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 Koom Khan and Gulabian, the former advocating swift action for military, the latter for financial reasons.

Abderrahman Yahiah Khan, the governor, had not fulfilled his braggart threat, had not advanced to the capital at the head of his armed men to claim the hand of Aziza Nurmahal in marriage. On the other hand, he had declared his absolute independence, was now openly the ally of Hajji Musa Al-Mutasim, surnamed Al-Ghadir, 'The Basin,' the leader of the Persian border ruffians, and was levying ever-increasing toll on the caravans that went up the Darh-i-Sultani, “The King's Highway,” with the argricultural [sic] produce of Tamerlanistan, to return with the wares of Persia, Bokhara, Khiva, and the Caucasus.

When the Sheik-ul-Islam, on a spiritual journey to Isfahan, was held up by the robbers and deprived of his sacerdotal green silk robe, his purse, and his rosary of flawless emeralds, with the ironically courtly words: “Take off that robe, O Certain Person, and remove the rosary. Also turn over thy purse. All three are wanted by the daughter of my maternal uncle!”; when, threatening the robbers with excommunication and similar dire theological consequences, he was answered with the insolent pun that religion was all very well for the Ahl Hayt, the Dwellers of Towns, but had no effect on the Ahl Bayt, the Dwellers of the Black Tents; when, on his return to the capital, he poured out the tale of his grievance and demanded that a punitive expedition be sent immediately to the western marches, Hector cut the lamentations short by