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54 the mountainous countries inhabited by the Bakhtiari and Loors. Having obtained some successes over these tribes, he treated them with such severity, and permitted his soldiers to be guilty of such barbarities towards them, that the revengeful feelings of the mountaineers were deeply stirred, and a new army was raised to act against him. The soldiers composing this force were animated by the wrongs of men whose wives and daughters had been the prey of those they now stood against in the field. Their ardour carried all before it, and Aga Mahomed fled in disorder to Tehran, in which city he intrenched himself, and from which point his future operations were directed. This struggle in one part of Persia gave time to Jafer to recruit his strength in another part of the country. On hearing of the rout of the army of the Kajar, the Zend chief quitted Sheeraz and once more took possession of Ispahan, the garrison of which place, who had been left by Aga Mahomed under the command of a trustworthy partisan, retired to the citadel where they defended themselves with courage to the last extremities. Jafer was next employed in endeavouring to reduce to subjection his cousin Ismail, who raised an army in his interests in the Bakhtiari mountains. This force was defeated by Jafer, but Ismail, with the aid of fresh levies, compelled his cousin to seek safety in flight, though he was himself soon afterwards deserted.

While the Zend tribes were thus wasting their strength in fighting against each other, a contrary policy was inaugurated on the side of the Kajars, who had at one time been arrayed under the hostile banners of Aga Mahomed and of two of his brothers, but who consented at length