142 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



Mongol dominion in Persia, where the Turko- 

 mans thenceforward remained masters for 100 

 years. The Turkomans were succeeded by the 

 &ufi Dynasty (1501-1736). The first sovereign 

 of this dynasty, Ismail Sufi, pretended to be 

 descended from Ali, the son-in-law of Moham- 

 med. He assumed the title of shah, and intro- 

 duced the sect of Ali (the Shiite or Shiah sect). 

 The great Shah Abbas (1587-1628) introduced 

 absolute power, and made Ispahan his capital. 

 Under Shah Soliman (1666-94) the empire 

 declined, and entirely sunk under his son Hus- 

 sein. A period of revolts and anarchy followed 

 until Kuli Khan ascended the throne in 1736 as 

 Nadir Shah, and restored Persia to her former 

 importance by successful wars and a strong 

 government. In 1747 Nadir was murdered by 

 the commanders of his guards, and his death 

 threw the empire again into confusion. Kerim 

 Khan, who had served under Nadir, succeeded, 

 after a long period of anarchy, in making him- 

 self master of the whole of Western Iran or 

 modern Persia. He died in 1779. New dis- 

 turbances arose after his death, and continued 

 till a eunuch, Aga Mohammed, a Turkoman 

 belonging to the noblest family of the tribe of 

 the Kajars, and a man of uncommon qualities, 

 seated himself on the throne, which he left to 

 his nephew, Baba Khan. The latter began to 

 reign in 1796 under the name of Futteh Ali Shah, 

 and fixed his residence at Teheran. This mon- 

 arch's reign was in great part taken up with 

 disastrous wars with Russia and Turkey. In 

 1813 he was compelled to cede to Russia all his 

 possessions to the north of Armenia, and in 

 1828 his share of Armenia. Futteh Ali died in 

 1834, leaving the crown to his grandson, Me- 

 hemet Shah, during whose reign Persia became 

 constantly weaker, and Russian influence in the 

 country constantly greater. He died in 1848, 

 and was succeeded by his son, Nasr-ed-Din, 

 born 1829. He had to suporess a number of 

 insurrections, and in 1851 a serious rebellion of 

 the pure Persian party in Khorassan, who re- 

 fused obedience to the Kajar Dynasty on relig- 

 ious grounds. In May, 1852, he annexed the 

 Sultanate of Herat, but was compelled to re- 

 linquish it by the British, and a second occupa- 

 tion in 1855 resulted in the landing of a Brit- 

 ish force on the Persian Gulf, the capture of 

 Bushire, and the Peace of Paris (March 3, 1857). 

 Persia has since come into the possession of por- 

 tions of territory formerly belonging to Oman, 

 Afghanistan, and Beluchistan. On the north- 

 east the boundary between Persia and the 

 Russian territory beyond the Caspian, after re- 

 maining long uncertain, was settled in the end 

 of 1881, the lower course of the river Atrek, 

 and farther east certain mountain ridges north 

 of that river, forming the new boundary. Shah 

 Nassr-ed-Din visited Europe thrice, and his 

 successor, Muzaffer-ed-Din, in 1905. Upon the 

 death of the latter, he was succeeded by the 

 present monarch, Mahomed Ali Mirza, on Jan- 

 uary 8, 1907. 



Philippine War. When the Philippines 

 were taken by the United States an insurgent 

 army was operating against Spain. After assist- 

 ing the United States troops, Aguinaldo turned 

 upon them, desiring absolute freedom of control. 



February 4, 1899, Aguinaldo's army of Filipinos 

 made a night attack near Manila. Although the 

 insurgents were driven bapk with great loss, the 

 Americans lost forty-nine soldiers, and 148 were 

 wounded. Admiral Dewey's ships could not 

 begin their firing until daylight, their second 



j Sunday morning engagement in Eastern waters. 



i Then they did effective work in shelling the 

 trenches of the insurgent army. About 13,000 

 men of the Eighth Army Corps, under Major- 

 General E. S. Otis, participated in this initial 



: fight of the new conflict in the Philippines. 



i From this time on with general success the 

 Americans gained ground, though slowly. April 

 26th the insurgents, using artillery for the first 

 time, were defeated by Colonel Funston, who 

 captured many prisoners. May 23d, Lawton, 

 under orders of General McArthur, arrived with 

 his command at Malolos, having marched 120 

 miles in twenty days; had twenty-two fights, 

 captured twenty-eight towns, destroyed 300,000 

 bushels of rice, killed 400 insurgents, wounded 

 double that number, and lost only six men 

 killed and wounded. July 30th, near Calamba, 

 an American detachment suffered a loss of seven 

 killed and twenty-three wounded. In August a 

 treaty-like arrangement was made with the Sultan 

 of the Sulu Islands; a part of the agreement 

 provides for the United States continuing the 

 pension of $4,000 per annum formerly paid by 

 Spain; the United States flag to be paramount, 

 and the Sultan to repress piracy, being among 

 the stipulations. In this month, also, Agui- 

 naldo, the insurgent chief, was successful in 

 eluding all efforts to capture him, until April, 

 1901, when he was secured by means of a strata- 

 gem by General Funston, of Kansas Volunteers; 

 he was rewarded by being breveted Brigadier- 

 General in the regular army. December 3, 1900, 

 the gallant General Lawton was killed while 

 assisting a wounded soldier. A series of desul- 

 tory skirmishes have since occurred with the 

 half-civilized natives, which could not be inter- 

 preted as actual warfare. 



Portugal. The name Portugal is a cor- 

 rupted form of that of the hill fort, Portus Cale, 

 which stood on the south bank of the Douro, 

 and is now one of the suburbs of Oporto ("the 

 harbor")- The Carthaginians under Hamilcar 

 subdued the region, and were followed by the 

 Romans. In the Fifth Century A. D., Lusi- 

 tania, like the rest of the peninsula, was overrun 

 by the Visigoths, and in the Eighth Century was 

 conquered by the Arabs. The warlike Fernando, 

 King of Leon and Castile, in the course of 

 marauding expeditions conquered and occupied 

 the important city and stronghold of Coimbra, 

 in 1064. His son, Alonso IV., seized his brother's 

 territory of Galicia, which included part of the 

 north of Portugal. Meanwhile the long wars 

 were attracting to the Christian courts and 

 camps of Spain the flower of European chivalry. 

 Two knights of the House of Burgundy, Counts 

 Raymond and Henri, acquired the highest favor 

 with Alonso. Count Raymond received, with 

 the hand of the king's daughter, the government 

 of Galicia and Portugal, but after a terrible 

 defeat near Lisbon, in 1095, he was deemed too 

 weak to hold the outlying viceroyalty, which 

 was given to Count Henri, the husband of 



