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44 to surrender; but in sight of the anarchy which prevailed over Persia, he did not think fit to pursue his conquests further, or even to retain all he had taken. Herat and Seistan were joined to the Affghan kingdom, to which by their position they naturally belong, but Khorassan was formed into a separate state, to be governed by Shahrukh, the blind grandson of Nadir.

The important province of Azerbaeejan was at this time held by an Affghan chief called Azad, who for some time carried on a war with the Czar of Georgia, but who afterwards agreed to a treaty of peace with him by which the frontier between their respective possessions was to be the river Araxes. The southern part of Persia, also, was not without its pretenders to the vacant seat of government. Ali Merdan, a chief of the Bakhtiari, produced a real or pretended grandson of Shah Hussein, in whose name he raised a force with which he was enabled to lay siege to Ispahan. After a time that city opened its gates to the besiegers, and the young Ismail was put on the throne under the guardianship of Ali Merdan. This state of things continued for a year, Persia being divided into four governments; the south obeying Ismail; Azerbaeejan, Azad; the Caspian provinces, Mahomed Hassan; and Khorassan, the blind Shahrukh.

But it ought to be observed that the authority of Ismail over the south of Persia was never more than nominal. The two men who ruled in his name were Ali Merdan and Kereem Khan. The latter was a young chief of the Zend, a tribe of Kurds, and it was to his cooperation that the success of Ali Merdan was mainly due. So long as these two chiefs remained