I WILL now, in this place, give a compendious summary of the events, which after my departure from Persia to Hindôstân, I heard, and was with certainty informed, had fallen out in the former empire; in order that, completing the relation of these occurrences also, I may not leave in doubt­ful expectation those of my readers who turn their views to the truths of history.

Let it therefore be written by the case-describing pen, that the Great Khân, Tahmâsb Colî Khân, having abandoned the second siege of Bagdad by reason of the turbulence and revolt of Mohammed Khân the Belôch* in Fârs, came to Kôh Kîlôh for the purpose of his extirpation. After some fighting the said Mohammed Khân being routed fled to Lâr and to the hot, or low, countries of that district, and applied himself to the meditation of his affairs. In the mean time the Great Khân, having arrived at Shirâz, set at liberty his own commissioners, who by order of Moham­med Khân were in fetters, and shewed them kind­ness and consolation; whilst every adherent of Mohammed Khân, wherever he fell into his hands, was instantly subjected to punishment and tor­ture. He then sent an army into the hot coun­tries of Lâr to effect the expulsion of Mohammed Khân, who leaving the city and castle of Lâr retired with a body of troops he had with him to those borders of the province, the peasantry of which were of the Shâfia sect and at that time were populous and collected; and there he gave his thoughts to the approvisionment of his army and to dispositions for defence. That tribe how­ever, through a vain notion of their own, fear­fully and cautiously shunned him, attributing all that opposition and altercation between him and the Great Khan, to a concert with him and a contrivance of the latter for the extirpation of their sect, which for so many years had not paid due obedience to the ruling powers; so that Moham­med Khân, however much he laboured to effect it, saw no chance of an union with that people, and how much soever he wished to make them understand, that after him no one would regard or pity them, and that alone, they were too weak to manage their affairs and to protect themselves from harm, he profited nothing. When the army of the Great Khan entered their territory, this tribe was scattered on all sides, and shut them­selves up in their forts and villages; and Moham­med Khan, with a number of persons who accom­panied him, took to flight, in the hope of reaching Belôchistân or Candahâr: but a detachment of the army of the Kizil Bâsh, having intercepted his road, slew a troop of his attendants and took him alive. He was carried before the Great Khan, who after severely reproaching him for his con­duct, ordered his eyes to be taken out with a knife, and put him in confinement. As Moham­med Khan well knew, that he should be sub­jected to the most horrid and ignominious death, he seized a poniard the very same night, and destroyed himself. The army of the Great Khan, having spread the calamities of war over those low countries, quickly uprooted the sect of the Shâfias, and removing to other parts the small remnant of them who escaped the sword, they brought peasantry from other districts and settled them in those abodes.

The Great Khan, having gone to Isphahan, marched thence to Azerbâïjân, and as well within the bounds of that province as on the Turkish territory, fought several severe battles with the Turkish armies, in all of which he was victorious. Many of the Turkish generals, and an immense quantity of their troops were killed in these engagements. The Fort of Iravân, Ganjah, a part of the province of Gorjistân, and that portion of the Persian territory which had remained in their possession, all were wrested from them, and not a single place of the kingdom of Irân was left in the hands of that nation. Not content with this, having taken up his quarters for some time on the Turkish territory, he there carried on the war, and ruined and laid waste the greatest part of that country. In consequence of the continuous defeats of the Turks, the annihilation of many of their armies and of their most famous Pashas, the exhaustion of their treasuries and well-stored magazines, and the devastation of most of their fron­tier provinces, an extreme debility was spread over their affairs, and vigour and splendour had disappeared from their empire. From the Soltân to the peasant, over every inhabitant of that country fear and terror prevailed; and it was reported by some travellers in Hindôstân, who were returning from Hijâz, that in Egypt and Syria, and coun­tries remote from Persia, they had witnessed the greatest consternation and dread among the inhabitants both civil and military; “so that neither had we,” said they, “any sleep or rest in the midst of them.” The Turks made repeated peti­tions for peace to the Great Khan; but the nego­tiations failed of approval and confirmation.

Next, from the Turkish territory he turned his reins towards Dâghistân, the province of the Lezgi tribe, who during the period of the revolution had wrested their heads from obedience to the king of Persia, had united with the Turks, and had not since taken the road of submission and exculpa­tion. At first they collected together and began to make resistance; but after some chastisement and discomfiture they became suppliants for pardon and were reduced to obedience.