PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 215 



tliese animals, trained to the exercise^, that the guns were loaded and 

 fired." This would seem to indicate that the Persians had it not 

 then in their army, for M. Guiseppe, who was the interpreter of M. 

 Gardone, French consul at Ispahan, speaks of it as a thing entirely 

 new.* 



The army of the Affghans amounted only to 20,000 men — that is 

 to say, to about a third of that of the Persians. It consisted almost 

 entirely of cavalry. Each man carried a sabre, a long lance which he 

 wielded equally as well,t and was protected by a cuirass of very 

 thick leather doubled, a buckler hung over the shoulder; several had 

 long pistols in their girdles. | 



The action was commenced by the right wing of the Persians, who 

 at first threw the Affghans into a little confusion. The vali, of Arabia, 

 turning their flank rapidly, fell upon their camp, which the Arabs 

 were so long occupied in pillaging that they did nothing else during 

 the battle. Perhaps their chief saw with pleasure that the left wing, 

 commanded by his rival, had been thrown into disorder. This body 

 had charged the Affghan right wing, commanded by Eman-Oullah. 

 As soon as this skilful warrior saw the enemy approach him, he fell 

 back as if retreating. The Persians heedlessly pursued with ardor, 

 but soon the enemy's ranks opened and discovered a line of one hun- 

 dred dromedaries kneeling, each with a gun on his back, from which 

 a fire was so well delivered that the front ranks of the charging 

 column were cut down ; and before the Persians could recover from 

 the confusion into which this cannonade had thrown them, they were 

 attacked by the Affghan cavalry and completely routed. Eman- 

 Oullah pursued them for some time. Attacking then the Persian 

 artillery in rear, he found it without defence, sabred the cannoneers, 

 and turned the pieces against the Persian infantry, which formed the 

 centre. The Persians were so astonished and panic-struck at seeing 



* According to all the testimony I have been able to collect, it seems that the Affghans 

 were the first who used the dromedary in the manoeuvres of the zenibourek, and who arranged 

 the falconet on a saddle upon a movable pivot. The Persians, like the Indians, had used 

 this kind of gun for a long time ; but dromedaries or elephants were employed only to 

 transport them, the)' being served, mounted on wooden carriages clumsily made, and 

 standing on the ground. 



t Fencing with the sword and the buckler is the favorite exercise of the Affghans 

 Although skilful at it. their appearance when' engaged is not graceful, for, gathering 

 themselves in a peculiar manner under the buckler to protect the upper part of the bo(]y, 

 they direct their attacks against the legs or bellies of their adversaries. I have often 

 fenced witli their best swordsmen, and satisfied myself that it is very difficult to touch 

 them in that j^osition. 



J The Europeans who were at that time at Djoulfa, (one of the suburbs of Ispahan,) 

 and who observed the two armies through their spy-glasses, thus speak of the difference 

 between the two armies : " That of the Persians going scarcely beyond the ramparts, and 

 composed almost entirely of the brilliancy of the court, and also of the rest of the empire, 

 appeared less made to fight than to dazzle the eye. The richness and variety of their 

 arms and uniforms, the beauty of the horses, the gold and precious stones with which 

 the trappings were ornamented, the magnificence of the flags as seen in the distance, all 

 united in forming a gorgeous and pompous spectacle. On the other side, there was 

 an inconsiderable body of soldiers worn by fatigue and the heat of the sun. Their cl©thing, 

 tarni.shed and torn by so long a march, scarcely sufiiced to shield them from the weather ; 

 their worn down horses were only covered with leather and brass ; the steel heads of their 

 lances and their sabres were the only glittering things among them." 



