Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/367

 INSURRECTION AND DEFEAT OF THE SALAR. 347 detained for some time in captivity by Yar Mahomed Khan. The Salar found his way to Serrekhs, and, falling in with a body of several thousand Turkoman horse, he doubled upon the prince, who was pursuing him, and attempted by means of a forced march to gain the city of Meshed. By the 'orders of Hamza Meerza a body of cavalry was sent to oppose him ; but the Salar was victorious in the fight which ensued, and he continued his way to Meshed. He was not, however, in a condi- tion to face the artillery which the prince now brought up against him, and he was once more driven to seek safety in flight, and shelter amongst the Turkomans of the desert. At this time there occurs the first mention in the Persian records of a man whose name is destined to hold an enduring place in Persian history.* The East, so prolific in originators of creeds, had produced a fanatic who was able to obtain spiritual authority over the minds of hundreds of thousands of his countrymen. Syed AH Mahomed, though boasting descent from the lawgiver of Mecca, was the son of a grocer of Sheeraz. Being of a religious disposition, he was sent in his youth to Kerbela, where he sat at the feet of a celebrated doctor of the Mahomedan law. From Kerbela he proceeded to Bushire, and at the latter place he endeavoured by being extinct, or even declining, and the Bab may yet contest with Mahomed the privilege of being regarded as the real prophet of the faithful. Babism in its infancy was the cause of a greater sensation than that even which was produced by the teaching of Jesus, if we may judge from the account of Josephus of the first days of Christianity. Far from foreseeing the future spread of that religion, the Jewish historian contents himself with observing " And the tribe of Christians, so named from him (Christ), are not extinct at this day."
 * Babism, though at present a proscribed religion in Persia, is far from