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66 hands of Adel Shah, the nephew and successor of Nadir, against whom the Kajar chief maintained himself in revolt. Adel Shah had the cruelty to order that the boy should be reduced to the condition of an eunuch, and this atrocity turned all the victim's thoughts to the pursuit of his ambitious views. He accompanied his father, while still a boy, upon journeys and in various campaigns, and was left by him in charge of the important government of Azerbaeejan. When by his father's death he became the chief of his tribe, had he seen any chance of succeeding, it is probable that he would not have laid aside his efforts to establish the supremacy of the Kajars; but he had the sense to see that the power of Kereem Khan was too well established to admit of the slightest hope of success in such an undertaking during the lifetime of the Zend chief. He accordingly gave himself up with his brothers, and resolved to wait until a more favourable opportunity should present itself of realizing his dreams of ambition. While enjoying the favour and kindness of Kereem, he was used to vent his spite against the triumphant foe of his house by cutting, with a knife which he concealed beneath his robe, the rich carpets of the regent; not reflecting that he hoped that those same carpets would one day come into his own possession. At the death of Kereem he made his escape, along with two of his brothers, from Sheeraz, and raised the standard of revolt in the province of Mazenderan. After a protracted struggle, in which fortune at one time was with him and at another against him, he finally succeeded, as we have seen, in establishing his authority over the centre and the north of Persia, from the borders of Khorassan to the frontier of the Ottoman empire.

Aga Mahomed had still one rival to encounter, Lutf'ali,