Chap, it. oj the Empire 
This was the famous Shah Ahbas, who by the many 
glorious Aflibns of his Life, juftly acquired the Title of 
Great : He v/as Governor of Khorafan during the Life 
of his Father, and at the Time he was called to the 
Imperial Dignity, was about eighteen. _ He began his 
Reign with fome Ads of Severity, which he thought 
neceffary to fix his Government on a ftable Foundation. 
When this was done, he took a Refolution of recover- 
ing all that had formerly belonged to the Perfian Mo- 
narchs, and with this View marched into the Province 
of Khorajan^ the greateft Part of which had been con- 
quered by the Usbeck Tartars. This War lafted three 
Years, and was terminated at lafl: by the total Defeat 
of Abdallah Khan, the Sovereign of thofe Tartars, who 
with his Brother^ and three Sons, was taken Prifoner. 
Shah Abbas caufed their Heads to be ftruck off, that he 
might have the more Leifure to turn his Arms againft 
the Turks. They were much more powerful and trou- 
blefome Enemies, for at that Time they were in Poffef- 
fion of a Track of Country of 150 Leagues, from 
South to North, to which Shah Abbas had a juft Claim 
frorh his Predeceflors. All this he not only recovered, 
but puftied his Conquefts as far as the Black-Sea, made 
himfelf Mafter of the City of Balfora, a great Part of 
Arabia, and by the Help of the Englijh^ recovered Or- 
mus from the Portuguefe. He was beyond all Qiieftion 
one of the ableft Princes that ever reigned in Perfia, 
but withal, ambitious beyond Meafure, and cruel to 
the laft Degree. He found the Nobility very powerful, 
and the Kuzzlebajhes not a little infolenr, he humbled 
the former, and weakned the latter, by introducing, as 
has been fhown elfewhere, a new Militia of his own 
Forming, and entirely depending upon the Crown. He 
conceived an unreafonable Jealoufy of his only Son 
Seji Mirza, on Account of the great Qualities with 
which he was endowed, and the high Refpesfts paid him 
by his Subjefts in general, and the Soldiers in particu- 
lar. To free himfelf from thefe groundlefs Apprehen- 
ftons, he caufed his Son to be put to Death, and repent- 
ing the Crime, as foon as it was committed, paffed the 
reft of his Days in Sorrow and Regret. He built the 
City of Ferabat, on the Coaft of the Cafpian-Sea, where 
he died in the Year 1629, at the Age of Sixty threCj 
after he had governed the Empire forty five Years. 
He was fucceeded by his Grandfon Sefi Mirza, who 
was but a Child •, as he grew up he dilcovered all the 
bad Qualities of his Grandfather, and none of the good 
ones, for which his Father had been fo much beloved. 
He put out the Eyes of his only Brother, and murdered 
almoft all the old Servants of his Grandfather. His 
Severities were fo great, and the Murders he commit- 
ted fo frequent, that the Women in his Haram con- 
fpired againft his Life, and gave him a Dofe of Poi- 
fon, under which he ftrugled for two Months, and at 
laft recovered. The Pains he took to reach the Bot- 
tom of this Confpjracy were fo great, that at Length 
he difcovered all who had any Concern therein, and in 
one Night caufed forty four Ladies to be buried alive 
in his Garden, amongft whom, it was faid, were his Mo- 
ther and his Aunt. Fie was brave in his Perfon to a 
Degree of Rafhnefs, but never fortunate in War, and 
the two ftrongeft Fortrefles in the Empire were loft in 
his Reign, viz. Khandahar and Bagdat, chiefly through 
his own Fault. Amongft many Vices, he had hardly 
any Virtues to compenfate them, but in Excufe of this, 
it is faid, that his Grandfather being afraid he might 
prove as great a Man as his Father, had caufed fo much 
Opium to be mingled with his Food, while a very Child, 
that it afledled his Brain. To abate that Coldnefs which 
this occalioned, he was advifed by his Phyficians to 
drink Wine, to which he took fuch a Liking, that in 
the latter Part of his Life, he was almoft always drunk, 
and in one of thefe Debauches, he ended his Days, in 
1642, after a Reign of twelve Years. His excefllve 
Cruelty caufed a Sufpicion that he was poifoned. 
He was fucceeded by h is Son Abbas II. who was his 
only Child, and yet it was by the Virtue of an Eunuch, 
that this young Prince was in a Condition to fucceed 
him. In one of his drunken Fits, he ordered that Eu- 
nuch to pafs an Iron before his Son’s Eyes, by which he 
of Ve r s I A. 9t i 
meant a Plate of Iron red hot in order to blind him, but 
making Ufe only of the Word Iron, the Eunuch very 
charitably fulfilled his Matter’s Command literally, but at 
the fame Time, diredted the Child to counterfeit Blind- 
nefs^ which he did fo effe6lually,that hist Father had not the 
leaft Sufpicion of his Seeing, even when he lay upon his 
Death-bed. It was then that he deplored the Cruelty that 
he had been guilty off, in fuch moving Terms, that 
the Eunuch, who was by his Bed-fide, told him, he had 
a Secret for reftoring the young Prince’s Sight, which, 
rejoiced him fo much, that it kept him alive till the 
next Day. As Shah Abbas II. was barely thirteen when 
he fucceeded his Father, and had been till then confi- 
dered as blind, and confequently incapable of the Im« 
perial Dignity, we may eafily conceive, that he could 
not take very early any Share in the Government, the 
the Care of which devolved upon his Mother and the 
Prime Minifter^ who was a Creature of her*s. 
Things continued in this Situation during the three 
firft Years of his Reign, when the Minifter having un- 
luckily, from the Peevifhnefs incident to old Age, let 
fall an Expreffion fomewhat difrefpedfful towards his 
Mafter, Jehean Khan, one of the moft powerful Lords 
of the Court, followed him to his Houfe and put him 
to Death as if it had been by the Order of the Shah. 
This exceedingly alarmed the Princefs his Protetftor, 
who demanded Juftice of her Son with all the Impetu- 
oflty natural to her Sex and to her Character j but Afo- 
bas, inftead of difavowing what had been really done 
without his Confent, gave to Jehean Khan the Poll of 
Prime Minifter, the vaft Eftate of the Deceafed* and 
foon after made him Generalifllmo of all his Forces. The 
wifeft of Monarchs has faid. That the Hearts of Kings 
are deep. One would have imagined, that in fo young 
a Prince, thefe high Favours had been either the Marks 
of Confidence, or the Effeds of Timidity, but they 
were neither j Shah Abbas had a Mind to fee whether 
this Lord had afted out of a true Zeal for his Service, 
or from other Motives ; he had alfo a Mind to difco- 
ver how far his Intereft reached, and to what his Views 
tended. It was not long before he difcovered all. Je- 
hean Khan knowing how much he was hated by the 
Shah’s Mother, formed a Defign of killing her in the 
Haram, which being made known to the Shah, he in a 
great Council gave him the firft Stroke with his own 
Poinard, and with the Afliftance of his Guards cut off 
him and all Friends at once. This neceffary Severity* 
difcovered his true Charafler, and made him feared by 
his Minifters, and reverenced by his Subjeds. 
He was very far from being free from Vices, being 
much given both to Wine and Women ; but was, for 
all that, a very great Prince. He retook Khandahar, 
which had been loft by his Father, and recovered leve- 
ral Places from the Turks, and was preparing to have 
attacked them with all the Forces of his Empire, when 
he was taken off by Death. There is one Point of his 
Condud which ought not to be paffed in Silence : He 
was a conftant Protedor of the Chriftians, and when 
the Sedre, or Chief of the Ecclefiafticks in Perfia, re- 
monftrated againft it, he made him this remarkable 
Anfwer, The Dominion of the Mind belongs to that Su- 
preme Being who has given me Power over the Perfons of 
my Subjeds, yet he allows them Freedom c/ Sentiment, 
and has thereby taught me, that it is not my Duty to force 
it. While they are good Subjedls, whatever their Religion 
be, I [hall conftder them as good Men. I will not fay, as 
others have done, that this Maxim fbould be written in 
Letters of Gold, but I will fay more, that it ought to 
be writ in nobler Charaders, I mean, in the Hearts of 
Princes. Shah Abbas II. died in the thirty eighth Year 
of his Age, on the 25th of September, 1 666, in the 
23d Year of his Reign. 
He left behind him two Sons, Sef Mirza, and Hamzeh 
Mirza. In a great Council held by his chief Officers after 
his Deceafe, it was refolved to raife the youngeft to the 
Throne, becaule he was the moft likely to be governed 1 
but to give this a colourable Pretence, thofe who gave 
into this Opinion, fjggefted that Shah Abbas, when he 
fet out for Tabrejtan, had returned fuddenly to Ifpahan, 
when he was a Day’s Journey from it, and that he 
camg 
