214 PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 



giving a minute detail of the relative positions of the two armies ; 

 but the zemboureks having played the principal part in this action, 

 it seems to us indispensable to do so. 



The royal army which marched out of Ispahan on Sunday the 8th 

 of March, 1722, (1135,) amounted to more than 60,000 men and 24 

 pieces of cannon. 



The two armies were disposed as follows : the Persian right wing 

 was composed of 2,000 goulams, (mounted body guards,) armed in 

 part with bows and arrows, and in part with guns or pistols, under 

 the command of Rustem-Khan, their general ; of 3,000 Arab cavalry, 

 under the orders of their Vali ; of a great number of Khans, with 

 their retinues, mounted. The left wing consisted of officers of the 

 king, of noblemen of the court, on horseback, of the Vali of Loristan, 

 Ali-Merdan-Khan, with 5,000 horsemen in his train,* and of more 

 than 8,000 militia on foot, armed with muskets. The centre con- 

 tained the reserve, and was commanded by Sheik Ali-Khan, general 

 of cavalry. He had under his orders some Khans, with their retinues, 

 about 4,000 horse guards, and a like number of foot guards ; these 

 last armed with guns and sabres. The front was covered by a 

 battery of 24 cannon. The command in chief was divided between 

 the Vali of Arabia, who commanded the right wing, and the grand 

 vizir, Attemat-Doulet, who commanded the left wing. 



The AfFghan army was divided into four divisions. The largest 

 formed the right wing under the orders of Emanoullah Khan. The 

 left wing was composed of a body of new levies recruited among the 

 Quebres, fire-worshippers, the Bloutchis, and the Indians, f commanded 

 by Nasr Oullah. Mahmoud reserved to himself the centre with a 

 "corps d' elite" c&Wed pehlevons (heroes. )| Behind the right wing of 

 the Affghans kneeled 100 dromedaries, each carrying a gun. 



Eyewitnesses tell us that "the length of the journey and the 

 celerity of the march had not permitted Mahmoud to bring with him 

 any cannon, but a singular kind of artillery supplied in some measure 

 this deficiency. They were arquebuses pivoted, as large as those 

 called by our seamen 'swivel,' which can carry at a load a handful 

 of musket balls. Each of these guns mounted on a saddle formed, with 

 its gunner, the load of a dromedary, and it was upon the backs of 



* He was accompanied by his two danghters who followed him everywhere, and forght 

 in men's attire and clothed in armor. I saw at Teheran one of the danghters of Feth 

 Ali Shah, wife of the Vali of Senna, who had several times accompanied her sons in their 

 military expeditions ; she was a good shot with a pistol, and wielded the lance skilfully. 

 These eccentricities, so exceptionable to musselmcn, are seeli only among the noiiiadic 

 tribes, in which the women go with the face uncovered. 



f It is very probable that the greater part of these recruits were raised among the 

 Loutis (sans culottes) vagabonds, who are always ready to serve, for plunder, the first 

 daring fellow that offers. There are large numbers of them in all the towns of 

 Persia, and it is often necessary to turn out the military against them. During my resi- 

 dence in Persia, one of them was seized, who had been proclaimed king by his companions, 

 and, by order of the Shah, his teeth were extracted, and set around his head in the man- 

 ner of a crown. 



J The duty of these was to begin the attack, and then to fall back in the rear of the 

 line to encourage and sustain the different corps, to kill the runaways, and to succor the 

 wounded. 



