Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, <yc. 



G4S 



it, Ih5 inspired llu". ignorant l);irbiirians 

 around iiini with a lirm belief in his 

 mission, and an enthusiastic devotion 

 to himself. His despotic authority fol- 

 lowed of course. Once secure of his 

 enipirf: over these mountain hordes, he 

 secured every pass with fastnesses ; and 

 h&ldin<T himself totally independent of 

 the surrounding states, he spread his 

 colonies over Elborz, and along the 

 whole raujreof hills to beyond Tabrcez ; 

 whence they issued forth, singly or in 

 bands, at the command of iheir iman, 

 or his deputed emissaries, to destroy 

 by open assault, ambuscade, or private 

 murder, all people or persons that were 

 obnoxious either to his ambition or his 

 avarice. Christians, Jews, JMahome- 

 daus of Omar or of Ali, all were alike 

 the subjects of his excommunication ; 

 and he sold his (burger, or rather that 

 of his followers, to whatever party 

 were vile cuoiitili to buy the blood of 

 their enemies. There was a mystical ob- 

 scurity about his person, and in the views 

 of his widely extending government, 

 with a dauntless determination of pro- 

 cecHling, which held the princes of that 

 <lark age in a kind of superstitious awe. 

 Jealous of his sway, and abhorring his 

 tenets : contemning his divine preten- 

 sions, yet doubt iug whether he did not 

 possess some super-human means of 

 mischief; they dreaded a i)ower, which 

 seemed to hang over themselves and 

 people with constant threateuiug, 

 tiiough never showing when nor where 

 it would strike. He soon acquired 

 from these apjiallcd sovereigns, the 

 vague but suj)reme title of Sheik- 

 »il-Jcbal, or lord of llie mountains ; 

 while in the minds of the most super- 

 stitious people, he might well be con- 

 sidered oue of the dreadful Deeus, or 

 Daemons of the waste. 



It so liappened, that for more than 

 two centuries, in short, from -their ac- 

 cession to their extinction, every suc- 

 cessor of the first Iman inherited the 

 same dispositions to turn the blind zeal 

 of their followers to the worst puriwses. 

 A colony of these fanatics, under the 

 leading of one of Hassan Sabeb's most 

 odious representatives, settled them- 

 selves among the heights of Lebanon, 

 and have been variously called Ismae- 

 lians, Batheniaus, or Assassins. That 

 colony is the best known to European 

 historians, from the horrible enormi- 

 ties which its people cemmitted in the 

 towns and villages of tlie Holy Land ; 

 and not less so ou the persons and lives 

 of sojne of our most gallant crusaders. 



It is woeful to read who were (he vic- 

 tims of these savages; but often mtich 

 more horrible to turn the page and tind 

 who were their employers. Their uni- 

 Aer.sal violeuce, however, at last, armed 

 every hand gainst them ; and, much 

 about the same time, towards the end 

 of the thirteenth century, tljcy were 

 rooted out of Syria and Egypt, (whither 

 they had extended theinselvos) and 

 frou» their original seats in Persia ; 

 leiiviug nothing but their a])propriate 

 appellation of assassins behind them ; 

 no longer to be considered what it ha(l 

 originally impoited, the mere distin- 

 guishing name of a sei't, but to have 

 severally affixed from age to age here- 

 after, as a peculiar brand of infamy, 

 on every treacherous, secret, or hired 

 murderer. 



Halukoo, the Mogul conqueror of 

 Persia and of the family of the famous 

 Ziugis Khan, was the prince whose 

 victorious arms almost repaid to liis 

 new dominions, the devastations of his 

 con([uost, by the cn(ire extirpation of 

 the lawless race, which had so long 

 preyed on the vitals of the country. 



MIRZA SHF.PFY, PREMIER OF PKUSIA. 



His station near the sovereign gives 

 him a kind of reflecting consequence, 

 that makes a nod or a smile from him 

 so full of a similar quality, that it may 

 shed honour ad infinitum downwards ; 

 graduating dignity, according to its 

 distance from the original fountain of 

 favour. First one happy courtier, and 

 then another, had received these marks 

 of peculiar grace ; and, inconsequence, 

 became the little centre of a temporarj' 

 adulation from hundreds; many of 

 whem envied the favour they sought to 

 conciliate, even at second or third hand. 

 Amongst the hitter order of suitors was 

 a rich, but otherwise inconsiderable in- 

 dividual, who had long attended Mirza 

 Sheffj''s levees, without having received 

 the slightest notice; but chancing one 

 day to find the minister alone f<u- a few 

 moments, he .seized the opportunity, 

 and thus addressed him : — 



" I have had the honour of placing 

 myself, for these many months back, 

 in your Excellency's sight, in the midst 

 of jrour crowded halls, and yet have 

 never hiid the happiness of receiving a 

 single glance. But if your Excellency 

 would condescend, in the next assem- 

 bly of your visitors, to rise a little on 

 my entrance, such a distinction would 

 be the height of my ambition ; I should 

 hencefortK^ be held of consequence in 

 the eyes of the khaus. And for this 

 honour 



