PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 213 



entered, * rivalled each other in their rapacity in impoverishing the 

 public treasury. By the intrigues of the courtiers, the king was in- 

 duced to put away the only two honest and able persons who were 

 devoted to him — two brothers — Feth-Ali-Khan, the grand vizir, and 

 Loutf-Ali-Khan, general-in-chief of his armies. 



The Kurds, the Lesguis, the Afighans, as well as the Sheik of 

 Muscat, took up arms, not only to shake off the Persian yoke, but 

 each to be the first to seize upon the tottering throne. Mir Vais, the 

 Affghan, had, by his intrigues at court, and by his arms, succeeded 

 in freeing all Affghanistan. His son, Mahmoud, twenty-three years 

 old, having by a murder revenged the usurpation of his uncle, Mir- 

 Abdallah, and caused himself to be recognized as the king of that 

 country, put in execution the plan of his father, and marched, with 

 the boldness that characterizes the nation, against the King of Persia, 

 whom he attacked in the very heart of his dominions. After in- 

 credible fatigues and privations of all kinds, he crossed the desert of 

 Sistan and of Kermau with his army of 15,000 men, the largest part 

 transported on dromedaries. Obliged to carry forage, and even 

 water, f he came, not without, however, a great loss of men and 

 horses, to besiege the town Kerman, Repulsed the first time by 

 Loutf-Ali-Khau, he profited by the disgrace in which the latter had 

 fallen ; and, undismayed by the difiiculties he had experienced in his 

 first expedition, he retook the same road, set a ransom on the 

 governor of Kerman, did not stop to besiege Yezd, seized upon all 

 the horses to remount his troops, and to mount those who had been 

 provisionally mounted upon dromedaries, and taking the shortest 

 route, although the most arid, pitched his camp upon the s jmmit of 

 Goul-Nabat, at three leagues from Ispahan, which then contained 

 600,000 souls. 



The court and the inhabitants of Ispahan were stupified by this 

 bold attack. The town was completely without provisions and the 

 supplies necessary to sustain a siege. The troops which should have 

 defended it were disbanded or scattered along the frontiers ; the 

 panic increased, and money was offered in order to gain time. Mah- 

 moud refused it, answering that " everything belonged to him, even 

 the crown." This arrogant reply left no other alternative than a 

 resort to arms. Recovered from their first stupification, and con- 

 sidering the small number of their assailants, the Persians collected 

 all who were capable of bearing arms and marched against the enemy. 



We shall perhaps trespass upon the patience of the reader by 



* When the Af%hans, masters of Ispahan, taxed all the grandees oft he kingdom at a 

 high rate, the Hakim-Bachi (first physician to the king) was taxed at 20,000 tomans, (about 

 $4ti3,000.) This man had been for a long time the sole favorite of hi-* master, and was 

 reproached for using his influence with him only to amass immense wealtli. The overseers 

 of the tax weighed jewels without taking into account the value of the precious stones in 

 them, estimating them at two crowns the miskal, (about teO grains troy.) I am told that 

 what was taken from this man was not less than 100,000 tomans, ($2,315,000.) 



t It is stated in the reports of the embassy of Douri-Effendi, minister from the Porte to 

 the court of Persia, " that the Affghans were mounted by twos and tlirees upon camels, 

 animals accustomed to bear thirst, and to subsist upon little Arrived at the edge of tlie 

 desert, they were loaded with water, and each soldier filling the entrails of sheep, whicli they 

 carried for this purpose, wound around their bodies in the manner of a sash, the army 

 entered upon the desert." 



