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56 the throne of his father. Aga Mahomed Khan saw with well-grounded apprehension the progress of a young soldier who was beloved by his adherents and who had shown himself to be so well fitted for command. The Kajar chief had been invited by a certain number of the principal men of Sheeraz to advance to that place and drive his rival from his government. He accordingly left Tehran in the early part of the summer following the period in which had occurred the death of Jafer, at the head of an army of fifty thousand men, but finding that the Zend chief was firmly established in Sheeraz he did not take any active measures against that city. Lutf'ali, however, found himself strong enough to be able to attack Aga Mahomed in the field. The battle which ensued would in all probability have ended in the defeat of the Kajar had not a portion of Lutf'ali's troops retired towards their native mountains before the rout was complete. This unforeseen conduct, while it dispirited the remaining Zend soldiers, gave Aga Mahomed the opportunity of rallying the Kajars, who eventually obliged Lutf'ali to retire with precipitation to Sheeraz. Aga Mahomed, after this action, remained for six weeks before the city, but, finding that he was not able to produce any impression upon it, he returned to Tehran for the winter.

As Aga Mahomed thenceforth continued to be the master of the north of Persia, and as Tehran was fixed upon by him as the capital of his dominions, it is now time to give some account of the Kajar tribe which supplied the dynasty that took the place of the Sefaveeans; of the city which was selected to supersede the ancient metropolis of Persia; and of Aga Mahomed Khan.