, and the prince resumed the government of Meshed.

In the meantime the ruler of Bokhara, who had been