Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/66

406 behind the walls of the town. Kereem retired a second time to Ispahan, and in the following spring advanced again to meet Azad. A pitched battle took place between them, in which the army of Kereem was defeated. He retreated to the capital, closely pressed by the foe. Thence he continued his way to Sheeraz, but Azad was still upon his traces. He then threw himself upon the mercy of the Arabs of the Germeseer, or hot country, near the Persian Gulf, to whom the name of the Affghans was hateful, and who rose in a body to turn upon Azad. Kereem, by their aid, once more repaired his losses and advanced on Ispahan, while Mahomed Hassan with fifty thousand men was coming from the opposite direction, ready to encounter either the AfFghan or the Zend. The Aifghan did not await his coming, but retired to his government of Tabreez.

The Zend issued from Ispahan, and was a second time defeated in a pitched battle by the Kajar. Kereem took refuge behind the walls of Sheeraz, and all the efforts of the enemy to dislodge him from there were ineffectual. Mahomed Hassan Khan in the following year turned his attention to Azerbaeejan. Azad was no longer in a position to oppose him in the field, and he in turn became master of every place of importance in the province, while Azad had to seek assistance in vain first from the Pasha of Baghdad, and then from his former enemy, the Czar of Georgia. Next year the conquering Kajar returned to Sheeraz, to make an end of the only rival who now stood in his way. It appeared, indeed, that the struggle between them was too unequal to last long. On the side of the Kajar were eighty thousand men, commanded by a general who had twice