220 PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 



count of the Persian author will not be thought surprising, when we 

 consider that each of these small cannon, not weighing more than Y5 

 pounds, could be easily carried by the artillerists to the top of the 

 mountain. 



The Affghans made forced marches towards Ispahan and established 

 themselves in a strong position, fortified beforehand, near the village 

 of Mourdekin-Khour. Although the Persian general found the Aif- 

 ghan army strongly entrenched, he determined to attack it. The 

 Affghans defended themselves with bravery, but nothing could with- 

 stand the fury with which they were assaulted, and they left upon the 

 field of battle 4,000 of their best soldiers. The rest took flight, and 

 with such precipitancy that Tahmasb-Kouli-Khan could not overtake 

 them until at Persepolis, distant more than 200 farsangs (about 795 

 miles) from the first field of battle.* 



"Indeed, our victorious Nadir, rising, like the glorious sun, from 

 the horizon of his prosperous fortunes, forced these rebels to imitate 

 the owl, and to hide their heads for fear of being dazzled." 



Tahmasb-Kouli-Khan, after his return from Kandahar, where he 

 captured AchrafF and chastised the Affghans with all imaginable bar- 

 barity, returned to Ispahan, deposed the king, his master, and placed 

 upon the throne his son Abbas III, who was still in his cradle. 

 Taking the title of Regent of the Empire, he marched with a large 

 army to besiege Bagdad. Topal-Osman-Pacha, ex-grand vizier, was 

 sent against him by the Sultan of Constantinople with an army of 

 100,000 men. The Regent determined immediately to give battle. 

 He left in his trenches 12,000 men and all his seige artillery, f and 

 marched with the rest of his army and his zemboureks to meet Topal- 

 Osman-Pacha, who was encamped upon the banks of the Tigris, near 

 the village of Samara, at a short distance from Bagdad. The battle 

 fought on the ITth July, 173)^, (1146,) was one of the most bloody ever 

 maintained between the Turks and the Persians. The latter had at 

 first the advantage, but the treachery of a body of Arabs whose assist- 

 ance the Regent expected, but who, on the contrary, fell upon his 

 flank, carried complete rout into the Persian army after a struggle of 

 more than eight hours. The Regent had two horses killed under him 

 and was thrown twice in the midst of his enemies. The Persians, 

 who had been exposed all day to the burning rays of a summer's sun, 

 were exhausted by heat and thirst. "The sun had so completely 

 altered the face of nature that the waters of the fountains were changed 

 into fire." 



" The heat from the rays of the sun was so violent that the name 

 alone of that planet would have burnt the tongue in one's mouth. If 

 the salamander, which braves the fire itself, had approached those 

 boiling waters, it would have been reduced to ashes." — {Murza Mehdi, 



* Manuscript of Sheik Mahomed-Ali-Kazim. 



f His seige artillery was necessarily limited to a small number of guns ; therefore, all that 

 could be captured were used. In a suburb beyond the Tigris there was a large tower called 

 Kousch-Kaleci, [bird tower,] which the Persians took by surprise. In it they found a piece 

 of artillery of prodigious weight, wiiich the Turks had not had time to withdraw. It was put 

 in order by the European engineers in the service of Persia, and was used against the town 

 while waiting for the heavy artillery. 



