Of the anger and alarm aroused by these proceedings in the neighbouring kingdoms, and especially in the Ottoman Rival rulers in Persia at this time, 907/1501-2. Empire, we shall have to speak presently, but first we may with advantage give from the Aḥsanu't-Tawáríkh * the list of potentates in Persia itself who at this time claimed sovereign power: (1) Sháh Isma'íl in Ádharbáyján; (2) Sulṭán Murád in most of 'Iráq; (3) Murád Beg Báyandarí in Yazd; (4) Ra'ís Muḥammad Karra (? <text in Arabic script omitted>) in Abarqúh; (5) Ḥusayn Kiyá-yi-Chaláwí in Samnán, Khwár and Fírúzkúh; (6) Bárík Parnák in 'Iráq-i-'Arab; (7) Qásim Beg ibn Jahángír Beg ibn 'Alí Beg in Diyár Bakr; (8) Qáḍí Muḥammad in conjunc­tion with Mawláná Mas'úd in Káshán; (9) Sulṭán Ḥusayn Mírzá (the Tímúrid) in Khurásán; (10) Amír Dhu'n-Nún in Qandahár; (11) Badí'u'z-Zamán Mírzá (the Tímúrid) in Balkh; and (12) Abu'l-Fatḥ Beg Báyandarí in Kirmán.

Many of these petty rulers (Mulúku'ṭ-Ṭawá'if) were quite insignificant, and several of them I cannot even identify.

Isma'íl disposes of his minor rivals. None of them long stood in Sháh Isma'íl's vic­torious path. His old enemy Alwand of the “White Sheep” dynasty suffered a decisive de­feat at his hands in the summer of A.D. 1503, and died a year or so later at Diyár Bakr or Baghdád. * His brother Murád was defeated and Shíráz occupied about the same time, and Sunní doctors put to death at Kázarún. stern punishment overtook the Sunní doctors of Kázarún, many of whom were put to death, while the tombs and foundations of their pre­decessors were destroyed. * The words Raḥmatun li'l-'Ála- mín (“a Mercy to the Worlds”) were found, not very ap­propriately from an impartial point of view, to give the date 909 (A.D. 1503-4) of this event; while the equivalent chrono­gram Shaltáq-i-Sipáhí (“Military Coercion”) was observed by the poets and wits of Fárs to commemorate in like manner the appointment by Sháh Isma'íl of his captain Ilyás Beg Dhu'l-Qadar as governor of Shíráz. Káshán, always a stronghold of the Shí'a, * received Isma'íl with enthusiasm, and he held a great reception at the beautiful suburb of Fín. Thence he passed to the holy city of Qum, intending, apparently, to winter there, but hearing that Ilyás Beg, one of his most trusted officers, “a Ṣúfí of pure dis­position and right belief,” * had been murdered by Ḥusayn Kiyá-yi-Chaláwí, he marched out on February 25, 1504, to avenge him. Three weeks later he was at Astarábád, where he was met by Muḥammad Muḥsin Mírzá, the son of the Tímúrid Sulṭán Ḥusayn Mírzá, and, having attacked and destroyed the fortresses of Gulkhandán and Fírúzkúh, he reduced the stronghold of Ustá by cutting off the water-supply, massacred the garrison (ten thousand souls, according to the Aḥsanu't-Tawáríkh), and took captive the wretched Cruel treatment of captives. Ḥusayn Kiyá, whom he confined in an iron cage, but who succeeded in inflicting on himself a wound which in a few days proved mortal. * Still more unfortunate was Ra'ís Muḥammad Karra of Abar-qúh, who rebelled and took possession of the ancient city of Yazd. Him also Sháh Isma'íl confined in a cage, and smeared his body with honey so that the wasps tormented him until he was finally burned alive in the maydán of Iṣfahán. About the same time an embassy came from the Ottoman Turkish Embassy from Sulṭán Báyazíd II. Sulṭán Báyazíd II (A.D. 1481-1512) to offer “suitable gifts and presents” and congratula­tions on Sháh Isma'íl's conquest of 'Iráq and Fárs. They were dismissed with robes of honour and assur­ances of Isma'íl's friendly sentiments, but were compelled to witness several executions, including, perhaps, that of the philosopher and judge Mír Ḥusayn-i-Maybudí, * whose chief offence seems to have been that he was a “fanatical Sunní.” Persian kings were disposed to take this means of impressing foreign envoys with their “justice”; Clavijo relates a similar procedure on the part of Tímúr, * and Sháh Isma'íl's son and successor Ṭahmásp sought to impress and intimidate Humáyún's ambassador Bayrám Beg by putting to death in his presence a number of heretics. * To the Turkish envoys it would naturally be particularly disagreeable to witness the execution of a learned Sunní doctor by those whom they regarded as detestable schismatics.

Of the increasingly strained relations between Turkey and Persia, culminating in the Battle of Cháldirán (August, 1514), we shall have to speak very shortly, but we must first con­clude our brief survey of Sháh Isma'íl's career of conquest. To describe in detail his incessant military activities would be impossible in a work of the scope and character of this book, and only the barest summary is possible.

During the years A.H. 911-915 (A.D. 1506-1510) Sháh Isma'íl's con­quest in the West, A.D. 1506-1510. Isma'íl was for the most part busy in the West. He first entered Hamadán and visited the tomb of the Imám-záda Sahl 'Alí. A serious revolt of the “Yazídí” Kurds * next demanded his attention. Their leader, Shír Ṣárim, was defeated and captured in a bloody battle wherein several important officers of Sháh Isma'íl lost their lives. To their relatives the Kurdish prisoners were surrendered to be put to death “with tor­ments worse than which there may not be.” War was next waged against the conjoined forces of Sulṭán Murád, the thirteenth * and last of the “White Sheep” dynasty, and 'Alá'u'd-Dawla Dhu'l-Qadar (the “Aliduli” of the Italian travellers of this period), who, refusing Isma'íl's proposal that he should “set his tongue in motion with the goodly word 'Alí is the Friend of God, and curse the enemies of the Faith” (to wit, the first three Caliphs), appealed for help to the Ottoman Turks. Sháh Isma'íl, however, was Baghdád taken in A.D. 1508. not to be denied, and successively captured Diyár Bakr, Akhláṭ, Bitlís, Arjísh, and finally in 914/1508 Baghdád itself, whereby he ob­tained possession of the Holy Shrines of Karbalá and Najaf, so dear to Shí'a hearts, where he hastened to offer prayers and thanksgivings. At Ḥuwayza he showed that, ardent Shí'a Ghulát punished at Ḥuwayza. Shí'a as he was, he would not tolerate the ex­aggerated veneration of 'Alí characteristic of the Ghulát, represented there by certain Arabs called Musha'shi', who venerated 'Alí as God, and, invoking his name, would cast themselves on sharp swords without sustaining injury, after the fashion of the modern 'Ísáwiyya of North Africa. Their leader, Mír Sulṭán Muḥsin, died about this time, and was succeeded by his son Sulṭán Fayyáḍ, who claimed for himself divine honours. * Sháh Isma'íl ruthlessly suppressed these heretics, and proceeded Submission of Luristán. to Dizful and Shúshtar, receiving the submission of the Lur chieftain Sháh Rustam, who won his favour by “the utterance of prayer and praise in the Lurí tongue with extreme sweetness.” Thence Sháh Isma'íl made his way eastwards to Fárs, encamped for a while at Dárábjird, and organised a great hunting expedition, of which the special object was a kind of mountain goat Doings in Fárs. which yields the “animal antidote” (pádzahr-i-ḥaywání ). * He also put to death the Qáḍí Muḥammad-i-Káshí, who held the high ecclesiastical office of Ṣadr, and replaced him by the Sayyid-i-Sharíf of Astar-ábád, who was descended on his mother's side from the celebrated Jurjání. He further erected at Qaṣr-i-Zar a mausoleum in memory of his brother Sulṭán Aḥmad Mírzá, who had died there, and, under the title of Najm-i-Thání (“the Second Star”), appointed Amír Yár Aḥmad-i-Khú-zání of Iṣfahán to succeed “the First Star,” Amír Najmu'd-Dín Mas'úd of Rasht, who had recently died and been buried at Najaf. The poet Ummídí celebrated this appoint­ment in a very ingenious and sonorous qaṣída beginning: