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 394 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. priestly domination over the populace of the most con- siderable city in the kingdom. The Ameer-i-Nizam sent to that city an Affshar chief, who had the courage and the adroitness to seize and carry off the Sheikh-el-Islam. This blow at priestly influence having been de- livered, the Minister next abolished the privilege which had up to this time been accorded to the Imam-i-Juma of Tehran, of affording sanctuary in his mosque to all who sought it. It was the consistent policy of the Ameer-i-Nizam to uphold the supreme authority of the Shah, and to check all encroachments upon it, from what quarter soever they might be directed. From his endeavour to carry out this policy he never swerved, notwithstanding all the ill-will which, by so doing, he excited against himself. The measures of the enlightened Minister were now beginning to be followed by some satisfactory and visible results. The system of taxa- tion throughout the country was remodelled on a more equitable basis than had formerly existed. The various provincial treasuries were pronounced to be at length in a satisfactory condition. Trade between the different chief cities and provinces of the kingdom, as well as between Persia and her Eussian, Turkish, Arab, Affghan, Indian, Oozbeg, and Turkoman neighbours, was being carried on with confidence, under the protection of a just and energetic government ; and the Ameer-i-Nizam grati- fied the inhabitants of Tehran, and more especially the mercantile classes at the capital, by erecting a handsomer range of bazars than any other city in the world can boast of possessing. The caravanserai which bears his name vies in beauty and in commodiousness with the finest struc- tures of Asia, and it was the intention of the Minister to