“The history of Persia,” says Sir John Malcolm, * “from the death of Nádir Sháh till the elevation of Áqá Muḥammad Virtues of Karím Khán-i-Zand. Khán, the founder of the reigning family, pre­sents to our attention no one striking feature except the life of Karím Khán-i-Zand. The happy reign of this excellent prince, as contrasted with those who preceded and followed him, affords to the historian of Persia that description of mixed pleasure and repose which a traveller enjoys who arrives at a beautiful and fertile valley in the midst of an arduous journey over barren and rugged wastes. It is pleasing to recount the actions of a chief who, though born in an inferior rank, obtained power without crime, and who exercised it with a modera­tion that was, in the times in which he lived, as singular as his humanity and justice.”

Karím Khán, however, who fixed his capital at Shíráz, which he did so much to beautify and where he is still Karím Khán's two rivals. gratefully remembered, never ruled over the whole of Persia and never assumed the title of Sháh, but remained content with that of Wakíl, or Regent. Originally he and a Bakhtiyárí chief named 'Alí Mardán Khán were the joint regents of “a real or pretended grandson of Sháh Ḥusayn” * in whose name they seized Iṣfahán, where they placed him on the throne. Before long they fell out; 'Alí Mardán Khán was killed; and Karím Khán became the de facto ruler of Southern Persia. His rivals were the Afghán chief Ázád in Ádharbáyján and the North-west, and in the Caspian provinces Muḥammad Ḥasan the Qájár, son of that Fatḥ-'Alí Khán who was murdered by Nádir at the outset of his career, and father of Aqá Muḥammad Khán, the actual founder of the Qájár dynasty.

Ázád was the first to be eliminated from this triangular contest. He defeated Karím Khán and compelled him to Elimination of Ázád the Afghán. evacuate not only Iṣfahán but Shíráz, but, rashly pursuing him through the narrow defile of Kamárij, fell into an ambush, lost most of his followers, and finally, having sought refuge first with the Páshá of Baghdád and then with Heraclius, Prince of Georgia, “threw himself upon the generosity of Karím Khán, who received him with kindness, promoted him to the first rank among his nobles, and treated him with so generous a confidence that he soon converted this danger­ous rival into an attached friend.”*

In A.D. 1757, about four years after the battle of Kamárij, Karím Khán had to face a fierce onslaught by his other Karím Khán defeats his Qájár rival. rival, Muḥammad Ḥasan Khán the Qájár, who, after a striking initial success, was finally driven back into Mázandarán, where he was eventually defeated and killed in A.D. 1760 by Karím Khán's general Shaykh 'Alí Khán. From this time until his death in the spring of 1779 Karím Khán practically ruled over the whole of Persia except Khurásán, where the blind and harmless Sháhrukh exercised a nominal sovereignty. The chief Baṣra taken by Persians. military exploit of his reign was the capture of Baṣra from the Turks in 1776, effected by his brother Ṣádiq, who continued to administer it until Karím's death, when he relinquished it to the Turks in order to take part in the fratricidal struggle for the Persian crown. * <graphic>

Mírza 'Aqíl Karím Khán-i-Zand
Ibráhím Khán Isma'íl Khán
Mírzá Mahdí Mírzá Ja'far Wazír Ázád Khán Afghán
Add. 24904 (Brit. Mus.), inside cover
To face p. 140

“The most important, if we consider its ultimate conse­quences, of all the events which occurred at the death of Death of Karím Khán and flight of Áqá Muḥam­mad Khán (March 2, 1779). Karím Khán, was the flight of Áqá Muḥam-mad Khán Qájár, who had been for many years a prisoner at large in the city of Shíráz.” * As a child he had suffered castration by the cruel command of Nádir's nephew 'Ádil Sháh, * on account of which the title of Ághá or Áqá, generally given to eunuchs, was added to his name. After the defeat and death of his father Muḥammad Ḥasan Khán the Qájár in A.D. 1757, he fell into the hands of Karím Khán, who interned him in Shíráz, but otherwise treated him kindly and even gener­ously, so far as was compatible with his safe custody. He was even allowed to gratify his passion for the chase in the country round Shíráz on condition of re-entering the city before the gates were closed at night-fall. Returning to the city on the evening of Ṣafar 12, 1193 (March 1, 1779), and learning through his sister, who was an inmate of the Palace, that Karím Khán lay at the point of death, he suffered a favourite hawk to escape, and made its pursuit an excuse for spending the night in the plain. Next morning, two hours after dawn, * having learned that Karím Khán had breathed his last, he took advantage of the prevailing con­fusion to make his escape northwards, and travelled so swiftly that he reached Iṣfahán on the third day, * and thence made his way into Mázandarán, which thenceforth became the base of those operations by which, fifteen years later, he accomplished the final overthrow of the Zand dynasty and won for his own house that supremacy over Persia which they hold to this day.

It is unnecessary to describe here the fratricidal wars which during the next ten years (A.D. 1779-89) sapped the Successors of Karím Khán. power of the Zand dynasty while Áqá Muḥam-mad Khán, with incredible self-control and political sagacity, was uniting and consolidating the Qájár power. Within the year which witnessed Karím Khán's death four of his house had successively mounted his throne, to wit, his son Abu'l-Fatḥ, his nephew 'Alí Murád, his son Muḥammad 'Alí, and his brother Ṣádiq. The last-named, together with all his sons except Ja'far, was put to death in March, 1782, by 'Alí Murád, who thus regained the throne, but died at Múrchakhúr near Iṣfahán in January, 1785, and was succeeded by Ja'far, the date of whose accession is commemorated in the following ingenious chronogram by Ḥájji Sulaymán of Káshán called Ṣabáḥí:*

<text in Arabic script omitted>

“To record the year of the blessed and auspicious accession
Which is the initial date of the mirth of the age,
The pen of Ṣabáḥí wrote: ‘From the Royal Palace
'Alí Murád went forth, and Ja'far Khán sat’ [in his place].”

The letters composing the words Qaṣr-i-Sulṭání yield the number 550; from this we subtract (355) equivalent to 'Alí Murád, which gives us 195; to this we add the number equivalent to Ja'far Khán (1004), which finally gives us the correct date A.H. 1199 (A.D. 1785).

Ja'far Khán was murdered on 25 Rabí ii, 1203 (January 23, 1789), and was succeeded by his son, the gallant and Luṭf-'Alí Khán, the last of the Zand dynasty. unfortunate Luṭf-'Alí Khán, of whose personality Sir Harford Jones Brydges has given so attrac­tive an account. “The reader, I hope,” he

<graphic>

KARÍM KHÁN-I-ZAND
Or. 4938 (Brit. Mus.), No. 1
To face p. 142

says, * “will pardon me if I treat the reign and misfortunes of the noble Luṭf-'Alí more in detail than usual. I received great kindness and attention from him when he filled the throne; and under a miserable tent I had the honour of sitting on the same horse-cloth with him when a fugitive! His virtues endeared him to his subjects; and the bravery, constancy, courage and ability which he manifested under his mis­fortunes are the theme of poems and ballads which it is not improbable will last as long as the Persian language itself. He was manly, amiable, affable under prosperity and, under calamities as great and as severe as human nature can suffer, he was dignified and cool and determined. That so noble a being, that a prince the hope and pride of his country, should have been betrayed by a wretch * in whom he placed, or rather misplaced, his confidence—that his end should have been marked by indignities exercised on his person at which human nature shudders—that his little son should have suffered loss of virility—that his daughters should have been forced into marriage with the scum of the earth— that the princess his wife should have been dishonoured— are dispensations of Providence, which, though we must not arraign, we may permit ourselves to wonder at.”

It is fortunate that we possess such disinterested ap­preciations of poor Luṭf-'Alí Khán, the last chivalrous figure Courage, chivalry and misfortunes of Luṭf-'Alí Khán. amongst the kings of Persia, for such of his compatriots as described his career necessarily wrote after the triumph of his implacable rival and deadly foe Áqá Muḥammad Khán, and therefore, whatever their true sentiments may have been, dared not venture to praise the fallen prince, lest they should incur the displeasure of the cruel Qájár. Short-lived as the Zand dynasty was, it began and ended nobly, for its first representative was one of the best and its last one of the bravest of all the long line of Persian monarchs.