Tārīḫ-i Nādirī - The History of the Life of Nader Šāh

NO characters are more conspicuous in History, or excite greater admiration in the generality of readers, than those of celebrated Warriours and Conquerors: we suppose them to partake of a nature more than human; we deck their statues and pictures with Laurel; and we dignify them with the name of Great; though, perhaps, if they were stripped of their bright arms, and devested of their pompous titles, we should find most of them to be the meanest and basest of mankind. This infatuation arises, partly from the deplorable servility of our minds, and our eagerness to kiss the foot which tramples on us; partly from our ascribing to the superiour force and abilities of One Man that success, in which chance or treachery have often a considerable share, and which could never be obtained without the united effort of a multitude; and partly from our mistaking the nature of true Virtue, which consists, not in destroying our fellow-creatures, but in protecting them, not in seizing their property, but in desending their rights and liberties even at the hazard of our own safety. Many Roman Generals, who had neither valour nor prudence to recommend them, have procured the honour of a Triumph for victories gained by their officers; and Cicero, in his speech for Marcellus, ventured to depreciate the glory of Cæsar himself, by asserting, that a commander receives no small assistance from the courage of his men, the advantage of his situation, the strength of his allies, and the plenty of his provisions: but Fortune, he adds, claims the greatest praise in every prosperous achievement, as military actions owe their chief success to her favour^*.

Power is always odious, always to be suspected, when it resides in the hands of an individual; and a free people will never suffer any single man to be more powerful than the Laws, which themselves have enacted or confirmed: but no kind of power is more licentiously insolent than that, which is supported by force of arms. It was this, which enabled Marius and Sylla to drench the streets of Rome with the blood of her most virtuous citizens; a consciousness of superiour force gave CæÚsar spirits to pass the Rubicon, and oppress the liberty of his country, which the profligate Tyrant Octavius finally extinguished with the same detestable instrument: and the insatiable avarice of Princes, joined to the pride of conquest and the love of dominion, has filled the world with terrour and misery, from Sesostris who invaded Africk and Europe, to the three mighty potentates, who are ravaging Poland. How much more splendid would their glory have been, if, instead of raising their fame on the subversion of kingdoms, they had applied their whole thoughts to the patronage of arts, science, letters, agriculture, trade; had made their nations illustrious in wisdom, extensive in commerce, eminent in riches, firm in virtue, happy in freedom; and had chosen rather to be the Benefactors, than the Destroyers, of the human species!

These sentiments, which, as nothing can prevent my entertaining them, so nothing shall prevent my expressing as forcibly as I am able, were sufficient to have deterred me from ever attempting to write The Life of a Conqueror; unless it had been for the sake of exposing a character of all others the most infamously wicked, and of displaying the charms of liberty by showing the odiousness of tyranny and oppression: but a circumstance, which it will be proper to relate from the beginning, induced me to depart from my resolution, and hurried me from the contemplation of civil and pacifick virtues to the more dazzling, but less pleasing, scenes of victories and triumphs.

A great northern monarch, who visited this country a few years ago, under the name of the Prince of Travendal, brought with him an Eastern manuscript, containing the life of NADER SHAH, the late Sovereign of Persia, which He was desirous of having translated in England. The Secretary of State, with whom the Danish Minister had conversed upon the subject, sent the volume to me, requesting me to give a literal translation of it in the French language; but I wholly declined the task, alledging, for my excuse, the length of the book, the dryness of the subject, the difficulty of the style, and, chiefly, my want both of leisure and ability to enter upon an undertaking so fruitless and so laborious. I mentioned, however, a gentleman, with whom I had not then the pleasure of being acquainted, but who had distinguished himself by his translation of a Persian History, and was far abler than myself to satisfy the King of Denmark’s expectations. The learned writer, who had other works upon his hands, excused himself on the account of his many engagements; and the application to me was renewed: it was hinted, that my compliance would be of no small advantage to me at my entrance into life, that it would procure me some mark of distinction, which might be pleasing to me, and, above all, that it would be a reflection upon this country, if the King should be obliged to carry the manuscript into France. Incited by these motives, and principally by the last of them, unwilling to be thought churlish or morose, and eager for the bubble Reputation, I undertook the work, and sent a specimen of it to his Danish Majesty; who returned his approbation of the style and method, but desired, that the whole translation might be perfectly literal, and the Oriental images accurately preserved. The task would have been far easier to me, had I been directed to finish it in Latin; for the acquisition of a French style was infinitely more tedious; and it was necessary to have every chapter corrected by a native of France, before it could be offered to the discerning eye of the publick; since in every language there are certain peculiarities of idiom, and nice shades of meaning, which a foreigner can never learn to perfection: but the work, how arduous and unpleasing soever, was completed in a year; not without repeated hints from the Secretary’s office, that it was expected with great impatience by the Court of Denmark. The translation of the History of NADER SHAH was published in the summer of the year seventeen hundred and seventy^*, at the expense of the translator; and forty copies upon large paper were sent to Copenhagen, one of them, bound with uncommon elegance, for the King himself, and the others, as presents to his Courtiers.

What marks of distinction I have since received, and what fruits I have reaped for my labour, it would ill become me to mention at the head of a work, in which I profess to be the Historian of others, and not of myself: but since an advertisement has appeared on this subject in the publick papers, which is notoriously false in every article, and casts a most unjust reflection upon an amiable monarch, it seems a duty imposed upon me by the laws of justice and gratitude, to print at the end of this Volume the honourable testimony of regard, which his Majesty Christian VII. sent publickly to London, a few months after He had received my work, together with my letter of thanks for so signal a token of His favour; and I cannot, certainly, be charged with want of respect to the great and illustrious Personage, to whom that royal Epistle is addressed, since it was not sent in a private manner, but openly and in the eyes of the world; and a copy of it was even delivered to me, after having passed through several hands. Nothing more remains to be said on this subject, but that the worthy and excellent man, who was my sole guide and adviser in this affair, and to whom I opened my thoughts in my familiar letters with the utmost frankness, having retired from the office which he then held, I am left at perfect liberty to relate the whole transaction, without a possibility of giving offence to any one living; especially since I have not suffered his name to be made cheap, by mentioning it in any part of the narrative.

This was the circumstance, which induced me, against my inclination, to describe the Life of a Conqueror, and to appear in publick as an Author, before a maturity of judgement had made me see the dangers of the step, which I was inconsiderately taking; for, I believe, if I had reflected on the little solid glory which a man reaps from acquiring a name in literature, on the jealousy and envy which attend such an acquisition, on the distant reserve which a writer is sure to meet with from the generality of mankind, and on the obstruction which a contemplative habit gives to our hopes of being distinguished in active life; if all, or any, of these reflections had occurred to me, I should not have been tempted by any consideration to enter upon so invidious and so thankless a career: but, as Tully says, I should have considered, before I embarked, the nature and extent of my voyage; now, since the sails are spread, the vessel must take its course^*.

It may perhaps be expected, that some account should here be given of the Persian History, which I was thus appointed to send abroad in an European dress, with some remarks on the veracity and merit of its Eastern Author; but, before we descend to these minute particulars, it will not be foreign from the subject of the present publication, to enquire into the general nature of Historical composition, and to offer the idea, rather of what is required from a perfect Historian, than of what hitherto seems to have been executed in any age or nation.

CICERO, who was meditating an History of Rome, had established a set of rules for the conduct of his work, which he puts into the mouth of Antonius in his treatise on the accomplished Orator; where he declares “the basis and ground-work of all History to depend upon these primary Laws, that the writer should not dare to set down a Falshood, nor be deterred by fear from divulging an interesting Truth; and that he should avoid any just suspicion of partiality or resentment: the edifice, he adds, which must be raised on this foundation, consists of two parts, the relation of things, and the words in which they are related; in the first, the Historian should adhere to the order of time, and diversify his narrative with the description of countries; and since, in all memorable transactions, first the counsels are explained, then the acts, and, lastly, the events, he should pronounce his own judgement on the merit of the counsels; should show what acts ensued, and in what manner they were performed; and unfold the causes of all great events, whether he imputes them to chance, or wisdom, or rashness: he should also describe, not only the actions, but the lives and characters, of all the persons, who are eminently distinguished in his piece; and, as to the words, should be master of a copious and expanded style, flowing along with ease and delicacy, without the roughness of pleadings at the Bar, or the affectatation of pointed sentences^*.”

If we form our idea of a complete Historian from these rules, we shall presently perceive the reason, why no writer, ancient or modern, has been able to sustain the weight of so important a character; which includes in it the perfection of almost every virtue and every noble accomplishment, an unbiassed integrity, a comprehensive view of nature, an exact knowledge of men and manners, a mind stored with free and generous principles, a penetrating sagacity, a fine taste and copious eloquence: a perfect Historian must know many languages, many arts, many sciences; and, that he may not be reduced to borrow his materials wholly from other men, he must have acquired the height of political wisdom, by long experience in the great affairs of his country, both in peace and war. There never was, perhaps, any such character; and, perhaps, there never will be: but in every art and science there are certain ideas of perfection, to which the works of human genius are continually tending, though, like the Logarithmick Spiral, they will never meet the point to which they are infinitely approaching. Cicero himself, had he found leisure to accomplish his design, though he would have answered his own idea in most respects, would have been justly liable to the suspicion of an illiberal bias in relating the history of his own times, and drawing the several characters of his age.

The very soul and essence of History, is Truth, without which it can preserve neither its name nor its nature, and with which the most indifferent circumstances in a barren chronicle are more interesting to a sensible reader, than the greatest events, how copiously or elegantly soever they may be described, in a romance or a legend: yet it is strange, that, of so many Histories, ancient or modern, European or Asiatick, there should be so few, which we can read without asking in almost every page, Is this true?

History, in its original state, was, probably nothing more than the bare relation of publick events, which were digested in the form of Annals, like the life of Tully by Fabricius: we are assured that this was the case in old Rome^*; and it seems, indeed, in all ages, to be the wisest, as well as the most useful, method of writing history, unless the facts were more diligently examined and more fairly represented, than they appear to be in most productions of this nature. Among the Greeks, Pherecydes, Hellanicus, Epimenides, and among the Latins, Cato, Pictor, Piso, are said to have written without affecting any ornament, or aiming at any other merit than that of a nervous brevity. HERODOTUS sent abroad his nine books with the advantage of a more polished dress: there is a noble simplicity in his diction, to which the open vowels of the Ionick dialect greatly contribute, and many of his narratives are extremely pleasing; but his accounts of the Persian affairs are at least doubtful, if not fabulous; and he followed his Egyptian guides with an implicit confidence, not scrupling to relate a number of facts, which he could never have verified, if he thought they would improve the manners, or gratify the curiosity, of his own inquisitive nation. THUCYDIDES added stronger nerves to historical composition; his facts are in general authentick, his observations deep and sagacious; but his language is abrupt, obscure, and sententious, particularly in the speeches, which, though they abound with wise maxims and exalted sentiments, bear all the marks of labour and stiffness, and have not even the air of probability, since it is impossible, that many of them could have been comprehended by a popular audience. What Thucydides wanted, namely, a simple and graceful style, XENOPHON possessed in an eminent degree: nothing can equal the sweetness and delicacy of his language; but that sweetness itself is hardly consistent with the gravity of his subject, and all his pieces, if we except that on the Expedition of Cyrus, in which he was personally engaged, have more liveliness of imagination than depth of judgement, and display more of the scholar and moralist, than of the statesman and orator. The sentiments of Thucydides, expressed in the style of Xenophon, would have approached very nearly to that idea of perfect History, which we have just delineated; but it seems to be wisely ordained by nature, that no single man shall excel all others in every great accomplishment, lest he should be tempted to fancy himself a being of a superiour order, and should exert his talents to the ruin of his fellow-creatures. Of all the Greek Historians, POLYBIUS was, perhaps, the gravest, the wisest, and the most faithful; but his language is even harsher than that of Thucydides; and, in the few books which remain of his excellent work, we are at a loss to discern the taste and elegance of Scipio and Lælius, by whom he was assisted.

That forced and stiff kind of writing, than which nothing can be more odious in History, was designedly adopted by SALLUST, and seems inexcusable in a man of his rank and knowledge, who lived in the very age of Cicero: the same abruptness and obscurity may well be pardoned in TACITUS, who flourished when the purity of the Roman language had declined with the Roman liberty; but the defect of his style prevents us from considering him as a consummate Historian, though his wisdom and penetration would otherwise give him a just claim to that title. It is not easy to conceive what the Ancients mean by the lactea ubertas of LIVY: in many parts of his work he shows great candour and judgement; but his language is not remarkable for ease or copiousness, and it was below a writer of his genius to relate all the superstitious and incredible fictions, which were invented only to please the people of Rome, by ascribing the foundation and support of their City to the interposition of the Gods.

The writers of Lives, as Plutarch and Nepos, belong to a different class: Diodorus the Sicilian, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, were rather scholars and antiquaries, than masters of political knowledge; and the later Greek Historians, Appian, Dio, Herodian, and the rest, can hardly be supposed to stand the test of Cicero’s rules, by which even Thucydides and Polybius have been declared imperfect. It would far exceed the limits of a prefatory discourse, if we attempted to examine by these laws the many Historians, who have related the affairs of their respective states, in the various dialects of modern Europe, Italian or Spanish, French or English: some of them are grave and judicious, some bold and impartial, others polished and elegant; but none of them seem to have possessed all those qualities, a perfect union of which is required in the character of a finished Historian.

The History of Florence by MACHIAVELLI, how beautifully soever it may be written, must necessarily be liable to suspicion from the known principles of its Author; and the work of GUICCIARDINI, who bore an eminent part in the actions which he relates, is not, I believe, considered by the Italians themselves as a model of fine writing.

M. DE VOLTAIRE seems to bear away the palm of History among the French: his style is lively and spirited, his descriptions, animated and striking, his remarks, always ingenious, often deep; and, if some trifling errours are discovered in his writings, we are willing to excuse them, when we reflect, that he is not only the best Historian, but the finest Poet also, and the greatest Wit, of his nation. He appears to be unjustly charged with embellishing his pieces at the expense of Truth, and with relating facts which he had not examined: this may, perhaps, be the case in one or two instances; but his Life of Charles the Twelfth gains fresh credit every day, and his account of Peter the Great was extracted from the most authentick materials: it was, indeed, the necessary fate of any author, who should write the lives and adventures of those two singular Princes, to pass rather for the compiler of fables, than for the relater of real events, till time should confirm the truth of the actions recorded by him. It may be thought arrogant in a foreigner, to criticise so great a writer in the article of style and language; but it seems to me, that his periods are not sufficiently expanded: he describes a battle, and discourses on the fate of kingdoms, in the diction of an Essay; and frequently huddles the most important remarks into the compass of a short sentence; so that the perpetual return of the full pause makes his language often dry, abrupt, and difficult to be read aloud without a fatiguing monotony. There are as many different kinds of style, as there are different subjects: that of an essay should be light and elegant; of a letter, lively and familiar; of an oration, copious and elate; of a moral discourse, grave and solemn; but that of an history ought to be smooth, flowing, and natural, without any graces but perspicuity: yet most authors form a way of writing peculiar to their own taste and genius, which they use indifferently on all occasions; thus Voltaire is equally gay, equally polished, whether he writes upon History, Criticism, or Philosophy. His distinguishing excellence is Wit; which, however, sometimes gets the better of his judgement. Wit is never displayed to advantage, but in its proper place: it has often a great effect in controversy; it may even be admitted into an essay; it is the charm of conversation, when it rises naturally from the subject, without seeming to be prepared: but it should be wholly banished from historical composition, and solemn speeches; since nothing can be more absurd, than to discuss the weighty points of legislation and politicks in a string of conceits and allusions. It suited the Roman Orator’s purpose, in his defense of Muræna, to make the judges merry at the expense of the accuser, Cato; whose Stoical principles he rallies with infinite humour; but we meet with no examples of this kind in the Catilinarian or Philippick Orations, when nothing less was concerned, than the destiny of the whole Empire: thus in the relation tion of common occurrences, if they happen to be of a ludicrous nature, there cannot be too much brilliancy and liveliness; but humour should no more find its way into an historical piece, than into an heroick poem; and all our veneration for the genius of Milton will not make us excuse the impertinence of his jokes in his battle of the angels. I dwell the longer on the absurdity of ill-placed Wit, because all the works of Voltaire are tinctured with it^*; and he cannot give an abstract of the Newtonian philosophy, without interspersing it with strokes of humour. On the whole, however, Voltaire is one of the most agreeable writers in the world, and has brought his native language to the greatest elegance, which it seems capable of receiving.

The English historians are not to be read without caution: CLARENDON himself is often liable to exception both in sentiment and style; and our language, indeed, was never entirely polished till the present century. I avoid touching upon the works of living authors; lest, in my very preface, I should violate a fundamental law of History, by incurring the suspicion of prejudice for a particular nation, or affection for particular men; but another law obliges me to declare, that there are historians now in Britain, whose writings have sufficiently proved, that if their subjects were equal to their talents, they would be able to contest the merit of veracity, judgement, and elegance with the Ancients themselves. That perfect liberty, which forms the very essence of our constitution, makes it unnecessary for an English historian to flatter any potentate or statesman upon earth; and our language, though inferiour to the Greek and Roman, will not yield the prize of energy, variety, and copiousness, to any modern idiom whatever.

If all the histories of Europe are deficient in one or other of the articles, to which we may reduce the rules of Cicero, we cannot hope to find this ideal perfection in the numerous compilations, with which the world has been pestered since the revival of letters, and for which we are chiefly indebted to our neighbours, the French. Those who judge the most favourably of these works, must allow them at least to be useless; for to what purpose are so many of our years spent in studying the languages of old Greece and Rome, unless it be to read the ancient compositions in their original beauty, and to draw our knowledge from those sources, whence all modern learning was derived? It were happy, if nothing could be objected to these elaborate volumes, but their inutility; they deserve, I fear, an heavier censure; since it is certain, that they help to multiply errours, and abound in fables, which the wisest of the Ancients would have exploded, and many of which they really did explode, when they were poured into Greece through the strainers of the Egyptians. It is agreed by all writers, that nothing can be so rash, nothing so far removed from the dignity of a wise man, as either to profess what is false, or to assert what has not been sufficiently examined by him^*: yet one would think, that the very reverse of this was established as a maxim by those, who sit down to compose the history of ancient Empires. At first one is apt to suspect, that these compilers are a set of Wits, who agree among themselves to impose upon the common sense of mankind: some of them tell us, that the Aristophili were a people of the higher Asia; some place Laosthenes and Amyntas among the Kings of Assyria; and others assure us, with a provoking solemnity, that Cyrus, before a certain battle, ordered his soldiers to sing an Hymn to Castor and Pollux; as if the Assyrians were acquainted with Greek names, or the Persians with Grecian deities; a multitude of these ridiculous blunders occur in almost every page of our pretended ancient Histories; but on a more intimate acquaintance with these writers, we discover them to be any thing rather than Wits, and find that their ignorance can be surpassed only by their dullness. The truth is, to write an history, and to repeat what others have written, are tasks of a very different nature: we might find many Rollins in every hamlet; but nature produces only a single Tacitus in a course of ages. We have already shown what a number of rare talents are required in an historian; but a compiler may succeed to his best wishes, if he have but tolerable eyes, and a great share of patience, and, above all, if he be fortunate enough to be endued with a total want of judgement and fancy.

Whatever errours may have been multiplied in ancient history by the folly or credulity of some authors; it is certain, that the malice or flattery of others has introduced as many into the modern. A volume might be filled with the contemptible mistakes or wilful misrepresentations of facts, which abound in the history of Europe for the two last centuries. Let us turn our eyes to Asia: what a multitude of improbable stories have been spread over our part of the world, concerning the manners, the laws, the religion of the Mahomedans! Euthymius accuses them of adoring the morning star under the name of Cobar; which is a palpable lie, arising from the ignorance of the writer, who heard the criers on the mosques calling the people to morning prayers by the words Allah Acbar, or GOD is the most High. Such a calumny may be pardoned in so obscure an author, whose credit cannot mislead many readers; but a scholar, and man of the world, like Grotius, ought to have blushed, when he talked of a steel coffin at Medina, suspended in the air between two loadstones of equal force.

An historian, who is obliged to rely upon the veracity of other men, and cannot say with Æneas, Quæ ipse vidi et quorum pars magna fui, must be very diligent and circumspect in weighing and sifting his authorities, unless he have a mind to propagate errour, instead of establishing truth, and to obtrude upon his reader a set of fables, which the factious or envious invent in all ages, and which the ignorant or malevolent are always ready to circulate. His caution must be still greater, when he records the events of very distant nations; since we have no small difficulty to learn the true state of those occurrences, which pass around us every day; and it generally happens, that, the more intimately we are concerned in any transaction, the more mistakes we find in the publick accounts of it. Men are often at a loss to give a perfect relation of actions, over which they presided in person; as Pollio detected several errours in a narrative, published by Cæsar, of a battle, in which Cæsar himself commanded; or, to speak of our own times, as Adlerfeld, in his description of Schullembourg’s passage over the Oder, disagrees in many points from the description given by the General himself.

The History, therefore, of those events, which happen in remote countries, can hardly fail of being erroneous; for, in general, we are forced to depend upon reports of reports, echoed from the ignorant natives to inquisitive travellers, and brought by them to Europe decorated with a thousand ornaments: and even if we study the languages of those nations, and read their own Histories, we are commonly deceived, either by the zeal or malignity of the authors. The following example will confirm and illustrate this observation.

There are two celebrated histories of the Life of Tamerlane, one in Persian, the other in Arabick, both of them written with all the pomp and elegance of the Asiatick style: in the first, the Tartarian Conqueror is represented as a liberal, benevolent, and illustrious prince; in the second, as deformed and impious, of a low birth and detestable principles. It seems difficult at first to reconcile this contradiction; but the difficulty vanishes, when we learn, that great part of the Persian History was composed under the inspection of Tamerlane himself, and received only the polish of language from the pen of Ali-Yezdi; and that the Arabian author bore the most inveterate hatred against that monarch. The story of the iron cage, in which Tamerlane confined Bajazed, is generally treated as a fable upon the authority of the very learned M. d’Herbelot; who asserts, that it is not mentioned by the Arabian Historian, though he omits no opportunity of debasing the moral character of his Hero: this argument would, perhaps, be decisive, if it were founded upon true premises; but unfortunately, in the thirteenth line of the two hundred-sixty-eighth page, the Arahian expressly affirms, “that Tamerlane did enclose his captive Ilderim Bajazed in a cage of iron, in order to retaliate the insult offered to the Persians by a sovereign of the lower Asia, who had treated Shapor, King of Persia, in the same manner; that he intended to carry him in this confinement into Tartary, but that the miserable prince died in Syria, at a place called Akshebr.” This fact is not the more true, for being asserted by Ebn Arabshab; but it seems strange, that the judicious M. d’Herbelot should have overlooked this passage, and should speak so positively of a book, which he had read with so little attention: nor is the point itself of any great consequence; but it may show, how cautious we should be, in relying upon the authority of illustrious names.

In this obscurity of human affairs, nothing remains for a wise historian, but to confine himself to great and notorious events, in which the true and incontestable part of all History consists; for, whenever he descends to particular characters, and minute descriptions, or attempts to relate the very words, and unfold the sentiments, of princes, he will run into wildness and uncertainty, and lead his readers into a kind of fairy land, while they expect to be conducted through the paths of real knowledge. Since in History, as in Philosophy, we can only catch the general and striking features of Truth, it is a folly to deck her picture with our own imperfect colours, and to dress up a phantom of our imagination instead of a reality.

There are a multitude of historical pieces in the Persian, Arabian, and Turkish languages; some of which are tolerably authentick, all curious and entertaining, but very few written with taste or simplicity, and none, which answer in any degree to the Ciceronian idea of perfection: they contain, however, the best materials for an History of Asia from the age of Mahomed to the present century, and the completion of such a work, if any man had leisure or courage to undertake it, would greatly enrich our European literature.

We come now, after a long interval, to consider the Persian History of the Life of NADER SHAH, which was translated by the author of the following work. It must be allowed, that his testimony is not wholly free from suspicion; but his narrative must necessarily be more authentick, than that of our travellers, who could not possibly be acquainted with the facts, which they relate so confidently. The Persian historian attended his Hero in many of his expeditions, and was an eye-witness of the actions which he describes: it is probable, indeed, that his attachment to the Deliverer of his country might induce him to paint Nader Shah in brighter and more pleasing colours than he deserved; to cast a veil over the deformities of his character, and to present us only with the beauties of it; but, as the work was finished after the death of the Monarch, and as it passes a very free censure upon the latter part of his life, we may reasonably conclude, that the author delivers his real sentiments, though his veneration for the memory of so extraordinary a man often betrays him into expressions, which border upon the meanest flattery. The Persian language has declined so much from its original purity, that no great elegance could be expected from Mirza Mahadi: the work is genuine, and may be recommended as a curiosity; but I will fairly confess, that, had I been left to my own choice, it would have been the last manuscript in the world, which I should have thought of translating: out of so many Persian books of poetry, ethicks, criticism, science, history, it would have been easy to have selected one more worthy of the publick attention; and the works of Hafez or Sadi might have been printed for half the expense, and in half the time.

I was willing, however, to try, whether this Asiatick history might not appear to better advantage without the stiffness of a verbal translation; with which intent I drew up a short abstract of it in my native language: I stripped the original of its affected flowers and ornaments, and here present the English reader with all the interesting facts in a plain and natural dress; but, in compliance with Tully’s rules, I have in some places ventured to interpose my own judgement upon counsels, acts, and events; have preserved the order of time without anticipation or confusion; and have occasionally interwoven the description of remarkable places; taking care to assert nothing of any moment without the authority of the Persian to support it, and not to run after the false gleam of conjectures and reports, by which most of the writers on the same subject have been led. After all, I am far from expecting, that this little work will give me any claim to the title of an Historian: when I compare my piece, not only with the idea of Cicero, but even with the productions of others, I am like the drop of water, in the fable of Sadi, which fell from a cloud into the sea, and was lost in the consciousness of its own insignificance. The chief merit of the book, if it has any, consists in exhibiting in one view the transactions of sixty years in the finest part of Asia, and in comprising in a few short sections the substance of a large volume. Life is so short, and time so valuable, that it were happy for us, if all great works were reduced to their quintessence: a famous scholar at Leipsick proposed to reprint the vast compilation of M. d’Herbelot enlarged to the double of its present size; but he would deserve better of the learned world, if he would diminish it to a fourth part of its bulk, by rejecting all its repetitions and superfluities.

Before I conclude this preface, it seems necessary to give some account of the two short tracts, which were designed as preparatory to the principal work.

It was thought useful to prefix to the Life of Nader Shah, a succinct description of Asia, and particularly of the Persian Empire, that the reader, upon opening the History, might not find himself in a country wholly unknown to him; and that he might be prepared for the Oriental names, which in such a work could not possibly be avoided, and are not easily accommodated to an Eúropean ear. Many readers are disgusted with the frequent return of harsh and unpleasing names of rivers, cities, and provinces, the very sound of which, they say, conveys the idea of something savage; but they would be at a loss to assign a reason, why the Aras and the Forát are words less melodious than the Dnieper and the Bogh; why the archbishop of Gnesne has a softer title than the Mulla of Ispahan; or why the cities of Samarcand and Bokhara are less agreeable to the ear than Warsaw and Cracow; yet the accounts of the northern kingdoms are read with pleasure, and are thought to abound with a variety of interesting events, while the histories of the East are neglected, and the Asiatick languages considered as inharmonious and inelegant. It must, nevertheless, be remembered, that a great part of Persia, and all Sogdiana, lie in the same climate with Italy and the South of France; and that the people of Asia had among them a number of fine writers, sublime poets, eminent artists, at a time, when our part of the world had neither learning, poetry, nor arts; when the inestimable remains of Menander, Alcæus, Sappho, and the rest, were publickly burned at Constantinople by order of a Greek Emperor; and when the inhabitants of all Europe besides had never heard of Menander, or Alcæus, or Sappho.

The dissertation on Asiatick Georgraphy must, from its very nature, be stiff and uniform. Tully, whose noble style might have given a grace to any subject whatever, had begun, at the request of Atticus, to compose a Geographical Treatise; but he never finished it, because he found it a barren soil, that was not favourable to the flowers of his language^*.

I was very soon aware of this objection; but, as such a work was necessary to my plan, it occurred to me, that the subject would appear less dry, if it were interspersed with anecdotes of Eastern literature, and with summary accounts of the learned men, whom each city of Asia has produced; for a relation of all their sieges and revolutions would have been still more unpleasant, and, in general, the cities of Persia have had the same fortune with the Empire itself. It will be fair to acknowledge, that, in both parts of the Introduction, many passages are borrowed from the celebrated work of M. d’Herbelot; but nothing has been copied from him, which has not also been found in several manuscripts: our materials were taken from the same originals; and it is natural for two persons, who search the same mine, to meet with the same kind of ore. The principal Geographers, whom I consulted, were Abulfeda, and Ulugbeg; the first, a King of Hama in Syria, and the second, a grandson of Tamerlane, who was also an excellent Astronomer, and built a fine Observatory in his imperial city of Samarcand. It is much to be wished, that a correct Map of Asia were engraved, with all the names properly spelled, and the latitudes of the cities exactly marked, upon the authority of these illustrious writers; but such a work would require infinite labour, since a number of manuscripts must be collated, lest the mistakes of ignorant transcribers should mislead the designer of the Map, and the fine art of engraving be applied to perpetuate their ridiculous errours^*. Until some Geographer, equally skilled in the Eastern languages, and in the science which he professes, will supply an able artist with materials to accomplish this useful design, the reader of Asiatick history must be satisfied with the Maps of M. de la Croix, which are inserted in his Life of Tamerlane, and are far the most accurate of any, that I have had occasion to consult; especially in the description of Khorasan, where notice is taken even of the castle at Kelat, so frequently mentioned in the following History. The reader will be candid enough to consider this essay on the Geography of Asia as the sketch only of a larger tract, which, from the very nature of an introductory piece, must needs be superficial and imperfect; for it would be absurd to make any introduction so copious, as to divert the reader’s attention from the work, which it was intended to illustrate.

In the short History of Persia, which follows the chapters on Geography, I pursued, as closely as I was able, the plan of a book compiled by Atticus, which was greatly admired by the Romans, but is now unfortunately lost: it contained an abstract of general History, and exhibited in one view a relation of the most interesting events, that happened in a period of seven hundred years^*. Thus the second part of my Introduction comprises all the great and memorable occurrences in the Persian Empire, from the doubtful and fabulous ages to the decline of the Sefi family in the present century: it was extracted from several Asiatick writers, Mirkhond, Khandemir, Ferdusi, &c. and might have been considerably enlarged, if all the fables and dull events, which are found, it must be confessed, in great abundance in the originals, had been transcribed at full length; but it has long been a maxim with me, that, as nothing should be admitted into History, which is false, how agreeable so ever it may be, so nothing should be related, merely because it is true, if it be not either instructive or entertaining. The dullest records of ancient times should be preserved, that they may occasionally be consulted; but they should be reposited in cabinets and archives: as the old arms and utensils of the Romans are kept in museums for the inspection of the curious, while modern pieces of elegant or useful workmanship are the constant furniture of our apartments, either for our pleasure, our convenience, or our defence. The poetical fables of the old Persians, however curious or amusing, ought not to be mixed, like glittering dross, with the pure ore of true History: but, if some student of Eastern literature would amuse himself with collecting these fables, and reducing them to a System of Persian Mythology, he would greatly assist every learner of the Asiatick languages; who, without such help, must be stopped in every page by allusions to adventures, of which he never heard; since a man, who is unacquainted with the fairies, dragons, and enchanters, so frequently introduced in the poems of Ferdusi; who knows nothing of the griffon Simorg, the speaking horse of Rostam, the dark sea which surrounds the world, the mountain of Kaf, or the battle of the twelve Heroes, can no more pretend to read the finest writings of Persia, than he could understand the Odes of Pindar, if he never heard of the Trojan war, the groves of Elysium, the voyage of the Argonauts, or the several attributes of the heathen Deities.

The Persians would not readily forgive my presumption, if they knew what a liberty I have taken with their Chronology, and how many thousand years I have retrenched from the pretended Duration of their Empire. They reckon but eleven Monarchs of the first race, and nine, including Darius, of the second; yet they assign to the reigns of these twenty princes a period of above three thousand years, or an bundred and fifty to each prince one with another; but these are Persian tales: human nature is nearly the same in all ages; and it has been proved by the strongest induction, that Kings seldom reign, one with another, longer than eighteen or twenty years each^*: so that we must ascribe these fictions of the Persian Chronologers to the vain desire of aggrandizing their country, by raising its Antiquity so far beyond the truth.

It is with the utmost diffidence, that I venture to add an observation of my own upon any work of NEWTON; whose admirable tracts on the abstract sciences, and on the application of those sciences to natural Philosophy, exhibit the noblest specimen of perfection, to which the human intellect can be exalted; and whose treatises on lighter subjects, though incapable, from their very nature, of strict demonstration, are not without many strokes of that piercing genius, which raised him above all men who ever lived: but it appears to me, that his medium of twenty years to a reign is too general, and that, in some ages and nations, it must be considerably less, in others, far greater, according to the necessary difference of government or manners, in the different empires of the world. Thus, by comparing the duration of the modern Asiatick dynasties, since the decline of the Califate, with the reigns of the several princes, I have observed, that those Monarchs have seldom sitten on the throne longer than ten or twelve years each, at a medium; for, if one or two of them have contrived to hold their seats forty years, the greater part of them have reigned but six or seven, and many have been dethroned in a few months, some, even in a few days, after their accession. This can be owing to nothing, but the imperfection of those unhappy governments, where a Sultan no sooner has the diadem on his head, than his ministers, sons, or brothers, form a confederacy against him, so that he either perishes in the field, or closes his days in prison, to make room for one of his relations, who frequently meets with the same fate: this is apparent from almost every page in the Histories of modern Asia. The case was very different in the infancy of the Persian Empire: the sovereigns were almost deified by the people, whom they had civilized; the temperance of those early ages might tend to lengthen their natural lives; and few of them were disturbed by civil wars or rebellions; so that we may safely allow the space of five hundred and sixty years to the two first families of Persian Kings, or twenty-eight to a reign; which computation, if we count backwards, from the death of Darius, in the three-hundred-thirtieth year before CHRIST, will place the foundation of the Persian Monarchy in the eight-hundred-ninetieth year before the same Epoch, about fourteen years, according to Newton, after the burning of Troy, and just a century before some General or feudatory of Tahmuras founded the dynasty of the Assyrians^*: but here we must observe, that it is not possible for us, to fix the precise years, in which each of these ancient Monarchs began his reign, or how long each of them really sat on his throne; so that these calculations, when we descend to minute particulars, must needs be very uncertain, and, where we cannot hope to find the perfect truth, we must, like the old Academicks, be content with a bare probability. To conclude; if any essential mistakes be detected in this whole performance, the reader will excuse them, when he reflects upon the great variety of dark and intricate points, which are discussed in it; and if the obscurity of the subject be not a sufficient plea for the errours, which may be discovered in the work, let it be considered, to use the words of Pope in the preface to his juvenile Poems, that there are very few things in this collection, which were not written under the age of five and twenty; most of them, indeed, were composed in the intervals of my leisure in the South of France, before I had applied my mind to a study of a very different nature, which it is now my resolution to make the sole object of my life. Whatever then be the fate of this production, I shall never be tempted to vindicate any part of it, which may be thought exceptionable; but shall gladly resign my own opinions, for the sake of embracing others, which may seem more probable; being persuaded, that nothing is more laudable than the love of Truth, nothing more odious than the obstinacy of persisting in Errour. Nor shall I easily be induced, when I have disburdened myself of two more pieces, which are now in the press, to begin any other work of the literary kind; but shall confine myself wholly to that branch of knowledge, in which it is my chief ambition to excel. It is a painful consideration, that the profession of literature, by far the most laborious of any, leads to no real benefit or true glory whatsoever. Poetry, Science, Letters, when they are not made the sole business of life, may become its ornaments in prosperity, and its most pleasing consolation in a change of fortune; but, if a man addicts himself entirely to learning, and hopes by that, either to raise a family, or to acquire, what so many wish for, and so few ever attain, an honourable retirement in his declining age, he will find, when it is too late, that he has mistaken his path; that other labours, other studies are necessary; and that, unless he can assert his own independence in active life, it will avail him little, to be favoured by the learned, esteemed by the eminent, or recommended even by Kings. It is true, on the other hand, that no external advantages can make any amends for the loss of virtue and integrity, which alone give a perfect comfort to him who possesses them. Let a man, therefore, who wishes to enjoy, what no fortune or honour can bestow, the blessing of self-approbation, aspire to the glory given to Pericles by a celebrated Historian, of being acquainted with all useful knowledge, of expressing what he knows with copiousness and freedom, of loving his friends and country, and of disdaining the mean pursuits of lucre and interest^*: this is the only career, on which an honest man ought to enter, or from which he can hope to gain any solid happiness.

IRAN^*, or the vast Empire, which we commonly call PERSIA, is a country bounded on all sides by seas or rivers. It has the Indian sea on the south, and the Caspian directly opposite to it: the Persian gulf, or, as the Asiaticks call it, the Green Sea, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Cyrus and Araxes, the Oxus or Bactrus, and the five branches of the Indus, divide it on the other sides from Arabia, from Syria, from Georgia, from Turkestan, and from India. As all the provinces in this Empire must have changed their boundaries in a course of ages, it will not be easy to reconcile exactly the accounts of ancient and modern Geographers; but we shall attempt to make them agree as nearly as possible.

PARS^*, or Persis, has on the south a gulf, to which it gives its name, and along which it extends near three hundred leagues: it has Kermán on the east; Khuzistán on the west; and a vast desert, named Noubendigán, which embraces it on the north, divides it from Khorasán, or, The Province of the Sun. On the border of this desert is the beautiful valley of Baván^†, often alluded to by the Arabian poets, which is reckoned one of the four Paradises of Asia; the other three are the vale of Damascus, the banks of the river Obolla, and the plain of Sogd, in the midst of which stands the flourishing city of Samarcand: all these places are said by travellers to be delightfully pleasant; and the mildness of the air, joined to the clearness of the rivulets, which keep a perpetual verdure on the plains, give us the idea of the most charming scenes in nature.

The finest cities in Persis are, 1. SHIRAZ, surrounded with pleasant gardens, and famous for having given birth to the poets, Hafez and Sádi: its inhabitants are fair and well made, and are remarkable for the liveliness of their wit. 2. YEZD, the birth-place of Sharfeddin Ali, an elegant author, who wrote the life of Tamerlane: and, 3. FIRUZABAD, or, The Region of Happiness, where a very able grammarian was born, who compiled an admirable dictionary of the Arabick language, which he justly entitled^‡ Alcâmùs, or, The Ocean; he lived in the fourteenth century, and Tamerlane is said to have made him a present of five thousand ducats: he is usually called Firûzabâdi.

When you have passed the desert of Noubendigân, you enter the province of KHORASAN, the Bactriana of the Ancients: it is the most eastern kingdom of Iran, and takes its name from Khór^*, an old word for the Sun. It is bounded on the north by the Oxus, on the west by a desert, and on the east by the mountains of Candahár, which separate it from India. Its principal cities, all of which have been at different times the seats of Kings, are, 1. BALKH, where Lohorasp, successor to Cyrus, retired, having placed his son upon the throne of Persia; it was the birth-place of Mirkhond, the historian, and of the sublime poet Gelaleddín, who wrote the Mésnavi, a moral work, highly esteemed in the East. 2. HERAT, the Aria of the Greeks, whence the territory depending on it was called Ariana; it was a magnificent City, till it was ruined by the Tartars: the learned Khondemir, who was born in it, gives us a full description of its palaces, mosques, and gardens, in the twelfth chapter of his General History. 3. MERU SHAHJAN, or, The Delight of Kings; it was once a pleasant city, but had the same fate with Herat. 4. NISHAPOR, which was built or repaired by Shapor, son of Ardeshir. Several excellent men were born in this City, the chief of whom were Attár, who wrote a Pendnáma, or book of Instructions, and Cátebi, who composed a poem on the loves of Baharám, king of Persia, and the fair Gulendám. The great square of this city was called Meidán, in which was born a learned grammarian, thence named Meidáni, who published a large collection of Arabian proverbs, with elaborate notes. The other populous city of Khorasan is, 4. TUS, now called MESHEHED, or, The tomb of Martyrs; which was made in this century the Capital of Khorasan; it was the native city of the astronomer Nasíreddîn, and the poet Ferdúsi, who, after a number of adventures, ended his days in it. The little town of JAM or ZAM deserves to be mentioned among these cities, because it was the birth-place of the illustrious JAMI, a most animated and elegant poet, whose beautiful compositions, on a great variety of subjects, are preserved at Oxford in twenty-two volumes. He flourished in the middle of the fifteenth century, and dedicated one of his poems to Mohammed II. The cities of Balkh, Herat, and Meru, or at least the names of them, are very ancient: they are said to be mentioned by Zerdusht, in the first section of his Pazend, among the sixteen delightful places, which Ormusd raised, and Aherman endeavoured to destroy.

SEGESTAN^*, or SISTAN, the Drangiana of the Greeks, has part of the Desert, and Kerman, on the West, and on the East the country of Gour, famous for a rich mine of turkis-stones, between which and India lies the territory of Ráver; it touches also, at its eastern boundary, the province of MULTAN, which makes a part of Sind: it has another desert, and part of Mocran, on the south, and joins on the north to Zablestán. The country of Segestan consists chiefly of plains, and is very fruitful in palm-trees; it is also rich in mines of gold, the ore of which is uncommonly pure. Its chief cities are, 1. BOST, whence a moral poet of great reputation in Persia was named BOSTI; and, 2. ZERENGE, which was a populous and commercial town during the reign of the Soffarian princes. This province, and ZABLESTAN, the ancient Arachosia, were considered as one principality by the old Persians; and Rostam, the commander under Cyrus, held it as a fief from the Kings of Iran. The cities of note in Zablestán are, 1. CABUL, which, indeed, is generally reckoned the capital of another province, named CABULISTAN, and no man, as the Indians say, can be called the ruler of India, who has not taken possession of Cábul. 2. MEIMEND, an agreeable town, surrounded with meadows watered by fresh streams, and with gardens, that produce excellent fruit. 3. GAZNA, or GAZNIN, from which the family of Mahmúd, who conquered these provinces in the tenth century, were called Gaznevis; it is an unpleasant city, and its inhabitants are forced to send to Meimend for their fruit and herbage: this city, as well as Cábul, was under the dominion of the Indian Emperor in the present century, but they were an easy conquest to the Persians. 4. BAMIAN, which Genghiz took by storm in the year 1221, and almost ruined, in the violence of his grief for the loss of his grandson, who was killed during the siege.

We may place the large province of SIND^* next to Segestán, because, though it is generally reckoned a part of India, yet it comprehends both MOCRAN, the ancient Gedrosia, and MULTAN, which have been considered as provinces of Persia; and here we may observe, that the Easterns divide the Indian Empire into two parts, which they call HIND, and SIND: by Hind, in its strictest sense, they mean the districts on both sides of the Ganges, and by Sind, the country that lies on each side of the Sindáb or Indus, especially where it discharges itself into the ocean. Sind, therefore, including Mocrán and Multán, is bounded on the south by the Indian sea, which embraces it in the form of a bow: it has Hind on the east, and on the west, Kermán, with part of Segestan, which also bounds it on the north; but if, with some Geographers, we make it comprise even Zablestán and Cábul, its northern limits will extend as far as CASHMIR^†, that delightful and extraordinary valley, celebrated over all Asia for the singular beauty of its inhabitants, the serenity of its air, and the abundance of its delicious fruits: if, again, we include Cashmír also in this division of India, it will reach as far northward as TIBIT or TOBAT, the country of the finest musk, which has China on the east, and Oriental Tartary on the west and north; but we are wandering from our road: let us return to Iran.

The principal cities of Sind are, 1. DAIBUL, where the Portuguese had a settlement. 2. MANSURAT, which we by contraction call Surát, situated in the territory of KAMBAIA, a city well known to our merchants and travellers: and 3. BIRUN, famous for being the birth-place of Abu Rihán an excellent Astronomer and Philosopher, who travelled forty years in India in search of knowledge; though some writers suppose him to be a native of another Birún in Kharézm.

Between Mocran, the mountains of which are washed by a branch of the Indus, and Persis, is the province of KERMAN^*, or, as the Ancients called it, Carmania; which is bounded by the desert on the north, and on the south by the Persian gulf: the soil of Kermán is extremely dry, as it is watered by no considerable river. The cities of this province are, 1. SIRJAN, which the inhabitants have contrived to water with artificial canals. 2. ZEREND, and 3. HORMUZ, which was formerly on the continent, but was afterwards transferred to an island of the same name in the gulf of Persia. The commerce of this city was removed by the Persians to the port of Abbas, or Gomrón. Many learned men were born in Kerman, the most celebrated of whom were the poets Khájah Kermáni, and Omadeddín: the first of them was remarkable for the richness and splendour of his style, the second for the correctness and elegance of his verses; they both left collections of their Odes and Elegies.

To the west of Pars is the province of KHUZISTAN^*, which the Greeks called Susiana; it has no mountain in it, but consists wholly of large plains. It has part of Persian Irák on the north, the Gulf to the south; and it extends westward as far as the plains of Wásset, and the port of Basra, whence Milton says

But he pronounces the word Basra very improperly, and makes also a considerable mistake, in putting into the mouth of the Tempter the name of a city, which was not built till six hundred years after the Temptation. The principal cities of Khuzistán are, 1. TOSTAR or SHUSTER, the ancient Susa, famous for a manufactory of rich velvets. 2. AHWAZ, which has a large territory, or rather province around it: the country of Ahwaz contains the smaller cities of Corkób, Dourák, Ramhormoz, and Ascar Mocram.

ARABIAN or Babylonian IRAK^†, the ancient Babylonia or Chaldea, comprises the districts, which lie on each side of the Tigris, and consequently has Mesopotamia on the west, and Cúhistán or Parthia on the east. This was the seat of the Babylonian princes; and the ruins of Babel or Babylon are still shown at some distance from BAGDAD, the capital of the province; which was built in the middle of the eighth century by the Calif Almansór. This city was raised on the spot, where a Persian princess had formerly built a palace, which she called the gift of Bag, the name of her idol; but Almansor named it the Mansion of Peace, because he had just put an end to a fortunate war, when the city was finished. Bagdád was also called ZAURA, by which name the illustrious and amiable Tográï mentions it in his poem, entitled Lamia. The Arabians, who inhabited this City under the Califs, were remarkable for the purity and elegance of their dialect; whence Sadi boasts, that he knew the art of love, as well as a native of Bagdád spoke the language of Arabia. The Tartars, Persians, and Turks have been successively in possession of this city: it was taken in the year 1638 by the Sultan Morad III. and it has remained to this day in the hands of the Turkish princes, for Ahmed, who governed it in the present century, had the address to defend it against the repeated assaults of the Persians. The other considerable cities of Irák are; 2. CUFA, from which the ancient Arabick letters are called Cúfick, for the modern characters were not invented till the beginning of the tenth century. The neighbourhood of Cufa has been rendered sacred to the Persians by the tombs of Ali, and his son Hussein, who was killed on the plain of Kerbelá^*. 3. HEIF, remarkable for a fountain of naphtha or bitumen, with which, according to the Oriental tradition, the tower of Babel was built on the plains of Senaar. 4. MADAIN, near which the ancient Ctesiphon probably stood; it was the metropolis of Irak in the reign of Perviz, whose throne of massy gold, covered with jewels, together with other inestimable treasures, was found in it, after the battle of Cadessia, and plundered by the Arabs. 5. HOLVAN, where the Califs used to reside in summer for the freshness of its air; it stands in the mountains between the two Iraks: and, lastly, BASRA a commercial City well known to our merchants; it is unpleasantly situated, by reason of the uncommon dryness of the soil; but not far from it the river Obolla flows through a delightful valley, and makes it one of the most beautiful spots in Asia. In this city was born the celebrated Hariri, who composed a moral work in fifty dissertations on the changes of fortune, and the various conditions of human life, interspersed with a number of agreeable adventures, and several fine pieces of poetry: the style of these discourses^* is so rich, elegant, and flowery, that a man, who understands them accurately, may justly be called a perfect master of the Arabick language.

PERSIAN IRAK, named also CUHISTAN or the mountainous country, and GEBAL, which has the same sense in Arabick, seems to be the Parthia of the Ancients: it is remarkable, that the words Parthia and Persia were both taken from one word, that is, Pars, or Parth, for the Asiaticks had a letter, which they sometimes pronounced th, and sometimes s; Pars^† signifies a Leopard, and the country might, perhaps, have taken its name from its being infested with beasts of that species: but this is only offered as a conjecture, and the fact, on which it is grounded, may happen not to be true; it adds, however, some weight to this opinion, that the people of Asia frequently gave names to countries from the animals which were found in them, or the plants which they produced: thus part of Africa was, very probably, named Libya from Lebia^‡, which signifies a Lioness in the eastern dialects. It may be worth while to remark in this place, that the Old man of the mountain, who is mentioned in our accounts of the Crusades, was no other than a Prince of the Ismaëlian family, who reigned in Gebal, or the mountainous province, with the title of Sheikh, an Arabick word, signifying an Old man as well as a Prince.

The two Iraks are said to be fine provinces; and their beauties are particularly described by the Persian poet Khacáni in his poem entitled Irakein, the dual number of Irak.

The principal cities of Cuhistán are, 1. ISPAHAN, which the Sefi family made the Metropolis of their kingdom. The splendour and riches of this city under Abbas, and his immediate successors, are well known in Europe by the relations of Chardin, who has described them with a minute exactness; but for us, who prefer the genius of its inhabitants to the luxury of its Kings, it will be sufficient to mention the learned men, who were born in it: the chief of them were Omád Elcáteb, who published the life of Seláheddin, whom we call Saladin, in seven volumes, and an account of the Siege of Jerusalem in a separate work, both written in a flowery and elevated style; and the poet Kemàleddín, who left a Diván, or collection of his elegant verses. 2. HAMADAN, an agreeable city, situated near the mountain Alvénd, and remarkable for a fresh and temperate air; it was the birth-place of an eloquent writer, who produced some rhetorical discourses, in imitation of which, Haríri composed his admirable dissertations. 3. KOM, where the richest Persian silks were woven. 4. CASHAN, famous likewise for its manufactory of silk, and for the dangerous venom of its scorpions, which has even passed into a proverb. 5. CAZVIN, called also Gemálabád, or the Region of Beauty, where many able scholars, and learned historians were born. 6. REI, the most northern city of Parthia, in which were born the sublime philosopher Fakhreddín, and the physician, commonly called Rázi, whose works begin to be known in Europe, as those of Boerhave begin to be studied in Asia: and 7. NOHAVEND, celebrated for being the scene of the last battle, which the Persians were able to give to the Arabs, who gained a complete victory under the command of Ebn Yemen in the year of Christ 641, on a day which the Arabians call^* The victory of victories. These cities, together with Abher, Sava, and others, have been exactly described by the traveller Chardin.

The province of Cuhistán has on the East the vast desert of Noubendigán, and, on the West, Azarbigian, the ancient Media; its southern limits are the borders of Susiana; its northern, part of Dilem and Mazenderán.

AZARBIGIAN^‡, or Media, ARRAN or Atropatia, and ARMENA, or Armenia, are considered by some Eastern Geographers as One Province or Kingdom, and we may, therefore, describe them together. They are bounded on the east by part of Cuhistán, and the Caspian provinces, on the west, by Rûm, or the lower Asia; on the north they have Georgia and Circassia, on the south, a canton of Mesopotamia, and Curdistân, part of the ancient Assyria. The most remarkable cities of Azarbigián are; 1. ARDEBIL, considered as sacred by the Persians, for containing the tombs of Sefiaddîn and Heider, the venerable ancestors of the Sefi family. 2. TABRIZ, commonly called Tauris, which, in the last century, was a large and beautiful city, but has been much impaired during the late disorders in Persia: it stands at the foot of a mountain, which the Greeks called Orontes, a word corrupted, perhaps, from Orond; and a small river winds through its streets. The air of Tauris is cool, dry, and so healthy, that it is said to have taken its name from its quality of resisting any noxious infection; for Tab signifies a fever, and Ríz is the participle of Ríkhten, to disperse^*. There was an ancient city, which stood nearly in the same place, and is called by Ptolemy. The most illustrious person born at Tabriz, was the poet Hemám, who flourished in the thirteenth century, and was contemporary with Sadi. There is a very agreeable story told by M. d’Herbelot of these two poets, which, though foreign from the subject of geography, deserves to be inserted. Sâdi, who spent his youth in travelling, happened to meet Hemám in a certain city, either in a bath or at a banquet: they conversed for a long time without knowing one another, and discovered the places of their birth; some time after, Hemám, observing that Sadi was almost bald, a defect imputed to the air of Shiraz, showed him the bottom of a cup, which he held in his hand, and asked him how it happened, that the heads of the Shirazians were like that cup: Sadi, without hesitating, took the cup, and, presenting the hollow part of it to his companion, tell me first, said he, how it happens that the heads of the Tabrizians are like this. Hemám, who was very rich and well born, was surprised at so smart a reply from a dervise, for Sadi used to travel in that dress, and began to treat him with more respect: “You come, said he, from Shiraz; do you know Sádi? has he composed any new piece of poetry?” Sadi replied, that he knew him, and repeated some of his finest verses. The other was highly pleased with them, and asked him if the people of Shiraz set any value on the poems of Hemám; he answered, that they were greatly admired, and repeated a couplet taken from them, which intimated, “that there was a veil between his beloved and him, but that it was time to remove it, and have a full view of her perfections.” Upon this they made themselves known to each other, and cultivated the strictest friendship till their death.

The great cities of Arran and Armenia are, GANGIA, and ERIVAN, its Capital, a large but unpleasant town, without any fine edifice in it, or any other ornament than a number of gardens, and vineyards. Some Geographers, and among them the prince of Hamah, place in Armenia the cities which we consider as belonging to Georgia or Gurgistán; these are SHAMCUR, and TEFLIS, a city not large but tolerably elegant: it is washed on the eastern side by the river Ker or Cyrus, and defended on the other sides by strong and beautiful walls.

SHIRVAN^* and DAGHESTAN^† or The country of rocks, are those provinces which Milton calls

The first of them seems to be derived from Shír, a lion, and the second from Dágh, a cliff. Daghestan, the ancient Albania, which is inhabited by a bold and warlike race of banditti, called Lekzies, reaches along the Caspian to the borders of the Russian Empire: it has on the north the vast desert of Capchác, which has ever been the nursery of hardy and untamed warriours; and extends from the Wolga to the immense regions of north-eastern Tartary or Siberia. The cities of Shirván are, 1. BACU, a port on the Caspian lake, whence it is called the Sea of Bácu: 2. SHAMAKHI, a city well known to the Russians: and 3. DERBEND or the barrier, which stands at the foot of Mount Caucasus or Keitáf, and commands the Caspian: this place was called by the ancients Caspiæ portæ, by the Turks, Demir Capi, or, the gate of iron, and by the Arabs, Bábelabwáb^* or the important passage. It was anciently considered as the boundary of the Persian Empire, and an old king of Persia built to the north of it a vast wall, like that of China, which has been repaired at different times, in order to prevent the incursions of the Khozárs, and other savage nations, who infested the rocks between the Caspian and Euxine seas. Some ruins of this mound are still to be seen, and the cement of it is as hard as marble. This city was once thought so considerable, that the governor of it had the privilege of giving audience in a golden chair, whence the territory around it was called Serîreddhehab, or, the throne of gold^*.

DILEM and GHILAN, the country, perhaps, of the ancient Cadusü and Gelæ, are described together by the illustrious Geographer Abu’l Fedá, prince of Hámah, who reckons but seven towns in them, neither of which are at all remarkable: these provinces, according to him, contain two degrees from south to north, and about three from west to east. These two countries, joined to TABERESTAN, and MAZENDERAN^†, seem to form the great kingdom, called by the Ancients Hyrcania and Margiana. The capital of Mazenderán is, A??TERABAD, which stands in the territory of Jorján; and the chief city of Taberestan is, AMOL, the birth-place of Ibn Joreir or Taberi, an exact and agreeable Historian, whose work was published in Arabick at the beginning of the tenth century, and has since been translated by eminent writers into Persian and Turkish.

Khuarezm, or KHAREZM^‡, the country of the ancient Chorasmü, lies on each side of the Oxus, as far as the place where it formerly discharged itself into the Caspian; so that it belongs partly to Irán, partly to Turán: it has great Tartary on the north and north-east, Khorasán on the south, and is bounded on the east by the Transoxan provinces. The word Kharezm signifies in old Persian an easy conquest, and took its name, we are told, from an expression of Cyrus, who, having in this country, defeated a numerous army of Turanians, with little loss on his side, was heard to say Kharezmi búd, or, it was an easy victory; a tradition, which seems to prove the antiquity of the Persian language, for Rezm, in the modern dialect, signifies a battle, and Búd, it was. The Kharezmians have always been esteemed lovers of musick and poetry; some of their verses are preserved in Arabick, which are very sprightly and elegant. They have not a very warm climate, for their rivers are generally frozen in winter. The principal cities of Kharezm are, 1. CORCANGE, whose inhabitants used to traffick in raw silk and saffron; it stands on the west of the Oxus, which in this place bends its course to the north. 2. CATH, once the capital of the province. 3. HEZARESB, famous for a castle almost impregnable. 4. DARGAN, the first city which you enter, if you come from Merú in Khorasán. 5. ZAMAKHSHAR, renowned only for being the birth-place of a great scholar and able grammarian, commonly called Zamakhshari^*, author of a most learned and entertaining work in ninety-nine chapters, which he chose to entitle Al Rabî, or The Vernal Recreation^†: to these cities Abulfeda adds FARABR a small town close to the Oxus, near which the river is fordable.

BADAKHSHAN and TOKHARESTAN^*, the countries of the ancient Massagetæ, lie towards the source of the Gihún or Oxus, and are separated from Turán by the district of Khotlán, and the town of Vakhsh, which stands in a pleasant and fruitful territory. There is a city also named Badakhshán, near which are some mines, where the balass rubies are commonly found. We have a collection of poems by a native of this country, who is commonly called Badakshi; one of his couplets is quoted by M. d’Herbelot, in which he compares the life of man to an hourglass, that is always alternately high and low^†. On the south of Badakshán is the province and city of CANDAHAR^‡, situated in the mountains, which the Greeks called Paropamisus.

ALGEZIRAH, or the Peninsula, for so the Arabians call the province of Mesopotamia, lies, as its Greek name imports, between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, or, as the Easterns call them, Degelah, and Forát. This extensive country is divided into four Diár, or cantons, which took their names from as many Arabian tribes, who formerly settled in them; that of Becr is best known to our Geographers. The principal cities of Mesopotamia are, 1. ROHA, called by our writers Edessa, which was taken by the Crusaders, and afterwards recovered by the Persians from Baldwin, King of Jerusalem. 2. HARRAN, which the Romans called Carrhæ, where Crassus and his army were defeated. 3. RACCA, not Aracta, as it is written in the maps, the birth-place of the astronomer Batáni, a very accurate observer of the heavens. 4. NASSIBIN, the Nisibe of the Ancients, which has been a subject of perpetual contention between the Persian and Roman Emperors: and, 5. MUSEL, near which it is supposed, that Niniveh was anciently built; it was the native city of an excellent musician, thence named Múseli, who, by the power of his melody, is said to have reconciled the Calif Al Rashíd to the fair Maridah, his mistress, at whose behaviour he had taken some offence.

THE large and beautiful kingdom, which lies between the Gihún and Sihún, or the ancient Oxus and Iäxartes, is called by the Persians TURAN^*, by the Arabians, Mawarannahar^†, or, The province beyond the river, and by the Greeks Sogdiana, from the pleasant valley of Sogd, which shall presently be described: they might have called it Mesopotamia, if that name had not been before applied to another country. It has Badakhshan on the east, and on the north, the vast regions of Turkestan or Scythia, which reach to the confines of the Russian and Chinese Empires. The valley or plain of SOGD^‡ passes among the Asiaticks for one of the most delightful spots in the world; it is an hundred and twenty miles in length, and sixty in breadth, and a large river, named Caï, rolls through it, which branches into a thousand clear streams, that water the gardens and cultivated lands, with which the whole plain is covered. In the midst of this vale stands the city of SAMARCAND, which was very rich and flourishing in the fourteenth century: the territory is now possessed by the Uzbeks, a warlike nation, who took it from the descendants of Tamerlane. That Conqueror was born at CASH, a pleasant city, about a day’s journey from Samarcand. In short, Sogdiana lies in the same climate with Italy and Provence, and has the advantage of a sky perpetually clear, the coolest rivers, and the most excellent fruits. The other famous cities of Transoxiana are, 1. BOKHARA, through which the Russian merchants used to pass in their journeys to China; it was in this century the seat of a sovereign prince, whom Mirza Mahadi calls king of Bokhára, by which he means the whole territory of Sogdiana. 2. NAKHSHEB, where a celebrated author was born, who wrote in Persian a book called The Tales of a Parrot, not unlike the Decamerone of Boccace. 3. ZAMIN, where the finest manna of all Asia is gathered. 4. OSRUSNAH, surrounded by a district, that has four hundred strong castles in it. 5. FARGANA, the birth-place of a great astronomer, usually called Alfargáni, who flourished in the ninth century. The mountains near Fargána abound in turkis-stones, as well as in rich mines of gold and silver.

The vast Empire, which lies beyond the Iäxartes, between the dominions of the Czar and the Emperor of China, is called by the Asiaticks, who speak correctly, TURKESTAN^*, or, The country of the Oriental Turks, an ancient and martial people, who, under the names of Getes, Moguls, and Tartars, have, at different times, poured in great numbers into the more western and southern kingdoms. The principal cities of Turkestán are, 1. BALASAGUN, which was once its Capital. 2. SHASH, which gives its name to a river that flows from the Sihún, and joins another called Faráb. 3. SHAHROKHIA, built by Tamerlane upon the birth of his son, whom he called Shahrokh, or, Check with the rook, because he was playing at chess, and had just beaten his adversary by that stroke, when he received news of the prince’s birth. This city stands on the banks of the Iäxartes, over which there is a large and elegant bridge in this part. 4. FARAB, or FARIAB, otherwise called Otrár, the birth-place of two very learned men, the great philosopher and musician Al Fariábi, and an able grammarian, known to us by the name of Al Joûheri, or, The Jeweller, who compiled a voluminous dictionary of the Arabick language, entitled Seháh, in which the principal words are illustrated by chosen passages from the old Arabian poets^*. There is nothing very remarkable in the other cities of Turkestán, as Ilák, Toncát, and the rest; they stand between the ninety-ninth, and hundred and first degrees of longitude, and are between forty-one and forty-three from the Equator. The province of KHOTOLAN deserves, indeed, to be more particularly mentioned; it lies between Tartary, Badakhshan, and the territory of Balkh; its chief city, which has also a considerable district around it, is named VAKHSH; and the whole country is represented as fruitful, pleasant, watered by several rivulets, and even rich in golden ore, which the streams often bring down the mountains mingled with their sand.

At the extremity of Turkestán, are the countries of KHATA and KHOTEN, which border on China, and, in this century, were governed by an independent King, who sent an ambassador to Nader Shah. The city of Khoten has a large territory round it of the same name, which is famous for producing very fine musk, equal to that of Tibet. A Persian poet, quoted by Golius in one of his manuscripts^*, alludes to the musk of this country in the following passage: ‘When thy charming letter was ‘brought to me, I said; “Is it the zephyr that breathes from the gardens, or is the sky burning wood of aloes on the censer of the sun? or is a caravan of musk coming from Khoten^†?” To understand these verses, we must know, that the Asiaticks have a custom of perfuming their letters, which they tie up in little bags of sattin or damask. The city of CASHGAR also, with its territory, belongs, according to some writers, to Khatá; as well as KHANBALEK, which the Eastern Geographers place actually in the Chinese Empire; this is not the Cambalu of our travellers, which is properly called Cabalig, and stands forty-four degrees from the Line, and an hundred and three from the Canaries. CARACUM is likewise a city of Khatá, and is situated in a large plain covered with black sand, from which it derives its name. All this extensive Empire was conquered in the thirteenth century by Tamugin or Genghiz, who penetrated even into China, which his successor Octáï almost wholly subdued, and took the city of Nâm Kím, or Nang King, where the Chinese prince Altún burned himself and all his family, that he might not fall into the hands of the Moguls.

THE celebrated Empire of India is called by the Persians Hind, or HINDUSTAN^*, The Country of the Hindús: it is bounded on the west and south by the Ocean, on the north by Candahár and Turán, on the east by Chîn or China; for so the Asiaticks call the Peninsula beyond the Ganges, which comprises the kingdoms of Tipra, Asám, Aracan, and Siam. The country of Hind is divided into three parts; 1. Guzerat, or DECAN, including most of the southern provinces, and, among them, the city and territory of SUMENAT, where Sadi, as he tells us in his Bostán, had an adventure with the worshippers of an ivory image, whose artful contrivance he detected at the hazard of his life. 2. MALABAR, or, The country of the Malais, which includes what the Arabians call Beladelfulful, or, The land of pepper^†, and is terminated on the south by the cape of Comron, famous for producing the best aloe-wood, a favorite perfume of the Asiaticks: to the south west of this promontory are the numerous islands, which we call Maldives, and the Arabs Rabíhát, and a little to the south east, the famed Serandíb or Seilán, which produces so many precious perfumes, jewels, and spices. M. d’Herbelot remarks, that the Eastern Geographers say nothing of the cinnamon, with which Serandib abounds, and, as they call that spice the wood of China, he imagines, with some appearance of probability, that it was transplanted to Seilán by the Chinese, who, as it is currently reported, had once a great connection with the natives of that island. Farther eastward are the islands of Samander, or Sumatra, Rámi, or Lameri, which may, perhaps, be Java, though, by the accounts of it, one would take it for the same with Samander, and then Albinoman will be Java, Jálûs, the Moluccas, and Mehrage, or Soborma, Borneo; to which isle the Easterns seem to confine their knowledge of Asiatick Geography^*; for what they call the isle of Anam, is no other than the southern part of the peninsula, which the ancients named The Golden Chersonnese; and as to Sinf, Sili, and Sindafúlat, they are rather ports on the coast of China than islands. The city of Khancú, which the learned African Prince Edrissi mentions, seems to be the Cantón of our merchants.

The third division of Hind is called MABER^† by the Arabians, and extends from the gulf of Bengal on both sides of the Ganges as far northward as the straits of Kupele; and here we may observe, that it is usual with the Asiaticks to give the same name to the countries, which lie on both sides of any considerable river: thus the province of Sind is divided by the Indus, Kharezm by the Oxus, Palestine by the Arden or Jordan, Egypt by the Nile, and this part of India by the Ganges. The ancient system of government, which prevailed in this country, seems to have been perfectly feudal; all the territories were governed by Ráï’s or Rájas, who held their lands of a supreme lord called Belhár, the seat of whose residence was the city of CANNOUGE, now in ruins. There is a curious book at Oxford, which was presented to the University by Mr. Pope, and contains the pictures of all the Kings who reigned in India, from the most early times to the age of Timúr, whose descendant Báber founded the monarchy of the Moguls at the opening of the sixteenth century.

DEHLI, called also Shahgehânabád, was the Capital of a kingdom, which bore the same name, where a race of Mahomedan princes reigned before Tamerlane, who were lovers of poetry and eloquence, and liberal patrons of learned men: this City, as well as a great part of the Indian Empire, has been agreeably described by M. Bernier, who tells a pleasing story of two Raja’s, named Gemel and Polta, who were besieged in a castle by Sultan Acbar, where, fearing to be led in chains by an insulting Conqueror, they made a desperate sally, in which they lost their lives fighting boldly to the last moment: he adds, that Acbar ordered the statues of these two illustrious brothers to be cut in marble upon two elephants, and placed over the gates of Dehli. To the north west of this city stands Lahawar or LAHOR, the capital of Penjáb, or, The five Rivers, a province so called, because the Indus is in that part divided into five large branches: it seems to have been the ancient kingdom of Pór or Porus^*, which is almost the only Asiatick word, that the Greeks have not corrupted, Our travellers mention a fine road of two hundred and fifty leagues, with rows of beautiful trees on each side, that reached from Agra to Lahór; and it is observable that the Persians call that city also Ráhver^†, in allusion, perhaps, to this road. We cannot forbear mentioning in this place the city of BENARES on the Ganges, famous for an academy or college of Indian priests, commonly called Bramens, who once possessed all the learning of India, and spoke the language, in which Bidpai wrote his excellent fables: there are some of this fraternity remaining, but their learning, it is probable, has not been preserved among them in any great degree, and their ancient language begins, like the Greek, to be respected rather than known.

THE peninsula of ARABIA, for so it is called by the eastern Geographers, has the gulf of Persia on the north-east, and the sea of Ommán on the south, whence the province, that lies between them, took the name of Bahrein, or, The Two Seas; it is bounded on the west by the Bahar Al Yemen, or Red Sea, which has also the name of Colzom, taken from a town of Egypt, now entirely ruined; on the north it has Shám or Syria. The triple division of Arabia into Yemen, or the Happy, Hejáz, or the Desert, and Hajar, or the Stony, is well known to every reader; yet it will not be useless to add a short description of those three provinces.

YEMEN^*, a delightful country, which had its Arabick name from the advantages of its situation, is divided from Hejáz by high mountains and vast deserts; it produces the finest incense, and other valuable perfumes: the sweetness of its fruits, the refreshing shade of its woods, and the coolness of its rivers, which flow perpetually down the mountains, make ample amends to its inhabitants for the heat of the climate, which must needs be very intense, as the city of ADEN is but eleven degrees from the Line. Its other principal cities are, 1. SANAA, which was the seat of the Tobáï’s, or ancient kings of Yemen. 2. ZEBID, nearly in the same latitude, a commercial city, known to the merchants, who sail from Ethiopia or India. 3. Máreb, or Saba, the city of the Arabian Princess who visited Solomon, situated in a fertile territory called HADHRAMUT, the Hadramytene of Ptolemy. We must not omit, that the entrance into the Red Sea is called by the Arabians the gate of tears^*, because that part of the ocean is extremely dangerous.

HEJAZ, or the Desert, is principally celebrated for its two cities, MECCA, the birth-place of Mahomed, renowned over all Asia for its Câaba, or Square Temple, which the old Arabians used to decorate with the most beautiful compositions of their poets, written in golden characters on the silky paper of Egypt; and YATREB, or Teiba, called also, by excellence, ALMEDINA, or The City, in which the Arabian lawgiver was buried.

The chief city of HAJAR is YAMAMA, which gives its name to the territory around it: this was the country of the ancient people called Thamúd^†; who were extirpated, according to the traditions of Arabia, for refusing to break their idols at the command of the prophet Sáleh.

SHAM^‡, or Syria, has Hajar on the south, and part of the lower Asia on the north; its eastern and western limits are the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. This country is so well known to our historians, ancient and modern, and to all our travellers and merchants, that very little needs be said of it in this place; there is scarce a city in it, which has not had its particular history, written in several volumes by authors, who seemed to forget how small a part of the globe they inhabited, compared with the vast Empires described in the proceding pages. The two principal cities of Syria are, 1. DAMASHC, or Damascus, near which is a valley or plain represented by the Arabians as a most charming spot, and one of the four paradises of Asia. 2. HOLAB, or Aleppo, where the learned Pocock acquired so perfect a knowledge of the Arabick language. 3. JERUSALEM, or Alcods, The Holy, which is still held sacred by the Mahomedans, who, whatever may be said to the contrary, are certainly a sect of Christians; if, indeed, they deserve the name, while they follow the impious heresy of Arius.

RUM^*, or the Roman provinces, which are also called Anatolia, have the Empire of Iran on the east, and are bounded on the other sides by the Black Sea, the Archipelago, and the Mediterranean; this is the country so justly famed for producing many of the great poets and fine writers of the ancient world, so that, whatever may be said of the Persian and Arabian compositions by those who are unable to read them, it cannot be denied even by them, that Asia has given birth to men of the brightest parts, and the most exalted genius. The Thracian Bosphorus, so frequently mentioned in the fictions of the old poets, separates this part of Asia from the city of CONSTANTINOPLE, which was made the seat of the Turkish Sultans in that memorable period, when learning revived in Italy, and the art of printing, which was then invented, served to promote and to fix it; when our apartments were first adorned with the vases of China and the silks of India; when a new world was discovered and subdued; when the light of reason and liberty was spread over part of Christendom, and delivered it from the worst of oppression, the tyranny of superstition and imposture.

CAIUMARAS^*, Before CHRIST 890. who seems to be the King of Elam mentioned in the Scripture, founded the Persian Empire, and fixed the seat of it in the province of Azarbigian. He was opposed in his noble enterprises by the inhabitants of the mountains and forests, who, like the wild Tartars and Arabs, dwelled in tents or caverns, and led a rambling life among rocks and in deserts. The rude appearance of these Savages, compared with the more polished manners of those, who first began to be civilized, gave rise to the fiction of Dæmons and Giants among the Persians, who call them Dîves^† and represent them as declared enemies to Man.

HU SHENG^‡, Grandson of Caiumaras, was, probably, contemporary with Minos, and, like him, B. C. 865. was eminent for his Justice and excellent Laws, which gained him the surname of Pishdâd^*, or The Legislator, whence the first race of Persian Kings took the name of Pishdadians. He taught Agriculture to his subjects, and made great improvements in the art; he advised them to water their fields with artificial canals, a custom still frequent in Persia, where the soil is uncommonly dry. He also discovered mines of iron in his kingdom, which metal he wrought into weapons, and tools for husbandry. He was the first, who bred dogs and leopards for hunting, and introduced the fashion of wearing the furs of wild beasts in winter. He is also said to have built the city of Shuster or Susa, to have extended the bounds of his Empire, and to have penetrated as far as the coast of the Indian Sea.

TAHMURAS^† B. C. 835. succeeded his father Husheng; he built several cities in the two provinces of Irak, and among them Babel or Babylon, and Niniveh, near the ruins of which the cities of Bagdad and Musel are now supposed to stand. He assigned the government of these cities, with large territories annexed to them, to his most illustrious Ministers, who are known to us by the names of Assyrian and Babylonian Monarchs, though, most probably, they payed homage to the sovereign lords of Iran.

This prince encouraged arts and manufactures, and particularly the planting of rice, and the breeding of B. C. 835. silk-worms; he first used a complete suit of armour, and civilized many barbarous nations, whence he was called Dîvbend^*, or, The Tamer of Giants.

GEMSHID^† B. C. 800. finished the City of Istakhar, or, as the Greeks called it, Persepolis, which his uncle Tahmuras had begun, and the ruins of which are still shown, by the name of Chehlminár^‡, or, The Forty Pillars. He introduced the use of the Solar Year among the Persians, and ordered the first day of it, called Nurúz^ǁ, when the Sun enters the Ram, to be solemnized by a splendid festival. This gave a beginning to Astronomy among his subjects, and at the same time, perhaps, to the idolatrous respect, which the common people afterwards showed to the Sun. Gemshid, or Gem, for he is known by both names, was a wise and magnificent prince: he was the first, who instituted publick baths, and encouraged his subjects to dive for pearls in the Green Sea, or Persian Gulf; he invented tents and pavilions, and discovered the use of lime in building: he built a strong bridge over the Tigris, which, according to the Asiatick writers, was demolished by the Greeks. Yet this illustrious monarch was unfortunate in war: he was driven from his throne by Zohác, a native of Arabia, and spent the remainder of his life in travel. The Queen, his wife, saved her son Feridun from the usurper, and educated him in a distant retreat. The Persians say, that musical B. C. 800. instruments were invented in the reign of Gemshid; and they add, that Pythagoras and Thales were his Contemporaries.

ZOHAC^*, B. C. 780. the Usurper, was a detestable Tyrant: his cruelty forced the Persians to revolt, and a General, named Gáo, having defeated him, drew the young Feridún from his retirement, and placed him upon the throne.

FERIDUN^† B. C. 750. is considered by the Persians as a model of every virtue: he gave the province of Irak or Parthia to his Deliverer Gáo, as a principality for life; and having sent for the standard, which that officer used in his battle against Zohác, he adorned it with precious stones, and preserved it in his treasury^‡.

Feridun, wishing to spend the last years of his life in a studious retirement, divided his vast dominions between his three sons: he allotted Syria and the western provinces to Salm, who was, perhaps, the Salmanasser of the Jews; he gave the country beyond the Oxus to Tûr, whence the Transoxan Regions were called Tûrán, and assigned the kingdom of Khorasan and all the heart of his Empire to Irage, his youngest son, whose share took the name of Irán, B. C. 750. which it still retains. The two elder brothers, thinking this division partial, made war against Irage, and slew him in a cruel manner; they would even have dethroned Feridun, had not Manucheher, son of Irage, a youth of great hopes, led a powerful army against them, and avenged the death of his father. This division of the Persian empire into Iran and Turan has been a source of perpetual dissensions between the Persians and Tartars, as the latter have taken every opportunity of passing the Oxus, and laying waste the districts of Khorasan; they have even pushed their conquests so far, as to overturn the power of the Califs, and afterwards to raise a mighty Empire on the banks of the Ganges.

MANUCHEHER^* B. C. 720. made great improvements in the government of Persia, and was the first who began to fortify his cities with ramparts and ditches. He was fond of improving gardens, and of cultivating curious plants. He was not fortunate in war, though his General and Vizir, the son of Neriman, was the bravest hero of his age. In his reign the celebrated Rostam is said to have been born of Rudába, an Indian princess, by Zálzer or The golden-haired, a youth of exquisite beauty and eminent virtues: but, as Rostam was, certainly, a Commander under Cyrus, he must, if we place him under Manucheher, have lived above an hundred and fifty years; which is scarce credible, though such a fiction may be allowed in the poems of Ferdusi.

NUZAR^*, B. C. 695. son of Manucheher, succeeded to the diadem, but not to the glory, of his father. While his court was torn in pieces by a number of factions, Afrâsiáb, King of Tûrán, a lineal descendant from Tûr, son of Ferídûn, passed the Oxus with a formidable army, and, having defeated the Persian Monarch, slew him with his own hand. This Invader reigned twelve years in Persia, but was forced by Zalzer, or The Prince with Golden Hair, to repass the Oxus, and return to his own dominions. It is more than probable, that Afrasiáb was a common name for the Kings of Asiatick Tartary, since the grandfather of Cyrus, whom we commonly call Astyages, bore the same name, and we cannot suppose Him to have been the first invader of Persia^†.

It B. C. 667. was not long before the Turanians invaded Iran a second time, and, by forcing the great commanders of Persia to defend their own Principalities, reduced the power of the Persian Kings to a shadow. Afrasiáb, either the monarch above-mentioned, or another of his name, is reckoned the ninth king of Persia.

ZAV^‡ B. C. 639. was a Prince of the royal line, and was placed on the throne by Zalzer, but enjoyed only the B. C. 639. title of King, as the Turanians had overrun great part of his Empire, and kept him in continual alarm. These are the Scythians of our Ancient Histories, who are said about this time to have invaded the kingdom of the Medes; but our best historians are apt to confound them with the Scythians of the North.

GERSHASP^*, B. C. 633. son of Zav, or KISHTASP, as some writers call him, reigned but a few years, if it could be called reigning, to have the name of King, and to be more helpless than his subjects: he was the last prince of the Pishdadians. During the reign of these monarchs in Persia, if we believe our Chronologers, Dido built Carthage, Homer wrote his Poems, which were afterwards brought into Greece by Lycurgus; the Pyramids of Egypt were raised by Cheops, Cephren, and Nitocris; the Assyrians founded a powerful Dynasty; Athens was first governed by Archons; and Sabaco, whom the Persians call Cús Pildend^†, or with the Teeth of an Elephant, because he first made use of that beast in his wars, became famous in Ethiopia, and spread his arms over all Africa. This warriour was contemporary with Feridún, who reigned, as we have seen, seven hundred and fifty years before Christ, at which time, says Newton, Sabaco the Ethiopian invaded Egypt. Rome, the rival of Carthage and Athens, was built in the reign of Gershásp.

WHILE B. C. 610. Zalzer, the most powerful prince of Persia, was encamped in his province of Seistán, the Drangiana of the Greeks, Afrasiab, who had subdued all Media, considered himself as Sovereign of the Empire. By this time, another son of Zav, named Cobád, began to distinguish himself in his engagements against the Turaníans, and, being assisted by Zalzer, whose son Rostam was very young at this time, he was enabled to drive the invaders from Iran, and to place himself upon the throne of his ancestors. Æschylus, who flourished but an hundred years after this event, rightly attributes the recovery of the Empire to this prince, whom he calls a Mede, in his Tragedy of the Persians: “The first Leader of the army, says he, was a Mede; the next, his son, completed (or rather promoted) this work, for wisdom guided his mind: the third was Cyrus, a fortunate Man^*.” It is evident, that these three Kings are Cai Cobád^†, Cai Cäús, and Cai Cosru B. C. 610. or Khosru; whom the Greeks call Cyaxeres, Darius the Mede, and Cyrus. The first syllable of Cyaxeres is apparently the Cai of the Persians, which signifies a Great King, and was prefixed to the names of those three princes, whence the whole race were named Caianians. The Ancients tell us, that Cyaxeres slew the Scythian Chiefs at a feast, to which he had invited them; but the Easterns are silent on this head, and it seems more probable, that the Tartars were compelled by force to repass the Oxus; our authors make them retire beyond Cholcos and Iberia, confounding, as usual, the Oriental with the Northern Scythians. Cai Cobád made several wise regulations in his kingdom, and ordered the publick roads to be divided into parsangs or spaces of about four miles.

CAI CAUS^* B. C. 600. is called by our writers Darius the Mede, and it may here be observed, that Dára, or the Sovereign, was rather an Epithet than a proper name of the Persian Kings; so that the Daricks, or pieces of money, which were known at Athens, might have been coined by any Persian Monarch, and have born that name without the least impropriety. We must also remember, that the Asiatick Princes had several different names or titles, which circumstance has been the source of great confusion in our histories of the East. The Persian writers mention nothing of the Lydian war; they only say, that Cai Caüs carried his arms into the lower Asia, and was very successful in his enterprise. The Turanians, led by another Afrasiab, invaded Persia a third time, and layed B. C. 600. waste the province of Media. Siavesh, son of Cai Cáüs, being unjustly accused by Sudába, his father’s concubine, of an attempt to violate her, went over to Afrasiab, who received him with open arms, and gave him his daughter in marriage. This Princess was called Firenkis by the Persians, and Mandane by the Greeks, who had a singular fondness for soft and melodious names, and neglected truth itself for a pleasing sound. A few months after her nuptials, Siavesh, who deserved a longer life, was killed by a brother of Afrasiab, and the Princess, of whom Khosru was soon after born, was obliged to fly with her infant. The young Khosru was, some years after, seen by a Persian General, who guessed by his features that he was the son of Siavesh, and, his conjecture being confirmed by the Princess his mother, he brought them both into Persia, where Cai Cáüs embraced his Grandson with the highest joy imaginable, and, after a short interval, resigned his throne to him.

CAI KHOSRU^*, B. C. 568. or CYRUS, whom the Persians consider almost as a Demi god, determined to avenge the death of his father, and to deliver his kingdom from the tyranny of Afrasiab. He, therefore, assembled all his forces, and gave battle to the Usurper, who, on the other side, was supported by the Kings of Khataí and India: but the valour of Cyrus, and of his General Rostam, prevailed against the united powers of so many Sovereigns, and Afrasiab lost his life in the mountains of Media. This War is celebrated in a noble Poem by the illustrious Ferdusi, who may B. C. 568. well be called the Homer of Persia. Whatever our Chronologers say, it is not easy to conceive, that the Jews were delivered by this Cyrus: the name Coresh, used by Isaiah, has no affinity with the Persian word Khosru, and we cannot suppose any corruption in the sacred Text; whereas all the Persian writers agree that a prince, named Coresh, who was sent by Bahaman, son of Asfendiar, to govern Babylon in the room of Baltazar, actually protected the captive Jews, and permitted them to rebuild their Temple. Our historians, perhaps, deceived by the name Cyrus, which the Greeks gave both to Khosru and to Coresh, have fixed the return of the Jews much earlier than the truth.

LOHORASP^* B. C. 530. was placed on the throne before the death of Cyrus, who lived some years after his resignation. One would think at first, that he was the Cambyses of the Greeks; but nothing can be more different than the characters of Cambyses and of Lohorasp, the first being described as a cruel tyrant, the second as a virtuous and amiable Prince. He had a General named Guderz^†, who, according to the Oriental writers, pushed his conquests very far into the west: this conqueror is supposed by Mirkhond and others to be Nebuchadnezzar, who, we know, invaded Syria and Judea; but he seems to have been the Prince, whom the Greeks called Xerxes, and who might, perhaps, have had the title of King after his victories; for it must be remembered that a word, which signified King, was applied by B. C. 530. the Persians to every Governor of a province, and the lofty title, King of Kings, which their monarchs afterwards assumed, was no more than Ruler of Rulers, or, Chief of several Chiefs. It is certain, that the Persians have no monarch named Xerxes, or even Shirsháh, from which the Greek name is said to be derived; and, though we can hardly suppose the word to be corrupted from Guderz, yet, when we reflect that the more modern Greeks have made Varanes of Beharam, we cannot wonder at the corruptions of the Ancients. Our Chronologers place the reign of Xerxes after Darius Hystaspes, and he might, perhaps, have outlived both Lohorasp and his successor.

KISHTASP^*, B. C. 500. whom the Greeks call Darius, the Son of Hystaspes, transferred the seat of Empire from Balkh in Khorasan to Istakhar, for which reason he was better known to the Europeans than Lohorasp, who led a retired life in the most Eastern province of his kingdom. In his reign Zerdúsht or Zeratúsht, whom we know by the name of Zoroaster, published his moral work called Zend, or The book of Life, which was followed by his Pazend, or a further Confirmation of his Doctrine, as the^† word seems to imply: both these tracts were afterwards explained in a commentary entitled Vasta or Avasta; they inculcated the doctrine of two Principles, and recommended the worship of the good principle under the allegory of Light, which they opposed to B. C. 500. the bad, whose Emblem was Darkness. The King was much inclined to this doctrine, and raised a number of^* temples to the Sun, the fountain of Light; which the people, as usual, conceiving in a gross and literal sense, began to adore the Effect instead of the Cause, and the figure instead of the archetype: the priests took the hint, and the Sun or Mihra, became really to them, as our Alchymists absurdly consider it, a powerful Elixir, which transformed their base metals into gold. The Chief of Zeratúsht’s Scholars was Jamásp^†, who published a strange work upon Astrology. Not many years before this singular man, Confucius, or Cumfuçu, as the Missionaries write his true name, reformed and polished the people of China; and Solon, his contemporary, a sublime Poet, as well as a perfect Statesman, made admirable laws for the Athenians; so that this period was the age of Philosophers and Law-givers.

ARDESHIR^‡, B. C. 464. or BAHAMAN, surnamed Dirazdest^ǁ, or, The Long-handed, is, no doubt, the Artaxerxes of the Greeks, who called him Macrokheir, a name literally translated from the Persian, and implying only a very extensive power. We may safely place the building of the second temple under the reign of this prince; since, for the reasons before alledged, which appear very decisive, and are confirmed by the testimony of the Persian Historians, we cannot ascribe B. C. 464. the delivery of the Jews to the first Cyrus. The Easterns assure us, that Ardeshir sent a prince, named Coresh, descended from Lohorasp, to punish Baltazar, son of Bakhtnassar, who was grown very insolent in his government of Babylon; that Coresh conquered Baltazar, and was raised by the King to the supreme command of that City, where he protected and encouraged the captive Jews. The Persians could have no inducement to invent this tale, and as it was recorded in the oldest Annals of the kingdom, we cannot help giving some credit to it. They tell us also, that Bakhtnassar signified, in old Chaldean, The Servant of Nassar, an idol of the Babylonians; but it seems a better opinion, that the true word was Nebohadonassar, derived from Nebo, Hadon, and Assar, which, we know, were names of three Assyrian deities^*.

HOMAI^†, B. C. 440. a name which signifies The Bird of Paradise, was the daughter of Ardeshir, and sat on the throne during the infancy of her son Darab. She raised a sumptuous palace in the city of Istakhár, some pillars of which remain to this day; she built also a city called Semrem, whence the learned M. d’Herbelot supposes her to be Semiramis; but our Chronologers place the reign of that Princess three hundred years earlier.

DARAB, B. C. 424. or DARA^*, whom the Greeks call The Bastard, succeeded to Homái?? Here the Persian histories begin to be full of absurd fables, for we may suppose that the Records of these times were lost or neglected during the Grecian Wars. The Eastern writers tell a story of Darab, which has quite the air of a romance; “that he was exposed by his mother, like the Hebrew Lawgiver, on a river, which by its rapid current carried him to the habitation of a dyer, who knew him to be a child of high birth by the trinkets, which adorned his cradle; that he was educated by this honest man, who sent him to the wars, where he distinguished himself in fighting against the Greeks; that, being introduced to the queen as a brave youth, she knew him by the jewels which he wore, and which his reputed father had restored to him.” So far we may indulge these writers in the liberty of embellishing their Chronicles with lively tales; but we cannot so easily excuse them, when they make Alexander the son of Darab, and tell us of a daughter of Philip, whom the king of Persia married, but sent back to Macedon after his nuptials, because he found her less agreeable than he supposed her to be. These are stories, which would be unworthy of The Thousand and One Days.

There B. C. 400. seems in this place to be a chasm of many years in the annals of the Persians; for they say B. C. 400. nothing of Ardeshir, son of Dara, by^* Parizádeh, or Parysatis, whose brother Cyrus led the Greeks to Babylon in that memorable expedition, which Xenophon so elegantly relates; nor of the third Ardeshir, whom our historians call Ochus, nor of Arogus, whose true name it has not been in my power to discover. Now if we suppose, as we reasonably may, that these three Kings reigned about twenty-one years each, we shall bring the reign of Dara the Younger to the year 337 before Christ, which will agree tolerably well with the Chronologers both of Asia and Europe.

DARA B. C. 337. the Younger is better known to us, than to the natives of Persia; we may, however, be deceived in his character, for we represent him as a mild and benevolent prince, while they assert that he was severe, cruel, implacable. The Persians cannot comprehend the motives that induced Alexander to invade the dominions of Dara; and they assign a number of ridiculous reasons for it, which are too absurd to be related: in many points, however, they agree with our historians. The success of Alexander, and the battle of Arbel^†, or Arbela, are too well known to need any farther description. Dara was assassinated about three hundred and thirty years before our Epoch, and the Monarchy of the Caianians was transferred to the Greeks. While this family were on the throne of Persia, the light of reason, and that of liberty, which B. C. 337. ever attends it, were spread over the other parts of the world. Harmodius and Aristogiton slew the Tyrant of Athens, and the Lyrick Poets vied with each other in singing their praises; while old Brutus, nearly at the same time, incited the Romans to expel their Oppressors, whose vices made the very name of King detestable; and, during the twenty-seven years of the Peloponnesian war, Athens gave birth, as Ascham was fond of observing, to more able Commanders, Orators, Poets, Historians, and Philosophers, than the whole earth besides could ever produce.

How long the Greeks were able to hold the Persian Empire in their own hands, or whether they ever intended to exclude the princes of Persia from all share in the government, are points not easy to be settled with any certainty; but, if we suppose that the fifteen kings of the Ashcanians, who reigned before the birth of Christ, sat on the throne twenty years each, one with another, we shall place the rise of that family three hundred years before our epoch; which calculation will not seem much amiss, if we believe, what the Persians assure us, that the successors of Alexander reserved for themselves only Irak or Parthia, and Persia properly so called, but resigned the more Eastern provinces to the princes of the royal family; while the descendants of Seleucus reigned in Syria. The founder of this race was^* Ashac, or Arshac, whom the Greeks call Arsaces; his successors, who were styled B. C. 337. Kings of Parthia by our Historians, reigned till about two hundred years after Christ, and are famous for nothing but their Wars against the Romans, in which they were always valiant, and often successful. The last Prince of the Ashcanians, or Parthians was Ardaván^*, known to us by the name of Artabanus, against whom Ardeshír revolted, and transferred the empire to the Sassanians.

ARDESHIR A. D. 202. BABEGAN^*, whom our writers call Artaxares, was the son of Sassan, a man originally in a low station of life, but descended from a son of Ardeshir the Long-handed, who was disinherited in favour of Homáï. He was surnamed Babegán from Babeg, his grandfather, who was a Persian prince of eminent rank, and was so pleased with the amiable qualities of Sassan, his shepherd, that he gave him his daughter in marriage. Ardeshir was bold and warlike, yet a wise and learned prince, and is said to have composed two excellent books, the first, a Cárnâma^†, or a Commentary of his life and actions, the second, a moral work, of which Nushirván the Great, some ages after, published a second edition. These were employments truly worthy of great Princes; but the Kings of Europe have not written many Cárnâma’s, nor given many lessons of morality.

SHAPOR^‡, A. D. 242. son of Ardeshir, whom we call Sapores, built many cities in Persia, and rebuilt that of Níshapór^ǁ, which the Macedonians had destroyed. A. D. 242. The name of this city is compounded of Shapór added to Nî or Néï, a reed, because its ruins were overgrown with reeds, when Shapór first saw it. This Prince was very successful in his wars against the Roman Emperors: he reduced all Syria and Cilicia, and took Valerian prisoner, but was checked in his career by the more fortunate arms of Odenatus. In his reign Máni^* a Painter, having learned by the conversation of some Christians, that the Redeemer had promised to send a Comforter after him, formed the wild design of passing for the Paraclete; and, as no opinions are so absurd, which many will not embrace, he soon drew together a multitude of proselytes. Shapór was enraged at this imposture, and wished to punish the author of it; but Mani found means to escape, and fled into Eastern Tartary as far as the borders of China, having first told his followers, that he was going to heaven, and promised to meet them in a certain grot, at the end of the year. In his retreat he amused himself with painting a number of strange figures and views, which, at the year’s end, he showed to his disciples, as a work given to him by angels: he was a very ingenious artist, and had a lively fancy, so that his pictures, which were finely coloured, easily persuaded the credulous multitude, in the infancy of the art in Asia, that they were really divine; they were bound together in a book called Erteng^†, which is often alluded to by the Persian poets, one of whom, addressing himself to A. D. 242. a great Painter, says, The point of thy pencil draws a line over the leaves of Erteng, that is, effaces them^*. Máni, by a whimsical mixture, blended in his doctrine the Metempsychosis of of Brahma and Vishnú^†, and the two Principles of Zeratúsht, together with several tenets of the Alcoran, and even of the Gospel; yet this motley religion, ridiculous as it may seem, was followed even by Bishops and Patriarchs. Our writers call the professors of this sect Manicheans, but they should, by analogy, be called Manians. The Impostor was put to death in the reign of Baharam, grandson of Shapor: had he been, like Mahomed, a successful Warrior, instead of an obscure Artist, his religion would, perhaps, have been spread over all Asia; for it was the miraculous privilege of the true faith alone, to make its way, in defiance of persecution, by the force of its indisputable Truth, and the sanctity of its precepts.

HORMOZD^‡, A. D. 272. or Hormizdas, as our historians call him, had the advantage of a graceful person, and an agreeable air; but he was neither active nor warlike. He was much addicted to study, and strongly inclined to favour Mani, whom his son, as it was said above, afterwards destroyed.

BAHARAM^*, A. D. 274. son of Hormuz, after the death of Mani, led a peaceful and studious life. He was surnamed The Beneficent, and used to say, that Good-nature and Benevolence could not be defined separately, because they were the aggregate of all Virtues. His adopted son, who succeeded him, paid little regard to this maxim, and his violence procured him the name of Khálef, or, The Unjust^†; but it is said that he changed his temper and conduct upon the remonstrances of his Nobles.

There was nothing memorable in the reign of his successor Narsi^‡, whom we call Narses: Hormozd II. his son, was a just and magnificent prince; he raised a Court of Judicature in his Metropolis, in which he sometimes presided in person; and he built, it is thought, the city of Hormuz in Carmania, the name of which was afterwards given to the Island in the Persian Gulf, which our travellers call Ormus.

SHAPOR, A. D. 349. whom the Arabians name DHU LACTAF^ǁ, or, The Round-Shouldered, was taken prisoner by the Greek Emperor, and, during his captivity, many of his finest provinces were laid waste; but having recovered his liberty by the help of the Emperor’s Mistress, he returned to Azarbigian, where he made himself known to his A. D. 309. people, and soon after totally defeated the Greeks: in memory of this action he built the city of Cazvin^*, which, for its singular beauty, was also named Gemalabád^†. His grandson Baharam had but a short reign, which was disturbed by frequent rebellions. It was usual for the Persian Kings to give their sons some considerable government with the title of Sháh; that of Carmania was allotted to Baharám, who assumed, in consequence of it, the surname of Kermanshâh^‡, which our writers have corrupted into Carmasat.

The reign of his son Yézdegerd had nothing in it, that deserves to be related.

BAHARAM A. D. 35?? the Fourth^ǁ, or the Sixth, as some authors reckon him, was educated in Arabia, and had some difficulty to recover the throne of Persia, which the Nobles of his father’s court had, in his absence, given to a prince named Kesri. The adventures of this King are related at large by the poet Câtebi, some of whose fictions have been transplanted into the Persian histories, where we are told, with great solemnity, “that he challenged Kesri to snatch the diadem from two hungry lions, between whom he had placed it; that he slew the two lions, and took the diadem; that he travelled into India in A. D. 351. a private character, and married the King’s daughter, having gained his favour by killing a furious elephant, and by defeating another Indian Prince, who had invaded the country.” These relations have the air of Persian tales; but we may be assured, that he repulsed the Eastern Tartars, who, as usual, had passed the Oxus in his reign; and that, having no other enemies, he spent the remainder of his life in hunting. His favourite prey was a beast called Gúr, which seems to be the Onagrus, or Wild Ass; and it is said that he was killed in a chace. The word Gúr, which signifies a tomb, as well as a wild ass, gave occasion to a pun of some Persian wit, which was circulated after Baharâm’s death: See, says he, how Baharám, who chased the Gúr, or wild ass, all his life, was at length chased and taken by Gúr, or the tomb^*.

The successor of Baharam was Yezdegerd II. a wise and resolute prince, whose soldiers were so fond of him, that they gave him the surname of Sipâhdóst, or, Beloved by the army^†. He left his throne to his younger son Hormuz, surnamed Firzâma^‡, or, The Prudent; but that prince was dethroned, in less than a year, by his elder brother Firúz.

FIRUZ^*, A. D. 459. having deposed his brother by the help of Khoshnavâz, a King of the Indoscythians, soon forgot his obligation to him, and turned his arms against his protector; but he was constantly defeated by that prince, and was at last obliged to conclude a dishonourable peace. The people, whom the Greeks call Indoscythians, and the Persians Haïatelis, inhabited the mountains between Candahar and India, and were, perhaps, nearly the same with the Afgans, who ruined the Persian Monarchy in the present age.

Belash and Cobad succeeded Firúz; the second of them was the father of Nushirván the Great, before whom Jamásp, or, as we call him, Zamaspes, reigned one year.

NUSHIRVAN^†, A. D. 530. better known in Europe by the name of Cosroës, reigned till near the close of the sixth century; he was a Prince of eminent virtues, fortunate in war, and illustrious in peace. MAHOMED, who was born in his reign, calls him The Just King, a title more honourable than that of Great, which we are apt to bestow so wantonly upon the oppressors of mankind. All the moral writers of Persia, and principally Sádi, in his Bostán, or Garden, and Jámi, in his Beharistán, or, Mansion of the Spring, are fond of reciting the maxims of this Monarch, and of illustrating their lessons of morality by his example.

His A. D. 530. son Hormúz was far from imitating his father’s virtue; he was at last dethroned by his General Baharám, whom some authors reckon among the Kings of Persia.

KHOSRU A. D. 590. PARVIZ^* was a magnificent and amiable monarch: he fought against the Greek Emperors with great success, but was at length defeated by Heraclius. He is said to have married a daughter of the Emperor Maurice, named Irene: the Persians call this princess Shirin, or Sweet, and the progress of her love for Parvíz furnished Nezámi, and other poets, with the subject of an entertaining Romance; they tell us that a certain Statuary, named Ferhad, was in love with the same lady, and pierced through the heart of a large mountain, either to gratify his mistress, or to employ his melancholy hours. There is an elegant couplet of Jámi on this celebrated Beauty and her lovers: When Shirín, says he, opened her lips, that shed sweetness around, she stole the heart of Parviz, and the soul of Ferhad^†.

This prince is said to have received a letter from Mahomed, inviting him to embrace the new sect of the Arabians; but, as he was extremely addicted to the popular religion of his country, he tore the letter with great disdain.

Parviz, A. D. 590. if we believe the Easterns, was a lover of Musick, and a patron of those who professed that art: his chief Musician was Barbúd, who composed a favourite tune called Aurengi, or Royal, and invented a sort of lute, known by his name; whence M. d’Herbelot supposes, a little too hastily, that the Greeks formed their word Barbiton, not reflecting, that Anacreon and Horace used that word many ages before the birth of Parviz. The Persians, like the ancient Greeks, call their musical modes, or Perda’s, by the names of different countries or cities, as the mode of Ispahan, the mode of Irak, the mode of Hejáz, or the Arabian mode. Whether these modes, like ours, mean a succession of sounds relating by just proportions to one principal note, or only a particular sort of air, it has not been in my power to learn. If we may argue from the softness of the Persian language, the strong accentuation of the words, and the tenderness of the songs which are written in it, we may conclude that the Persians must have a natural and affecting melody, which is, certainly, true musick; but they seem to be very little acquainted with the Theory of that sublime art: and, indeed, the Europeans knew as little of it, till it was explained to them by Rousseau of Geneva, who has written upon the subject like a Philosopher, an Artist, and a Man of Taste.

After A. D. 623. the death of Parviz, the Empire began to decline: the five Princes, and the two Queens, who succeeded to Shirúieh, or Siroes, as they were eminent neither in peace nor in war, are not worthy of a place in History.

The A. D. 636. Arabs, under the command of Omar, were perpetually making inroads upon the Persian Empire, and finally overthrew it by the defeat of YEZDEGIRD^*, who was killed in the middle of the seventh century; and by his death the family of Sassan became extinct.

OMAR was succeeded by a race of Califs, the Popes of Asia, who assumed at once a regal and a priestly character, the one as conquerors of Persia, and the other as successors of Mahomed. The family of OMMIA preserved their power and dignity; but, under the house of ABBAS, the Califate was reduced to a shadow of sovereignty, and their Empire was divided among a number of independent Princes.

The division of the Empire prepared it for dissolution; the sons of GENGHIZ, who led a numerous army of Tartars over the Oxus, found the conquest of Persia an easy task. It is related, that Holagu, a Mogul prince, who put an end to the Califate in the thirteenth century, was incited to besiege Bagdad by the great astronomer Nassireddîn, who had taken offence at the Calif’s behaviour to him; so that the subversion of a splendid Empire was owing to the resentment of a private Philosopher^*. The Genghizians were followed by TIMUR, improperly called Tamerlane, whose dominions extended from the Ganges to the borders of Museovy, and from the Archipelago to the frontiers of China; which kingdom he was beginning to invade at the time of his death. The metropolis of his Empire was Samarcand, a rich and flourishing city, the ancient Maracanda, situated in the beautiful valley of Sogd, about a day’s journey from Cash, the place of his birth. At the opening of the fifteenth century, not many months before his death, he celebrated the nuptials of his sons and grandsons by a sumptuous festival in a delightful plain called Gánigul^*, or The Treasury of Roses. All the riches of Xerxes and Darius, of which our historians talk so extravagantly, were trifling in comparison of the jewels and gold exhibited on this occasion.

His vast possessions were inherited by the illustrious SHAHROKH, who distributed them among his children. In his reign the princes of the BLACK RAM grew very powerful and insolent; they were, however, reduced by UZUN HASSAN, or Hassan the Tall, who was the sixth king of the WHITE RAM, and subdued many provinces of Persia, but was defeated by Sultan Mahomed II. who took Constantinople in the middle of the fifteenth century. These two families were distinguished by the Rams of different colours, which were painted on their ensigns.

The sons of Hassan weakened their Empire by their violent dissensions; and, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, left it open to ISMAIL, whose grandfather Juneid had married a daughter of Hassan. This prince is considered as the founder of the Sefi family, but his ancestor SHEIKH SEFI was the true cause of its rise. The story of that singular man deserves to be told at full length. When Timur returned to Persia, after his victories in Syria, he passed through Ardebil, a large city of Media. There lived at that time in this city a man named Sefieddín, or the Purity of Religion, by contraction Sefi, who was much respected by the Citizens, as a Philosopher of singular virtue and piety, and a reputed descendant from the prophet Ali. The Tartarian Conqueror, who was not inferiour to Alexander, visited Sefi, who was far more benevolent than Diogenes; and at that time Tamerlane happened to have with him a great number of captives in chains, for the most part natives of Carmania, whom he had determined to put to death upon some publick occasion. He was charmed with the conversation of the philosopher, and, like the Macedonian Hero, offered to give him any thing he could desire. The Sage pointed to the Captives, and entreated him to save the lives of those young Carmanians who were in his train. Timur consented; and gave them all to Sefi as his slaves; but the virtuous old man supplied them with the necessaries of life, and sent them to their native city. The families of those prisoners, who were the principal men of Carmania, retained so grateful a sense of this benefit, that they expressed it in the most extravagant manner: they made it the business of their lives to visit their benefactor and to carry him presents; and even enjoined their children to pay the same respect to the posterity of this excellent man. But all his descendants had not his benevolence; and Ismail employed those very Carmanians in raising him to the throne of Persia, and in substituting the sect of Ali, his real or supposed ancestor, to that of Omar, the acknowledged successor of Mahomed.

Ismail had many eminent qualities, but sullied them all by his detestable cruelty. His successors, without excepting ABBAS, absurdly called the Great, were such a disgrace to human nature, that an account of their lives would be more like a description of the Tigers in some publick collection of wild beasts, than a piece of history: almost every day of their lives was distinguished by some horrid act of intemperance, lust, or murder, aggravated with some new circumstance of wickedness: their very love was fierce and inhuman, and they burned for the slightest offences the most beautiful women of Asia, either because they declined drinking a cup of wine more than usual, or interceded for some courtier in disgrace. At length the vein of inhumanity seemed exhausted in the family, and left nothing behind it but an inconceivable stupidity.

HUSSEIN, who reigned at the opening of this century, was a weak Zealot; and, by committing the management of his kingdom to Eunuchs and pernicious Ministers, left it open to the Savages who invaded it, and assaulted him even in his Metropolis. A barbarous nation, called Afgans, or Avgans^*, who inhabited the mountains between Candahar and the river Indus, rushed like a torrent into Persia, and took Ispahan after a violent siege, under the command of MAHMUD, son of MIRVEIS, who, as all Europe knows, had shaken off the Persian yoke, and governed Candahar for eight years^*.

The kingdom of Persia was reduced to a deplorable state, when TAHMASP was raised to the throne, after the abdication of his father Hussein, who was soon after murdered. Mahmud, the Usurper reigned in Ispahan, and was succeeded by his cousin Ashraf^†, who added to his dominions the cities of Kom, Yezd, and Kazvin. The inhabitants of Candahar, the ancient Paropamisus, and those of Herat or Ariana had thrown off their allegiance to the Sultan, having established separate and distinct governments: in the provinces of Ghilán, Kermán, and Pars, several pretenders arose at the head of considerable forces: the rebel Melek had made himself master of Khorasan, ordered money to be coined in his name, and wore the diadem of Persia; the Turks had subdued great part of Azarbigian or Media, and all the districts near the shore of the Caspian were in the hands of the Russians. This was not all; a number of barbarous tribes, who inhabited the forests and mountains, joined in the general commotion, and concurred to fill the whole Empire with desolation and rapine; while the new Emperor, who had scarce common sense, was driven like a fugitive from city to city, attended only by a few troops, and some Nobles as weak as himself.

At this time a young man, named NADERKULI, or The Servant of the Wonderful, advanced from the deserts bordering on the Caspian Sea, and attacked the enemies of his country. It is He, of whose life and actions we propose to give a succinct account in the following work.

NADER KULI was born on Sunday, the eleventh day of November in the year 1688, in a castle named Destegerd, about sixty miles to the north of Meshed, Capital of Khorasan. His birth was neither eminently high, nor contemptibly low; for his Ancestors seem to have been the principal men of a Tartarian tribe, called Afshars, who had formerly removed from the Transoxan provinces to avoid the oppression of the Moguls: their life was divided between war, and pastoral amusements, and, like the Arabs, they continued to change their quarters according to the mildness or severity of the season. We may suppose, however, that his family was not very considerable, as the Persian author makes A.D.1703. Nad. 15. a long apology for the obscurity of his extraction, and, in the manner of the Oriental writers, throws out several poetical illustrations of what he had asserted, “that the cimeter acquires its merit from the natural excellence of its temper, and not from the mine, where it was formed; and that the diamond owes not its superiority over all other jewels to the rock where it grew, but to its native brightness.” Let that be as it may, it is certain that he was born with admirable parts, and soon discovered a peculiar genius for military exercises: even at the early age of fifteen years, he gave many signal proofs of his valour, in every expedition that he was engaged in; but the first circumstance which promoted and distinguished him, was his alliance with the Chief of a neighbouring tribe, a man of great power and dignity, who had signalized himself in several wars with the nations of the adjacent districts, and who then possessed a strong hold near the city of Abiúrd: this chief was so pleased with the dawning merit of the young Naderkuli, that he gave him his daughter in marriage, in preference to a croud of competitors.

He A.D.1718. Nad. 31. was thirty-one years old, when his son Rizakuli was born, whose mother died five years after; and Nader married the daughter of another Chief, by whom he had two sons Imámkuli, and Nasralla. We must not omit, that he had a brother named Zoheireddoula, who had also two sons Ibrahim and Ali: as these are the principal actors in the following History, the reader must keep them constantly in his memory, for if he once lose the chain of events in this narrative, we are not answerable for any obscurity or A.D.1723. Nad. 36. confusion, that he may find in it; nor is it less necessary for him, to hold perpetually in his mind the situation of the provinces in Persia, and the state of those provinces, when Naderkuli began his career^*.

It was in the thirty-sixth year of his age, that he formed the design of delivering his Country from the tyrants, who infested every part of it; and, knowing that he must proceed gradually in the execution of this great project, he began it, by collecting under his banners a number of the tribes contiguous to his own, and persecuted or destroyed all those, who refused to support him in his enterprise. In a short time he had assembled a body of resolute and warlike youths, who were strongly attached to his interests, and attended him faithfully through all the changes of his fortune: with their assistance he took possession of Kelat, a Castle very advantageously situated, and made yet stronger by the help of art.

The first dangerous enemy that he determined to crush, was Melek, who had usurped the large and beautiful province of Khorasan, or the Region of the Sun: he was not yet strong enough to repel this usurper by force of arms; and was obliged to have recourse to a base dissimulation, far below the natural greatness of his mind. He accepted the terms of amity, which Melek had proposed to him with a design equally treacherous; and they passed some time together with every outward mark of friendship, whilst each was seeking an opportunity to circumvent and ruin A.D.1723. Nad. 36. the other: at length Naderkuli, perceiving his danger in the court of the tyrant, determined to strike the first blow, and formed a conspiracy against him, in which he failed by a want of agility that seems incredible; for he had agreed with his associates, that, while he and Melek were engaged in the Asiatick exercise of throwing the Gerid, or javelin, they should attack his guards, and leave him to hazard a single combat with the Usurper, but that they should not stir, till they saw him seize the reins of Melek’s horse; at a proper time he was going to give the signal, but in the hurry of the exercise, he missed his aim, and Melek rode by without perceiving his attempt, so that he resolved to defer his vengeance till another day: but his great mind was not formed for the low arts of deceit; and he was reserved for a nobler victory over this tyrant. He soon discovered his errour, and, having retired from the court of Melek to his own castle, began to take measures for an open and vigorous war.

Since his troops were as yet very little used to fire-arms, and had only fought with lances or sabres, he was obliged to act with great caution against the artillery of Melek: he constantly avoided a decisive battle, but seized with incredible vigilance every advantage that presented itself. He had, however, several engagements with his enemies, in which he was generally victorious; and he soon received a great accession to his power, by the concurrent forces of all the neighbouring tribes, and by the number of strong holds in the district of Abiurd, which he had taken either by composition, or by storm.

While A.D.1724. Nad. 37. this young Adventurer was training his new army to a kind of war, of which they had no idea before his time, the Sultan Tahmasp was regaining a little strength, and making a feeble effort towards the recovery of Khorasan; with which view, he sent a detachment into that province, under the command of Riza, a weak and imprudent officer. This General was extremely surprised to hear on every side the fame of Nader’s exploits, and to find that he had forced Melek to remain inactive within the walls of Meshed, against which he had actually led his forces: he considered, that the success of this young man would entirely efface his own glory, and render his expedition ineffectual; accordingly he sent him orders to desist from his enterprise, and to avoid an engagement with the rebels. Naderkuli obeyed; and, retiring to Abiurd, left the field open for the General, not doubting but that his service would soon be necessary, and that Riza would repent of having refused it: he was not deceived; for Melek, being informed of Nader’s retreat, and knowing the incapacity of Riza, sallied eagerly from his intrenchments, defeated the Imperial army, and compelled the General to fly with a few of his guards.

Nader, upon this, prepared again for action, and led his troops towards the city of Nishapor, which Melek had invested; but a mutiny, that was raised in his army, gave the rebels time to push the siege with vigour, and the garrison surrendered the city to the tyrant. When Nader had calmed the dissension of his tribes, he resolved to hazard a battle, and met the enemy in a plain near Meshed; but his soldiers were so harrassed by the musketry of the rebels, that they A.D.1724. Nad. 37. soon fled in confusion, and Nader himself, attended only by two of his officers, retired to Kelát, with indignation in his heart. It was not long, before he reinforced his army in the districts of Abiurd, and, marching at their head towards Meshed, incamped within a few miles of the city. Melek, elated with his former success, advanced boldly against him; but Nader was so animated by the sense of his late disgrace, and the ardent desire of revenge, that he resolved to exert his utmost powers, and rushed with a wild fury upon the rebels. The engagement was obstinate, and lasted with equal violence on both sides, from noon till sunset; at which time, Melek, finding the greater part of his army slain, fled precipitately to an adjacent fortress, leaving his ammunition and artillery in the hands of the Conquerors. Nader was prevented, by some troubles in his little territory, from pursuing his conquest at that time, and Melek returned to Meshed, full of madness and despair.

In A.D.1725. Nad. 38. the mean while, the Emperor was wandering like an exile in the province of Mazenderan, the ancient Margiana: he heard every quarter ring with the name of Nader, and, being assured that this young warriour had no other intent than to extirpate the oppressors of his country, he sent one of his ministers named Hassan Ali, to compliment him upon his late victory, and to desire the continuance of his help. Nader received this minister with great dignity, declared that his intention was, to omit no step towards restoring the Sultan to his former power, and accompanied Hassan Ali in his return through part of Khorasan, in order to defend him from any A.D.1726. Nad. 39. danger or insult. After this he resumed his arms, and took several strong places by assault, among which was the ancient city of Meru: he enlisted the young captives into his army, and distributed the spoils among his own Afshars.

The Sultan in the mean time was advancing to Khorasan, with his small army commanded by a General named Fetah Ali, and sent a second message to Nader, intreating him to join him with his forces: Nader set out instantly, and met the Emperor, with whom he had a long conference; and on the seventh of September 1727, both armies marched towards Meshed.

During A.D.1727. Nad. 40. these transactions Melek had not been idle: he had taken all the forts in the adjacent districts, and laid waste the habitations of all the tribes that opposed him; but, hearing that Nader and the Sultan had joined their forces, he was seized with such fear, that he returned in haste to the Capital of his province, and made preparations for sustaining the tempest, which he saw impending over him.

About this time Fetah Ali, the commander in chief, was accused of disaffection, and put to death by the Emperor’s order: though the Persian writer seems to acquit his Hero of any concern in this accusation, yet we cannot help suspecting that He was the contriver of it; it is certain at least, that he was immediately invested with the supreme command of the imperial army, which he exercised upon every occasion with great authority, disposing of places and governments according to A.D.1727. Nad. 40. his pleasure. He soon began to draw his lines round the city, while Melek, being almost driven to despair, made several bold attempts to impede his progress, and often sallied from the gates, but was, as often, repulsed with great loss, and was at length obliged to act merely a defensive part. When the siege had lasted near two months, the officers of Melek deserted from him every day; and one of them, named Pîr Mohammed, offered to deliver the city to the besiegers, if the Sultan would grant him a full pardon; accordingly, he opened the gates at midnight on the twenty-ninth of November, and Nader entered them at the head of twelve thousand men: most of the garrison laid down their arms; the rest were put to the sword, and Melek, with a few of his chiefs, fled to the citadel, where they made a short resistance, but at last surrendered at discretion. The rebels were treated with lenity, and Melek, at his own request, was permitted to wear the habit of a Dervise, and to retire into a cell belonging to the mosque of Riza, the son of Musa, a Mahomedan saint, who was buried in the city of Meshed. The officer, who betrayed him, was recompensed for his service by a considerable government.

The Sultan entered his city in a kind of triumph, and a short interval of rest succeeded to all his misery.

Nader had made a vow that, if he took Meshed, he would cause the dome of the sacred mosque to be gilt; he, therefore, employed the few days of repose after his success, in giving orders for adding this ornament to the city, and at the same A.D.1727. Nad. 40. time the ablest architects were engaged, by his command, in raising another dome equally splendid.

By these acts of affected piety, but of true magnificence, he won the hearts of the populace, and of his army; but raised in the courtiers and ministers of the Sultan, that envy and malevolence, which ever accompany a consciousnefs of inferiour merit: they were perpetually insinuating to the credulous prince, that his General was daring and ambitious, that his power was already out of all reason, and that no authority whatever would be able to controll him, if he were allowed to pursue his present course. These suggestions had such an effect on the Emperor, that, when Nader had begun to march into an adjacent territory, in order to reinforce his troops, the imperial mandate was issued to recall him. Upon his disobedience the Sultan left Meshed, and, retiring in disguise to a neighbouring castle, sent circular letters to all the northern provinces, in which he accused his General of high treason, and declared him a rebel. These letters were brought to Nader together with the news of the Sultan’s retreat: he was moved with a just indignation at this ingratitude, but knowing that gentle measures would be ineffectual, he led his troops against the castle, where Tahmasp and his courtiers were concealed, and, upon their disobeying his summons, he laid siege to it in form. Soon after, a large supply of money and military stores, which a Persian officer was bringing to the Sultan, was intercepted by one of Nader’s commanders, and brought to his camp: this loss so reduced Tahmasp, that he was obliged to propose amicable terms A.D.1727. Nad. 40. to his General, and to promise that, if he would desist from hostilities, himself and his court would return to Meshed, and rely for the future on the prudence of his conduct. He accepted these terms; and reconducted the Monarch to his capital, with every outward mark of respect, but, in reality, with the highest contempt both of his power and understanding.

It is probable, that Nader conceived at this time a design of taking the government into his own hands, and of extending his conquests even beyond the limits of the Persian empire; for on the morning after his return to Meshed, he told his officers a dream, which he had, no doubt, invented, and which they did not fail to interpret according to his wishes: “he dreamed, as he said, that he saw a lake, in which were a large water-fowl, and a white fish with four horns; that his attendants strove in vain to catch them, but that, when He stretched out his hand, he took them with great ease.” His adherents immediately declared, according to an old proverb current in Persia, that, to dream of birds and fish denoted a certainty of arriving at sovereign power; but the circumstance of the four horns could not then be explained by them, though they were afterwards supposed to portend the four kingdoms of Persia, India, Tartary, and Kharezm. Nothing should be omitted in an History, which may tend to place in a clear light, the characters of the principal persons in it: we see by this little fact, that the smallest arts of policy were united in this singular man, with all the fierceness of heroism; and we shall have occasion, in the course of our narrative, to mention the A.D.1727. Nad. 40. great influence, which he gained over his army by the same artifice of forging a dream. This has been a common deceit of great officers; as, in the siege of Tyre, we are told, that Alexander encouraged his soldiers, by assuring them that Hercules had appeared to him in a dream, and, taking him by the hand, had led him into the City^*.

Nader A.D.1728. Nad. 41. was not suffered to remain a long time inactive: the inconstant and mutinous nation of the Curds, privately supported by the ministers of the Sultan, had taken arms, and driven his brother Zoheireddoula into a castle, where they kept him under a close blockade. He found no great difficulty in reducing these rebels: he was able to encounter any open force whatever; but he was at the same time attacked by more secret and more dangerous enemies. Melek, who, as it has been said above, had retired into the cell of a dervise, was employing all his art to incite the Tartars, that inhabited the city of Meru, to rebel against Nader; and the Court assisted him in these intrigues; while the Emperor, either through folly or malignity, but, certainly, with an excess of ingratitude, rejoiced at the storm, which he thought ready to break over the head of his Deliverer: but the designs of Melek were discovered; and Nader, finding him no less dangerous in a cell than in the field, determined to put him to death, and dispatched one A.D.1728. Nad. 41. of his attendants for that purpose, who gladly undertook the office, since a brother, whom he tenderly loved, had been unjustly slain by Melek during his government of Khorasan. This Usurper was a base, perfidious, artful tyrant; he had been governor of Segestan, but removed into Khorasan, when the Afgans invaded Persia, and was delighted with the ruin of his country, as it gave him an opportunity of raising himself to absolute power.

Nader had now recovered a great part of the finest province in the Persian Empire; and he resolved to bring the whole of it to subjection, before he carried his arms into the West. As to the Sultan, he neither feared nor regarded him: he showed him, indeed, a great deal of outward respect, but acted in all his affairs with a sovereign authority; for he well knew that nothing could injure him, while he was at the head of thirty thousand hardy soldiers, who were firmly attached to his interest, as well from the veneration, which his amazing courage extorted from them, as from the hope of sharing the fruits of his victories.

On the twenty-seventh of July, he set out upon an expedition against the Afgans, who had by this time penetrated into the heart of Khorasan: those banditti fled precipitately from his army, which advanced, as the poet says, like a flame that consumes all before it. He came in a few days to one of those vast deserts of sand, that are so frequent in Asia; where, mounted on a camel, with a lance in his hand, he led his soldiers without intermission, and held in common with them the toil and danger of A.D.1728. Nad. 41. these fatiguing marches. He arrived on the ninth of September at a fortress called Behadin, which he took by storm, together with many other strong holds: but the castle of Sencán gave him more trouble; the governor made an obstinate resistance, and would not surrender till the twenty-second, after having sustained a vigorous fire from the Persian artillery. One day he was standing by a canon of an enormous size, and giving directions to his engineers; some accident called him away, and he had scarce stepped three paces from the canon, before it burst, and the splinters of it killed several soldiers, and one officer of distinction, who stood near it in the place, which Nader had just left.

On the day after the taking of Sencán, he had notice, that seven or eight thousand Afgans were marching from Herat to the relief of the Governor: Nader immediately advanced to meet them, and encamped towards evening in a plain called Abadcáf. It was not, however, his intention, to come to a decisive battle with these dauntless savages, who had been trained to war by a long course of rapine and havock; he meaned only to harrass them by slight skirmishes, and to enure the Persians by degrees to confront a nation, which they had been used to consider as something more than human. Agreeably to this design, he placed his forces behind strong intrenchments, and never acted offensively till he discovered some favorable opening, but on the moment that he perceived any weakness in the enemy, he sallied out at the head of a light-armed troop, which constantly gained some advantage, and returned to their companions, A.D.1728. Nad. 41. wondering at their own success. In this manner he contrived to exercise his whole army by turns, and, having kept the Afgans in play for four days, he made a general attack: the shock was violent; and they, who were too much exhausted to resist it, fled in confusion to Herat, whence they came. Nader reserved the reduction of that City for some future occasion, and, thinking it imprudent to pursue the Afgans too far, returned to Meshed, where the battle of Abadcáf greatly increased his glory.

His domestick foes were more obstinate, more insidious, and more dangerous: in the field he opposed valour to valour; in the palace he was obliged to contend with envy, folly, and malevolence. The Sultan and his ministers were perpetually soliciting him to undertake the recovery of Ispahán, and to march directly against that city: it was vain for him to alledge, that there were still many desperate enemies in the midst of Khorasan, that the inhabitants of Herat were still very refractory, and that it was too early for so distant an expedition. They affected to consider these prudent remonstrances as a refusal to comply with the Emperor’s request; they even intimated, that his unwillingness to invest Ispahan proceeded from some disloyal intention, and spread a report through the province, that Nader was stripped of all his honors, and had no longer a share in the government. This dissension went so far, that a civil war seemed ready to break out: the Sultan left Meshed a second time, together with his courtiers, and, taking the road of Mazenderan, assaulted and seized a castle belonging to a tribe of Nader’s firmest A.D.1728. Nad. 41. adherents. The General was soon informed of their motions and advanced in haste to the castle, where he desired an explanation of this proceeding; but they ordered the gates to be shut and refused to admit him. He made immediate preparations for a siege, and his artillery had actually begun to play, when the Emperor came in person to Nader, and, in an abject manner, made an apology for the behaviour of his ministers; Nader affected to be convinced of his sincerity, and returned with him to Meshed, but prevented his having any further intercourse with the confederates, who were obliged to lie concealed, till the storm was in some measure abated.

It may be thought strange, that Nader, who had a powerful army at his disposal, and had been so ill rewarded for his service, did not at this time assume the name of Emperor, or at least of Protector, to which last he was justly entitled: he could not be weak enough to respect an obstinate idiot, because the accident of a royal birth had placed him upon a throne, which he disgraced: but he despised his weakness; and he knew how little the vain name of King could add to his power, which was already as great as he could desire. He acted, indeed, as Sovereign upon every occasion, and about this time sent an ambassador in his own name to the court of Russia, demanding in high terms the restitution of Ghilan, a province famed for its rich silk, which Peter I, who was desirous of engrossing the dominion of the Caspian lake, had wrested from Tahmasp in the year 1723; when he penetrated into Persia, on a pretence of supporting the Sultan Hussein against Mahmùd, who A.D.1728. Nad. 41. had just made himself master of Ispahan.

On A.D.1729. Nad. 42. the tenth of March was celebrated the festival called Nurúz, in which the ancient Persians used to solemnize the Sun’s entrance into the Ram, and the return of the vernal season. The General entertained the populace with sumptuous shows, gave splendid feasts to the Nobles, and chief men of his army, and distributed among his soldiers the prizes, that he had won in his late expeditions: in these largesses he wisely proportioned the value of his gifts to the degree of courage, which he had observed in his men; a noble example of attention in a General, which should be followed by all great commanders, as, by exciting a warm emulation in an army, it might raise their troops to the glory of the old Spartan and Roman legions.

Nader now prepared for his expedition against Herat, and, leaving Meshed on the twenty-fourth of April, encamped in the plains of Jám, a small town, famous for being the birth-place of Noureddin, thence called Jámi, a most spirited and lively poet, who flourished, in the middle of the fifteenth century, with a great reputation for wit and genius.

Herat, the Aria of Ptolemy, is a city of Khorasan, frequently mentioned in the histories of the East: it is pleasantly situated, and was remarkable for the delightfulness of the gardens which surrounded it, before it was laid waste by the violence of war; it had been plundered by the two greatest warriors of Asia, A.D.1729. Nad. 42. Genghiz and Timúr, and was now reserved for the arms of as desperate a soldier: the historians of Herát mention this circumstance, as some alleviation to the miseries which they have suffered, as if the splendid name of an oppressor could give any ease to the oppressed. In the year 1722, so fatal to the Sultan Hussein, there was a violent insurrection in this city; the inhabitants persisted for five years in opposing the power of the Emperor, and had elected an Afgan governor named Allayar. In a few days Nader reached the city, but had been forced to open his way to it, by making a passage through the numerous forces of the rebels; he constantly defeated them in all his engagements, in which he behaved with a personal valour, that struck an awe into his whole army, who began to look upon him as something above a mortal: he usually charged at the head of his cavalry, and carried a general terrour wherever he moved; yet in all his battles, he received only a slight wound in his foot from the point of a javelin.

Allayár, who expected a speedy supply from the governor of Ferah, contrived to gain time by proposing terms of agreement on one day, and retracting them on the next; in the mean while Nader had invested the City, and was making preparations for a regular siege: the commander of Ferah had, indeed, sent a body of men with ammunition and artillery to Allayar; but they were intercepted by the Persians, their military stores taken, and themselves forced to fly with precipitation; which when Allayár discovered, he came with his chiefs and all the magistrates of the city, to the tent of the General, making the most solemn vows of subjection A.D.1729. Nad. 42. and obedience: Nader accepted his offers, and suffered him, rather imprudently, to continue in his government; after which he returned towards Meshed, and entered it in triumph on the twenty-second of June. On his return he found the same weakness in the Sultan, and the same malignity in his courtiers; but he appeased them in some measure by a promise, which he made, of advancing in a few months against Ispahan; where Ashraf, a cousin of the tyrant Mahmúd, then reigned with all the insolence of an Usurper.

NADER A.D.1729. Nad. 42. was forming a plan of operations against the Afgans, and doubting what course to pursue, when the imprudence of Ashraf, who had succeeded to Mahmud in the absolute government of Ispahan, brought his designs at once to maturity; for the usurper, hearing of Nader’s expedition against Herát, imagined that he had a fair opportunity in his absence to plunder Khorasan; on the borders of which he arrived on the thirtieth of July. The Persian general, having notice of his arrival, ordered all his forces to be in readiness, and his best artillery to be brought into the field; but he was not able to leave Meshed till the beginning of September, at which time he advanced with great rapidity, and reached a fortress, which an officer of Ashraf was besieging. The Afgan raised the siege at his approach, and retreated precipitately to a plain called Mehmandost^*, whither he was followed by Ashraf, who encamped on the banks of a small river.

On the twentieth, Nader appeared before them in order of battle; he drew the flower of his A.D.1729. Nad. 42. army into a compact phalanx, ordering them to keep their ground in a most profound silence, that they might hear his orders to a moment: his voice, as a man, who heard it at the siege of Bagdad, informed one of my friends, was uncommonly clear and strong. The Afgans were marching towards him with great haste, but with more spirit than regularity; they then unfolded their front to right and left, and formed three divisions, in hopes of enclosing his troops, and attacking them in flank. Nader perceived their design, and, in order to frustrate it, covered the sides of his phalanx with his artillery. Ashraf rushed onward, hoping to strike a panick into the Persians, and mistaking, perhaps, their wonderful composure and solemn silence for a want of resolution to attack him; his army were just within musket-shot of the enemy, when Nader gave the word, and the Persians sired with great steadiness, marching at the same time with incredible order. Ashraf, little expecting to meet with such a check, was alarmed and disconcerted; his troops were thrown into disorder; his standard-bearer was killed by his side; the Persian phalanx still advanced like a column of fire, striking down whole lines at every discharge; and at length the usurper fled with the few Afgans that remained, and took the road of Ispahan. The General would not suffer his men to pursue the Afgans, but promised to indulge their eagerness on the first occasion, and returned to his camp in the same order, without any unmeaning clamours or marks of inconsiderate joy.

After this victory, Nader sent an ambassador to the Turkish court, insisting upon the restitution of A.D.1729. Nad. 42. Azarbigian or Media, and giving plain hints, that the should soon be able to seize it by force, is they paid no attention to his just demand.

A violent enmity had ever subsisted between the Persians and Turks, which, indeed, could hardly be avoided between two nations, who were always disputing, either about their frontiers, or on some point of religion; and each of whom, as it generally happens, was jealous of the other’s glory. Othman, from whom the Turkish Emperors take their name, was very formidable to the princes of Persia at the close of the thirteenth century, and Alaeddín, sovereign of Lycaonia, was forced to secure his alliance, by giving him the rank of his commander in chief, and inciting him against the Greeks: his descendants enlarged their Empire; and their hatred to the Persians was increased, when a party, who asserted the right of Ali to the Califate, opposed them in every part of Asia, and thwarted all their designs. When the sect of the Alides was introduced among the Persians by the family of Sefi, the Turks affected to treat them as a detestable faction, which the name of Shiahs implies, and the Mufti never failed, when the Porte was inclined to declare war against them, to assert, that it would be a merit in the army of the Faithful, to shed the blood of such impious Hereticks: but they rejoiced at the schism which they pretended to detest: while the Persians continued to acknowledge the succession of Omar, they had a right, and were bound, indeed, by their religion, to make a yearly visit to Mecca; so that, under the pretence of a A.D.1729. Nad. 42. pilgrimage, they might lead a numerous army through the heart of the Turkish empire; but Ismaïl imagined, that, by transferring the scene of this religious ceremony from Arabia, to the tomb of Ali in his own dominions, he should cause a considerable sum of money to be circulated every year in his kingdom, instead of being carried to that of his natural enemy.

Selim I. an active and enterprising monarch, made this heresy of Ismaïl, a pretext for invading Persia, and pushed his conquest with great rapidity: his son, the warlike but unfortunate Soliman II. was equally successful in his expeditions against the Sultan Tahmasp I. who had first protected, and afterwards betrayed, the Prince Bayazid, Son of Soliman by the Russian captive, Roxolana: His successors engaged in many bloody wars with the race of Sefi, and the city of Bagdad had been a subject of perpetual contention between them, from the sixteenth century to the middle of the present.

In the year 1703 Ahmed III.^*, the twenty-third Emperor of the Turks, was placed on the throne in the room of his brother Mustafa, who lost his diadem by preferring the decisions of the Mufti to the good will of his generals: he was deposed with the Alcoran in his hand, and confined till his death in the seraglio. His brother, sensibly reflecting that the authors of one revolution would have the power to cause another, gave private orders for the chief officers of A.D.1729. Nad. 42. the Janissaries to be seized one by one, and thrown by night into the sea; but he left his work unfinished: if, like Peter I. he had entirely broken that formidable militia, he might have avoided the terrible event which happened twenty-seven years afterwards, in consequence of Nader’s victories.

When Persia was torn in pieces by the ravages of Mahmud, and the Czar was securing to himself three of its finest provinces, Ahmed, eager to share the ruins of his rival’s empire, seized the rich province of Azarbigian; and, as he had an immoderate love of riches, divided it into districts, and sold them, as military fiefs, to his janissaries, who were determined to keep them, and heard with disdain the demand of the new Persian General.

Nader in the mean time was pursuing Ashraf, and observing all his motions: in one of his excursions he discovered a body of Afgans, who were encamped in a very advantageous situation. It was a narrow pass, called Serdekhar, between two mountains, upon which the Afgans had planted their artillery: in a place like this, before the invention of fire-arms, a small number of resolute men might have stopped an whole army: but the Persians attacked the enemy with such vigour, that they left their post, and fled to Ashraf; who, grown more cautious since his defeat, retreated with all his forces to Ispahan, where he massacred most of the inhabitants in cold blood, and, among them, a number of learned men, who had retired from the world, and hoped to close their days in a studious tranquillity.

He A.D.1729. Nad. 42. soon, however, recovered his spirits, and, having raised a numerous army, advanced to a plain called Morche khort^*. It was late in the evening, on the twelfth of November, when Nader came in sight of the enemy, and, resolving to lose no time, while the Afgans retained an impression of his valour, he ordered a body of Curds to attack their advanced guard: they fought with great resolution; slew about four hundred of the rebels, and returned at night with several prisoners, who gave notice that a Turkish general, governor of Hamadan, had joined Ashraf with a formidable army. This piece of intelligence was very unexpected, and the Turks seem to have violated the law of nations, in taking the field without a formal declaration of war; or without giving any answer to the Persian ambassador: the circumstance was the more alarming to Nader at this juncture, as he was by no means prepared to engage with so powerful an enemy; he retired, therefore, to his tent, and passed the night without sleep in a great agitation of mind. At break of day he advanced towards the Afgans, who, together with the Turks, were encamped on an eminence: when he had almost reached the foot of the hill, he turned aside, and pretended to bend his course towards Ispahan, hoping by this motion to draw Ashraf from his intrenchments; but the usurper, having acquired some degree of prudence from the battle of Mehmandóst, remained firm in his station. Nader continued his feigned march, and retiring at a proper distance, discovered a part of the enemy’s camp which seemed to be very A.D.1729. Nad. 42. ill defended: he instantly sent a resolute officer with the artillery to attack it, while himself, at the head of his cavalry, prepared to receive the Afgans, if they should be forced, as he expected, to give him battle. His project succeeded; his officer made a vigorous assault, drove the enemy into the plain, and, having seized their cannon, continued to harrass them in the rear, while Nader met them in front with equal alacrity. A general action ensued, which lasted for several hours; and this, indeed, was the first decisive battle, in which Nader had been engaged: he was fighting against two great armies, and must either, by gaining the field, recover Ispahan from the rebels, or, by losing it, must abandon all his projects, and be reduced to nothing:

At noon the Turks began to give way; which Nader, who lost no advantage that offered itself, immediately observed, and pushed his troops against them so vigorously, that they had recourse to flight, and were soon followed by their allies: a great number of Afgans and Turks were made prisoners; the former of whom, as rebels, were reserved for a publick execution at Ispahan, but the latter were treated with lenity, and sent back to their quarters at Hamadan.

Ashraf, A.D.1729. Nad. 42. breathing nothing but fury and revenge, returned to Ispahan with bitterness in his heart: he there called together his few adherents, and fled in the evening towards Shiraz. The Persians, who dwelled in the districts near Ispahan, crouded into the city, which was stripped of inhabitants, but full of treasures, the collected plunder of many years, which the rebels had not time to carry with them: these oppressed natives had now a kind of new life infused into them, by the departure of their oppressors, and immediately sent intelligence to Nader of Ashraf’s flight; upon which he advanced to Ispahan, and entered it in triumph. He soon after sent the Sultan an account of his victory, and invited him to sit on the throne of his ancestors in the metropolis of their Empire.

Tahmasp came with all possible haste, and reached the city on the twentieth of December. Ispahan soon recovered its ancient splendour: it was decorated on all sides with a profusion of ornaments, and forty days were spent in pleasures and entertainments; but the person, who seemed the least pleased in the whole metropolis, and who had reason to be the most so, was the Sultan himself: he often heard Nader talking of his design to return into Khorasan, and, conscious of his own weakness, he foresaw that he should be exposed to his enemies without the continued support of his deliverer. In a full council, therefore, of the Nobles and Generals, he renewed his instances, and entreated Nader to stay at Ispahan till he was firmly seated on the throne. All the officers declared, that his Majesty ought to be contented with the great advantages, which A.D.1729. Nad. 42. Nader had already procured him, without opposing his reasonable designs; they added, that his Majesty ought to raise an army of Persians, and dismiss the Khorasanians, who had served him so faithfully; for that, if his ministers were resolved to thwart their General Nader in all his projects, they could not be responsible for any calamity that might ensue. The Sultan was so provoked with these remonstrances, that he tore from his head a little coronet, which he usually wore, and threw it upon the ground. Nader, in order to pacify him, was obliged to promise, that he would be at hand to assist him at any warning, and that “he would not return to Meshed, till he had wholly extirpated the race of the Afgans, and driven the Turks from the western borders of Persia.”

It would, indeed, have been dangerous for the Sultan, to have been left at this juncture. Ashraf was collecting strength in Shiraz, and had assembled a number of barbarous tribes, resolving to make a last and desperate attempt. Nader was soon apprised of his motions, and met him at a place, called Zercan, where he cut most of his troops to pieces, and forced him, with his general Seidal, to fly towards Candahar. His approach was soon learned by Hussein, Prince of that country, whose brother Mahmud had been murdered by Ashraf: the Prince, therefore, put him to death, justifying his act by the law of retaliation, but received Seidal into his City, and gave him the command of his troops. Ashraf seems to have been a perfect barbarian, furious, bloody, and implacable; his life had been a a constant series of assassinations and massacres, and, in his last moments, he ordered his women to A.D.1729. Nad. 42. be strangled, lest they should fall into the hands of his enemies.

After the battle of Zercan, Nader gave a remarkable proof of his penetration, and showed his skill in seeing through the hearts of men. Among the Afgan prisoners, whom he intended to put to death at Ispahan, he observed one Melazafrán, on whose countenance he saw the marks of fury and despair so strongly imprinted, that he privately told his officers to keep a watchful eye upon him, if they hoped to carry him alive: but they were negligent of this order; and, as they were passing over a bridge, their captive Melazafran leaped suddenly into the river, and was drowned.

As A.D.1730. Nad. 43. soon as Nader heard the fate of Ashraf, he advanced to Shiraz, where he distributed the vast riches of the Afgans among his officers and soldiers, proportioning his rewards to the different degrees of valour, which he had observed in them.

SHIRAZ is a city of Persia properly so called: it was the birth-place of many illustrious men, among whom were the poets Hafez and Sadi, of whose works there are many fine copies in our publick libraries. There is a beautiful ode of Hafez in honour of his native city, which begins with these lines: “Hail, Shiraz, delightfully situated! May heaven preserve her from ruin! May the Almighty defend our stream of^* Rocnabád! for its waters supply us with length A.D.1730. Nad. 43. of days^*. The gale, scented with ambergris, breathes between Jáferabád and Mosella. Come to Shiraz, and ask a profusion of the sacred spirit from its inhabitants, who are perfectly virtuous. How should the sugar of Egypt be brought to Shiraz, without being surpassed by the sweetness of our fair damsels?”

The Persians have so high a veneration for the memory of this poet, that they give him the title of Divine; and have a custom of opening his book of Odes, upon every remarkable occasion, as our old scholars used to open Virgil, in order to gather some omen from the first lines, which present themselves.

When Nader and his officers were passing by the tomb of Hafez, near Shiraz, one of the company opened a collection of his poems, and, either by accident or by design, first cast their eyes upon the following Ode, which they applied with one voice to the Conqueror: “It is but just that thou shouldst receive a tribute from all fair youths, since thou art the Sovereign of all the Beauties in the universe: thy two piercing eyes have thrown Khata and Khoten into confusion; India and China pay homage to thy curled ??ocks. thy graceful mouth A.D.1730. Nad. 43. gave the streams of life to Khezr; thy sugared lip renders the sweet reeds of Egypt contemptible^*.”

At the festival of Nurúz, a nobleman of high rank was sent by the Sultan to Nader, with a congratulatory letter upon his fresh victories, in which he made him a grant of four provinces, Khorasan, Mazenderan, Carman, and Seistan, requesting him to accept the title of Sultan, and to wear a diadem set with jewels, which he received at the same time. The same nobleman brought a number of rich mantles, which he presented, in the Asiatick manner, to Nader’s officers; and he was attended by Abu’l Cassem, a man of the Law, who had orders to propose a marriage between Rizakuli, Nader’s son, and a younger daughter of the late Shah Hussein. The General accepted most of these honours, but declined bearing any title, which might only raise envy, without bringing any solid advantage: however, A.D.1730. Nad. 43. that he might pay his troops with a princely liberality, he ordered money to coined in his name in the province of Khorasan; by which act he virtually assumed the government of the whole Empire. It was at this time, if ever, that he took the name Tahmasp Kuli, or, Servant of Tahmasp, together with the title of Khan or lord; though it is by no means certain, that he was at all known by that name, which is not once given to him by his Persian historian: his favourite general, indeed, was named Tahmasp Kuli Khan, and our merchants in Asia, who were, perhaps, unacquainted with the true state of affairs, might easily confound the titles of these illustrious friends.

When all these ceremonies were ended, Nader led his army to Shuster, the ancient Susa, Capital of a Province to which it gives its name. Here an officer, whom Ashraf had sent to Constantinople, and who was returning with an answer from the Porte, threw himself before the feet of Nader, and gave him the letter of Sultan Ahmed to the usurper, by which he clearly discovered, that a war with the Turks could not possibly be avoided. His own ambassador also sent word, that he could not procure a direct answer from the Turkish ministers, with regard to the restitution of Azarbigian, and that the Turks had committed many open acts of hostility. He soon found this account to be true; and received intelligence, that a numerous army, under the command of Osmán Pasha, was encamped near the city of Hamadan: upon which he advanced, and offered them battle; but, after a few discharges of their artillery, Osman retreated towards the city, where being joined by Timúr Pasha, Governor of A.D.1730. Nad. 43. Van, he returned at the head of their united forces, and met the Persians in a plain, called Meláir. There is nothing so tedious in general as the descriptions of battles, unless they display some striking instance of sagacity, or are diversified with some interesting events; but, where a victory is gained merely by superiour force or courage, which is usually the case in unpolished nations, it is difficult to render such descriptions either instructive or entertaining. In this place it will be sufficient to say, that Nader entirely defeated the two Basha’s, seized their artillery, together with an immense booty, and entered the city of Hamadan without obstruction. The inhabitants received him with a tumultuous joy, and ten thousand Persian captives, whom the Turks had kept in chains, regarded him as a beneficent power, sent for their delivery.

Hamadan is a city of Parthia, first built, if we believe the Eastern writers, by Darius, who made it the seat of his Empire. Its situation is greatly celebrated by the Persians, who frequently enlarge upon the beauty of its walks and gardens, and the clearness of the rivulets, by which they are watered. There is a valley near the city, called Mawashán, which is described by an Arabian poet, as one of the most delightful spots in Asia.

In this agreeable place Nader reposed for several days; and afterwards marched to Tabriz, the capital of Azarbigian, which he entered without any considerable opposition, as the two generals, Osman and Timur, had not yet recovered the shock of their late defeat. He treated the Turkish officers, who were taken prisoners, with A.D.1730. Nad. 43. great respect and politeness; but employed the captives of a lower rank in repairing the walls of the city, and sent the largest cannons and mortars, which the Turks had left behind them, to his fortress of Kelat, the destined place of his retirement.

A number of smaller cities were recovered by this victory; and the report of Nader’s success spread a general consternation in the very Capital of the Turkish Empire. It must seem strange at the first view, that, although the Turks bring into the field more numerous armies, than most other nations, yet they seldom have gained any considerable advantage by the superiority of their numbers. The truth of it is, an army, like an human body, may be less active in proportion to its bulk; and there is no more reason, why the Turk should defeat the Persian mountaineer, because he outnumbers his enemies ten to one, than, why an elephant should overpower a tiger by its superiour strength and size. We may add to this, that the Turkish horses are in general too large and inactive, and that their cavalry bears no kind of proportion to their infantry.

While Nader was pursuing this noble course in Asia, a dreadful revolution happened in the metropolis of the Othman empire. When he first demanded the restitution of Azarbigian or Media to the Persians, Ahmed and his Vizir were very willing to restore it; but were prevented by an insurrection of the Janissaries, who were justly enraged at losing their estates, and insisted upon defending them with the best of their blood. After the defeat of Ashraf, and the taking A.D.1730. Nad. 43. of Hamadan, the Vizir was again on the point of concluding a peace with the Persian General; but the Turkish feudatories, incensed at his proceeding, compelled the Sultan to give him up, and put him to a cruel death: after which they deposed Ahmed, who survived his disgrace but a short time, and raised his nephew Mahmúd to the throne of Constantinople.

Nader was now meditating the siege of Erivan, capital of Armenia, when he received a very alarming piece of news from the province of Khorasan.

Hussein, prince of Candahár, very justly fearing, that it would be his own turn to feel the weight of Nader’s arm, had taken advantage of his distant expedition against the Turks, and had sent an army into Khorasan, under the command of his new General Seidal. The whole province was soon thrown into confusion: the inhabitants of Herat and Ferah openly revolted; and the Afgans advanced even to the walls of Meshed. On receiving this intelligence, he left Armenia, and sent notice to his brother Zoheireddoula of his intended return to Khorasan, strictly enjoining him to avoid a battle with the Afgans: but that rash and obstinate prince neglected the order, and, sallying from the city on the twenty-seventh of July, engaged the besiegers, who drove him back after a sharp conflict.

In the mean time Nader was marching towards Khorasan, and reached Cazvin on the seventeenth of August: his very name spread terrour before him, and compensated the ill success of his brother’s arms, by delivering Meshed from a A.D.1730. Nad. 43. desperate siege. The Afgans, ever haughty and insolent, retired from the city with a mixture of fear and indignation; whence they retreated slowly to Herat, pillaging all the districts, through which they passed.

Nader could not reach Meshed till October; where he spent the remainder of the year in regulating the affairs of his metropolis, and in reviewing his troops. His army was encamped in a plain called Cheharbág, or, the four gardens, famous for containing the tomb of Ali, son of Musa, the tutelar saint of the province: All the soldiers panted with impatience for the opening of the campaign; and his presence gave a new life to the citizens, who began to resume in peace their usual occupations, and looked up to him with veneration, as their sovereign and deliverer.

At A.D.1731. Nad. 44. the beginning of the new year, were solemnized the nuptials of Fathima, sister of the Shah, and the prince Rizakuli, a hopeful youth, about fourteen years old. On this occasion, near two months were spent, either in rejoicing and feasts, or in hunting in the forests of Abiurd. There is something very martial in the Asiatick manner of hunting: a large tract of woodland is enclosed with toils; which are gradually contracted, till a great number of wild beasts are collected in a small circle, where the hunters kill them with spears, to the sound of trumpets and other instruments of warlike musick.

On the fourteenth of March, Nader left Meshed, and encamped on the second of April, upon the banks of a river, before the walls of Herat. At A.D.1731. Nad. 44. midnight a body of Afgans, with Seidal at their head, passed the river, and, secured from detection by the darkness of the night, appeared suddenly before a castle, where Nader, attended only by eight guards, was giving orders to his engineers. As soon as he was apprised of his danger, he drew his sabre, and rushed into the midst of the enemies, where he sustained a very unequal fight, till his other guards came to his relief, who compelled Seidal to retreat, with the loss of his best men, and to save himself by swimming over the river.

On the next morning Nader invested the city: he was greatly impeded in his works by the frequent sallies of the Afgans, but they were so often repulsed, that they determined at last to remain within the walls, and to act only upon the defensive. Nader however, finding the city admirably fortified, and having intelligence from a prisoner, that the inhabitants were distressed for provisions, preferred the slow, but certain, effect of a blockade to the danger of a siege, and enclosed the city on every side. In the mean while, Zoheireddoula made some attonement for his late disgrace, by the vigour with which he pushed the siege of Feráh: he soon took it, and put the Afgans, who had defended it, to the sword.

The blockade of Herat lasted till the close of the year; at which time, Allayar, whose provisions were exhausted, began to think of capitulating; though his principal officer, Zúlficár, a fierce and desperate barbarian, had made the garrison take a solemn oath on the Alcoran, that they would rather die than open the gates. It happened, A.D.1731. Nad. 44. that, Allayar, in the confusion occasioned by Nader’s approach, had left his women and children in a neighbouring fortress, where they had been taken by the Persians; and, as an Asiatick cannot support the idea of a dishonour offered to his seraglio, he sent some of his ministers, to propose terms of accommodation, and promised to surrender the city, if his women were restored. Nader accepted the proposal; and invited the messengers to a feast in his tent, which they were surprised to see adorned with the heads of three hundred Afgan chiefs, fixed upon lances. In the morning he sent the women to Allayar, who, shocked at the reception of his ministers, and having obtained his principal end by the return of his family, resolved to perish by famine, rather than submit to the besiegers, and having ordered his women to be strangled, that they might not survive their lord, he prepared to sustain the siege. The Persian General, irritated by the perfidy of the governor, began to bombard the city, and, perceiving a practicable breach, was on the point of giving orders for an assault, when the garrison opened the gates, and surrendered at discretion. Nader, who was no less mild after a victory, than violent before it, treated the perfidious Governor with great humanity, and gave him a settlement in the province of Multán, whither he soon retired with his dependents, and the miserable remains of his family. The other Afgans were transplanted to those parts of Khorasan, which required most cultivation; and the city of Herat was filled with a Persian garrison.

The savage race of Afgans, who had ruined the kingdom of Persia, were now either destroyed, or A.D.1731. Nad. 44. dispersed in various parts of the Empire, without a possibility of regaining their strength: those only remained, who had taken refuge in the city of Candahar, and the northern parts of Indostan, which kingdom was then ruled by Mohammed Shah, an indolent and luxurious prince, who was wholly immersed in voluptuousness, and at that time little thought, how soon a victorious invader would dispose of his immense treasures, and fill the streets of DEHLI with the blood of his subjects.

THE A.D.1732. Nad. 45. Ministers of the Sultan, who sought every occasion to humiliate Naderkuli, persuaded the credulous prince to take advantage of his absence in Khorasan, and to assume the command of the Persian army: they extolled the valour of the Monarch, extenuated the merits of his General, and pressed him to bear a part at least in the glory of delivering Persia; by which suggestions he was at length induced to take the field, and marched towards Erivan, the Capital of Armenia. A body of Turks, who opposed his passage, were put to flight; and this first success so elated him, that he sat down before the City, thinking to strike a panick into the inhabitants by the terrour of his name. His method of attack was extremely new: he remained near three months on the banks of the Aras, in a constant course of diversions and feasts, until, finding his provisions almost spent, he retreated to Tabriz; where he took a City already taken, deposed the governor, whom Nader had appointed, and advanced in triumph to Sultania, with a determined resolution to destroy all the Turkish armies, who should dare to obstruct him.

Whilst he was amusing himself with these splendid projects, he was unfortunately met by an army of Turks under the command of Ahmed Pasha, a consummate General, and an admirable Statesman; A.D.1732. Nad. 45. who, for many years, had cluded the intrigues of his rivals at the Porte, and, having preserved his government of Bagdad with uncommon reputation, had outlived most of the Bashas of the Turkish empire. Tahmasp, once in his life, acted wisely; and attempted to decline a battle; but, finding himself under the necessity of engaging with Ahmed, he gave the chief command of his army to one of his Generals, Mohammed Khan, and reserved the left wing to himself. Mohammed began the fight with great intrepidity; but, after a short engagement, the left wing, which the Sultan commanded, was seen to give way; and the Turks, animated by the example and exhortations of Ahmed, pursued their advantage so vigorously, that the rout of the Persians became general: five thousand of them were slain on the field, and those, who could not save themselves by flight, were made prisoners: the Persian camp was seized, with the ammunition and artillery, and Tahmasp returned to Ispahan, attended only by a few of his officers.

In a short time after this, Ahmed retook Hamadan and Tabriz; so that the glorious actions of Nader were reduced to nothing by the vanity, obstinacy, and cowardice of a Prince, whom he had restored to the throne of his ancesters. Ahmed, acquainted equally with the superiour abilities of Nader, and with the weakness of Tahmasp, made an offer of peace to the Shah, and proposed, in the name of the Sultan Mahmúd, that the Persians should keep the cities which Nader had taken, together with all the territories lying to the east of the Aras: the Persian ministers readily accepted the proposals, and signed A.D.1732. Nad. 45. the articles of peace, which were sent to Constantinople to be ratified. A publick rejoicing was ordered on this occasion in the Turkish Capital; and Ahmed, whose valour and address were universally applauded, was confirmed in his government of Bagdad.

NADER KULI was rejoicing at the total reduction of the Afgans, and preparing to renew the war against the Turks, when he received an account of the Shah’s expedition, and, with it, a copy of the articles which he had signed. His indignation was excessive: he dispatched an officer to Constantinople, with this short message to Mahmud, Either restore the whole province of Azarbigian, or expect nothing but a desperate war: another was sent to Ahmed Pasha, bidding him prepare for a sudden visit from the Deliverer of Persia: and a third set out for Ispahan with an expostulatory letter to the Emperor, requesting him to dismiss his pernicious counsellors, to cancel their dishonourable treaty, and to meet him at Kom with all his forces, that they might march together into Armenia and Parthia. At the same time he published a spirited manifesto, in every province and city of Persia, protesting against the peace, and threatening with his displeasure all those, who should refuse to concur with him in recovering Media from the Turks: he declared, “that, after the festival of the new year, he would leave Meshed, and march against the Turkish hereticks; that the same providence, which had enabled him to expel the Barbarians from his country, would now protect him against the opposers of the true sect; that the very angels, who encircled the tomb of Ali, called aloud for the deliverance of those A.D.1732. Nad. 45. brave Persians, who had lost their liberty in defending the rights of their prophet, and who were not so much as named in the Emperor’s treaty; that it was an ignoble bargain, to accept only the territories on the one side of the Aras, when those on the other side of it also might have been wrested from the enemy by force; that it was the highest dishonour to conclude a peace after a defeat, which the haughty sons of Othman would affect to consider as an act of lenity on their side, and of subjection on the side of the Persians:” he concluded by denouncing perpetual infamy on all those, who should be remiss in pursuing the Turkish war, and declaring, that he would punish as rebels, those, who in any sense should oppose his designs.

He spent the next three months in recruiting his army, and encouraging his officers and soldiers, by the most striking acts of liberality^*. In this interval also he visited Kelat and Abiurd, the scenes of his youthful exploits, for which he retained to his last hour peculiar fondness; and, observing the ruins of some old castles in a plain about thirty-six miles from Meshed, which was watered A.D.1732. Nad. 45. with beautiful rivulets, and had likewise the advantage of an excellent air, he ordered those edifices to be rebuilt, and the whole country around them to be cultivated, with a design, no doubt, of passing the decline of his life in that part of his dominions.

On his return to Meshed the twenty-sixth of May, an Ambassador arrived from the Russian court, who declared that, in compliance with his request, the Empress was willing to resign the province of Ghilan, and the other conquests of Peter I. on the coasts of the Caspian sea. He dismissed the Ambassador; and sent with him two approved officers, to see his orders punctually executed. At the beginning of July, intelligence was brought, that the Russians had departed peaceably from the frontiers of Persia; upon which Nader appointed a governor of Ghilan, who set out immediately for the place of his residence.

While Naderkuli was thus employed in preparing a powerful army against the Turks, the Shah, directed by his ministers, was concerting pacifick measures in Ispahan, and confirming his treaty with Ahmed.

On hearing this, the General left Khorasan, and bent his course towards Ispahan, marching all night with great expedition, and halting each day at noon by reason of the intense heat. On the sixteenth of August he encamped in a plain, called The garden of Hezargeríb, close to the walls of Ispahan: his arrival was equally unexpected to the court, and to the populace, but it had a very different effect on them; since the first A.D.1732. Nad. 45. considered him as a powerful and incensed enemy, the second, as the guardian of their liberties: the courtiers showed him those marks of respect, which they could not safely refuse, but the inhabitants in general celebrated his presence with the most grateful and undissembled joy.

After a day spent in mirth and festivity, the emperor supped with Nader in his tent, together with the principal officers of his army. It was the design of his Highness, says the Persian author, to drown all causes of animosity between the Shah and himself, in the flowing cups of the banquet, and to procure his approbation of the Turkish war; at the conclusion of which, he meaned to leave the reins of empire with Tahmasp, and to retire into his own territories: but, whether this were his real intention or not, it is certain, that he could not prevail with the Emperor to break the peace, which his ministers had concluded, but was mortified to see him sit with a sullen reserve, during the whole entertainment.

The next day he called a Council of all his officers, and, having related to them what had passed in the preceding night, insinuated, that he could not be answerable for the dangers, which might ensue, if the Sultan should persist in his dislike to the war; and that he seemed rather an associate of their enemies, than a father of his people: upon which the whole assembly exclaimed with one voice, that the Sultan was unworthy of a throne, which he could neither defend by his valour, nor dignify by his wisdom; and that the diadem justly belonged to Him, whose courage A.D.1732. Nad. 45. and conduct had restored it to its original splendour.

It is not easy to say, whether Nader had thoughts of assuming the regal dignity at this time; but, whether he waited for a more favourable juncture, or was not sufficiently secure of his strength, he declined the flattering offer of the Council, yet consented, that Tahmasp should be dethroned, and his place supplied by his son Abbas, an infant only eight months old. Upon this, Abbas, the third of that name, was crowned king of Persia with great solemnity; and Nader was proclaimed Regent during his infancy: his unfortunate father was sent in a litter to Khorasan, where a magnificent prison was prepared for him and his seraglio, in which he passed the remainder of his life, and, no doubt, found his retirement, however disgraceful, more suitable to the indolence of his temper, and the weakness of his understanding, than the perpetual anxieties of a throne.

The first act of the Regent was, to send Ambassadors to the Empress of Russia, and the Great Mogul, informing them of the accession of Shah Abbas, and requesting the Indian monarch, in the most pressing terms, to prevent the Afgan fugitives from taking shelter in his territories.

He then prepared for his grand project of driving the Turks from the Persian frontiers; and accordingly, having marched by Carmanshah, he encamped in a plain, called Mahidesht, intending to advance the next day against the strong hold of Zohab, where the enemy had reposited a considerable store of ammunition, and A.D.1732. Nad. 45. the taking of which would contribute greatly to his success in the siege of Bagdad: but, hearing that a large body of Turks had left the castle, and were advancing to oppose him, Nader, whose prudence was equal to his valour, chose to decline a battle, at a time, when the loss of his men would have been a great obstacle to his designs, and determined to reach Zoháb by another route, which lay over a vast mountain, called Carvan: he therefore set out at break of day, in opposition to the remonstrances of his Generals, who represented the defiles as impassable. He convinced them, however, that few things were impossible to perseverance and activity; and leading his army, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, through narrow passes covered with snow, and on the borders of precipices, he brought them by sunset to a valley on the other side, where, after a short interval of rest, he left his main body, and advanced in person at the head of only six hundred men: he rode all night without intermission, and, in the morning, found himself close to the fortress, which, although his army had not yet joined him, he prepared to attack, as he knew it to be almost defenceless. The Turks, awakened by the trampling of the Persian horse, appeared on the battlements, and, alarmed at their sudden approach, dropped their arms on the first summons, and surrendered. Nader found a rich booty in the castle, and treated the Turkish garrison with great lenity: he had ridden an hundred and three miles without stopping, and, by this vigorous step, struck his enemies with terrour whilst he secured to himself a most advantageous situation. Some days after this, the army arrived, astonished at their leader’s A.D.1732. Nad. 45. intrepidity, and encouraged by his example: he built several forts near Zohab, and was soon joined by the forces of Azarbigian, commanded by the governor of Tauris.

The A.D.1733. Nad. 46. city of Bagdad had every possible advantage. It was situated in a large plain on the banks of the Tigris: its circuit was perfectly round, and it was enclosed by a double wall, flanked with strong bastions: its suburbs, built on the western side of the river, resembled a smaller city, and were joined to the greater by an elegant bridge; but its surest defence was in the prudence and resolution of its governor, Ahmed, who determined to maintain it to the last extremity.

The Regent wished to put the whole campaign to the hazard of a decisive battle, and made a show of marching towards the city of Kercúk, in hopes of drawing Ahmed into the field, but, finding that he remained within the walls, he returned by another route towards Bagdad. He was met in his return by twelve thousand Turks, commanded by Fateh, governor of Diarbecr, who was taken prisoner at the first onset, and his misfortune was soon followed by a total rout of his army.

Nader was equally successful on the next morning; and defeated a Basha, named Mohammed, whom Ahmed had sent to reconnoitre the Persians. In this last action, a Persian soldier pursued a Turk so far, that, before he could kill him, he was overtaken by the night, and forced to wander about the plains till break of day, when he was greatly surprised to find himself under A.D.1733. Nad. 46. the walls of Bagdad: he no sooner perceived his danger, than, by a singular presence of mind, he advanced boldly to the Turkish sentinels, and demanded an audience of the governor, as a messenger from the Regent of Persia; upon which he was treated with respect, and introduced to Ahmed, to whom he said, as from Nader, “The Persians have long desired to give you battle: if you have any spirit, meet them in the field; if not, open the gates of the city.” Ahmed replied, that it was not in his power to act in opposition to the positive orders of his court, and sent him back with an escort of Janissaries. When the regent heard this adventure, he smiled at the address of the man, but ordered his prisoner Fateh, whom he generously set at liberty, to assure the governor, that no such message came from Him.

On the eighth of February, the Persians prepared to pass the Tigris on a raft or float, contrived by an European engineer: it was formed of large beams of palm-tree wood, fastened together with cables, and made less liable to sink, by having a number of camel’s skins tied to it, which were sewed up, and filled with air. Nader first went over with two thousand five hundred men, and, having left orders for the rest of his troops to follow him, marched on with great rapidity. On the next morning fifteen thousand men passed on the float; after which it fell to pieces, and much time was lost in repairing it. In the mean while, the Regent was in a country little known to him, surrounded with a multitude of enemies, at the head of a small part only of his army, and separated from his camp by a broad river.

It A.D.1733. Nad. 46. was his intention, to fall suddenly upon the Turks, who were stationed opposite to the Persian camp; but, a body of Janissaries having discovered him, they fled with precipitation, and carried the alarm into the city. Ahmed, who had diligently observed his motions, and was now apprised of his situation, sent against him thirty thousand men, commanded by Mustafa Pasha, with a formidable train of artillery; upon which the Regent, perceiving an engagement to be inevitable, detached a body of Curds and Afgans against the enemy; the former of whom retreated after a short skirmish, but the latter, with a fierceness, that ever characterized their nation, supported the fight vigorously against a very superiour force. The Regent strove, as far as he was able, to raise the spirits of his troops; but, knowing the danger of engaging, and fearing the infamy of appearing to retreat, he was penetrated with the deepest affliction: all his glory, acquired by so many desperate enterprises, was likely to be obscured, and his magnificent projects were on the point of being reduced to nothing, by his own impatience and rashness. Whilst he was fighting more through despair, than with any well-grounded hope of victory, he discovered a cloud of dust, which he soon found to be raised by the fifteen thousand Persians, who had passed the river on the float: as soon as they reached the plain, Nader led them to the attack with a furious joy, and sustained the battle with such advantage, that the Turkish army was thrown into disorder; and each squadron, consulting their own safety, fled at random towards the city whence they had sallied. In this action five thousand Turks were slain; all their sield-pieces were seized, and A.D.1733. Nad. 46. the Persians took possession of a town, called Old Bagdad, with a strong bridge over the Tigris: the night was spent by the conquerors in mirth and exultation, and on the next morning, the Regent amply rewarded the Afgans, to whose valour the success was chiefly owing, but sternly reprimanded the Curdish officers, whose detachment had so shamefully left the field. This defeat of Mustafa Pasha was a severe blow to the Turks: in a short time after it they lost five adjacent cities, which were ill defended, and the Regent was enabled to push the siege of Bagdad with every advantage imaginable. He invested the city on all sides, and enclosed it with round towers, built at equal distances from each other, in which he stationed a company of men, who prevented the garrison from making a sally; he repaired the first raft, and ordered others to be made, which were continually passing and repassing the river with ammunition and stores; besides which, a number of barges were, by his orders, launched in the Tigris, for the convenience of transporting his men and artillery. His want of large cannon put it out of his power to batter in breach; nor had he a sufficient store of shells to support a regular bombardment; so that he dropped all thoughts of storming the city, and determined to reduce it by a blockade. In about two months the garrison began to be distressed for want of provisions; and soon after, a famine ensued, which drove the inhabitants to such an excess of despair, that many of them threw themselves over the ramparts; and they, who outlived the fall, came in a suppliant manner to the Persian camp, where they were received with great liberality.

From A.D.1733. Nad. 46. this time to the beginning of July, the governor of Bagdad amused the Regent with pretended negotiations, sometimes expressing a desire to surrender the city, and sometimes requesting a month’s delay to consider of it; till a spy, who, under the disguise of a Persian, had approached near enough to the walls to throw a letter over them, gave notice, that Osman Pasha was making forced marches to his relief at the head of a numerous army; on which Ahmed broke all his engagements, and declared, that he would defend the city to extremity. Nader, having also received information of Osman’s approach, resolved to give him battle, and marched against him on the seventeenth of July, leaving twelve thousand men at Bagdad to continue the blockade. He met the Turkish army in a plain, divided by the Tigris, and immediately attacked their van with undaunted courage: in a short time the action became general, and both sides fought with intrepidity; till the intense heat of the sun took away their strength and spirits. In the midst of the combat, Nader, who shared the toil and danger of it with the meanest of his soldiers, had mortally wounded two Turks, who were fallen under him; but one of them, in the agony of death, struck his horse in the belly, who fell down with great force, and exposed the Regent to extreme peril: he soon recovered the shock, and mounted another horse, who was presently shot under him, as he was galloping between the lines. He vaulted with agility on a third horse; but the intolerable heat, the vast number of the enemies, who were said to fall little short of an hundred thousand men, and the imminent danger to which the Regent had been twice exposed, entirely disheartened his A.D.1733. Nad. 46. troops; and he, perceiving them inclined to give way, commanded a retreat to be sounded, and sent orders for the twelve thousand men, whom he had left before Bagdad, to raise the siege, and to follow him with all possible expedition. The Persians, who were stationed on the eastern side of the Tigris, joined the main body without much difficulty; but those on the opposite side, seeing that Ahmed had demolished the bridge, and set fire to the boats, were obliged to take another route, conducted through forests and over mountains by some wandering Arabs, who are always glad to testify their abhorrence of the Turkish nation. On this day two thousand Persians were slain, and more than twice that number of Turks: Osman entered Bagdad in triumph, and was considered by the inhabitants as a guardian angel.

The Regent, only more animated by this disgrace, was turning all his thoughts upon the means of retrieving his honour; with which view he summoned the governors of all his provinces, to meet him, at the head of their best troops, in a plain near Hamadan, whither he arrived on the second of August: here he reviewed his army, and, as if his late defeat had been a signal victory, distributed a large sum among his soldiers, to each of whom he gave double the value of the arms or horses, which they had lost in the battle of Bagdad.

On the thirtieth of September he led his troops into the field, which were now considerably reinforced by the arrival of the Persian governours: he took the road of Carmanshah, where hearing, that Mohammed Pasha and other Turkish commanders A.D.1733. Nad. 46. were waiting to oppose his passage, he advanced with incredible celerity, in hopes of surprising them by night; but, having met with unexpected delays, he could not reach their camp till daybreak. His sudden appearance, at the head of a large army, so confounded the Turks, that they fled in disorder without striking a blow, and left their ammunition to the Persians, who, being wearied with their long march, reposed for several days in the plain. On the twenty-second of October, the Regent advanced towards Kercúk, and halted in a place, called Elmidaran: here he reviewed his army, and exhibited a feigned battle with all the evolutions and operations of a real engagement.

Osman, in the mean time, having left Bagdad, was encamped near Kercúk: his tents were enclosed with strong intrenchments; and he was so elevated with his late success, that, on hearing of Nader’s approach, he disdained to meet him in person, and sent a small detachment against him, commanded by one of his officers. These were soon defeated, and fled promiscuously towards Erzerúm; which disaster, joined to the intelligence, continually brought, of Nader’s strength, alarmed the Turkish general, and determined him to act with greater caution; so that the Regent, having in vain attempted to draw him into the field, and having sent him a most reproachful challenge without receiving an answer, returned to Bagdad; where having easily recovered his former stations on the Tigris, he renewed the siege with greater vigour than before: his troops were considerably reinforced, and his camp abounded with provisions; whilst Ahmed, who, relying upon Osman’s support, had neglected A.D.1733. Nad. 46. to prepare for a second siege, was again reduced to a distressful situation.

The Turkish commander in chief, hearing of Nader’s return to Bagdad, detached against him a body of twelve thousand men, under a Basha named Memesh; who, after a rapid march, pitched his tents in a valley, at a small distance from a very extensive plain. Nader was extremely rejoiced at a prospect of regaining his honour, and, having selected the flower of his troops, advanced at their head by a road little frequented, and was close to the Turkish camp early in the morning; when, observing the enemy to be in great disorder, he attacked them with uncommon violence, and drove them from their station. Mean while Osman, fearing lest Memesh should gain the credit of the second victory, led his whole army into the plain, just as the detachment of the Basha had broken their ranks, and were flying with precipitate speed. The Persians pursued them with eagerness, and penetrated into the heart of the Turkish army, who were thunderstruck with a blow so little expected. Osman was seated in a splendid litter, his age and infirmities rendering him incapable of much fatigue, and his principal officers were receiving his orders, when the flight of Memesh struck terrour into his men: in a short time their consternation was so great, that he was persuaded to mount his horse, and save himself by a swift retreat; but, the Regent having sent two bodies of Persians round the mountains to intercept him, he found himself suddenly attacked in front, while the impetuous Nader harrassed him in the rear. His anxiety was soon at an end: a Persian soldier, who distinguished him A.D.1733. Nad. 46. by the richness of his dress, thrust him furiously from his horse, and, having first stabbed him to the heart, carried his head to the Regent on the point of a spear. Ten thousand Turks were slain, before the Persians were clearly masters of the field: the camp and military stores of the enemy were seized, and a number of Turkish officers were made prisoners, most of whom the Regent set at liberty, and dismissed them with the head and corse of Osman, that they might be honourably interred by his relations. After this victory, the Persians returned to Bagdad, with a full assurance of a successful siege.

On the second of December, Ahmed sent a messenger to the Regent, with proposals of accommodation, for which his court had given him full powers: the chief articles of the proposed convention were, that all the provinces, which had been wrested from the Persians, during the troubles in 1723, should be restored to them; that the limits of the two Empires should be fixed at the ancient boundaries; and that all the Persian prisoners should be released; on condition that the Regent would raise the siege of Bagdad, and withdraw his army from the Turkish frontiers. Nader accepted this offer; the articles were signed; and sent to Constantinople to be ratified by the Sultan and his Vizir: Ahmed, having released all the Persians, who had been taken in the last war, and having distributed some rich presents among the Regent’s officers, dispatched a peremptory order to the Bashas of Georgia, Armenia, Shirvan, Azarbigian, and Irak, to evacuate their provinces as soon as possible. After this important victory, Nader spent several weeks in A.D.1733 Nad. 46. visiting the tomb of Ali, and other Mahomedan saints, who were buried in the neighbourhood of Bagdád.

At A.D.1734. Nad. 47. the beginning of the year the Regent marched to Shiraz, where he passed three months, and in April advanced to Ispahan; where he was informed that the Princess, married to Rizakuli Mirza, had been delivered of a son just before his arrival, whom they had named Shahrokh: on this occasion, as well as on account of his late victories, the inhabitants of Ispahan were entertained with a sumptuous jubilee, and many weeks were spent in pageants and rejoicings.

In the month of May, a Turkish messenger arrived with a letter from the Grand Vizir, informing the Regent, that Sultan Mahmud could not consider his convention with the governour of Bagdad as definitive; but that his Highness had appointed Abdalla, the son of Kiupruli, his plenipotentiary and commander in chief; that Abdalla was in Diarbecr with his army, where he waited for a Persian minister, that the articles of peace might be ratified in form. This proceeding of the Vizir was in compliance with the ancient maxim of the Turks, which enjoins them to make peace at the head of an army on the frontiers, that a cessation of hostilities may seem an act of condescension only on their side; for that high-minded nation cannot support the idea of leaving the field through necessity. As the Othman court are strangers to that delicacy of sentiment, which Europeans call the point of honour, it is probable that Ahmed’s treaty, how solemnly soever it was signed, was no more than a pretext to induce the Regent to decamp; and that he had privately A.D.1734. Nad. 47. advised the vizir to send an army into Mesopotamia: it is also very reasonable to conjecture, that he had secretly instructed the governours of Shirvan, and other dismembered provinces of Persia, to delay the restitution of their governments by all the arts they could devise. We must confess, that Nader was highly blameable in raising the siege of Bagdad, and that, in the whole negotiation he was fairly overreached by the abilities of Ahmed: it is reported, that he frequently used to acknowledge his errour, and always expressed an high veneration for the talents of that able governour, who, baffling the intrigues of his own court, and resisting the attacks of the Persian, had kept himself in great measure independent of both.

Though the Regent began to suspect the sincerity of the Porte, yet he was unwilling to drop the negotiation; and sent a plenipotentiary to Abdalla, giving him this alternative: either to ratify the convention, made at Bagdad, or to meet him in the field, and decide their difference by the longest sword. In the mean time he left Ispahan, and marched towards Hamadan, which he reached on the fourteenth of June; and, learning that the Bashas of Shirvan and Daghestan were greatly averse to the convention, and had refused to evacuate their cities, he advanced by forced marches to their provinces, and spent the four next months in reducing them to obedience, which he effected with no great loss, and with no variety of incidents: perceiving at length that Abdalla detained his ambassador, and meaned to amuse him with specious offers, he determined to renew the war with greater spirit than ever.

Armenia A.D.1734. Nad. 47. was chosen to be the scene of his exploits; and, having caused a large bridge to be raised over the Aras, a river, which has been represented by some writers as too impetuous to support such a work^*, he passed it at the head of his army, and encamped on the third of November before the city of Ganja. A Basha, named Ali, who then governed this city, answered his summons with haughtiness, and prepared to make a resolute defence: he therefore deserted the suburbs, and retired to the Citadel, which was very strongly fortified, and contained a numerous garrison. Nader on the other side resolved to make a regular siege; and, having ridden around the walls, and examined their strength, gave orders for the works to be begun, which were carried on with uncommon expedition.

When the trenches were opened, the Persians battered the walls; and the Regent, observing a very high mosque in the suburbs, which commanded great part of the city, and which Ali had neglected or forgotten to destroy, placed some large cannon in it, which played for several days with no small success, but it was at last demolished by the fire from the ramparts. The besiegers bombarded the city day and night, and brought to the ground most of its mosques and other conspicuous buildings; but, not satisfied with this vehement attack, they had recourse also to the more secret, but not less formidable, expedient of sapping, and sprung several mines with great effect, in one of which a son of the Governour A.D.1734. Nad. 47. lost his life together with seven hundred Turks.

The Regent visited the trenches every day to direct and encourage his engineers; and one morning, as he was looking over a breastwork, without a sufficient regard to his safety, a cannon ball passed by his face, and struck off the head of a Persian officer, who stood so near him that his robe was sprinkled with the blood: another day a shell, fired from a mortar in the city, fell into a pavilion, where he was sitting, and burst close by his side, but killed only one of his attendants.

During A.D.1735. Nad. 48. the siege, Abdalla was advancing towards Ganja; and Ali, having notice of his approach, resolved to persist to extremity; which Nader also discovering, sent a strong detachment, under an able commander, with some battering cannon, and mortars, to invest Teflis, the Capital of Georgia, hoping to distract the mind of the Turkish General between the defence of two important cities: in the mean while he continued the siege of Ganja, but was greatly impeded by the very heavy falls of snow, which obstructed his engineers, and hindered the effect of his bombardment by stifling the explosions of the shells; the walls also were so thick and strong, that no practicable breach had yet been made in them.

At this time intelligence was received, that Ilbars, prince of Kharezm, having had the assurance to make an incursion into Khorasan, had met with a very rough reception from the Persian A.D.1735. Nad. 48. governour, and been forced to repass the Oxus with great loss.

Just after the festival of Nurúz, the Regent began to be impatient at the dilatory motions of Abdalla; and, having left one of his Generals to continue the siege, he departed from Ganja about the middle of April. As he drew near Teflis, he heard that Timur, the Governour of Van, was hovering about the city with a numerous army: he therefore marched with great speed in hopes of intercepting him; but could not prevent his reinforcing the garrison, and supplying them with plentiful stores. Upon this disappointment he advanced towards the city of Cárs, where Abdalla was encamped, and surrounded with strong intrenchments: here he waited for some time in hopes of enticing the Turkish general into the field; but, finding him determined to avoid a battle, and not thinking it prudent to attack his camp, he led his troops to Erivan, and prepared to besiege it, not doubting but that the danger of three principal cities would rouse Abdalla from his inactivity.

Abdalla, mistaking this motion for a retreat, and imputing it to fear, led forth his army, which consisted of seventy thousand horse, and fifty thousand foot, including a large body of janissaries: on the eighth of June he reached a spacious plain near Erivan, called Baghavend, where he encamped. In the evening, Nader appeared on the opposite side of the plain with no more than fifteen thousand men: he was employed till midnight in disposing his forces to the best advantage, and in procuring information of his enemies’ strength. He stationed his troops on a rising ground, A.D.1735. Nad. 48. and bade them prepare for an action at day break; after which he retired to his tent, and slept for a few hours. Early in the morning he harangued the officers, representing to them the danger to which they would be exposed, if they failed to exert their utmost valour and sagacity on this occasion; he told them, that the Turks outnumbered them eight to one, and that nothing but the most undaunted courage on their side could preserve themselves from destruction, and their country from ruin: yet he bade them be assured of victory, if they would obey his orders and follow his example; for that he dreamed in the night, that a furious beast had rushed into his tent, where, after a long struggle, he brought it to the ground and slew it. “With these omens, therefore, said he, of success to your arms, and confusion to your enemies, advance intrepidly to the field; where you will fight under the protection of that Power, who raises his weakest servants to glory, and covers his proudest opposers with dishonour.” He had scarce ended, when Abdalla marched against him in full array, with a vast train of artillery, and with a show of the most determined spirit; upon which he gave the word, and, descending from the eminence, poured into the plain with great impetuosity: he attacked in person the right wing of the Turks, whilst one of his Generals strove to break their centre, and another made a desperate attempt against their artillery-men, who soon abandoned their charge, and left their field-pieces, which were converted to their own destruction. The action was general; the Persians did incredible execution with their musketry, whilst the Turkish cavalry, galled with the smartness of their sire, began to be thrown into disorder: the Regent A.D.1735. Nad. 48. fought in the thickest ranks, animating his troops by his example, and watching every advantage that was offered: at last a Persian soldier, named Rostam, having met Abdalla, whom he knew by sight, seized the reins of his horse, and dragged him forcibly to the ground; where, having severed his head from his body, he brought it to Nader, who ordered it to be raised on a spear, and shown to the enemy. The Turks, destitute of a leader, and unable to recover their ranks, fled confusedly to different parts, leaving, says the Persian author, near half their army dead or wounded: the Governour of Van, who had retreated with his troops, was intercepted by a body of Armenians, who skirmished with him, till a detachment of the Persian army came to their assistance, and attacked him so furiously, that near three thousand of his men were killed, and the Basha himself escaped with great difficulty. Among the Turkish officers, who were slain in this engagement, was Mustafa, Governour of Diarbecr, a relation by marriage to the Sultan Mahmud; the Regent sent his head, together with that of Abdalla, to the cities of Erivan and Cars, with a view of intimidating the garrisons with those bloody trophies of his victory: he dispatched also a number of Turkish prisoners to Ganja and Teflis, in order to inform the inhabitants of this event. Nader in the mean time encamped in the plain of Baghavend, where he distributed the treasures of the enemy among his soldiers, and signally rewarded those, who had distinguished themselves in the battle by their valour or address.

The Governours of Ganja and Teflis, alarmed at the death of Abdalla, and the defeat of his army, A.D.1735. Nad. 48. opened their gates to the Persians at the beginning of July; but Hussein, the Basha of Erivan, desired a respite of forty days to consider of the subject, and Timur, who had retreated to Cars, exhorted the commander of that city to make an obstinate defence. The Turkish court, however, now thought seriously of a peace, and gave Ahmed full powers to renew the negotiations with the Regent: his overtures were accepted; the cities of Cars and Erivan were surrendered on the twenty-second of September, and all farther hostilities ceased on both sides; but, as Nader had increased his demands, a number of delays intervened, and gave him leisure to regulate the affairs of the province, which he had recovered: he spent the three next months in reducing the savage nation, called Leczi’s, who infested the mountains of Caucasus: his success against these banditti was very rapid; but, as his battles with the mountaineers have nothing in them either instructive or entertaining, it will be more agreeable to the reader to omit them, and to prepare him for other events of a more extraordinary nature.

THE A.D.1736. Nad. 49. following year presents us with the most remarkable scene in the life of Naderkuli; which was succeeded by a series of noble actions, that might have added lustre to the most shining characters of antiquity. He had now restored the kingdom of Persia to its former splendour, he had extended its limits, and expelled its invaders; and was forming a design of retiring to his castle of Kelat, and of passing the remainder of his days in a splendid retreat, when the death of the young king Abbas gave a new turn to his thoughts, and awakened his natural passions, the love of dominion, and the desire of conquest. He sent immediate orders to the governours and principal men of every province, to attend a general diet, and to repair with all possible haste to the plains of Mogan, which lie near the confluence of the rivers Cyrus and Araxes, and which are equally famous for their vast extent, and their agreeable situation. At the same time, he sent a great number of ingenious artists and builders to the plains just mentioned, in order to raise several temporary palaces, for the reception of the noblemen and commanders, whom he had summoned. These edifices were very slight, but extremely elegant, and consisted of pavilions, baths, temples, and apartments adorned in the richest manner. Naderkuli marched at the head of his troops, who were A.D.1736. Nad. 49. now recovered from the fatigue of their late expedition against the rebels of Daghestan: and on the twelfth of January he encamped in Mogan, where he was joined by a considerable number of the Persian Nobles, and found near a hundred thousand men assembled on the plains. When the council was formed, he opened to them the affair for which they were summoned, and bade them proceed to the election of a King, advising them at the same time, to chuse one whom they knew to be endowed with great and noble qualities. Mohammed Massûm, a man of an illustrious rank in Shiraz, replied, that the Persians would be ruled by no other sovereign than their deliverer and protector, which assertion was immediately confirmed by the concurrence of every voice in the assembly. Naderkuli refused the offer of the kingly name and authority, protesting that he had never entertained the least hopes of the regal diadem, and that he was amply recompensed by the satisfaction he received from the happy deliverance of his country, and the reduction of its enemies. These assemblies continued a whole month, but were always broken off, with the same offer of the crown on the one side, and the same refusal of it on the other; till, upon the pressing entreaties of the nobles and the populace, Naderkuli consented to accept it, on condition that they would forsake the sect of Ali, and embrace that of Omar, which he assured them would be the only method to restore the Persian empire to its ancient tranquillity. They agreed to this proposal, and an edict was immediately proclaimed for a general conformity of religion. Upon Nader’s acceptance of the diadem, the whole multitude seemed to testify their joy by the loudest A.D.1736. Nad. 49. acclamations. The twenty-sixth of February was fixed for the day of the coronation, which was celebrated with all the magnificence, that the riches of the East could supply, and that the fertile inventions of the best artists could devise. That day, the prayers in the mosques were made in the name of the new monarch; and coins of various sorts were struck with all his titles on the one side, and, on the reverse, with an Arabick inscription, implying that what had happened, was the best^*. The letters of this sentence are numeral, and, when added together, make eleven hundred and forty-nine, the year of the Mahometan epoch in which Nader was raised to the throne of Persia.

Nader Shah began his reign by allotting the chief provinces of his Empire to proper governors. He assigned the government of Khorasan to the prince Rizakuli, and that of Azarbigian to his brother Zoheireddoula: Herat was intrusted to Babakhan; Fars to Mohammed Taki of Shiraz, and Shirvan to Mahadibeg, who on this occasion was honoured with the title of Khan. These governors departed for their respective provinces, and all the Nobles, who attended the diet, were dismissed with the highest marks of distinction, and each of them was presented, after the oriental manner, with a silken robe interwoven with gold. The Turkish minister also received leave to depart; and Abdelbaki, a nobleman of distinguished rank and eminent qualities, was sent to the Porte in company with Abulcassem, the chief man of the law, A.D.1736. Nad. 49. in order to inform the Great Turk of Nader’s elevation to the Persian throne; for which purpose an ambassador was at the same time despatched to the court of Russia. Nader Shah sent the Turk a present of elephants and other curiosities, with a letter containing the most amicable proposals, and expressing a desire to establish a firm and lasting peace between the two empires. In the same letter, he gave an account of the reformation, which he had made in the religion of his subjects, and proposed the following terms to the Turkish court; “that, as there were four orthodox sects in the religion of Mahomed, the Persians should be considered as the fifth sect, under the protection of Jaffer son of Mohammed Becr, who was related to the Prophet, and distinguished for his excellent qualities: that a fifth pillar should be erected in the mosque of Mecca in honour of the new sect: that the Persian pilgrims should be conducted to Mecca through part of Syria, and that the Porte should send a man of rank and power to defend them from any insult: that the prisoners of both nations should be set at liberty, and that there should be a free trade between the two kingdoms: that the sovereigns of both empires should appoint able and faithful ministers, to reside constantly at their respective courts, in order to determine every important affair, and to fix the peace between them upon the surest basis.” It seems difficult at first, to assign a reasonable motive for the proposal of the three first articles, but, on a nearer view, we discover the great sagacity and foresight of this extraordinary man; he certainly had no intentions of maintaining a perpetual peace with the Turks, but he was not disposed to engage in a war with them, A.D.1736. Nad. 49. while the Afgans were gathering strength in Candahar, and while several revolts were breaking out in different parts of the Empire, to the suppression of which he foresaw a Turkish war would be a great obstacle. He determined, therefore, to amuse them and keep them in play, by proposing terms of religion, to which he knew those superstitious zealots would never consent; while their refusal would at any time supply him with a plausible pretence for declaring war, though his abolition of the sect of Ali had deprived them of their usual pretext for being the aggressors. At this time, a complaint was brought against Alimerdan governor of Endekhod, who had refused to submit to the royal mandate, and was preparing for a revolt: Nader Shah immediately sent a detachment to reduce him to obedience, and they marched toward the just mentioned district by the way of Badghis.

On the tenth of March, the festival of Nurûz was celebrated with all the splendour imaginable; and several days were spent in shows, banquets, and festivity. This was the time that Nader Shah had fixed for his memorable expedition against Candahar; accordingly he made the strictest enquiries concerning the strength of that City, and the nature of the country through which he must pass to it; and, on the fourth of April, he marched towards Cazvin at the head of a numerous army. Near Carachemen he was joined by Zoheireddoula with the troops of Azarbigian, whom he dispatched, in conjunction with the prince Nasralla, to destroy a tribe of wild barbarians, that inhabited the forests and mountains, and were always ripe for revolt. The two commanders were so successful, that they A.D.1736. Nad. 49. slew two thousand savages, with no very considerable loss on their side, and so expeditious, that they reached Cazvin as soon as the royal army. The Prince remained with his father, but Zoheireddoula returned with his troops to Tauris, the Capital of his province.

While Nader Shah was in Cazvin, he received the agreeable news of the conquest of Bahrein, which had long been governed by an Arabian prince named Gebâra, but was then attacked and taken by Mohammed Taki, governor of Farsistan. About this time a messenger arrived from Dilaver, chief of the tribe of Taimni, a bold and treacherous rebel, who had often revolted, and as often been received into favour; but at last, having committed several acts of violence, and being overpowered by the royal troops, he fled to the habitation of the Afgans, by whom he was received with open arms; he contracted an intimacy with Hussein, prince of Candahar, who soon took offence at his arrogant behaviour, and drove him from the mansion, which had been allotted him. This reduced him to the necessity of sending a suppliant message to Nader Shah, entreating forgiveness for his insolence and ingratitude, and promising to atone for his rashness by the most perfect submission. The prince Rizakuli had already interceded in favour of all the revolted tribes; but the King, divided between his just resentment, and his desire to gratify his son, gave no answer at that time to the petition, but pursued his march towards Candahar. In his way he resolved to chastise a more formidable rebel, named Alimorad, whom the savage nation of the Bakhtiaris had chosen as their leader. These were a wild race A.D.1736. Nad. 49. of mountaineers, that inhabited the rocks and caverns in the very heart of Persia, and always refused to submit to a superiour power. As they were very numerous, enured to war from their earliest youth, and naturally fortified by craggy mountains, and thick woods, they had often gained considerable advantages over the troops that were sent against them; especially, at the time when Nader was engaged in laying siege to Erivan. The total reduction of them was reserved for Nader in his regal character, who sent several troops to attack them on all sides, and, having left the care of the military stores to the prince Nasralla, set out on the sixth of August, and arrived on the same day at the habitation of the rebels. He immediately sent a detachment to drive them from their retreat; and the Bakhtiaris after a short skirmish were put to flight. The fugitives took advantage of the darkness of the night, and, having passed the river Leirûk, demolished the bridge, and fled precipitately to the inmost recesses of the caverns and mountains. In the morning Nader Shah reached the river, and finding the bridge destroyed, ordered it to be rebuilt with all possible expedition. This was some obstruction to his progress; but at length he passed the Leirúk, and encamped on the summit of a mountain; whence he despatched his troops on all sides, to discover the places where the savages had concealed themselves. A considerable number of them were found in the dens and caves, and about three thousand families were either taken prisoners or slain. It happened in the mean time, that Alimorad, who lay with a few companions in the cavity of a rock, was distressed for want of water, and, A.D.1736. Nad. 49. going in search of it, passed by the foot of the mountain, on which the forces of Nader Shah were encamped. He was discovered and brought before the king, who condemned him to be blinded, and to lose his right a??m and leg: in this miserable situation he languished two days, at the end of which he expired. But Nader Shah showed more lenity to the other captives, whom he set at liberty, and removed to a distant and more accessible habitation: at last having spent a whole month in reducing this barbarous race, he marched towards the source of the river Zenderoud. Here he was joined by the prince Nasralla, and advanced with him towards Ispahan, which he entered on the fifth of October. He stayed some time in this City, in order to relieve his army after their fatigue, and to regulate some affairs of his kingdom. On the twelfth of November, he marched towards Candahar by the way of Kerman; and when he reached Seistan, he intrusted the baggage to the care of an approved officer, and set out upon an expedition against the Afgans of the districts bordering on Candahar.

The A.D.1737. Nad. 50. King left Seistan on the twenty-fourth of January, and, in sixteen days, reached a castle belonging to the Afgans, which he took by storm. He then sent two detachments, under the command of able officers, against two adjacent forts; and on the twelfth of February he passed the river Hirmend. The plains on the other side of the river were naked and barren; as the prince of Candahar had set fire to all the forage on the borders of his territory. This was a great distress to the army, and obliged them to change their route, till, in about twelve days, A.D.1737. Nad. 50. they pitched their tents on the banks of the Arghendáb. Hussein, having received notice of their approach, resolved to make a desperate attempt, and to attack the Persian camp at midnight; but he was unsuccessful, and, having lost a great number of his men, retired in confusion to Candahar. The next day Nader Shah led his army over the river Arghendab, which at that time was very rapid; and marched with his artillery to a village about two leagues from the city, which he had marked for destruction. Candahar was fortified on one side by a mountain, by the foot of which the Persians marched with incredible order and regularity, though they were exposed to the fire from the ramparts. When Nader Shah had reached the eastern side of the city, he ordered the tents to be pitched, and prepared to celebrate the annual festival of the tenth of March. When all the ceremonies were ended, he despatched a select body of men to attack a neighbouring fort, from which he apprehended some danger. Hussein was soon informed of this design, and sent his principal officer Seidal, to obstruct the progress of the Persians. Seidal soon discovered them upon an eminence, where they had halted, and, believing themselves in perfect security, had neglected to set a guard on the brow of the hill; which the Afgans perceiving, lay in ambush on the plain below, and waited for a proper opportunity to attack them. By a very fortunate circumstance, a Persian prisoner had escaped from the city, and apprised Nader Shah of Hussein’s project, and Seidal’s expedition; upon which the King set out in person, and overtook the Afgans, who fled at his approach: many of them were slain in their flight, and those A.D.1737. Nad. 50. who escaped, retired with Seidal to a very strong castle, where they found Mohammed, son of Hussein, with several other chiefs. Nader Shah returned to his camp, and gave a considerable present to the prisoner above-mentioned, who had informed him of Seidal’s excursion.

On the thirtieth of March, the royal tents were removed to a place more convenient for a design which Nader had conceived, of building a large city adjacent to Candahar, and of reducing Hussein to despair by the length of the siege. Agreeably to this vast project, a surprising number of architects and masons were summoned from all quarters of the empire, who made such inconceivable expedition, that, in a few days, they had laid the foundations of sumptuous edifices, aqueducts, baths, mosques, stables, markets, and houses for the common inhabitants: they contrived to turn a small, but very clear, river, called Torpuk, through the city; and some were employed in finishing the buildings in the most elegant manner, whilst others were raising a noble Citadel, and the rest, either decorating the royal palace, or building the walls of the new city, which was named Naderabâd, or The mansion of Nader.

In the mean time Ashref, an Afgan chief of high rank, deserted from the service of Hussein, and was favourably received by the Persian monarch. A short time after, a troop of Afgans made an excursion towards the river Arghendab, but were repulsed with great loss: after this defeat they acted entirely upon the defensive, and could not be induced to leave their walls, though Nader Shah had left the plain A.D.1737. Nad. 50. open, in hopes of enticing them to give him battle. This made him determine to enclose the city of Candahar on all sides with strong towers, at a considerable distance from each other: between these towers he erected a number of batteries, which he was obliged to multiply, on perceiving that some Afgans had sallied from their gates at midnight; but, by raising two more batteries between each of the large towers, he totally precluded them from the least possibility of passing his lines. At the beginning of May he received intelligence, that his officers had taken the town of Sefa, and the castle of Bast, the former by storm, and the latter by capitulation; upon which he sent other commanders to guard those places, and recalled those who had taken them. At the close of the month the King’s women and the baggage, which had been separated from the army in Seistan, arrived at Naderabad. The castle, to which Seidal had retired, was at this time taken by a Persian commander named Imamvirdi, who seized the just mentioned Afgan, with the other chiefs, and the son of Hussein, and sent them in chains to the royal camp. It has already been related in the preceding sections, that Seidal had ever been a promoter of violence and sedition; for which he was at this time punished with the loss of his sight: but the son of Hussein was treated with every mark of kindness and lenity.

While Nader Shah was endeavouring to tire out the Prince of Candahar by a tedious blockade, his son Rizakuli was enlarging the limits of his province, and pursuing a course no less glorious than that of his father. He had recovered Endekhod, and chastised its rebellious governor A.D.1737. Nad. 50. Alimerdan; he had defeated the numerous army of Abulhassan, Prince of Balkh, whose capital city he had taken, and whose territories he annexed to the kingdom of Persia. He afterwards passed the river Oxus with twelve thousand men, and put to flight forty thousand Tartars, commanded by the Kings of Bokhara and Kharezm; the latter of whom fled before the action, while the former, having lost a great number of his men, retired to a strong hold called Kershi. While the Prince was preparing to storm this castle, he received from his father a magnificent present of gold, beautiful horses, and rich vests, together with a letter applauding his valour, but desiring him to desist for the present from any further hostilities against the King of Bokhara. It is not easy to account for this check to the career of so brave a young man, unless we suppose that Nader Shah was desirous of moderating the power of his son, whose actions might possibly have eclipsed his own; or that he wished to reserve for himself the conquest of Transoxan Tartary, which the ancient kings of Persia were not able to subdue, in the course of a long and memorable war. The Prince, however, obeyed his command, and repassed the Oxus, which had been fixed, before the reign of Cyrus, for the boundary of the Persian empire.

The A.D.1738. Nad. 51. blockade of Candahar had now lasted ten months; but the Afgans, relying upon the plenty of their provisions, which they had been collecting for several years, and, deceived by the apparent strength of their situation, had not entertained the least thoughts of surrendering their City. Their obstinacy compelled the King to have A.D.1738. Nad. 51. recourse to more violent measures; and he made preparations for a general assault upon the citadel. In a short time the Persians took sixteen towers, two of which were built of stone, and situated upon a craggy mountain, which commanded a view of the whole town. The assailants, by the King’s order, carried their mortars and cannons of a vast size over this mountain, and planted them upon the summit of it. On the next morning they began to bombard the citadel, and filled the garrison with the utmost consternation; but a body of Persians, attempting too hastily to mount a breach, were repulsed by the Afgans, and two hundred of them were either killed or wounded. The tenth of March was celebrated with the usual solemnities; and on the twelfth, four thousand Persians were ordered to lie concealed in different parts of the mountain, and to wait for a proper opportunity of scaling the walls. The next day a tower, called Dehdeh, was taken by a company of Bakhtiari’s, who were enlisted in the service of Nader Shah. These intrepid barbarians passed on, in defiance of the Afgans, and planted the Persian ensigns on four other forts; which opened a way for the soldiers who lay hid on the mountain, and who, by the help of scaling-ladders, forced in a short time the gates of the citadel; whence they poured like a torrent through the city, and destroyed all that opposed them. Hussein had scarce time to fly with a few Afgans, and some of his women, to a fortress situated on an eminence in the northern part of the city: Nader Shah pointed his artillery against this fortress, and had actually begun to storm it, when Hussein, finding himself reduced to the last extremity, sent his sister Zeineb, a princess of excellent virtue, A.D.1738. Nad. 51. to implore the clemency of the conqueror. Nader received her with kindness, and promised to accept the submission of her brother. The next day, Hussein and his family, together with the Afgan commanders who had escaped the violence of the storm, prostrated themselves before the throne of Nader Shah, who gave them their lives, and sent Hussein with his son Mohammed, and all his relations, to the province of Mazenderan, where he allotted them a settlement. He divided all the plunder of the city among his soldiers, and having ordered the citadel of Candahar to be demolished, he appointed Naderabad the Capital of the province, and gave the government of it to Abdalgani, a nobleman, who had once been suspected of disaffection, but had since been restored to favour. He rewarded Ashref, who had left Hussein, during the siege, with the government of a castle, and made him chief of a tribe named Touki: he selected a company of stout young Afgans for the reinforcement of his army, and gave the rest an habitation in the districts adjacent to Nishapour. This colony passed the Arghendab on the third of April, and were conducted to their new settlement in Khorasan.

On the twenty-seventh of the same month, the King’s ambassadors to the Porte arrived at Naderabad. They had been received with great respect by the Othman court, who had sent with them an ambassador, and two doctors of the Turkish law, with a congratulatory letter to Nader Shah upon his elevation to the throne, in which he was desired to dispense with the two articles proposed by him, concerning the fifth pillar in the temple of Mecca, and the march of the A.D.1738. Nad. 51. Persian pilgrims through Syria. They assured him, “that the first would be a dangerous innovation, and that the second would be attended with infinite trouble; but that if he would suffer the pilgrims to take the route of Irak, the inhabitants of Bagdad should make the roads commodious for their progress, and should provide every thing necessary for their security and convenience.” The Great Turk’s letter was accompanied with a present of valuable rarities, and, among the rest, of some fine Arabian horses with trappings of gold. Nader showed all imaginable marks of distinction to the Turkish ministers, and presented each of them with an ermine robe, and a beautiful horse richly caparisoned. He discoursed with them publickly upon the two articles in question, and told them he hoped to prevail with their court to consent to the ratification of them: in order to press this point, he named an able minister his ambassador to the Porte, who departed on the ninth of May, in company with the three Turks above-mentioned.

AS A.D.1738. Nad. 51. soon as Nader had determined to extirpate the whole race of the Afgans, he sent an ambassador to the Indian court, with an earnest request to the Great Mogul Mohammed, that he would prevent the fugitives of that nation from finding a retreat in his dominions. The Mogul received the Persian ambassador with every mark of respect, and dismissed him with a promise, that he would not fail to intercept the flight of the Afgan rebels, and that he would, for that purpose, send fresh supplies to the governors of the provinces bordering on Persia. Some time after, a Persian nobleman was sent upon an embassy to India, in order to renew the same request; and he returned with a repetition of the same promise: but, during the siege of Candahar, a great number of Afgans fled towards Cabul and Gazna, without any obstruction from the Indians of those provinces. A detachment of Persians was ordered to pursue them, but they made no very considerable slaughter, as they had been strictly forbidden to pass the frontiers of the Indian empire, and enjoined to do no injury to the subjects of the Mogul. In the mean time the Afgans were flying by troops to the provinces just mentioned; and it was soon discovered, that no step had been taken by the Indian monarch towards intercepting them in their progress. Nader Shah was highly irritated, to find his great designs baffled by the A.D.1738. Nad. 51. indolence of a perfidious ally, who, without any regard to a repeated promise, had allowed a safe harbour to the most dangerous enemies of the Persian Empire. He had the moderation, however, to suppress or dissemble his resentment, and to send a third ambassador to the Great Mogul, who arrived at Dehli on the second of May in the preceding year, where he had strict orders to stay only forty days: but the Indian ministers made no reply to his remonstrances, and constantly eluded his endeavours to be dismissed with a satisfactory answer. A whole year had now elapsed since the departure of this ambassador; and Nader Shah, provoked beyond expression at this delay, sent a positive command to him to return immediately, either with the Mogul’s answer, or without it: we can assign no other reason for Nader’s expedition into India, than the insult he had received from the sovereign and ministers of that empire; and probably he had no intention at first to advance as far as Dehli. His great object was to reduce the Afgans to an entire subjection, which could never be effected, while they were permitted to lie concealed in India, whence at any time they might rush in swarms upon the borders of his dominion. Accordingly, at the beginning of May, he passed a rivulet called Mekhor, which was the common boundary of the Persian and Indian empires, and marched towards Gazna, the Capital of Zablestan. The governor and chief men of the city, finding themselves unable to oppose him, gave him an immediate admission within their walls, and, after the Asiatick manner, accompanied their offers of service with many valuable presents. A few days after this, Nader Shah adadvanced towards A.D.1738. Nad. 51. Cabul, and, in the course of his march, destroyed a considerable number of Afgans, who lurked in the mountains; but selected those, who had either youth or vigour, and enlisted them in his cavalry: in these victories he received no little assistance from the valour of his son Nasralla, who made an excursion in the districts of Bamian and Gorbend, and returned with a great increase of glory. Upon Nader Shah’s approach, the principal inhabitants of Cabul came in a body, and offered to give him a reception in their city suitable to his dignity: but they had made this offer without the consent of the governor and the commander of the city, who refused to admit the Persian army, and were preparing to sustain a siege. When the Persians, therefore, began to pitch their tents near the walls, the garrison sallied out and attacked them with fury; but they were repulsed with great loss, and saved themselves by a precipitate retreat. Nader Shah was soon informed of their insolence, and ordered some pieces of artillery to be planted against the citadel: the Indians made a bold resistance against a continued fire of several days, but were forced at last to surrender at discretion.

The Persian army lay encamped in the plains of Cabul till the middle of June; in which interval Nader Shah sent an expostulatory letter to the Mogul, containing a succinct narrative of the affront he had received, of his resolution to chastise the insolence of the Afgans, and of the obstruction made to his progress by the inhabitants of Cabul; he declared, that he had strictly inhibited the least act of violence from his soldlers, and that he desired nothing so much as A.D.1738. Nad. 51. the continuance of their mutual friendship, This letter was intrusted to an envoy, who set out for Dehli attended by several chiefs of Cabul, who were enjoined to confirm the truth of his assertions: but, when they reached Gelalabad, the governor of that place put the Persian envoy to death, and compelled the chiefs of Cabul to return. Nader Shah could no longer brook such a succession of injuries, but marched with great rapidity towards Gelalabad, and, on the twenty-eighth of July, encamped at Kendemac, a place remarkable for the serenity of its air, and the beauties of its situation. From this place he detached a body of Persians against Gelalabad, who entered the city without opposition on the tenth of August: but the governor Mir Abbas, conscious of his crime, and fearing the punishment due to it, retreated to a fortress situated on a mountain of very difficult access. The Persians attacked his intrenchments, and took the fort by assault: Mir Abbas was killed, together with the Indians that attended him, and his family were sent in chains to the royal camp.

On the twenty-ninth of September, the prince Rizakuli, who had been summoned from his province, arrived at Gelalabad, and was received by his father with every mark of affection and applause. Nader Shah spent several days in reviewing the prince’s army, and having imparted to him his design of penetrating into the heart of the Indian empire, appointed him Regent of Persia, with the full power, during his absence, of raising or deposing governors, and of acting as he judged best for the safety and dignity of the kingdom. The prince was permitted A.D.1738. Nad. 51. to wear a diadem, with the plume of feathers on the right side, after the regal manner, and on the eighth of October he returned with great pomp to the seat of his regency. A few days after, the Persian army marched to the east of Gelalabad, and halted in the station of Rikab, where Nader Shah received intelligence of a formidable army, that was preparing to oppose him. Nasserkhan, governor of Cabul, had assembled a considerable body of Afgans and Indians, and was resolved to dispute with the Persian invaders the passage of Peishor, which was also defended by a strong castle. Upon this information, Nader left the artillery with the prince Nasralla, and advanced with great celerity towards Peishor; the next day, after a rapid march, he reached the army of Nasser, who were so amazed at the incredible haste of the Persians, that their courage and resolution wholly forsook them: their ranks were broken in an instant, and those only escaped the sword, who had recourse to a precipitate flight. Nasser, and several Indian chiefs, were taken prisoners; and their camp was entirely pillaged: the captives were kept under a close confinement, and the plunder was distributed to the Persian soldiers. After this victory the fortress of Peishor was easily taken, and the King stayed several days in the adjacent plains, in order to refresh his troops, and to wait for the arrival of the prince Nasralla.

In this interval, Nader Shah received a piece of news, which gave him the highest affliction. His brother Zoheireddoula had undertaken to chastise a tribe of Leczies, that warlike and mutinous race of banditti, who inhabited the mountains A.D.1738. Nad. 51. and deserts, and lived in a perpetual defiance of any superiour power. He was at first extremely successful, and, having gained some signal advantages over the Leczies, and set fire to their tents, began to entertain hopes of extirpating the whole tribe: but those bold freebooters, who had been taught, by a long course of rapine, to practise every art of deceit, had recourse to a stratagem, which proved the ruin of the Persian troops, and occasioned the death of their commander. They appeared in order of battle, at some distance from the Persians, and, having enticed them to advance very far in the forest, they pretended to fly with every appearance of dismay and confusion; but, instead of flying onward, they returned on each side through narrow passes of the mountains, whence they poured down upon the Persians, who were eager in their pursuit. In this encounter, Zoheireddoula was killed by a musket-shot, and his troops were entirely defeated. There was nothing more remarkable in the life of this prince, than the continual series of misfortunes in which it was involved. He seems to have had no share of that enterprising genius, which so highly distinguished his brother, and to have been guided by a star directly opposite to that, which attended Nader in his most daring attempts. He was rash and inconsiderate in his projects, but wanted neither vigour nor intrepidity in the execution of them.

Nader Shah had no time at present for fruitless grief, and, having appointed a governor of Azarbigian in the place of his brother, and sent troops to avenge his death, he led his army towards the province of Lahor, and conducted them A.D.1738. Nad. 51. safely over the five branches of the river Indus, which at that season were swoln with the rains, and flowed with the most rapid current. A numerous army was assembled on the opposite banks, under the command of Zekaria, governor of Lahor: but whether they were alarmed at the swift progress and formidable appearance of the Persians, or confounded at their surprising passage over the Indus, they retreated with a mixture of terrour and astonishment. As Nader Shah continued to advance towards the city of Lahor, Zekaria sent an officer of rank, with a considerable present, to implore his clemency, and to promise the strictest submission. This messenger had a favourable reception, and Zekaria, having received many marks of distinction, was confirmed in his government of Lahor. At the same time Nasser was admitted into favour, and returned, by the permission of his conqueror, to the capital of his province.

In A.D.1739. Nad. 52. the mean while, the Great Mogul was preparing to obstruct the progress of these victorious invaders; he had marched twenty-five leagues from the metropolis of his empire, and lay encamped on the plain of Karnal, with an army of thirty thousand Indians, and two thousand armed elephants: the rest of his very numerous forces were making all possible haste to join him, and were commanded by the most illustrious princes of India. It was not long before Nader’s emissaries gave him a full account of Mohammed’s situation; upon which he left Lahor, and arrived at Serhind on the eighth of January, whence he despatched six thousand Persians to examine the Indian camp, while he marched A.D.1739. Nad. 52. towards it with the rest of his army. On the tenth he reached Ambala, about thirty miles from Karnal; and, in the same night, the detachment fell upon the Mogul’s camp, and, having slain or taken prisoners a great number of the guards, retreated to Azimabad, where they were joined on the fourteenth by the royal forces. Nader was informed by the Indian prisoners, that the plain of Karnal was defended on the eastern and western sides by a broad river, and a very thick forest, that the intrenchments of Mohammed were guarded by three hundred pieces of artillery, and that he was waiting for the vast armies of the Vizir, his commander in chief, and his other ministers. The next morning the Persians continued their march, and pitehed their tents six miles from the Mogul’s camp; towards which Nader made an excursion, and returned after an exact survey of it. He then advanced to the east of Karnal, and, arriving at a large plain about a league from the Indians, he encamped in a very advantageous situation. In the evening he had intelligence, that Saádet, an Indian prince of very high rank, was hastening to join Mohammed with thirty thousand men. It was too late to intercept this reinforcement, which reached Karnal at midnight: but a troop of Persians, who had been sent for that purpose, attacked the rear of the Indians, and plundered the baggage of Saadet. This loss exasperated that imprudent General to the highest degree, and drove him to the fatal resolution of advancing the next day against Nader Shah, without considering the disadvantage of acting offensively against an invading enemy, who might otherwise have been reduoed to great extremities in a country so A.D.1739. Nad. 52. little known to him, or compelled to fight upon very unequal terms: but Mohammed and the Indian princes, who had been softened by a life of luxury and indolence, deceived by the vast number of their forces, and wholly void of experience in military affairs, determined to venture on a battle, and hastened to the support of Saadet, with a vain confidence of victory. They were soon joined by Khandouran, commander in chief, Nezamelmolc, prince of Decan, Kamreddin, the Grand Vizir, and many other able generals, at the head of very numerous armies, divided into three bodies, which extended to an amazing length on the field of battle. Nader Shah was so far from being disheartened at the sight of this formidable armament, that he is said to have been animated beyond his usual degree of courage: he knew, that an army of soft and enervated Indians were little able to oppose the hardy troops, whom he had trained to arms by the most excellent discipline, and allured to engage with more ardour than ever, by the hopes of sharing the spoils of so rich a kingdom; he perceived the folly of his adversaries, in bringing to the field such enormous pieces of ordnance, which they were unable to conduct with skill, and in depending upon the number of their elephants, which could not fail to distress and impede them in a general action.

These considerations gave him such an assurance of success, that he ordered Nasralla to stay behind with the greatest part of the artillery, and rushed with a wild impetuosity upon the Indians. The shock was equally violent on both sides, but the two armies were conducted with A.D.1739. Nad. 52. a very different spirit; for while the Persians were able, with very little impediment, to seize every advantage that presented itself, their enemies were quickly thrown into confusion, and would have made but a short resistance, if so unwieldy a body could even have retreated with speed. After a scene of havock and disorder for five hours, the prince Saádet, who had been the first to take the field, was the first to leave it; and his troops by their sudden flight imparted a general terrour to Mohammed, and his ministers, who retired in haste to their camp at Karnal, and depended for their safety on the strength of their intrenchments. The rout of the Indian army soon became universal; the two nephews of Saádet, who were mounted upon the same elephant, were taken prisoners; Khandouran received a wound, of which he died the next day; and ten princes of eminent rank, with an hundred nobles and officers of distinction, and thirty thousand of their soldiers were slain in the action: a great number of Indians were made captives, and all their elephants, horses, and instruments of war fell into the hands of the conquerors.

After this victory, Nader Shah advanced to the camp of Mohammed, which he found so strongly fortified, that he could not attack it with advantage, but thought it more prudent to enclose it on all sides, and to distress the Indians, who were almost destitute of provisions, by a continual blockade: on the third day after this, the ministers of Mohammed, finding it impossible either to exist in that confinement or to escape from it, prevailed with him to preserve his life at the expence of his kingdom, and, by A.D.1739. Nad. 52. resigning his diadem, to calm the resentment of the conqueror. The great Mogul perceived the necessity of this expedient, and left his intrenchments, attended only by the prince of Decan, the grand vizir, and his other nobles. When Nader Shah was informed of his approach in this submissive manner, he sent the prince Nasralla to meet him, and himself received him at the door of his tent, where he took him by the hand with great mildnass, and placed him by his side on the throne. Mohammed resigned his crown in form, and was treated, on that day and the next, as a guest in the Persian camp, where he received every demonstration of respect. On the first of February, Nader Shah advanced towards Dehli; and on the seventh, he encamped in the gardens of Shalehmah; where Mohammed obtained leave to enter the city, in order to prepare his palace for the reception of his vanquisher. Nader followed him on the ninth; and was conducted to a magnificent edifice, built by the Mogul Shahgehan, which, upon this occasion, was decorated with every ornament, that the treasury of Mohammed could supply. That unfortunate monarch, finding himself reduced to the condition of a private nobleman, prepared to attend his conqueror with the lowest marks of submission: but Nader Shah soon raised him from the state of dejection into which he was sunk, by declaring that he would reinstate him on the throne of his ancestors, and that he would repair the late breach in their friendship, by maintaining a perpetual alliance with the Indian empire, and by giving him a sure support upon every exigence: but that he would stay some time at Dehli, to refresh his army after their long expedition. The Mogul was so penetrated with A.D.1739. Nad. 52. this unexpected act of generosity, that he expressed his gratitude in the strongest manner, and having stripped his treasury of the most valuable jewels and curiosities that were reposited in it, he brought them as a present to Nader Shah. These treasures consisted of rich vases adorned with gems, vast heaps of gold and silver in coin and ingots, with a great variety of sumptuous furniture, thrones, and diadems: among the rest was the famous throne in the form of a peacock, in which the pearls and precious stones were disposed in such a manner as to imitate the colours of that beautiful bird, and which was said to be worth two millions and a half sterling. The princes and ministers of the Indian court followed the example of their king, and vied with each other in making presents to Nader Shah, who received in this manner about nine million three hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds, exclusive of the jewels, gold, and valuable pieces of furniture, which must have amounted to more than double that sum.

On the thirteenth of March, when all affairs seemed to be calm and peaceful, a very unfortunate event had almost caused a fatal reverse in the fortunes of Nader, and compelled him to preserve the fruits of his victory, by an action no less horrid than necessary. Two Indian noblemen of considerable rank raised a violent sedition in the night, and inflamed the multitude to such a degree, that they rushed with a mad rage upon the Persians, who were quartered in the city, and, having slain a great number of them, ran to the stable of the royal elephants, and put their keeper to death. When Nader Shah was apprised of this tumult, he ordered his A.D.1739. Nad. 52. officers to act wholly upon the defensive during the remainder of the night; and in the morning, finding the riot rather increased than abated, and sensible of his own danger, if the Indian army should revolt and join the rioters, he gave orders for a general massacre in that part of the city, where the sedition first broke out. Upon these orders the enraged Persians destroyed all they met, and demolished every building by which they passed: this dreadful carnage lasted several hours, and when the richest edifices in Dehli were levelled with the ground, and near thirty thousand of the inhabitants slain, the Great Mogul and his ministers interceded with Nader for the pardon of the other citizens; they entreated him to moderate his resentment, which they allowed to be just, and to be satisfied with the punishment he had inflicted upon the guilty, without shedding the blood of the innocent. Nader Shah complied with their request, and gave immediate orders for a cessation of the massacre; but he was determined to chastise the authors of the sedition, who had fled with about four hundred of their associates to a fortress not far from the city. Two Indian ministers were charged with the odious office of putting their countrymen to death: these unfortunate men, whose precipitate rashness had brought such a number of their fellow-citizens to destruction, were taken after a short resistance, and suffered the punishment which their folly deserved, though their good design, perhaps, might give them a claim to better success.

After a scene of such terrour and consternation, it will justly seem surprising that there should be A.D.1739. Nad. 52. any room in the breasts of the Indians for mirth and entertainment, yet such was their infatuation, that, in about ten days after the massacre, the nuptials of Prince Nasralla with a daughter of the Mogul were celebrated with all the marks of joy and festivity. Mohammed presented his son-in-law with a rich vest almost covered with pearls and diamonds, with six elephants, and as many beautiful horses with saddles and trappings of gold, enriched with precious stones: and a whole week was spent in banquets, shows, pageants, and diversions of every kind, among which were the battles of wild beasts, which are trained by the Indians for that purpose. Nader Shah in the mean time gave an ample recompense to his army for their faithful services; and, besides the valuable presents which he distributed among his officers, he assigned a largess of above twelve pounds to every private soldier^*: and, that his subjects in general might enjoy the fruits of his conquest, he ordered it to be proclaimed through all the provinces of Persia, that they should pay no kind of tax for the space of three years. As he was now preparing to leave India, he convened an assembly of all the princes and ministers of the Mogul’s court, and with his own hand replaced the imperial diadem on the head of Mohammed, and helped him to ascend the throne, which he had received from his progenitors: after this he harangued the Indian Ministers, and gave them the most salutary advice for the welfare of A.D.1739. Nad. 52. their country, enjoining them to obey in every respect the commands of their present sovereign. Mohammed expressed a most grateful sense of these favours, and entreated Nader to accept of all the provinces situated on the other side of the river Atok, together with those of Sind and Tata, and their dependencies. The King of Persia was glad to annex these provinces to his empire, as they were advantageously situated, and as some of them had been formerly considered as part of Khorasan: he therefore readily accepted the present; and the Mogul made a cession in form of the territories just mentioned. On the twenty-fifth of May Nader Shah led his army from Dehli, and repassed the Indus; but a bridge, which he had built over that river, was broken down by the rapidity of the current before half his troops had passed; and the rest were obliged to cross it in boats: this accident detained them in that sultry climate till the middle of summer, and was the cause of their suffering incredible pain in their marches, from the very intense and oppressive heat. At this time Nader Shah formed a plan of renewing hostilities against the kings of Bokhara, and Kharezm, whom his son Rizakuli had defeated during the siege of Candahar, but whose entire reduction he reserved for himself. Agreeably to this design, he sent a number of approved artists to Balkh, with orders to build several barges, and to launch them in the Oxus, that he might at any time transport his men and ammunition into Turkestan, or the Transoxan Tartary.

Abulfeiz, king of Turan, or of Bokhara, as the oriental writers call him, had made several irruptions into Persia in conjunction with Ilbars, sovereign A.D.1739. Nad. 52. prince of Kharezm, and had committed many acts of violence, for which Nader Shah now determined to make reprisals on them, and to chastise their insolence. They had been already defeated by Rizakuli, as it has been related; but, finding Nader Shah engaged in his Indian expedition, Ilbars had the boldness to pass the Oxus a second time, with intent to lay waste the borders of Khorasan. The prince, then regent of Persia, was at Herat, when he received intelligence of this incursion; and immediately led his army against the invader. Ilbars retired to a castle near Abiurd, where he imagined himself in perfect security; but while he was preparing to strengthen the place of his retreat, the governor of Abiurd advanced with a body of men to examine the situation of the enemy: a report was instantly spread among the Kharezmians, that the prince Rizakuli was close to the castle with a numerous army; which false alarm threw Ilbars into such a panick, that he decamped in confusion and returned to the seat of his dominion. Nader Shah, in the mean time, was pursuing his march towards Cabul, which he left on the twenty-seventh of November, and advanced towards his new territories in the province of Sind: but he had not neglected to send ambassadors to the courts of Russia and Turky, in order to inform them of his success in India, and to present the sovereigns of those empires with part of his spoils. This embassy to Russia seems to have been merely ceremonial, unless we suppose it to have a mixture of vanity and ostentation; but he had other views in that to the Sultan, with whom he was far from intending to preserve a lasting amity: and he was willing upon this occasion to A.D.1739. Nad. 52. show him how far the Persian arms could extend.

In Nader Shah’s march through Sind, he met with some obstructions from the chiefs of several castles, who attempted to oppose him, but were all reduced to submission after a short resistance: but the groundless fears, and avarice of Khodaiar, governor of that province, delayed him longer than the fierceness and valour of the other chiefs. This weak man had been very officious in paying his court to Nader Shah, during his conquests in Persia, and in sending him letters of congratulation upon the success of his arms: but, after the Indian expedition, he was so apprehensive of losing his treasures, and so afraid of falling into the hands of the conqueror, that he payed no regard to his repeated invitations, peremptorily refused to do homage at the throne of the Persian monarch, and fled to a strong hold in the midst of a barren desert, called Amercout, where he concealed his money and jewels in a subterraneous cavern. When Nader heard of his flight, he resolved to pursue him, and to punish him for A.D.1740. Nad. 53. disobeying his command: accordingly he passed the river Sind over a bridge of boats, and, having marched over a rough desert, which had before been thought impassable, he arrived on the fifteenth of February, before the castle of Khodaiar. As soon as the silly Indian saw the victorious army under his walls, he attempted to make his escape; but was taken by the Persian soldiers, and brought with all his family and attendants before Nader Shah; to whom he discovered in what place he had reposited his treasure, hoping by that discovery to save his life, A.D.1740. Nad. 53. which Nader, however, had no thought of taking: but in order to make him sensible of his errour, he kept him in chains several days; at the end of which he gave him his liberty, restored him to his possessions, and appointed him governor of Tata and part of Sind, the rest of which province he divided among his faithful commanders.

After having settled the affairs of his new dominion, the king of Persia returned to Naderabad, the city which he had built during the siege of Candahar, and from which he had been absent two years. He stayed but five days in this city; and advanced towards Herat, which he entered on the twenty-sixth of May: here he was joined by his nephew Alikuli, together with the young princes Imamkuli, and Shahrokh, who were received by the King with every mark of affection: they made at the same time an apology for the absence of the prince Rizakuli, who was detained by some affairs of great importance to the empire, and promised to meet the king his father at Badghis. Shahrokh seemed to be the favourite of the court, and it was remarked, that a prince of the same name, the son of Timur, had fixed the seat of his empire in the city of Herat: upon which the magistrates of that city struck a number of medals with the name and title of the young prince. In this place, Nader chose to make his triumph for the conquest of India, and to show his subjects the riches he had gained by it: as he was highly pleased with the peacock-throne, which he brought from Dehli, he had ordered his jewellers to make another in the same form, and with the same splendour, together with a pavilion, equally rich A.D.1740. Nad. 53. and magnificent. These works were now finished in the highest perfection, and exhibited at one view the finest pearls and, precious stones, that remained from the spoils of Dehli: they were displayed in publick on the fourth of June, which day and several others were spent in pageants, shows, and entertainments. On the tenth, Nader gave a considerable present to each of the princes, and, leaving them in Herat, advanced towards Badghis, where he met Rizakuli at the head of his army. As soon as the prince saw him, he ran to him and kissed his stirrups, expressing at the same time his subjection to his father and to his king: and Nader Shah, having raised him with great tenderness, applauded in the strongest terms his prudence in the government of Persia, and his valour in the defence of it. After this they advanced to the royal tents, both of them equally ignorant of their unhappy destiny, and very little apprehensive of the dreadful events, which were to succeed to their long course of victory and good fortune. Nader Shah spent several days in reviewing the troops of his son, whom he amply rewarded for their services, and, having presented the prince with a diadem and bracelet set with gems of considerable value, led his forces towards the city of Balkh, where he had ordered preparations to be made for his expedition into Tartary.

ON A.D.1740. Nad. 53. the last day of July the army reached the banks of the Oxus, and found on the river eleven hundred barges, which Nader Shah had ordered to be built, that he might convey his artillery and provisions into the Transoxan provinces: they continued their march with great rapidity, and arrived in ten days at the passes of Bokhara, where a number of chiefs and governors submitted to the Shah’s generals, and paid homage to them as to his representatives.

In the mean while, the princes Riza and Ali, having passed the Oxus, advanced along the opposite bank, and spread a general terrour before them: but the Shah continued in Persia till the eighteenth of August, when he crossed the river in a sumptuous barge, which had been prepared for his reception. Soon after this, a bridge, which Nader had ordered to be built over the Oxus, was completed; a numerous army of Persians were in a short time assembled on the northern side of the river, and were marching in full array towards the metropolis of Mawaranahr: but the King of Turan had no inclination to give them battle, and sent his first Vizir to the Persian camp with the humblest offers of subjection. Nader Shah received the Vizir with great affability, and, having presented him with a rich mantle, according to the custom of Asiatick princes, A.D.1740. Nad. 53. dismissed him with orders to conduct the King his master to the camp, and to assure him, that nothing but his immediate compliance could preserve himself from destruction, and his kingdom from ruin. The Tartarian Monarch was under a necessity of obeying these haughty commands: he had descended too low already to think of recovering his dignity, and he was too prudent to irritate, by his disobedience, a powerful adversary, whom he could not repel by force of arms.

The Persian army still continued their course, and encamped on the twenty-third of August at the distance of twelve miles from the city of Bokhára: on the next day in the afternoon, Abulfeiz, King of Turan, attended by his Vizirs and Courtiers, arrived at the camp; and, being admitted into the presence of Nader Shah, layed his diadem and other ensigns of royalty at the feet of the Conqueror. If this fortunate man showed a fierce and violent temper on other occasions, he certainly behaved at the present juncture with a noble moderation: he assigned the captive monarch a place in the council, and declared, that he meaned to restore him, as he had restored the Emperor of India, to his former dignity; but that he should fix the Oxus as the common boundary of the Tartarian and Persian empires, and annex to the latter all the districts lying to the south and west of that river, together with Balkh and its dependencies; in confirmation of which alliance, he proposed to marry his nephew Ali to a daughter of Abulfeiz: the Turanian had too much sense to object to a single proposal of his Conqueror, who could easily have forced him to consent, and who, with respect to him, had acted mildly and benevolently. After A.D.1740. Nad. 53. several amicable conferences, the two sovereigns advanced to Bokhara; where Nader restored the crown of Tartary to his captive with great ceremony, and placed a diadem, set with pearls, upon his head, as a mark of his particular favour: he conferred upon him another honour, which was merely verbal; for, as the chief rulers of the Transoxan provinces had born only the simple title of Khan or Lord, he gave that of Shah, or King, to Abulfeiz, and his descendants. On the same day, the nuptials of Ali and the princess of Turan were celebrated with uncommon magnificence.

The next morning Nader Shah led his forces towards Kharezm, which, we may remember, was said in the Introduction to be an extensive kingdom lying on each side of the Oxus, near the place where it emptied itself into the Caspian, and containing a number of large cities and fortresses, which, from the advantage of their situation, were accounted impregnable. His view in visiting this country, was to make reprisals upon Ilbars, who then governed it, and who, during the Indian expedition, had made frequent incursions into Khorasan. This Chief was then in a castle, named Hezaresb, before which Nader appeared on the eighteenth of October; but, finding it very strongly fortified, and capable of resisting the most vigorous assaults, he thought it adviseable to make a pretence of marching toward Kheiva, the Capital of the province, justly concluding, that Ilbars would hazard a battle to save his metropolis. He was not disappointed; for the Kharezmian no sooner heard of his motions, than he left the fortress, and marched to Kheiva by another road, while Nader, expecting that A.D.1740. Nad. 53. event, returned through some passes in the mountains, and entirely precluded him from the hope of regaining Hezaresb. Ilbars, thus intercepted, retired in haste to a weaker castle, where he soon found it impossible to make any defence: he therefore, in a fit of despair, resolved to give the Persians battle, and advanced intrepidly to the field; but, after a short skirmish, he was driven back, and, leaving most of his men dead on the plain, saved himself with a few attendants in the fort: the conquerors began immediately to batter the walls, and, after a brisk fire for three days, made a considerable breach, and took the castle in a violent assault; yet even then the prince of Kharezm, deserted by his friends, and destitute of succour, had the madness to think of holding out singly against so formidable an enemy, and would not surrender, till some Persian soldiers dragged him by force before the Shah, who ordered him to be put to death, in revenge for the Persian envoys, who had been sent to summon him at Hezaresb, and whom he had inhumanly murdered.

Ilbars seems to have been a mere savage, who, without any talent necessary to form a General, had assumed the character of a warriour, and invaded Persia without any provocation, but was put to flight in every engagement, and received at last the punishment, which his folly, arrogance, obstinacy, and cruelty certainly deserved.

After this victory, the princes Ali and Riza obtained leave to retire to Meshed, where they intended to pass some time with Nasralla, whom they had not seen since his return from India; but Nader Shah stayed several days longer A.D.1740. Nad. 53. in Kharezm, in order to concert measures for the peaceable government of that principality, which he gave to a near relation of Abulfeiz, named Thaher, a nobleman of illustrious merit: after which arrangement he repassed the Oxus, and arrived at Meru in the middle of December. He made but a short stay in that city, and advanced with great expedition to his favourite castle of Kelat, which he had fixed upon as the place of his retreat, whenever his advanced age, and the completion of his military projects, should enable him to resign the throne, and pass the remainder of his life in a glorious retirement. He determined to provide this place with every thing requisite to make his solitude agreeable; consistently with which design, he caused a sumptuous palace to be raised in Kelat, together with elegant baths, temples, aqueducts, and houses for his officers and ministers: he ordered the treasures collected at Delhi to be transported into the castle, which was far the strongest hold in the Persian Empire. After these regulations he left Kelat, and, returning through a very agreeable country, reached Meshed at the close of the year.

Nader A.D.1741. Nad. 54. Shah entered the metropolis of his kingdom in triumph, and nothing was seen in the city but diversions and pageants, from the opening of the new year to the tenth of March, which day was solemnized with more than usual magnificence. He had, in the course of five years, subdued or put to flight as many Sovereign Princes^*, conquered three flourishing kingdoms, A.D.1741. Nad. 54. and extended the boundaries of Persia, as far as Oxus to the north, and Indus to the east. His next object was to drive the Turks from the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, as he had already driven both them and the Russians from the Cyrus and Araxes; but the death of his brother Zoheireddoula was yet unrevenged: he, therefore, had no sooner recovered from the fatigue of his last campaign, than he led his army towards the mountains of Shirvan. On the third of May, as he was riding through a a forest in Mazenderan, a musket-ball, fired from a distance, grazed his right arm, and struck his horse on the head, who fell immediately to the ground: the ball was aimed at Nader Shah by an assassin, who lay in ambush behind a tree, but, finding he had failed in his design, had fled with great haste, and hid himself in the thickest part of the wilderness. The prince Rizakuli was in his father’s train, and appeared to be much surprised at this accident: but many of the courtiers, who were present, suspected that the plot had been concerted by him, and, though the Persian author supposes him to be innocent, yet the frequent examples of these horrid attempts in the courts of Asia, and the confidence with which our own writers relate the story, may induce us to believe, that their suspicions of his guilt are not wholly groundless. It was reported, however, that a son of Dilaver, one of the barbarous chiefs mentioned in a former part of this narrative, was the contriver of the plot, and had suborned a desperate villain to fire at the Shah, when he should pass through that forest: the assassin was pursued, and, being taken by the Persian soldiers, was put to immediate death.

The A.D.1741. Nad. 54. conquest of Daghestan was effected with little difficulty; as most of the savage chiefs, alarmed at Nader’s approach, came to him at the head of their tribes, and made a promise of inviolable submission to their Conqueror and his descendants.

The A.D.1742. Nad. 55. first months of the new year were employed in receiving foreign embassies, and in negotiating a treaty with the Sultan Mahmud, by which Nader proposed to recover the whole province of Mesopotamia; and, having so considerably enlarged the Persian Empire, he intended to resign the crown, and retire to Kelat, where he had reposited all the treasures of India. Among the ambassadors, who arrived this year at the court of Meshed, was an Indian Emîr, sent by the Great Mogul with a congratulatory letter to the Shah on his victories in Tartary, and a curious piece of furniture, made of red sandalwood, and carved in a most elegant manner: Nader accepted the present, and dismissed the Emîr, with one no less valuable for the Mogul, consisting of several vases adorned with gems; at the same time he sent back a band of musicians and dancers, whom he had brought with him from Dehli, in order to instruct his subjects in the Indian musick and method of dancing, which he greatly admired. What that kind of musick was, it is impossible for us to determine; but we cannot help admiring the remarkable disposition of this singular man, who, with the fierceness of a warriour, had yet a taste for the polite and ornamental arts, and, while he was conquering an Empire, had the calmness to think of improving the musick of his nation.

The A.D.1742. Nad. 55. rest of the year was spent in reducing the northern provinces, and principally in settling the affairs of Georgia and Circassia.

Nader A.D.1743. Nad. 56. Shah, perceiving that the Sultan meaned only to trifle with him, and being now at leisure to renew hostilities, marched at the opening of the year towards Bagdad, and took several considerable places in his way. Ahmed sent him a submissive message, and entreated him to reflect on the ruin which he should bring on himself, if he were to abandon a City, which the Sultan had expressly ordered him to defend. The Turkish court, on the other hand, were making preparations for an obstinate war, and had sent a decision of the Mufti to all their Asiatick governors, importing, that It was lawful to slay or make prisoners the inhabitants of Persia, as hereticks and opposers of the true faith. On hearing this, the Shah, despairing at that time to reduce the governor of Bagdad, advanced with all possible speed to Musel, a large and opulent City, then governed by Hussein, who had lately been reinforced by the basha of Aleppo with all his troops. He pursued his operations with great rapidity, raised a strong bridge over the river, and, having completed his lines, began to bombard the citadel. The garrison supported a sharp fire for several days, but at length Hussein Pasha expressed an inclination to capitulate, and sent two officers to the Persian camp with an offer of amicable terms, but represented to him the dangers to which a Turkish governor was exposed, who should surrender a City committed to his care, and desired a respite for a few months to obtain the consent of his court, and to persuade them to make a peace with the Shah at any rate. “Nader, says the Persian historian, accepted these pro“posals, and A.D.1743. Nad. 56. consented to desist from any further hostilities, till an answer could be received from Constantinople.” Accordingly he raised the siege, and amused himself, in this interval, with visiting the places near Bagdad, which had been rendered sacred by the residence of Ali, and the first successors of Mahomed. In the mean time great civilities passed between him and the governor of Bagdad; and a variety of presents were interchanged, as tokens of their mutual regard. Ahmed prepared a magnificent barge, in which Nader Shah passed the Tigris, and, with an indolence unworthy of his active nature, condescended to dispute upon subjects of religion with the Mahomedan priests, who took care to be always of his opinion. This irresolute and imprudent conduct, in a man so bold and impetuous, must needs be a matter of astonishment to the reader: it will, therefore, be necessary to explain the causes of it.

If Nader Shah had perished in the forest of Mazenderan on the third of May 1741, his course would have been completely glorious; and he would have left a most flourishing Empire to a valiant and active Prince, who, in all probability, would have followed the example of his father: but his glory was now declining, and his life seemed likely to be closed in weakness and misery. It had been suggested to him by some of his courtiers, that the villain, who fired at him in the forest, had been suborned by his eldest son Riza; and some of our travellers relate this story as an indisputable fact^*: but whether the suggestion A.D.1743. Nad. 56. were just or groundless, it is certain that Nader, in a fit of rage, ordered the Prince’s eyes to be torn out; the common, but inhuman, punishment for high crimes in Asia. His orders were no sooner executed, than he repented of his hasty passion; remorse, anguish, and despair succeeded to his wrath, and a disorder preyed upon his spirits, which gained new force every day. Conscious of his growing malady, he was desirous to conclude a peace with the Turks, and to seek some comfort from the retirement which he had so long meditated: but a circumstance, which happened the next year, roused him from his lethargy, and led him to make a last effort, which was not altogether unworthy of his former character.

A A.D.1744. Nad. 57. Turkish commander, named Gemál Ogli, who was then at Cars in Armenia, which he had recovered, sent circular letters to the principal officers of Persia, inciting them to revolt from the Usurper Nader, and to join the banners of Prince Sefi, the true heir to the crown. This Pretender, whose real name was Mohammed Ali, had formerly gotten his bread in the city of Shuster, the ancient Susa, by begging in the dress of a dervise: one day a man, who gave him alms, observed that he resembled the Sefi family in his complexion, and the colour of his eyes; from which the beggar took the hint of a most impudent imposture, and told the people a piteous story of his misfortunes, assuring them, that he never had intended to reveal the secret of his birth, but that, since he was betrayed by his features, he found himself obliged to confess, that he was really the Prince Sefi. Upon this, so great a croud assembled round him every day, that the governor of Shuster was forced to drive him from the city; A.D.1744. Nad. 57. whence he proceeded to Bagdad, and was introduced to Ahmed as a prince of the house of Sefi: the governor, imagining that the heir to the throne of Persia, whether real or pretended, would be useful to his court, sent him to Constantinople, where he had apartments allotted to him in the palace, and a considerable revenue; but after the deposition of Sultan Ahmed in 1730, he was sent to Thessalonica, and afterwards to Lemnos, where he had lived many years neglected and despised, but was now summoned, and carried into Persia by the Turkish General. The letters of Gemal Ogli were brought to Nader, who immediately led his army to Abher, intending to advance as far as Cars, whither, on account of several delays, he did not arrive till the end of July. The governor refused to surrender, and Nader Shah, finding himself in no condition to compel him, made a feeble attempt to bombard the citadel, but the next day accepted the governor’s offer to give the Turkish court notice of his desperate situation, and press them to conclude a peace; upon which he left one of his generals to blockade the city, and retired into winter quarters at Berda.

At A.D.1745. Nad. 58. the beginning of March he advanced towards Erivan, but was attacked with so violent a disorder, that he was forced to be carried in a litter, and did not recover his strength till the middle of summer; at which time he was informed that Mohammed Pasha, the late Grand Vizir, was marching by the way of Erzerum with twelve other Bashas, at the head of a vast army, and that two more Turkish officers were hastening through Diarbecr to join them with all their forces. Nader seemed to be transported with A.D.1745. Nad. 58. joy at this intelligence, hoping by one decisive blow to terminate his dispute with the Turks, and either to crown his labours with a victory, or to end in the field of battle a life, which was now become a burden to him: he therefore sent his son Nasralla to prevent the junction of the two Turkish armies, and, having appointed the princes Imamkuli and Ibrahim governors of Khorasan and Irák in his absence, proceeded by forced marches, and on the twenty-eighth of July encamped in the same plain, where he had defeated Abdalla ten years before. The next day Mohammed appeared with an hundred thousand horse, and forty thousand foot, but he marched very slowly, and pitched his tents in the evening at the bottom of a mountain. On the thirtieth, both armies advanced into the plain; but the whole day was spent in slight skirmishes, in which the Turks generally retired with loss. Mohammed must have been either ignorant of Nader’s infirmity, or timid to the last degree, for if he had made a bold attack on this day, it would probably have been successful; but, alarmed at the very name of Nader Shah, and thinking his troops unable to oppose the hardy veterans, who had learned the force of discipline in the battle of Karnal, he thought it prudeut to sound a retreat, and retired with such silence and expedition, that a detachment of Persians, who were sent to examine the Turkish camp, were surprised to find it deserted: but the janissaries, conscious of their own valour, and eager to engage their enemies, began to murmur at the remissness of their commander; and his council were apprehensive of a general mutiny, if he should delay to lead them back into the field.

On A.D.1745. Nad. 58. the ninth of August a letter was brought to Nader Shah from the prince Nasralla, informing him of a complete victory, which he had gained over the Basha’s, who were marching from Diarbecr, and whom he had intercepted in a plain near Musel. The King was highly pleased with this letter, and sent it to Mohammed by one of the Turkish prisoners, who had no sooner reached the camp, than he heard a loud noise, and presently discovered, that the soldiers had revolted, and put their General to death. By this time the Persians had advanced close to the Turkish camp, and, perceiving the disorder of the enemy, attacked them on all sides: the Turks fled in confusion; and, while some of Nader’s troops were engaged in pursuing them, the rest seized their artillery, tents, and ammunition: twelve thousand janissaries were slain, among whom were several officers of distinction. Nader Shah stayed a few days in this place to refresh his army, and to divide the spoils among them; after which he led them to Hamadan, and thence proceeded to Ispahan, which he did not reach till the close of the year, as he made a long stay in some of the principal towns, in order to regulate the affairs of his Empire. In his way he received an ambassador from the King of Khoten, who had sent a valuable present to Nader Shah, with a letter of congratulation upon all his victories, in which he took occasion to request, that a proper officer might be sent to fix the boundaries of their respective dominions: the Shah readily complied with his request, and dismissed the ambassador with a present of nine Arabian horses, and a cimiter set with jewels. This prince was descended from Genghizkhan, and had been raised by his merit to the throne of A.D.1745. Nad. 58. Khoten, while his brother reigned in the kingdom of Khata; both which countries are usually mentioned together by the Asiatick writers, and reach from the northern frontiers of China to the territories of Balkb, which Nader Shah had lately annexed to the empire of Persia.

Nader A.D.1746. Nad. 59. had now baffled the last effort of his most dangerous enemies; and, as his disorder grew daily upon him, he was very desirous of making an honourable peace, and of hastening to that retirement, which had been his chief object for several years. In the middle of March, therefore, he sent an offer of accommodation to the Turkish court, who listened eagerly to his proposals; but the whole year was spent in negotiations, and peace was not concluded till January 1747, A.D.1747. Nad. 60. in the sixtieth year of Nader’s life. As he had no further intentions of renewing the war, he dropped his two articles relating to the mosque at Mecca, which, as we observed before, were only intended to amuse the Turks before the expedition against Candahar; and the Porte, on the other hand, consented to protect the Persian pilgrims, to set their prisoners at liberty, and to relinquish their claim to the provinces of Irak and Azarbigian, one district of which was ceded to the Sultan as a free gift, and as a mark only of the Shah’s amicable intentions.

While Nader was preparing to visit the place of his birth, and had thoughts of resigning the diadem to his son Nasralla, he received news, that a noble Persian, named Taki Khan, to whom he had assigned the government of Fars, had declared himself independent of his benefactor, and revolted A.D.1747. Nad. 60. openly; in which he was soon imitated by the governors of some other provinces. This intelligence drove him to a degree of fury, which can scarce be conceived: he put to death a great number of his governors and ministers, upon the slightest suspicion of their guilt; and, not satisfied with destroying the leaders of the rebellion, he cut off whole cities, and forced the greatest number of his subjects to seek a refuge in the mountains and deserts. After he had celebrated the Nurûz in the city of Kerman, he advanced to Meshed, which he found in a manner deserted, and the whole province ripe for revolt: his madness was now raised to the highest pitch; he sent Nasralla, his grandson Shahrokh, and the other princes, to the castle of Kelat, resolving in the mean time to exterminate the rebels without mercy.

It was not long before he heard that the province of Segestan had revolted; upon which he sent his nephew Ali to reduce it to submission, under the guidance of an old and faithful officer named Tahmasp. The young prince, eager to possess the treasures of his uncle, and panting for the delights of a throne, proposed to his guide to join the Segestanians, and depose the Tyrant, whose age and infirmities rendered him incapable of reigning: the old man was shocked at the idea, and dissuaded the prince from so base an attempt. Ali dissembled his displeasure; but in a few days the person, who had occasioned it, was no more: he poisoned Tahmasp, and caused himself in several provinces to be proclaimed King of Persia; but as the life of Nader Shah was a great obstacle to his designs, he despatched three of his officers in order to remove it.

Nader A.D.1747. Nad. 60. had notice in a short time of this unnatural rebellion; and, as his presence alone could have any chance of suppressing it, he left Meshed at the end of May, to which he never returned.

On Sunday, the eighth of June, he encamped at a place called Fatehabad, or The mansion of victory, where, fatigued with his long march, oppressed with years, sunk in despair, he retired early to his tent, and slept till midnight; at which time the three assassins sent by Ali, who had also bribed the officers upon guard, entered the tent, and in a few minutes put an end to a life, which had been devoted to destroy the lives of others^*.

Thus fell, at the age of sixty years, NADERKULI, the Deliverer of Persia, and Conqueror of India; who, from an humble station, had raised himself to a degree of power, at which few monarchs by birth have ever arrived. He seems to have united the talents of a complete General, and an able Politician; and, though he had not the advantages of learning, yet appears to have had a taste for true magnificence, and would probably, had he lived in happier times, have encouraged the arts of peace, and been no stranger to the charms of society; but the darling object of his life, to which he sacrificed every other pursuit, and devoted all the powers of his mind and body, was the Art of War, in which he became equal to the greatest Commanders of Asia, and may justly stand upon a level with Cyrus or Tamerlane. They, who form a notion of his character from the various narratives, which have been printed in Europe, are apt to consider him in no other light, than as a fearless Barbarian, who surmounted every difficulty, and overthrew all his opposers, by the dint of mere valour and hardiness; but, on a nearer view of his exploits, they will seem to contain something more than brutal heroism, and to have been no less wisely concerted than vigorously performed. His great project of delivering his country was executed with a regularity and prudence, that can be surpassed only by the celerity of his motions, and the vigour of his acts. If we throw a veil over his latter years, in which he was rather to be pitied than condemned, we shall see nothing in his life, but what was noble and laudable: he had neither the rashness of Alexander, the insatiable ambition of Cæsar, the inflexible obstinacy of Charles the Twelfth, nor the vices of his illustrious rival Peter the Great; he resembled rather that real Hero, Gustavus Vasa, who, to use the words of an excellent writer, “left the forest where he lay concealed, and came to deliver his country^*:” like Vasa, he was raised to the throne of the Empire, which he had freed from oppression; like Vasa, he changed the religion of his subjects; but he did not, like Vasa, reign happy and beloved to an advanced old age.

Early in the morning the body of the king was exposed in the camp; upon which the leaders of the army, after a long debate, thought it adviseable to declare for Ali, and invite him to the seat of his empire: but Ahmed, a valiant officer, who had always been attached to Nader, made a bold effort to revenge his death, and rushed at the head of his troop against the other chiefs, but was soon repulsed, and retreated in despair to Candahar.

Ali, having received a full account of the transaction, marched with great eagerness into Khorasan, and sent a body of men under able commanders to seize the treasures of Kelát, and the persons of the young princes his cousins.

As the castle of Kelát was very strong, it would have been almost impossible to have taken it by storm; but an accident saved them the trouble of a regular siege: one of the soldiers in the fortress, wanting some fresh water, descended by a ladder, which he imprudently left on the wall, and did not return, till he found the castle full of Ali’s men, and heard the cries of the garrison. The princes Nasralla, Imamkuli, and Shahrokh mounted their horses, and escaped by another gate, intending to fly towards Meru: they had scarce ridden twenty-seven miles, when they were overtaken by a troop of their enemies, by whom Imamkuli and Shahrokh were made prisoners; but Nasralla, having killed a soldier who had seized his bridle, galloped to Meru, where he hoped to find a sure refuge; but the inhabitants of the city, among whom Ali’s gold had already spread its infection, put him in chains, and sent him instantly to Meshed.

Ali made a solemn entry into the capital of Khorasan, where his first act of benevolence was to deprive the princes of their lives, which were no longer dear to them: the unfortunate Riza, together with Nasralla, Imamkuli, and sixteen others of the imperial family, were massacred; but Shahrokh, a beautiful boy about fourteen years old, was kept privately in a tower, whence Ali designed to bring him to the throne, and to assume the regency during his minority, if he should find the Persians determined to oppose his own government.

On the twenty-fifth of June he was crowned by the name of ALI SHAH, and began his reign by dispersing the spoils of India, which his uncle had collected in Kelát. He sent his brother Ibrahim to Ispahan, and appointed him governor of Irak; after which he committed the care of his Empire to his ministers, and, fixing his abode sometimes in Mazenderan, sometimes in Khorasan, led a life, the least worthy of a powerful King, sensual, voluptuous, effeminate.

In the mean while Ibrahim, who had repined in secret at the success of his brother, was concerting measures to undermine his power: his liberality soon drew to Ispahan a number of chiefs and governors, who had taken a just offence at the conduct of Ali; and, when he had collected a force sufficient to try his strength, he marched against the city of Carmanshah, which he took by storm, and afterwards bent his course towards Azarbigian: but in a plain between Zenjan and Sultania, he was met by Ali Shah, who, roused from his indolence by the news of this revolt, had advanced by forced marches to intercept his progress. The two armies soon came to an action; but in the heat of it a great number of Ali’s men went over to the enemy, and the rest were soon put to flight. Ali was made prisoner, and condemned to lose his eyes by his brother, whom, contrary to the custom of Persian monarchs, he had permitted to enjoy his sight.

Ibrahim had in a short time secured to his interests most of the provinces and chief cities, and found himself at the head of an hundred and twenty thousand men: but the young prince Shahrokh, who was favoured by the Khorasanians, stood between him and the throne; and, as the treasury was at Meshed, he despaired of being fixed in his government, till he had in his power the person and wealth of his rival: with this intent he acted with a deep dissimulation, and sent one of his ministers to Meshed, with a declaration, that Shahrokh was now the undoubted heir of two royal families, of Sefi by his mother, and of Nader Shah, by his father; that Ibrahim was determined, therefore, to place him on the throne of his ancestors at Ispahan, where the former Kings of Persia had resided. The Chiefs of Khorasan agreed, that the young prince was heir to the crown, but sent word to Ibrahim, that it would be necessary to finish the ceremonies of the coronation without any further delay: they accordingly went to the prince in the tower, where he had been imprisoned, and paid homage to him, as their lawful sovereign; but the amiable youth, justly apprehensive of the dangers which surround a throne, and of which at his tender age he had been a mournful witness, entreated them not to expose him to a state of such splendid misery: they would not listen to his request, and, after repeated oaths of fidelity, brought him to the palace; where on the twentieth of September he took the scepter of Persia with a trembling hand.

Ibrahim, finding that his project had failed, had no resource left but open rebellion; he caused himself to be proclaimed King, and ordered money to be struck in his name: but his undiscerning prodigality brought him to destruction; he chose his ministers among the meanest of his officers, and raised the most ignorant soldiers to the highest commands in his army: his best troops, justly incensed at this conduct, either went over to Shahrokh, or returned to their native countries; so that in a short time he was almost deserted, and had scarcely strength enough to take possession of Kom, which it would have been better for him never to have taken. He was betrayed by his guards to the inhabitants of this city, who sent him in chains to Meshed, along with his brother Ali, whom he had kept in his palace: the officer, who conducted the prisoners, thinking to recommend himself to the new king, slew Ibrahim in the way, and carried his head to Shahrokh, who turned aside from the bloody sight; but, when he cast his eyes upon Ali, his regard for the memory of the princes, whom that monster had murdered in cold blood, overcame his natural sweetness of temper, and he gave orders for him to be immediately strangled.

There was now a prospect of tranquillity in the Persian empire; as the Shah had every quality, which promised a happy reign: but there was one more pretender to the crown, a grandson of Soliman III. whom Shahrokh, perhaps imprudently, had suffered to live unconfined. This barbarian concerted a plot against the Shah, and, having by bribes and promises gained access to his apartment, tore out the eyes of the unfortunate king, who in a lower station might have preserved both his sight and his happiness. So cruel an act could not be long unpunished: the ruffian was seized, and put to death with every aggravated circumstance of torture; but as the blindness of Shahrokh made him incapable, by the laws of Persia, of reigning, he retained only the name of King, whilst all his affairs were conducted by his ministers: how long he lived, it has not been in our power to learn; but it is easy to conceive that his life could be neither long nor happy, unless he spent it in retirement, where a sense of religion might support him with hopes of a better state.

Thus, in a period of sixty years, one of the most beautiful Empires in the world was so drenched in blood, and so torn with calamities that not one heir to the diadem remained in a capacity to wear it; and a single man of no high birth, in a life of the same length, delivered his country, raised it to the highest pitch of grandeur, and left it at his death no less distressed than ever: such are the miseries which naturally flow from an immoderate love of dominion; such are the fruits of military glory, and such the fate of those kingdoms, whose rulers prefer the pride of conquest to the calmer joys of peace and to the welfare of their people.

Persia has since been divided into a number of independent governments, and will probably continue in that state, till Kerim, who reigns in the midland provinces, or Abdalla, whose dominions extend from the Caspian to the borders of India, or some other of the rival powers, shall have the good, or bad, fortune to reduce the whole Empire to subjection.

The fate of India has not been better; and from Candahar to cape Comorin, from the straights of Kupele to the mouth of the Ganges, there has been a continual scene of havock and confusion for a course of years: the vast dominions of the Mogul were dismembered; the Rajas and other Indian princes refused to continue their allegiance to the Emperor, and a descendant of Tamerlane, who still retains the title of Shah Alem, or, King of the World, was protected in the tents of European officers, whose employers also had their share in the ruins of Indostan. Who knows, but that the time may come, when the richest kingdoms of Asia will be provinces of European Empires, and when the light of truth and reason will be spread over the finest part of the habitable globe?

The actions related in this volume have had a greater influence over the affairs of Europe than we may be apt to imagine; for if Nader Shah had lost his life, which he so wantonly exposed, in his youth, the whole face of Asia, and of those European kingdoms, which are connected with it, would have been different: if Persia had not been delivered by this daring genius, the Russians would still have possessed the rich provinces, which border on the Caspian lake, and would, no doubt, have attacked the Turks on the side of Georgia, which might have given them the dominion of the Black Sea, and might have opened a passage to Constantinople itself; or, on the other hand, the Turks, being possessed of all Media, the ancient kingdom of Cyrus, might have driven the Russians from Asia, and compelled them to retire beyond the mountains of Caucasus; lastly, if India had not been drained of its treasures in 1738, the Mogul Empire would not have been weakened and divided, the Nawáb or Viceroys would not have declared themselves independent of the Emperor, and consequently our settlements on the Ganges would still have depended for protection on the court of Dehli.

THE following Essay has already been printed, by way of Commentary on a Collection of Eastern Poems, to which it is added; but, as it contains many remarks on the manners of the Asiaticks, it seemed proper to be inserted in this Volume, after the Life of Nader Shah: it will be found very different, both in form and style, from the Treatise, which the Author wrote in French on the same subject, and published in 1770, with his Translation of the King of Denmark’s Persian Manuscript. Both these Dissertations were intended only as introductory to a much larger work, on the Asiatick Poetry, written in Latin for the convenience of learned foreigners, and entitled, Poeseos Asiaticæ Commentarii, which will be offered to the publick in the middle of next March.

ARABIA, I mean that part of it, which we call the Happy, and which the Asiaticks know by the name of Yemen, seems to be the only country in the world, in which we can properly lay the scene of pastoral poetry; because no nation at this day can vie with the Arabians in the delightfulness of their climate, and the simplicity of their manners. There is a valley, indeed, to the north of Indostan, called Cashmír, which, according to an account written by a native of it, is a perfect garden, exceedingly fruitful, and watered by a thousand rivulets: but when its inhabitants were subdued by the stratagem of a Mogul prince, they lost their happiness with their liberty, and Arabia retained its old title without any rival to dispute it. These are not the fancies of a poet: the beauties of Yemen are proved by the concurrent testimony of all travellers, by the descriptions of it in all the writings of Asia, and by the nature and situation of the country itself, which lies between the eleventh and fifteenth degrees of northern latitude, under a serene sky, and exposed to the most favourable influence of the sun; it is enclosed on one side by vast rocks and deserts, and defended on the other by a tempestuous sea, so that it seems to have been designed by Providence for the most secure, as well as the most beautiful, region of the East^*.

Its principal cities are Sanaa, usually considered as its metropolis; Zebîd, a commercial town, that lies in a large plain near the sea of Omman; and Aden, surrounded with pleasant gardens and woods, which is situated eleven degrees from the Equator, and seventy-six from the Fortunate Islands, or Canaries, where the geographers of Asia six their first meridian. It is observable that Aden, in the Eastern dialects, is precisely the same word with Eden, which we apply to the garden of paradise: it has two senses, according to a slight difference in its pronunciation; its first meaning is a settled abode, its second, delight, softness, or tranquillity: the word Eden had, probably, one of these senses in the sacred text, though we use it as a proper name. We may also observe in this place that Yemen itself takes its name from a word, which signifies verdure, and felicity; for in those sultry climates, the freshness of the shade, and the coolness of water, are ideas almost inseparable from that of happiness; and this may be a reason why most of the Oriental nations agree in a tradition concerning a delightful spot, where the first inhabitants of the earth were placed before their fall. The ancients, who gave the name of Eudaimon, or Happy, to this country, either meaned to translate the word Yemen, or, more probably, only alluded to the valuable spice-trees, and balsamick plants, that grow in it, and, without speaking poetically, give a real perfume to the air^*: now it is certain that all poetry receives a very considerable ornament from the beauty of natural images; as the roses of Sharon, the verdure of Carmel, the vines of Engaddi, and the dew of Hermon, are the sources of many pleasing metaphors and comparisons in the sacred poetry: thus the odours of Yemen, the musk of Hadramut, and the pearls of Omman, supply the Arabian poets with a great variety of allusions; and, if the remark of Hermogenes be just, that whatever is delightful to the senses produces the Beautiful when it is described, where can we find so much beauty as in the Eastern poems, which turn chiefly upon the loveliest objects in nature?

To pursue this topick yet farther: it is an observation of Demetrius of Phalera, in his elegant treatise upon style, that it is not easy to write on agreeable subjects in a disagreeable manner, and that beautiful expressions naturally rise with beautiful images; for which reason, says he, nothing can be more pleasing than Sappho’s poetry, which contains the description of gardens, and banquets, flowers and fruits, fountains and meadows, nightingales and turtle-doves, loves and graces: thus, when she speaks of a stream softly murmuring among the branches, and the Zephyrs playing through the leaves, with a sound, that brings on a quiet slumber, her lines flow without labour as smoothly as the rivulet she describes. I may have altered the words of Demetrius, as I quote them by memory, but this is the general sense of his remark, which, if it be not rather specious than just, must induce us to think, that the poets of the East may vie with those of Europe in the graces of their diction, as well as in the liveliness of their images: but we must not believe that the Arabian poetry can please only by its descriptions of beauty; since the gloomy and terrible objects, which produce the sublime, when they are aptly described, are no where more common than in the Desert and Stony Arabia’s; and, indeed, we see nothing so frequently painted by the poets of those countries, as wolves and lions, precipices and forests, rocks and wildernesses.

If we allow the natural objects, with which the Arabs are perpetually conversant, to be sublime, and beautiful, our next step must be, to confess that their comparisons, metaphors, and allegories are so likewise; for an allegory is a string of metaphors, a metaphor is a short simile, and the finest similes are drawn from natural objects. It is true that many of the Eastern figures are common to other nations, but some of them receive a propriety from the manners of the Arabians, who dwell in the plains and woods, which would be lost, if they came from the inhabitants of cities: thus the dew of liberality, and the odour of reputation, are metaphors used by most people; but they are wonderfully proper in the mouths of those, who have so much need of being refreshed by the dews, and who gratify their sense of smelling with the sweetest odours in the world. Again; it is very usual in all countries, to make frequent allusions to the brightness of the celestial luminaries, which give their light to all; but the metaphors taken from them have an additional beauty, if we consider them as made by a nation, who pass most of their nights in the open air, or in tents, and consequently see the moon and stars in their greatest splendour. This way of considering their poetical figures will give many of them a grace, which they would not have in our languages: so, when they compare the foreheads of their mistresses to the morning, their locks to the night, their faces to the sun, to the moon, or the blossoms of jasmine, their cheeks to roses or ripe fruit, their teeth to pearls, hail-stones, and snow-drops, their eyes to the flowers of the narcissus, their curled hair to black scorpions, and to hyacinths, their lips to rubies or wine, the form of their breasts to pomegranates, and the colour of them to snow, their shape to that of a pine-tree, and their stature to that of a cypress, a palm-tree, or a javelin, &c.^* these comparisons, many of which would seem forced in our idioms, have undoubtedly a great delicacy in theirs, and affect their minds in a peculiar manner; yet upon the whole their similes are very just and striking, as that of the blue eyes of a fine woman, bathed in tears, to violets dropping with dew^*, and that of a warriour, advancing at the head of his army, to an eagle sailing through the air, and piercing the clouds with his wings.

These are not the only advantages, which the natives of Arabia enjoy above the inhabitants of most other countries: they preserve to this day the manners and customs of their ancestors, who, by their own account, were settled in the province of Yemen above three thousand years ago; they have never been wholly subdued by any nation; and though the admiral of Selim the First made a descent on their coast, and exacted a tribute from the people of Aden, yet the Arabians only keep up a show of allegiance to the Sultan, and act, on every important occasion, in open defiance of his power, relying on the swiftness of their horses, and the vast extent of their forests, in which an invading enemy must soon perish: but here I must be understood to speak of those Arabians, who, like the old Nomades, dwell constantly in their tents, and remove from place to place according to the seasons; for the inhabitants of the cities, who traffick with the merchants of Europe in spices, perfumes, and coffee, must have lost a great deal of their ancient simplicity: the others have, certainly, retained it; and, except when their tribes are engaged in war, spend their days in watching their flocks and camels, or in repeating their native songs, which they pour out almost extempore, professing a contempt for the stately pillars, and solemn buildings of the cities, compared with the natural charms of the country, and the coolness of their tents: thus they pass their lives in the highest pleasure, of which they have any conception, in the contemplation of the most delightful objects, and in the enjoyment of perpetual spring; for we may apply to part of Arabia that elegant couplet of Waller in his poem of the Summer-island,

Yet the heat of the sun, which must be very intense in a climate so near the Line, is tempered by the shade of the trees, that overhang the valleys, and by a number of fresh streams, that flow down the mountains. Hence it is, that almost all their notions of felicity are taken from freshness and verdure: it is a maxim among them that the three most charming objects in nature are,^* a green meadow, a clear rivulet, and a beautiful woman, and that the view of these objects at the same time affords the greatest delight imaginable. Mahomed was so well acquainted with the maxim of his countrymen, that he described the pleasures of heaven to them, under the allegory of cool fountains, green bowers, and black-eyed girls, as the word Houri literally signifies in Arabick; and in the chapter of the Morning, towards the end of his Alcoran, he mentions a garden, called Irem, which is no less celebrated by the Asiatick poets than that of the Hesperides by the Greeks: it was planted, as the commentators say, by a king, named Shedad, and was once seen by an Arabian, who wandered very far into the deserts in search of a lost camel: it was, probably, a name invented by the impostor, as a type of a future state of happiness. Now it is certain that the genius of every nation is not a little affected by their climate; for, whether it be that the immoderate heat disposes the Eastern people to a life of indolence, which gives them full leisure to cultivate their talents, or whether the sun has a real influence on the imagination (as one would suppose that the Ancients believed, by their making Apollo the god of poetry); whatever be the cause, it has always been remarked, that the Asiaticks excel the inhabitants of our colder regions in the liveliness of their fancy, and the richness of their invention.

To carry this subject one step farther: as the Arabians are such admirers of beauty, and as they enjoy such ease and leisure, they must naturally be susceptible of that passion, which is the true spring and source of agreeable poetry; and we find, indeed, that love has a greater share in their poems than any other passion: it seems to be always uppermost in their minds, and there is hardly an elegy, a panegyrick, or even a satire, in their language, which does not begin with the complaints of an unfortunate, or the exultations of a successful, lover. It sometimes happens, that the young men of one tribe are in love with the damsels of another; and, as the tents are frequently removed on a sudden, the lovers are often separated in the progress of the courtship: hence almost all the Arabick poems open in this manner; the author bewails the sudden departure of his mistress, Hinda, Maia, Zeineb, or Azza, and describes her beauty, comparing her to a wanton fawn, that plays among the aromatick shrubs; his friends endeavour to comfort him, but he refuses consolation; he declares his resolution of visiting his beloved, though the way to her tribe lie through a dreadful wilderness, or even through a den of lions; here he commonly gives a description of the horse or camel, upon which he designs to go, and thence passes, by an easy transition, to the principal subject of his poem, whether it be the praise of his own tribe, or a satire on the timidity of his friends, who refuse to attend him in his expedition; though very frequently the piece turns wholly upon love. But it is not sufficient that a nation have a genius for poetry, unless they have the advantage of a rich and beautiful language, that their expressions may be worthy of their sentiments; the Arabians have this advantage also in a high degree: their language is expressive, strong, sonorous, and the most copious, perhaps, in the world; for, as almost every tribe had many words appropriated to itself, the poets, for the convenience of their measure, or sometimes for their singular beauty, made use of them all, and, as the poems became popular, these words were by degrees incorporated with the whole language, like a number of little streams, which meet together in one channel, and, forming a most plentiful river, flow rapidly into the sea.

If this way of arguing à priori be admitted in the present case, (and no single man has a right to infer the merit of the Eastern poetry from the poems themselves, because no single man has a privilege of judging for all the rest) if the foregoing argument have any weight, we must conclude that the Arabians, being perpetually conversant with the most beautiful objects, spending a calm and agreeable life in a fine climate, being extremely addicted to the softer passions, and having the advantage of a language singularly adapted to poetry, must be naturally excellent poets, provided that their manners and customs be favourable to the cultivation of that art; and that they are highly so, it will not be difficult to prove.

The fondness of the Arabians for poetry, and the respect which they show to poets, would be scarce believed, if we were not assured of it by writers of great authority: the principal occasions of rejoicing among them were formerly, and, very probably, are to this day, the birth of a boy, the foaling of a mare, the arrival of a guest, and the rise of a poet in their tribe: when a young Arabian has composed a good poem, all the neighbours pay their compliments to his family, and congratulate them upon having a relation capable of recording their actions, and of recommending their virtues to posterity. At the beginning of the seventh century, the Arabick language was brought to a high degree of perfection by a sort of poetical Academy, that used to assemble at stated times, in a place called Ocadh, where every poet produced his best composition, and was sure to meet with the applause that it deserved: the most excellent of these poems were transcribed in characters of gold upon Egyptian paper, and hung up in the temple, whence they were named Modhahebat, or Golden, and Moallakat, or Suspended: the poems of this sort were called Casseida’s or eclogues,^* seven of which are preserved in our libraries, and are considered as the finest that were written before the time of Mahomed. The fourth of them, composed by Lebíd, is purely pastoral, and extremely like the Alexis of Virgil, but far more beautiful, because it is more agreeable to nature: the poet begins with praising the charms of the fair Novâra (a word, which in Arabick signifies a timorous fawn) but inveighs against her unkindness; he then interweaves a description of his young camel, which he compares for its swiftness to a stag pursued by the hounds; and takes occasion afterwards to mention his own riches, accomplishments, liberality, and valour, his noble birth, and the glory of his tribe: the diction of this poem is easy and simple, yet elegant, the numbers flowing and musical, and the sentiments wonderfully natural; as the learned reader will see by the following passage, which I shall attempt to imitate in verse, that the merit of the poet may not be wholly lost in a verbal translation:

The Mahomedan writers tell a story of this poet, which deserves to be mentioned here: it was a custom, it seems, among the old Arabians, for the most eminent versifiers to hang up some chosen couplets on the gate of the temple, as a publick challenge to their brethren, who strove to answer them before the next meeting at Ocadh, at which time the whole assembly used to determine the merit of them all, and gave some mark of distinction to the author of the finest verses. Now Lebid, who, we are told, had been a violent opposer of Mahomed, fixed a poem on the gate, beginning with the following distich, in which he apparently meaned to reflect upon the new religion: Are not all things vain, which come not from God? and will not all honours decay, but those, which He confers^*? These lines appeared so sublime, that none of the poets ventured to answer them; till Mahomed, who was himself a poet, having composed a new chapter of his Alcoran (the second, I think) placed the opening of it by the side of Lebid’s poem, who no sooner read it, than he declared it to be something divine, confessed his own inferiority, tore his verses from the gate, and embraced the religion of his rival; to whom he was afterwards extremely useful in replying to the satires of Amralkeis, who was continually attacking the doctrine of Mahomed: the Asiaticks add, that their lawgiver acknowledged some time after, that no heathen poet had ever produced a nobler distich than that of Lebid just quoted.

There are a few other collections of ancient Arabick poetry; but the most famous of them is called Hamása, and contains a number of epigrams, odes, and elegies, composed on various occasions: it was compiled by Abu Temam, who was an excellent poet himself, and used to say, that fine sentiments delivered in prose were like gems scattered at random, but that, when they were confined in a poetical measure, they resembled bracelets and strings of pearls^*. When the religion and language of Mahomed were spread over the greater part of Asia, and the maritime countries of Africa, it became a fashion for the poets of Persia, Syria, Egypt, Mauritania, and even of Tartary, to write in Arabick; and the most beautiful verses in that idiom, composed by the brightest genius’s of those nations, are to be seen in a large miscellany, entitled Yateima; though many of their works are transcribed separately: it will be needless to say much on the poetry of the Syrians, Tartarians, and Africans, since most of the arguments, before used in favour of the Arabs, have equal weight with respect to the other Mahomedans, who have done little more than imitate their style, and adopt their expressions; for which reason also I shall dwell the shorter time on the genius and manners of the Persians, Turks, and Indians.

The great empire, which we call PERSIA, is known to its natives by the name of Iran; since the word Persia belongs only to a particular province, the ancient Persis, and is very improperly applied by us to the whole kingdom: but, in compliance with the custom of our geographers, I shall give the name of Persia to that celebrated country, which lies on one side between the Caspian and Indian seas, and extends on the other from the mountains of Candahar, or Paropamisus, to the confluence of the rivers Cyrus and Araxes, containing about twenty degrees from south to north, and rather more from east to west.

In so vast a tract of land there must needs be a great variety of climates: the southern provinces are no less unhealthy and sultry, than those of the north are rude and unpleasant; but in the interior parts of the empire the air is mild and temperate, and, from the beginning of May to September, there is scarce a cloud to be seen in the sky: the remarkable calmness of the summer nights, and the wonderful splendour of the moon and stars in that country, often tempt the Persians to sleep on the tops of their houses, which are generally flat, where they cannot but observe the figures of the constellations, and the various appearances of the heavens; and this may in some measure account for the perpetual allusions of their poets, and rhetoricians, to the beauty of the heavenly bodies. We are apt to censure the oriental style for being so full of metaphors taken from the sun and moon: this is ascribed by some to the bad taste of the Asiaticks; the works of the Persians, says M. de Voltaire, are like the titles of their kings, in which the sun and moon are often introduced: but they do not reflect, that every nation has a set of images, and expressions, peculiar to itself, which arise from the difference of its climate, manners, and history. There seems to be another reason for the frequent allusions of the Persians to the sun, which may, perhaps, be traced from the old language and popular religion of their country: thus Mihridâd, or Mithridates, signifies the gift of the sun, and answers to the Theodorus and Diodati of other nations. As to the titles of the Eastern monarchs, which seem, indeed, very extravagant to our ears, they are merely formal, and no less void of meaning than those of European princes, in which serenity and highness are often attributed to the most gloomy, and low-minded of men.

The midland provinces of Persia abound in fruits and flowers of almost every kind, and, with proper culture, might be made the garden of Asia: they are not watered, indeed, by any considerable river, since the Tigris and Euphrates, the Cyrus and Araxes, the Oxus, and the five branches of the Indus, are at the farthest limits of the kingdom; but the natives, who have a turn for agriculture, supply that defect by artificial canals, which sufficiently temper the dryness of the soil; but in saying they supply that defect, I am falling into a common error, and representing the country, not as it is at present, but as it was a century ago; for a long series of civil wars and massacres have now destroyed the chief beauties of Persia, by stripping it of its most industrious inhabitants.

The same difference of climate, that affects the air and soil of this extensive country, gives a variety also to the persons and temper of its natives: in some provinces they have dark complexions, and harsh features; in others they are exquisitely fair, and well made; in some others, nervous and robust: but the general character of the nation is that softness, and love of pleasure, that indolence, and effeminacy, which have made them an easy prey to all the western and northern swarms, that have from time to time invaded them. Yet they are not wholly void of martial spirit; and, if they are not naturally brave, they are at least extremely docile, and might, with proper discipline, be made excellent soldiers: but the greater part of them, in the short intervals of peace that they happen to enjoy, constantly sink into a state of inactivity, and pass their lives in a pleasurable, yet studious, retirement; and this may be one reason, why Persia has produced more writers of every kind, and chiefly poets, than all Europe together, since their way of life gives them leisure to pursue those arts, which cannot be cultivated to advantage, without the greatest calmness and serenity of mind. There is a manuscript at Oxford^*, containing the lives of an hundred and thirty-five of the finest Persian poets, most of whom left very ample collections of their poems behind them: but the versifiers, and moderate poets, if Horace will allow any such men to exist, are without number in Persia.

This delicacy of their lives and sentiments has insensibly affected their language, and rendered it the softest, as it is one of the richest, in the world: it is not possible to convince the reader of this truth, by quoting a passage from a Persian poet in European characters; since the sweetness of sound cannot be determined by the sight, and many words, which are soft and musical in the mouth of a Persian, may appear harsh to our eyes, with a number of consonants and gutturals: it may not, however, be absurd to set down in this place, an Ode of the poet Hafez, which, if it be not sufficient to prove the delicacy of his language, will at least show the liveliness of his poetry:

That is, word for word, O sweet gale, thou bearest the fragrant scent of my beloved; thence it is that thou hast this musky odour. Beware! do not steal: what hast thou to do with her tresses? O rose, what art thou, to be compared with her bright face? She is fresh, and thou art rough with thorns. O narcissus, what art thou in comparison of her languishing eye? Her eye is only sleepy, but thou art sick and faint. O pine, compared with her graceful stature, what honour hast thou in the garden? O wisdom, what wouldst thou choose, if to choose were in thy power, in preference to her love? O sweet basil, what art thou, to be compared with her fresh cheeks? They are perfect musk, but thou art soon withered. Come, my beloved, and charm Hafez with thy presence, if thou canst but stay with him for a single day. This little song is not unlike a sonnet ascribed to Shakespeare, which deserves to be cited here, as a proof that the Eastern imagery is not so different from the European as we are apt to imagine.

The Persian style is said to be ridiculously bombast, and this fault is imputed to the slavish spirit of the nation, which is ever apt to magnify the objects that are placed above it: there are bad writers, to be sure, in every country, and as many in Asia as elsewhere; but if we take the pains to learn the Persian language, we shall find that those authors, who are generally esteemed in Persia, are neither slavish in their sentiments, nor ridiculous in their expressions: of which the following passage in a moral work of Sadi, entitled Bostán, or, The Garden, will be a sufficient proof. I have heard that king Nushirvan, just before his death, spoke thus to his son Hormuz: Be a guardian, my son, to the poor and helpless; and be not confined in the chains of thy own indolence. No one can be at ease in thy dominion, while thou seekest only thy private rest, and sayest, It is enough. A wise man will not approve the shepherd, who sleeps, while the wolf is in the fold. Go, my son, protect thy weak and indigent people; since through them is a king raised to the diadem. The people are the root, and the king is the tree that grows from it; and the tree, O my son, derives its strength from the root^*.

Are these mean sentiments, delivered in pompous language? Are they not rather worthy of our most spirited writers? And do they not convey a fine lesson for a young king? Yet Sadi’s poems are highly esteemed at Constantinople, and at Ispahan; though, a century or two ago, they would have been suppressed in Europe, for spreading with too strong a glare the light of liberty and reason.

As to the great Epick poem of Ferdusi, which was composed in the tenth century, it would require a very long treatise, to explain all its beauties with a minute exactness. The whole collection of that poet’s works is called Shahnâma, and contains the history of Persia, from the earliest times to the invasion of the Arabs, in a series of very noble poems; the longest and most regular of which is an heroick poem of one great and interesting action, namely, the delivery of Persia by Cyrus from the oppressions of Afrasiab, king of the Transoxan Tartary, who being assisted by the emperours of India and China, together with all the dæmons, giants, and enchanters of Asia, had carried his conquests very far, and become exceedingly formidable to the Persians. This poem is longer than the Iliad; the characters in it are various and striking; the figures bold and animated; and the diction every where sonorous, yet noble; polished, yet full of fire. A great profusion of learning has been thrown away by some criticks, in comparing Homer with the heroick poets, who have succeeded him; but it requires very little judgment to see, that no succeeding poet whatever can with any propriety be compared with Homer: that great father of the Grecian poetry and literature, had a genius too fruitful and comprehensive to let any of the striking parts of nature escape his observation; and the poets, who have followed him, have done little more than transcribe his images, and give a new dress to his thoughts. Whatever elegance and refinements, therefore, may have been introduced into the works of the moderns, the spirit and invention of Homer have ever continued without a rival: for which reasons I am far from pretending to assert that the poet of Persia is equal to that of Greece; but there is certainly a very great resemblance between the works of those extraordinary men: both drew their images from nature herself, without catching them only by reflection, and painting, in the manner of the modern poets, the likeness of a likeness; and both possessed, in an eminent degree, that rich and creative invention, which is the very soul of poetry.

As the Persians borrowed their poetical measures, and the forms of their poems from the Arabians, so the TURKS, when they had carried their arms into Mesopotamia and Assyria, took their numbers and their taste for poetry from the Persians;

In the same manner as the Greek compositions were the models of all the Roman writers, so were those of Persia imitated by the Turks, who considerably polished and enriched their language, naturally barren, by the number of simple and compound words, which they adopted from the Persian and Arabick. Lady Wortley Montague very justly observes, that we want those compound words, which are very frequent and strong in the Turkish language; but her interpreters led her into a mistake in explaining one of them, which she translates stag-eyed, and thinks a very lively image of the fire and indifference in the eyes of the royal bride: now it never entered into the mind of an Asiatick to compare his mistress’s eyes to those of a stag, or to give an image of their fire and indifference; the Turks mean to express that fullness, and, at the same time, that soft and languishing lustre, which is peculiar to the eyes of their beautiful women, and which by no means resembles the unpleasing wildness in those of a stag. The original epithet, I suppose, was^* Ahú cheshm, or, with the eyes of a young fawn: now I take the Ahú to be the same animal with the Gazâl of the Arabians, and the Zabi of the Hebrews, to which their poets allude in almost every page. I have seen one of these animals; it is a kind of antelope, exquisitely beautiful, with eyes uncommonly black and large. This is the same sort of roe, to which Solomon alludes in this delicate simile: Thy two breasts are like two young roes, that are twins, which play among the lilies.

A very polite scholar, who has lately translated sixteen Odes of Hafiz, with learned illustrations, blames the Turkish poets for copying the Persians too servilely: but, surely, they are not more blameable than Horace, who not only imitated the measures and expressions of the Greeks, but even translated, almost word for word, the brightest passages of Alcæus, Anacreon, and others; he took less from Pindar than from the rest, because the wildness of his numbers, and the obscurity of his allusions, were by no means suitable to the genius of the Latin language: and this may, perhaps, explain his ode to Julius Antonius, who might have advised him to use more of Pindar’s manner in celebrating the victories of Augustus. Whatever we may think of this objection, it is certain that the Turkish empire has produced a great number of poets; some of whom had no small merit in their way: the ingenious author just mentioned assured me, that the Turkish satires of Ruhi Bagdadi were very forcible and striking, and he mentioned the opening of one of them, which seemed not unlike the manner of Juvenal. At the beginning of the last century, a work was published at Constantinople, containing the finest verses of five hundred and forty-nine Turkish poets, which proves at least that they are singularly fond of this art, whatever may be our opinion of their success in it.

The descendants of Tamerlane carried into India the language and poetry of the Persians; and the Indian poets to this day compose their verses in imitation of them. The best of their works, that have passed through my hands, are those of Huzein, who lived some years ago at Benáres, with a great reputation for his parts and learning, and was known to the English, who resided there, by the name of the Philosopher. His poems are elegant and lively, and one of them, on the departure of his friends, would suit our language admirably well, but is too long to be inserted in this essay. The Indians are soft and voluptuous, but artful and insincere, at least to the Europeans, whom, to say the truth, they have had no great reason of late years to admire for the opposite virtues: but they are fond of poetry, which they learned from the Persians, and may, perhaps, before the close of the century, be as fond of a more formidable art, which they will learn from the English.

I must request, that, in bestowing these praises on the writings of Asia, I may not be thought to derogate from the merit of the Greek and Latin poems, which have justly been admired in every age; yet I cannot but think that our European poetry has subsisted too long on the perpetual repetition of the same images, and incessant allusions to the same fables: and it has been my endeavour for several years to inculcate this truth, that, if the principal writings of the Asiaticks, which are reposited in our publick libraries, were printed with the usual advantage of notes and illustrations, and if the languages of the Eastern nations were studied in our great seminaries of learning, where every other branch of useful knowledge is taught to perfection, a new and ample field would be opened for speculation; we should have a more extensive insight into the history of the human mind; we should be furnished with a new set of images and similitudes; and a number of excellent compositions would be brought to light, which future scholars might explain, and future poets might imitate.

THE greatest part of the following Piece was designed to be added to a Grammar of the Persian language, which was printed in 1771; but, as it was prevented from seeing the light at that time, it is here inserted, after the discourse on Eastern Poetry, to complete this Miscellany of Persian Literature. It might easily have been swelled into a larger treatise, by adding more copious extracts from the Persian writers, both in prose and verse; but, as the change of style may be seen as well in ten lines as in a thousand, it seemed equally useful and less ostentatious, to exhibit only a few chosen specimens from the best authors, and chiefly from the Poets, who, in all nations, have taken the greatest pains to harmonize and improve their language.

MOST of my readers will apprehend, that, in attempting to trace the progress of the Persian language, through a period of two thousand years, I am entering into a subject, which will afford them neither amusement nor instruction, and can be agreeable only to those few men, who apply themselves to the obscurer branches of literature, and have very little intercourse with the rest of mankind. The title of my piece seems, indeed, to give a reasonable ground for their apprehensions; and the transition appears rather abrupt, from the history of Monarchs to the history of mere words, and from the revolutions of the Persian Empire to the variations of the Persian idiom: but it shall be my endeavour to remove, as far as possible, the dryness of the subject, by interspersing the narrative with a variety of Eastern anecdotes; and, as to the second objection, it may be alledged, that a considerable change in the language of any nation is usually effected by a change in the government; so that literary and civil history are very nearly allied, and may often be used with advantage to prove and illustrate one another.

The History of the Persian tongue may be divided into four periods, like that of the Empire; not that the language was immediately altered upon every revolution of the state, but it is observable, that, under each Dynasty of which we have any monuments remaining, there was an apparent change in the dialect of the kingdom, especially under the two last, namely, the Sassanian and Mohammedan dynasties; and these, indeed, are the only periods, of which we can speak with any degree of certainty.

It is natural to suppose, that, in the infancy of the Persian Empire, under Caiúmaras and his descendants, no great pains were taken to cultivate and polish the language, which in that rude age must needs be thought sufficiently elegant, if it were sufficiently clear and intelligible; and we are assured by Herodotus, that, even after the reign of CYRUS, the whole education of the Persian youth, from the age of five years to twenty, consisted in three points only, riding, throwing the javelin, and the practice of moral virtue; which account is also confirmed by Xenophon. The story mentioned by Diodorus of the old volumes of parchment, on which the Persians were obliged by a certain law to write the annals of their country, was probably invented by Ctesias, that he might give an air of authenticity to his impertinent fables; for such literary impostures were as frequent among the Greeks, as among us, who imitate the Ancients in nothing but their failings. We are far from contending, however, that the ancient Persians, especially those of the second period, were entire strangers to the art of composition either in verse or prose; for there never was a nation so rude and unpolished, who had not a custom of celebrating the noble acts of their ancestors, and inciting one another by songs and panegyricks to an imitation of their virtue; and Strabo, a very different author from Diodorus, asserts, that the Persians used frequently to sing the praises of their ancient Heroes and Demigods, sometimes with a musical instrument, and sometimes with the voice alone: but what their language really was, what were their rules of versification, or what was the course of their studies, no mortal can pretend to know with any shadow of exactness.

The Greek Historians can give us no light on this subject; for neither Themistocles, who spoke the dialect of Persia like a native, though he had spent only one year in learning it^*, nor even Xenophon, whose intimacy with the younger Cyrus could not have been contracted without a knowledge of his language, seem to have read the works of the Persians, or even to have known their characters; but were perhaps contented to express their sentiments in Persian with ease and fluency. Nor are we much enlightened by the writers after Alexander; not even by those, who have described the life of that Hero: for Curtius, who compiled his rhetorical History from the Greek authors, seems to have known as little of Persian as of Scythian, though he dresses up a number of speeches for the chiefs of those nations, which certainly were never spoken by them. A few words, indeed, are here and there interspersed in these histories, which are still used in the modern idiom of Persia^*; but we can no more form an idea of a whole language from a list of broken phrases or detached epithets, than we can judge of a poem or piece of oratory, from an unconnected line or a single member of a period.

Since the Greeks afford us so little information, nothing remains but to consult the Persians themselves; and the great Traveller Chardin, whom every Orientalist must always mention with reverence, seems to have enquired very diligently into the ancient language of the people, among whom he resided so long, and whose manners he describes with so much copiousness and learning: but he declares, after all his researches, “That the old Persian is a language entirely lost; in which no books are extant, and of which there are no rudiments remaining: that the Guebres, who are the remains of the Parsis, or Adorers of Fire, have an idiom peculiar to themselves; which is supposed, by the Persians in general, to be rather a jargon of their own, than a part of their ancient tongue: that, if you believe their own account, the Magi, who resided at Yezd in Carmania, have preserved this language from father to son, after the dissolution of their Monarchy; but that, for his part, he has found no reason to give any credit to their story: that they have, indeed, some books in strange characters, but he cannot persuade himself that they are old Persian letters; especially, since they bear no kind of resemblance to those on the famous monuments at Persepolis.” The authority of this excellent writer is decisive, and puts an end at once to the controversy lately started, concerning the authenticity of the books ascribed to Zoroaster, which a French adventurer, who translated them from the translation of a certain Gipsy at Surat, has had the boldness to send abroad as genuine: but, to avoid any suspicion of misrepresenting the passage, it seems necessary to transcribe the very words of Sir John Chardin, which the reader may see at the bottom of the page^*. From this we may reasonably conclude, that the gibberish of those swarthy vagabonds, whom we often see brooding over a miserable sire under the hedges, may as well be taken for old Egyptian, and the beggars themselves for the priests of Isis, as the jugglers on the coast of India for the disciples of Zoroaster, and their barbarous dialect for the ancient language of Persia. But let the rosy-cheeked Frenchman, to give him his own Epithet, rest happy in the contemplation of his personal beauty, and the vast extent of his learning: it is sufficient for us to have exposed his follies, detected his imposture, and retorted his invectives, without insulting a fallen adversary, or attempting, like the Hero in Dryden’s Ode, to slay the slain.

We have no genuine accounts then of the Persian language till the time of the SASSANIAN kings, who flourished from the opening of the third century to the middle of the seventh; in which period an Academy of Physick was founded at Gandisapor, a City of Khorasan, and, as it gradually declined from its original institution, it became a school of poetry, rhetorick, dialectick, and the abstract sciences. In this excellent seminary the Persian tongue could not fail of being greatly refined, and the rusticity of the old idiom was succeeded by a pure and elegant dialect; which, being constantly spoken at the court of Beharám Gúr in the year 351, acquired the name of Deri, or, Courtly, to distinguish it from the Pehlevi, or, Language of the Country.

It must not, however, be imagined, that the use of the ancient dialect was wholly superseded by this more polished idiom; for several compositions in Pehlevi were extant even after Mahomed, which appear to have been written by order of the Sassanian Princes. Anushirvan, surnamed The Just, who reigned at the close of the sixth century, having heard from some travellers, that the Indian Monarchs had a collection of moral fables, which they preserved with great care among their archivcs, sent his chief Physician Barzuieh into India, with orders to make himself master of the Sanscrit language, and not to return without a translation of those fables. These orders were punctually executed; Barzuieh learned the Indian tongue, and, having at a great expence procured a copy of the book, translated it into the Pehlevian dialect: about an hundred and forty years after, his work was turned from Pehlevi into Arabick, by order of Almansur, second Calif of the Abbasides; and this is the volume which we see in every language of Europe, under the name of Calîla wa Demna, or, The fables of Pilpay. There is a fine copy of the Arabick version in the publick library at Oxford; and if the work of Barzuieh could be found, we should be enabled to recover a considerable part of the old Persian language; the same, perhaps, which was spoken in the second period by Themistocles and Xenophon.

In the reign of Anushirván, who protected the arts and sciences in his own dominions, MAHOMED was born; who, by the force of his Eloquence, and the success of his Arms, established a mighty Empire, and spread his new religion from the wilds of Arabia, to the mountains of Tartary and the banks of the Ganges: but, what belongs more particularly to the subject of this discourse, he polished the language of his country, and brought it to a degree of purity and elegance, which no Arabian writer since his time has been able to surpass. The battle of Cadessia in the year 636 gave the last blow to the Persian Monarchy; and the whole Empire of Iran was soon reduced under the power of the first Mahomedan Dynasty, who fixed the seat of their government in Bagdad, where the Arabick language was spoken, for many ages, in its utmost perfection: but the ancient literature of Persia, which had been promoted by the family of Sassan, was expressly discouraged by the immediate successors of Mahomed, for a reason, which it is proper to explain.

At the time when the Alcoran was first published in Arabia, a merchant, who had lately returned from a long journey, brought with him some Persian romances, which he interpreted to his countrymen, who were extremely delighted with them, and used to say openly, that the stories of griffons and giants were more amusing to them than the moral lessons of Mahomed: part of a chapter in the Alcoran was immediately written, to stop the progress of these opinions; the merchant was severely reprimanded; his tales were treated as pernicious fables, hateful to God and his prophet; and Omar, from the same motive of policy, determined to destroy all the foreign books which should fall into his hands. Thus the idle loquacity of an Arabian traveller, by setting his legends in competition with the precepts of a powerful Lawgiver, was the cause of that enthusiasm in the Mahomedans, which induced them to burn the famous library of Alexandria, and the records of the Persian Empire.

One book, however, besides the fables of Pilpay, escaped the fury of these unmerciful zealots: it was an History of Persia in the Pehlevian dialect, extracted from the Sassanian annals, and composed, it is believed, by the command of Anushirvan. Saad, one of Omar’s Generals, found this volume, after the victory at Cadessia, and preserved it for himself as a curiosity: it passed afterwards through several hands, and was at length translated into some other languages of Asia^*.

It was a long time before the native Persians could recover from the shock of this violent revolution; and their language seems to have been very little cultivated under the Califs, who gave greater encouragement to the literature of the Arabians: but, when the power of the Abbasides began to decline, and a number of independent Princes arose in the different provinces of their empire, the arts of elegance, and chiefly Poetry, revived in Persia, and there was hardly a Prince, or Governor of a city, who had not several poets and men of letters in his train. The Persian tongue was consequently restored in the tenth century; but it was very different from the Deri or Pehlevi of the Ancients: it was mixed with the words of the Alcoran, and with expressions from the Arabian Poets, whom the Persians considered as their masters, and affected to imitate in their poetical measures, and the turn of their verses.

That the learned reader may have a just notion of this new idiom, it seems necessary, first to produce a specimen of pure Arabick, and, afterwards, of the purest Persian that can be found; by which means he will form a more accurate judgement of the modern Persick, in which both languages are perfectly incorporated.

The following Ode was written by a native of Damascus: it contains a lively description of an Eastern Banquet; and most of the couplets are highly elegant in the original.

that is; “We have a banquet, into which sorrow cannot enter, and from which mirth can never depart. It comprises every species of Beauty; and he, who seeks the joys of life, cannot rise beyond it. A sprightly Song gives more pleasure to youth than Riches^*: here the stream of life is unsullied, and all our cares are dispersed. Here the mildness of our gentle darling gives ease to our love; and here the timid dervise becomes an Apostate from his faith. We have a bower, on which the dew-drops sparkle; and in which the breeze becomes scented with the fragrance of musk. You see the various blossoms, which resemble stars blazing and glittering in the firmament. Here the wonderful beauties of the flowers, among which are the narcissus and the violet, bring the fair objects of my love to my remembrance. You would think you saw my beloved looking mildly on you with her soft, tender, languishing eye: a nymph, in whom every charm and every perfection is collected; whose curled locks hang always dangling, black as the scorpion, or the mace of ebony (with which the Asiaticks strike an ivory ball in one of their favourite plays,) the pomegranate brings to my mind the blushes of my beloved, when her cheeks are coloured with a modest resentment. Our cups are such as our souls desire; they seem to be filled with the streams of friendship and cheerfulness. The goblets and vases of China appear to my sight, like the stars of heaven shining in the Zodiack.”

I might here have selected a more ancient example of Arabick, either from the poets before Mahomed, or from the illustrious Abu Temám, who flourished in the ninth century^*; but the language has remained unaltered from the earliest antiquity to the present time, and it would not have been easy, without a number of notes, to have made an ancient Ode intelligible in a literal translation.

The oldest Persian poems, which have come to my knowledge, are those of FERDUSI, of which it will not be improper to give a short account, as far as they relate to my present subject.

At the close of the tenth, and beginning of the eleventh centuries, Mahmud reigned in the city of Gazna: he was supreme ruler of Zablestan, and part of Khorasan, and had penetrated very far into India, where by this time the religion and language of the Arabs and Persians had begun to prevail. Several poets were entertained in the palace of this Monarch, among whom was FERDUSI, a native of Tús or Meshed. This most learned man, happening to find a copy of the old Persian History above-mentioned, read it with eagerness, and found it involved in fables, but bearing the marks of high antiquity: the most ancient part of it, and principally the war of Afrasiab and Khosru, or Cyrus, seemed to afford an excellent subject for an Heroick Poem, which he accordingly began to compose. Some of his episodes and descriptions were shown to the Sultan, who commended them exceedingly, and ordered him to comprise the whole History of Persia in a series of Epick poems. The poet obeyed; and, after the happiest exertion of his fancy and art for near thirty years, he finished his work, which contained sixty thousand couplets in rhyme, all highly polished, with the spirit of our Dryden and the sweetness of Pope. He presented an elegant transcript of his book to Mahmud, who coldly applauded his diligence, and dismissed him. Many months elapsed, and Ferdusi heard no more of his work: he then took occasion to remind the King of it by some little epigrams, which he contrived to let fall in the palace; but, where an Epick poem had failed, what effect could be expected from an Epigram? At length the reward came; which consisted only of as many small pieces of money, as there were couplets in the volume. The high-minded Poet could not brook this insult: he retired to his closet with bitterness in his heart; where he wrote a most noble and animated invective against the Sultan, which he sealed up, and delivered to a Courtier, who, as he had reason to suspect, was his greatest enemy, assuring him, that it was a diverting tale, and requesting him to give it to Mahmud, when any affair of state or bad success in war should make him more uneasy and splenetick than usual^*. Having thus given vent to his just indignation, he left Gazna in the night, and took refuge in Bagdad, where the Calif protected him from the Sultan of Zablestan, who demanded him in a furious and menacing letter.

The work of Ferdusi remains entire, a glorious monument of Eastern genius and learning; which, if ever it should be generally understood in its original language, will contest the merit of invention with Homer himself, whatever be thought of its subject or the arrangement of its incidents. An extract from this poem will exhibit a specimen of the Persian tongue, very little adulterated by a mixture with the Arabick, and, in all probability, approaching nearly to the dialect used in Persia in the time of Mahomed, who admired it for its extreme softness, and was heard to say, that it would be spoken on that account in the gardens of Paradise.

that is; “Seest thou yonder plain of various colours (Pers. red and grey); by which the heart of a valiant man may be filled with delight? It is entirely covered with groves and gardens and flowing rivulets; it is a place belonging to the abode of Heroes. The ground is perfect silk, and the air is scented with musk: you would say, Is it rose-water which glides between the banks? The stalk of the lily bends under the weight of the flower; and the whole grove is charmed with the fragrance of the rose-bush. The pheasant walks gracefully among the flowers; the dove and nightingale warble from the branches of the cypress. From the present time to the latest age, may the edge of those banks resemble the bowers of Paradise! There you will see, on the plains and hills, a company of damsels, beautiful as fairies, sitting cheerfully on every side. There Manizha, daughter of Afrasiab, makes the whole garden blaze like the Sun. Sitara, his second daughter, sits exalted like a Queen, encircled by her damsels, radiant in glory. The lovely maid is an ornament to the plains; her beauty sullies the rose and the jasmine. With them are many Turkish girls, all with their faces veiled; all with their bodies taper as a cypress, and locks black as musk; all with cheeks full of roses, with eyes full of sleep; all with lips sweet as wine, and fragrant as rose-water. If we go near to that bower, and turn aside for a single day, we may take several of those lovely nymphs, and bring them to the noble Cyrus.”

This is part of a speech by a young amorous Hero, the Paris of Ferdusi, who had reason to repent of his adventure with the daughter of Afrasiab, for he was made captive by the Turks, and confined in a dismal prison, till he was delivered by the valour of Rostam.

Of these two languages was formed the modern dialect of Persia, which, being spoken in its greatest purity by the natives of Pars or Farsistan, acquired the name of Parsi^*; though it is even called Deri by Hafez in the following couplet;

that is; “While the nightingale, O Hafez, makes a boast of his eloquence, do thou lessen the value of his lays by singing thy Persian (Deri) strains.”

Nearly in the same age with Ferdusi, the great Abul Ola, surnamed Alámi from his blindness, published his excellent Odes in Arabick, in which he professedly imitated the poets before Mahomed. This writer had so flourishing a reputation, that several Persians of uncommon genius were ambitious of learning the Art of Poetry from so able an instructor: his most illustrious scholars were Feleki and Khakani^*, who were no less eminent for their Persian compositions, than for their skill in every branch of pure and mixed Mathematicks, and particularly in Astronomy; a striking proof, that a sublime Poet may become a master of any kind of learning which he chuses to profess; since a fine imagination, a lively wit, an easy and copious style, cannot possibly obstruct the acquisition of any science whatever, but must necessarily assist him in his studies, and shorten his labour. Both these poets were protected by Manucheher, Prince of Shirvan; but Khakáni was always averse to the pleasurable and dissipated life of a Court, so that the Prince was obliged to detain him by force in his palace, and actually confined him for some time in prison, lest he should find some opportunity of escaping.

The works of these authors are not very scarce; but it seems needless to give any extracts from them, which would swell this discourse to an immoderate length: it will be sufficient to say, that, in this and the following century, the Persian language became altogether mixed with Arabick; not that the pure style of the ancients was wholly obsolete, but it was the fashion among the Persians to interweave Arabian phrases and verses into their poems, not by way of quotations, but as material parts of a sentence. Thus in the following distich,

The phantom of her, whose beauty gives brightness to the shades, appeared to me at night: I wondered at the kindness of Fortune, and said, Whence came this prosperity?—the first line is pure Arabick in the style of the ancient poets.

This elegant tetrastich is of the same kind:

In this mansion of darkness, how long must I sit expecting my beloved; one while with my finger on my teeth, one while with my head bent on my knee? Come, O fortunate cup-bearer, bring me the tidings of joy: who knows but my days may again be prosperous, as they were before? Where the last line is taken from an Ode in the Hamasa of Abu Temám, which begins,

We pardoned the sons of Dhohal, and said, The tribe are our brothers.

At the opening of the twelfth century lived Anveri, a native of Abiurd in Khorasan, whose adventures deserve to be related, as they will show in what high esteem the polite arts were held in Asia, at the time when learning first began to dawn in Europe. Anveri, when he was very young, was sitting at the gate of his college, when a man richly dressed rode by him on a fine Arabian horse, with a numerous train of attendants; upon his asking who it was, he was told, that it was a Poet belonging to the Court. When Anveri reflected on the honours conferred upon Poetry, for which art he had a very early bent, he applied himself to it more ardently than ever, and, having finished a poem, presented it to the Sultan. This was a prince of the Seljukian dynasty, named Sanjar, a great admirer of the fine arts: he approved the work of Anveri, whom he invited to his palace, and raised him even to the first honours of the state. He found many other poets at court, among whom were Selman, Zehir, and Reshídi^*, all men of wit and genius, but each eminent in a different way; the first for the delicacy of his Lyrick verses, the second, for the moral tendency of his poems, and the third, for the chastity of his compositions; a virtue, which his predecessors and contemporaries were too apt to neglect.

But of all the cities in the Persian Empire, none has given birth to more excellent poets than Shiraz; which my noble and learned friend Baron Revizki justly calls “the Athens of Persia^*.” SADI, a native of this city, flourished in the thirteenth century, when the Atabegs of Parsistan encouraged men of learning in their principality: his life was almost wholly spent in travel; but no man, who enjoyed the greatest leisure, ever left behind him more valuable fruits of his genius and industry. A fine manuscript, about two hundred years old, was lately put into my hands, containing a complete collection of his works; among which are several pieces, both in verse and prose, which have never been mentioned by the Scholars of Europe. The following extract from his Gulistan, or Bed of Roses, will show how the Persian and Arabick languages were mixed together in his age:

that is; “My companion oft reproaches me for my love of Leila. Will he never behold her charms, that my excuse may be accepted? Would to heaven, that they, who blame me for my passion, could see thy face, O thou ravisher of hearts! that, at the sight of thee, they might be confounded, and inadvertently cut their hands instead of the fruit, which they hold^*. Thou hast no compassion for my disorder: my companion should be afflicted with the same malady, that I might sit all day repeating my tale to him; for two pieces of wood burn together with a brighter flame. The song of the turtle dove passes not unobserved by my ear; and if the dove could hear my strain, she would join her complaints with mine. O my friends, say to them, who are free from love, Ah, we wish you knew, what passes in the heart of a lover! The pain of illness affects not them, who are in health: I will not disclose my grief but to those, who have tasted the same affliction. It were fruitless to talk of an hornet to them, who never felt its sting. While thy mind is not affected like mine, the relation of my sorrow seems only an idle tale. Compare not my anguish to the cares of another man; he only holds the salt in his hand, but it is I, who bear the wound in my body.”

The same city had the honour of producing, in the fourteenth century, the most elegant Lyrick Poet of Asia, Shemseddín, surnamed HAFEZ; on whose life and productions it is the less necessary to expatiate, because the Baron before-mentioned has exhausted the subject in his specimen of Persian Poetry, and will, it is to be hoped, be persuaded to complete that most learned work, in the short intervals of leisure, which his important affairs will allow him. It will be fully sufficient, therefore, to transcribe two of his Gazals or Anacreontick Odes; the first of which was chosen, on account of the Arabick verses interwoven in it, and the second, for its exquisite beauty, which makes it a genuine example of the true Shirazian dialect.

“THE dawn advances veiled with roses. Bring the morning draught, my friends, the morning draught! The dew-drops trickle over the cheek of the tulip. Bring the wine, my dear companions, bring the wine! A gale of paradise breathes from the garden: drink then incessantly the pure wine. The rose spreads her emerald throne in the bower. Reach the liquour, that sparkles like a flaming ruby. Are they still shut up in the banquet-house? Open, O thou keeper of the gate. It is strange, at such a season, that the door of the tavern should be locked. Oh, hasten! O thou, who art in love, drink wine with eagerness; and you, who are endued with wisdom, offer your vows to Heaven. Imitate Hafez, and drink kisses, sweet as wine, from the cheek of a damsel, fair as a nymph of paradise.”

“RISE, boy; for the cup of the tulip is full of wine. When will this strictness end? how long will these scruples last? No more of this pride and disdain; for time has seen the crown of Cæsar humbled, and the diadem of Cyrus bent to the ground. Oh! be wise; for the bird of the morning is intoxicated with love. Oh, awake! for the sleep of eternity is just before you. How gracefully thou movest, O sweet branch of a vernal plant! May the cold wind of December never nip thy buds! There is no reliance on the favours of Fortune or her deceitful smiles. Oh! wo to him, who thinks himself secure from her treachery. To-morrow, perhaps, the stream of Cuther, and the girls of paradise will be prepared for us; but today also let us enjoy a damsel bright as the moon, and quaff the wine from the full cup. The Zephyr (Saba) reminds us of our youth (Sabi;) bring us the wine, boy, which may refresh our souls, and dispel our sorrow.

“Admire not the splendour and dignity of the rose; for the wind will soon scatter all her leaves, and spread them beneath our feet. Bring a larger cup to the memory of Hatem Tai^*; that we may fold up (Tai) the gloomy volume of those, who want generosity. This wine, which gives a lively tint to the Argavan, (a purple flower) communicates its sweet nature from my beloved’s cheek to her heart. Attend; for the musicians of the bower have begun their concert, joining the notes of the lute and harp to the melody of the dulcimer and flute. Bring thy Sofa into the garden, for, like active attendants, the cypress stands before us, and the green reed has tucked up his girdle. O Hafez, the fame of thy sweet alluring sorcery has reached from the extremity of Reï and Rûm, to the limits of China and Egypt.”

There is nothing, which affords a stronger proof of the excellence of the Persian tongue, than, that it remained uncorrupted after the irruption of the Tartars, who, at different times, and under various leaders, made themselves masters of Persia; for the Tartarian princes, and chiefly Tamerlane, who was a patron of Hafez, were so far from discouraging polite letters, like the Goths and Huns, that they adopted even the language and religion of the conquered country, and promoted the fine arts with a boundless munificence: and one of them, who founded the Mogul Empire in Hindostan, introduced the Persian literature into his dominions, where it flourishes to this day; and all the letters from the Indian governors are written in the language (I do not say, in the style) of Sadi. The Turks themselves improved their harsh dialect by mixing it with the Persian; and Mahomed II. who took Constantinople in the middle of the fifteenth Century, was a protector of the Persian poets: among these was Noureddîn JAMI, whose poem on the loves of Joseph and Zelikha is one of the finest compositions I ever read. The following description will serve as a specimen of his elegant style:

“In the morning, when the raven of night had flown away, the bird of dawn began to sing: the nightingales warbled their enchanting notes, and rent the thin veils of the rosebud and the rose: the jasmine stood bathed in dew, and the violet also sprinkled his fragrant locks. At this time Zelikha was sunk in pleasing slumber; her heart was turned towards the altar of her sacred vision^*. It was not sleep; it was rather a confused idea: it was a kind of phrenzy caused by her nightly melancholy. Her damsels touched her feet with their faces; her maidens approached, and kissed her hand. Then she removed the veil from her cheek, like a tulip besprinkled with dew; she opened her eyes, yet dim with sleep. From the border of her mantle the sun and moon arose; she raised her head from the couch, and looked around on every side.”

This poem contains about four thousand couplets, and deserves to be translated into every European language: though I shall have neither time nor inclination to translate it myself, yet I may perhaps be induced, some years hence, to present the Original to the learned world, which any man, who has the advantage of greater leisure, may take the pains to interpret.

In the same Century with Jami, flourished a poet named CATEBI, who was highly honoured at the court of Mirza Ibrahim, one of Tamerlane’s descendants. Mr. d’ Herbelot tells a very pleasing story of this writer, which deserves a place in this essay; though, in order to understand it, we must remember, that the Persians frequently end their couplets with the same word, which is often continued through a long poem; but in that case, the rhyme falls upon the preceding syllable. “Catebi, says he, having composed an Elegy, each verse of which ended with the word, Gul, a rose, or any flower, repeated it to the prince Ibrahim, his Patron; who, being extremely delighted with it, could not forbear interrupting him, by saying, From what bower did this tuneful nightingale (meaning the poet) take its flight? that is, without a metaphor, In what city were you born? to which Catebi, without hesitation, replied in a couplet of the same measure with the poem, and with the same rhyme, as if he had only continued to read his Elegy:

“that is, Like Attár^*, I came from the rose-garden of Nishapor; but I am only the thorn of that garden, and Attár was its most beautiful flower.”

This distich, though delivered extempore, is at least equal to any of the rest in spirit and elegance. The poem consists of about thirty-five couplets, the first of which is the following:

that is; Again the rose advances towards the bower with an hundred leaves; like the narcissus, it is a charming object to every discerning eye.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth Centuries, under the family of Sefi, the Persian language began to lose its ancient purity, and even to borrow some of its terms from the Turkish, which was commonly spoken at Court. As to the modern dialect, no specimen of it needs be produced, since the Life of Nader Shah, which was written in Persian about fourteen years ago, and translated into French by the author of this Volume, may be consulted in the original by the learned reader.

SIRE,

UNE Traduction, faite par les Ordres de Votre Majesté, emprunte son lustre des augustes auspices sous lesquels elle a été entreprise; daignez donc souffrir, que laissant à mon auteur l’enthousiasme de la flatterie orientale, je ne fasse mention de son Héros que pour relever un contraste qui m’a frappé. C’est au successeur légitime d’une suite de Rois, aussi anciens qu’illustres, que je présente ce NADER CHAH, usurpateur, & d’une origine obscure. Le crime & la terreur conduisirent ce fameux guerrier à la fortune, par une voïe remplie d’allarmes & de dangers. L’admiration & la confiance des peuples, déja fixées au pied du trône de Votre Majesté, lui ouvrent une carriere aussi brillante qu’heureuse. Nader craignit la lumiere du savoir, & tâcha de détruire les sciences dans ses états; Votre Majesté, véritable appréciatrice du génie, lui confiera sans peine les annales de Son regne. Il suffira à Ses historiens d’être éclairés & fideles; ils ne seront pas obligés, comme celui de Nader, de donner au destructeur le masque du conquérant; à l’oppresseur ces magnifiques tîtres que la bouche servile accorde, & que le cœur honnête refuse à l’injustice, & à la tyrannie. Mais, SIRE, si d’autres ont l’honneur d’achever le contraste que j’ébauche, & de faire sentir à la posterité la différence qu’il y a entre la bassesse de l’adulation & le pur encens de la vérité, j’aurai du moins l’avantage de les avoir dèvancés dans une route, que la gloire de Votre Nom rendra si facile, ainsi que dans le zèle, & le très profond respect avec lesquels je suis,

CET Ouvrage n’est point entiérement inconnû; un^* Auteur Anglois, dans l’agréable récit de ses voïages, a fait mention d’une vie de NADER CHAH, écrite en Persan; mais, il ajoute, qu’il est peu probable qu’elle paroisse jamais en Europe. En effet, pour que le public fût enrichi de ce rare présent, il a fallû que le destin le fit tomber entre les mains d’un Roi distingué par son amour pour les Belles Lettres, & par la délicatesse de son goût; ce qui n’étoit pas un bonheur facile à prévoir. Chargé par les ordres de ce Monarque de traduire & de publier ce manuscrit, je desirerois de mon côté pouvoir satisfaire le lecteur, en lui donnant une parfaite connoissance de l’auteur que je traduis; mais, mes recherches à cet égard aïant été vaines, il faut qu’il se contente de mon opinion. J’avoüe d’abord, que je ne suis pas de l’avis de l’écrivain que je viens de citer, qui annonce mon auteur comme un général ou un commandant; il me paroit plutôt un homme d’un savoir profond, d’une éloquence agréable, & parfaitement versé dans la litérature orientale, ainsi que dans la poësie de son païs. Ses notions sur l’art militaire, la maniére dont il décrit les batailles ne conviennent nullement à un guerrier; elles s’accordent bien mieux avec le titre de Mirza, qui signifie homme d’étude, lorsqu’il précede le nom propre; celui de Khan, qui s’y trouve joint, prouve seulement que le savoir, en Asie, est le chemin de la fortune, aussi bien que celui de la gloire. Comme il n’y a que douze ans que cette histoire a été écrite, il est probable que Mirza Mohammed Mahadi Khan de Mazenderan vit encore, à moins qu’il n’ait péri dans quelque danger semblable à ceux qu’il décrit, & qui étoient si frequens dans sa patrie aux tems malheureux qu’il déplore: cependant le récit de ces rebellions perpétuelles, souvent compliquées, & renouvellées aussitôt qu’appaisées, a quelque chose de sec & de fatiguant. L’auteur l’a senti lui-même; ainsi, lorsqu’il n’a pas eû des événemens grands & frappants à raconter, il a tâché de faire supporter la minutie, & même quelquefois l’obscurité, de sa narration par des morceaux de poésie Persanne aussi bien choisis que placés. Ces essais de Rhétorique orientale sont sur tout admirables dans les descriptions variées du printems, qu’il donne au commencement de chaque année, & dans lesquelles, en géneral, il fait allusion à ce qui s’y est passé de plus remarquable. Cet ouvrage doit naturellement intéresser le public, & attacher le lecteur; les faits en sont si récens, qu’ils ne sauroient être effacés de notre mémoire, & n’aïant pas perdû leur degré de chaleur par une froide recherche dans des siécles reculés, ils ne se présentent à nous qu’avec ces charmes, & cette importance que la verité & l’authenticité donnent aux moindres événemens.

Après avoir ainsi rendû justice à mon auteur, je serai plus concis sur ce qui me regarde moi-même & ma traduction. Je dois d’abord assurer le lecteur, que j’ai tâché de lui donner une idée exacte de l’original Persan, en le traduisant aussi literalement qu’il m’a été possible; en cela j’ai suivi & mes ordres & mon inclination. Nous avons asséz d’histoires Asiatiques habillées à l’Européene, j’ai laissé à celle-ci ses ornemens naturels: je n’ai orné aucun détail; j’ai suivi l’élévation ou l’abaissement du style, comme je les ai trouvés. Le peu de mots que je puis avoir ajoutés n’ont été que pour écarter des ambiguités attachées à la différence d’idiomes; je n’ai retranché que dans les endroits où les allusions étoient ou trop absurdes pour nous; que quand les expressions à force d’être outrées devenoient ridicules à l’imagination calme de nos climats. Si j’ai hazardé de donner une traduction rimée des vers que j’ai trouvé dans le corps de cette Histoire, j’en ai ajouté une litérale à la fin de chaque partie.

On trouvera dans mes Notes un index Géographique des principales villes & provinces dont cet ouvrage fait mention, mais j’ai été forcé de passer sous silence ce qui concerne plusieurs tribus, villages, & forteresses, dont on ne voit nulle trace dans les livres de géographie orientale que j’ai consulté.

Quant au traité sur la poésie Asiatique que j’ai ajouté à cette histoire, comme une espece de commentaire sur le goût poétique dans lequel élle est écrite, s’il s’y trouve quelques erreurs, j’en appelle au jugement impartial du lecteur savant; il considerera sans doute combien il étoit difficile d’entendre parfaitement des Odes dont le ton sublime & chargé d’ornemens embarrasse même ceux dans la langue desquels elles sont écrites, surtout étant privé du secours d’un bon commentaire, si nécessaire dans ces occasions. Au reste, comme il m’a été prescrit d’écrire cet ouvrage en François, j’espére qu’on excusera la témérité que j’ai eû en entreprenant une traduction si difficile dans une langue qui n’est pas ma langue naturelle. Je ne dirai pourtant point avec le Romain, qui publia un ouvrage Grec, que j’ai commis des fautes volontaires, afin quelles fissent connoitre quelle étoit ma patrie; au contraire, j’avoue que je n’ai rien oublié pour me mettre en état d’offrir un style correct; que j’ai reçû avec empressement tous les avis qui m’ont été donnés à ce sujet, & accepté avec reconnoissance les secours qui m’ont été offerts.

CHRISTIANUS Septimus, Dei gratiâ, rex Daniæ, Norvegiæ, Vandalorum, Gothorumque, dux Slesvici, Holsatiæ, Stormariæ, atque Dittmarsiæ, comes in Oldenburg ac Delmenhorst, &c. &c. Serenissimo ac potentissimo principi domino Georgio Tertio, eâdem gratiâ, Magnæ Britanniæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ regi, fidei defensori, duci Brunsvicensi, et Luneburgensi, Sacri Romani Imperii Archithesaurario, et Electori, &c. &c. fratri, affini, et consanguineo, et amico nostro carissimo, salutem! Serenissime et potentissime princeps, frater, affinis, consanguinee, et amice carissime! Annuentes precibus subditi cujusdam Majestatis Vestræ, viri eruditi, et linguarum Orientis peritissimi, Collegii Academiæ Oxoniensis Socii Gul. Jones, qui nobis desiderantibus, opus historicum vitæ Naderi Shah è Persico in Gallicum idioma à se magnâ cum diligentiâ translatum nuper in lucem emisit, eoque labore feliciter exantlato, expectationi nostræ ex asse satisfaciens calculum nostrum meruit, hoc ei nostræ benevolentiæ testimonium, quod à nobis sibi decenter expetiit, denegare noluimus, sed amicitiâ Majestatis Vestræ in nos sincerâ freti eundem clementiæ et benevolentiæ ejus regiæ, pro eo quo ipsa bonas literas, et earum cultores prosequi dignatur, favore eximio, de meliori commendatum esse amicè et fraternè cupimus; gratiam eo nomine Majestati Vestræ insignem habituri, et si qua in re possumus, referre paratissimi; cui, quod reliquum est, divini numinis tutelam ad perenne summæ felicitatis incrementum toto animo apprecamur. Dabantur in regiâ nostrâ Christianburg die XV. mensis Februarii, anno 1771 regnique nostri sexto.

MONSIEUR,

SOUFFREZ que je vous témoigne ma reconnoissance pour la flatteuse distinction dont Sa Majesté a bien voulu m’ honorer. Je regarde comme un des plus grands bonheurs de ma vie d’être né dans le siecle d’un Roi, qui sait emploïer et récompenser les talens. De combien ce bonheur n’augmenteroit-il pas, si mes desseins et mes occupations dans ma patrie, me permettoient d’aller me jetter aux pieds de Sa Majesté, et de contempler dans sa Capitale le second renouvellement des Lettres et des Beaux Arts. Cependant, d’ici même, je ne perdrai jamais de vûe les influences propices que sa protection répand sur le savoir, et si je vis assez pour finir L’Histoire générale de ce Siecle, ouvrage, que j’ai projettè depuis long tems, ce sera au nom de CHRETIEN VII. que je croirai devoir son vrai lustre. Permettez-moi, Monsieur, d’ajouter en ce lieu une reflexion qui m’a frappé en recevant le diplome, par lequel Sa Majesté m’ agrége à Sa Société Roïale des Sciences. On ne sauroit, en voïant un tel asile des belles lettres s’éléver dans un empire du nord, s’empécher d’admirer les decrets de la providence dans la revolution des evénemens. Ce fût de la Gothie que sortirent l’essaim de courageux guerriers, qui éteignirent la lumiére du savoir dans l’Europe en arrachant aux Romains l’empire du monde; c’est dans ces mêmes régions que le savoir rêvit sous les auspices d’un Monarque qui l’apprécie, et le protége.

J’ai l’honneur,

Monsieur, d’être votre trés humble,

et très obeïssant Serviteur,

ERRATA.