Munajjim-báshí describes Ya'qúb as “disposed to drink and a merry life, and very fond of poetry.” “Many poets,” he adds, “gathered at his court from all quarters, and com- Báysunqur b. Ya'qúb Rustam b. Maqṣúd posed resonant qaṣídas in his praise.” He was succeeded by his son Báysunqur, who reigned a year and eight months, when he was re­placed by his cousin Rustam, the son of Maqṣúd. He marched against Badí'u'z-Zamán the Tímúrid, but ere a battle had taken place in Khurásán was compelled to turn his attention to Iṣfahán, the governor of which city had revolted against his authority. On his approach the governor fled to Qum, but was pursued and killed, and his severed head brought to Rustam. In the same year, 898/1492-3, he sent an expedition against Shírwán, which celebrated its success in the Tímúrian fashion by building pyramids of skulls. From these same Shírwánis, however, Báysunqur raised an army for the invasion of Ádharbáyján, whereupon Release of the Ṣafawí captives Rustam released Sulṭán 'Alí and the other Ṣafawí prisoners at Iṣtakhr and sent them to avenge the death of their father, Shaykh Ḥaydar, who had been slain by Báysunqur's father Ya'qúb. Sulṭán 'Alí and his followers were hospitably received at Tabríz by Rustam, and proceeded thence to Ahar, where they defeated and killed Báysunqur. Rustam, relieved of this anxiety, now grew jealous of Sulṭán 'Alí's increasing power and influence, and determined to destroy him. He sent one of his generals with 4000 horsemen after him, and a fierce battle ensued, wherein the Ṣafawís, though only 700 in number, fought valiantly—“like lions,” says Angioletto * — but were eventually defeated and Sulṭán 'Alí slain, after nominating his young brother Isma'íl as his successor. He and his brother Ibráhím fled to Gílán and Mázandarán, and remained in hiding for some time at Láhíján and Lishta-Nishá, whence Ibráhím presently made his way in disguise to his mother at Ardabíl. Isma'íl remained in Gílán, pro- Activity of Isma'íl the Ṣafawi tected by its governor Kár Kiyá Mírzá 'Alí, and an active and successful Shí'ite propaganda was carried on amongst the inhabitants, amongst whom the number of “Ṣúfís of Láhiján” or “Red-heads” (Qizil-básh), as they were called, * continued steadily to increase.

In 905/1499-1500 Isma'íl, then only thirteen years of age, * marched forth on his career of conquest with the nine Beginning of Isma'íl's career of conquest tribes which owed him allegiance, to wit the Ustájlú, Shámlú, Takalú, Rúmlú, Wársáq, Dhu'l-Qadar, Afshár, Qájár, and the Ṣúfís of Qára­bágh; and, after formally visiting the tombs of his illustrious ancestors at Ardabíl, and seeking the blessing of his aged mother, advanced by way of Qára-bágh, Gúkcha Deñiz and Erzinján on Shírwán. By this time news had spread abroad that the “Shaykh's son” was about to claim his rights, and his disciples flocked to his standard from Syria, Diyár Bakr and Síwás, so that he now found himself at the head of 7000 men. Crossing the river Kur he attacked Farrukh Yasár, the king of Shírwán and slayer of his father, near Gulistán in the neighbourhood of Shamákhá, killed him, completely routed his army, and occupied Shírwán, where he possessed himself of the royal treasure. He passed the winter at Maḥmúd-ábád near that place, and appointed the Amír Shamsu'd-Dín Zakariyyá his first Wazír, the theologian Shamsu'd-Dín Gílání his Chancellor (Ṣadr), and Ḥusayn Beg Shámlú and Abdál Beg his counsellors.

At this juncture, in 907/1501-2, when he had taken Bákú and was besieging the fortress of Gulistán, news reached The Battle of Shurúr him that Alwand Beg, son of Yúsuf Beg of the “White Sheep” Turkmán dynasty, had advanced against him to Nakhjuwán, whither he at once turned his victorious banners. A great battle took place at Shurúr, near Nakhjuwán, between the “White Sheep” Turk-máns, commanded by Amír 'Osmán ('Uthmán) of Mawṣil (Mosul), and the Ṣafawí army, commanded by Pírí Beg Qájár. The Turkmáns were utterly defeated and their general captured and put to death. Alwand Beg fled to Diyár Bakr, and Isma'íl occupied Tabríz, where he was crowned King. In the following year, 908/1502-3, he invaded 'Iráq and routed Murád Beg, the last ruler of the “White Sheep” dynasty, who fled to Shíráz, which, together with Kázarún, Kirmán and Yazd, submitted to the victorious Sháh Isma'íl Ṣafawí in the course of the next year or two. He spent the winter of A.D. 1504-5 at Iṣfahán, destined to become the glorious capital of the dynasty of which he had by now so truly and firmly laid the foundations, and here he received an ambassador from the Ottoman Sulṭán Báyazíd II. The fuller history of the origin, development and decline of this great and truly national dynasty will form the subject of the next volume.

The relations between the Tímúrids and the Ṣafawís, first between Bábur and Sháh Isma'íl and later between Relations between Tímúrids and Ṣafawís Humáyún and Sháh Ṭahmásp, will also be more fully considered in the next volume. On the whole these relations were singularly friendly, in spite of the difference of doctrine which con­tributed so much to isolate Persia from her Sunní neighbours after the rise of the Ṣafawí power and the definite adoption of the Shí'a creed as the national faith. Bábur and Sháh Isma'íl were united by a common fear and hatred of Shay-bání Khán and his terrible Uzbeks, at whose hands the House of Tímúr suffered so much during its last days in Khurásán and Transoxiana. The years 1501-7 were marked by a series of triumphs on the part of Shaybání Khán, who successively seized Samarqand, Farghána, Táshkand, Khwárazm, and finally Khurásán. Sulṭán Ḥusayn, of whose brilliant court at Herát we have already spoken, died in 1506, and the weakness and lack of unity of his sons and younger kinsmen made them an easy prey to Shaybání Khán, who, in the course of 1507, succeeded in defeating and killing all of them with the exception of Sulṭán Ḥusayn's son Badí'u'z-Zamán, who fled for protection first to Sháh Isma'íl and later to the Ottoman court at Constantinople, where he died. In 1510, however, Sháh Isma'íl marched Sháh Isma'íl's victory over the Uzbeks at Merv into Khurásán against the Uzbeks and utterly defeated them at the battle of Merv. Shaybání Khán was amongst the slain. His body was dismembered and his limbs distributed amongst different cities; his skull, set in gold, was made into a drinking-cup for Sháh Isma'íl; the skin of his head, stuffed with straw, was sent to the Ottoman Sulṭán Báyazíd at Constantinople; and one of his hands constituted the gruesome credentials of an envoy sent to one of his vassals, the ruler of Mázan-darán . * Bábur's sister, Khán-záda Begum, who had fallen into the hands of the Uzbeks ten years before, was delivered from her long captivity by Sháh Isma'íl, and was sent with all honour to her brother, who in his Memoirs * gives an interesting account of their meeting. Friendly embassies were interchanged between the two monarchs (for Bábur had already in 1508 formally assumed the title of Pádisháh or Emperor), and as Bábur's final abandonment of Trans-oxiana a year or two later, followed in 1526-9 by his successful invasion of India, which thenceforth became the seat of his government, removed all likelihood of friction between him and the Persians, the friendship thus formed was fairly stable, and was renewed in the next generation by Sháh Ṭahmásp's hospitality to Humáyún when he was temporarily expelled from his kingdom and driven into exile. Indeed the complaisance shown by Bábur towards the strong religious views of Sháh Isma'íl at one time con­siderably impaired his popularity amongst his subjects Literary inter­course between Persia and India during the Ṣafawí period beyond the Oxus, who then, as now, were remarkable for their extreme devotion to the Sunní doctrine, which Sháh Isma'íl relentlessly persecuted. * Nor were the relations between Persia and India confined to their rulers, for during the whole Ṣafawí period, and even beyond it, we shall, in a subsequent volume, meet with a whole series of Persian poets, including some of the most eminent of later days, who emigrated from their own country to India to seek their fortune at the splendid court of the so-called Mogul Emperors, where, until the final extinction of the dynasty in the Indian Mutiny, Persian continued to hold the posi­tion not only of the language of diplomacy but of polite intercourse.