I 
Chap. II. of the Kmpire o/’ P ersia. p*5 
there muft be Complaints, more efpecially in a Country 
where the Law not only tolerates, but encourages fuch 
Complaints. But what then ? The Shah Oiut himfelf 
up in his Palace, and would not hear them. Memo- 
rials and Petitions might be drawn, and Means might 
be found to get them prefented. All this was done, 
but the Shah would never trouble any Body but his 
Eunuchs to read them ; and when Felons are Judges, 
Virtue is the only Thing that is thought a Crime. 
Affairs being thus in a State of Depravity, and 
the Empire in a Manner ripe for Deftruftion, we are 
next to fee how this was brought on and in- 
deed it happened in a Manner, which, for any Thing 
that has occurred to me, there is nothing in Hiftory 
can parallel. At the Time Georgia fubmitted to Shah 
Abbas, it was agreed, that the Princes of that Country 
fhould be dependant only upon the Perfian Emperors, 
in the fame Manner that Crim fartary does upon the 
furks ; and this Capitulation was ftridly obferved till 
this wife Miniftry thought fit to violate it more than 
once, which induced the reigning Prince, to take fuch 
Meafures as he thought requifite to fet him beyond the 
Reach of their Power. The Council of Eunuchs were 
too cunning for him ; they were informed, that his 
Army confiffed of feveral fmall Bodies of Troops com- 
manded by their refpeftive Chiefs ; to thefe they offer- 
ed. large Sums of Money, and by Degrees drew the 
greateft Part of them to quit the Service of the Prince j 
upon which he retired with his Familiy and his Riches 
into the Mountains. Upon a little Refle(d:ion, he con- 
ceived an Opinion, that thofe who bribed with Money, 
might be bought with Money ; and therefore fending 
an Agent to Ifpahan, he cancelled his Crime with Gold, 
and got himfelf reflored. Some Time after, the 
Mogul fent an Embaffy, in which he demanded the 
City and Principality of Khandahar, in Terms that 
aftonifhed the Cabinet-Council of Shah Huffein. If 
they were attacked by the Mogul, it was requifite to 
have a General and an Army ; and therefore like great 
Politicians, becaufe they knew this Prince of Georgia 
would fight, they fent him to command in Khandahar, 
and allowed him to name a Lieutenant to command 
in his own Principality. This reftoring a Man after 
a Rebellion, and giving him a fecond Principality for 
the Courage he had fhown in his Rebellion, was a Po- 
licy fo refined, that none but thefe great Men could 
ever have found it out. 
The Prince of Georgia was fent to lihandahar, in the 
Year 1704, and he had not been long there, before he 
difcovered a Perfon as capable of making that Princi- 
pality revolt, as he was of raifing an Infurreftion in his 
own Country. The Name of this extraordinary Perfon, 
was Mtr Vaez, whom our Gazettes call Miriweis, and 
whom they reprefent as fprung from the Dregs of the 
People ; this however is an Untruth : Fie was a Man of 
great Quality in that Country, and a kind of Receiver- 
General of the Shah’& Revenue, in which Poft he beha- 
ved with fuch Honour towards the Court, and fo much 
Tendernefs towards the People, as gained him Credit 
with the one, and procured him the Affeftion of the 
other. The new Khan was by no Means pleafed with 
him, and reprefented therefore to his Friends at Ifpahan, 
that this Man muft be fent for. If either he or they 
had ftruck off his ITead, for prefuming to be wife and 
honeft under fuch an Adminiftration, there had been an 
End of the Matter, but they brought him to Ijpahan, 
and there he foon faw that his Wifdom was much fu- 
perior to that of the Cabinet Council •, but that as for 
Honefty, it was become a ufelefs and dangerous Thing ; 
fo he parted with it immediately, and became as arrant 
a Courtier as the beft of them. 
In 1709, he made a Journey to Mecca, with much 
Show of Religion, one of the beft Cloaks in the World 
for a bad Defign. His Countrymen were not of the 
eftablifhed Church, but of the Seed; of Sunnis, which is 
the fame Religion with the furks of Mecca ; therefore 
he got a Fefta or folemn Decifion of the Head of the 
Law, importing, that his Countrymen might very law- 
fully take up Arms againft their Sovereign, as a Here- 
VoL. IF CXXXIF 
tick, and break all their Oaths to him without Perjuf 7 * 
Upon his Return to IJpahan, he contrived a Story ot art 
Attack that was to be made upon the Perfian Empire 
by the Mufeovites and by the Mogul, fuggefting, that it 
was highly probable, that the Prince of Georgia^ & Lieu- 
tenant would revolt to the former, and himfelf go 
over to the latter. Upon this the Eunuchs fent Mir Vaez 
to watch over the Prince’s Condueff at Khandahar, and 
it is certain, that he took Care the Prince of Georgia 
fhould do them no Hurt, for under Colour of a Recon- 
ciliation, he affaffmated him in his own Palaccj and by 
the Affiftance of his Countrymen, maffacred moft of his 
Troops ; fending up a very formal Excufe to Ifpahan, 
that the Prince was an Oppreffor, and his Soldiers ob- 
ferved no Difeipline, and therefore they had been tempt- 
ed only to take the Liberty to knock their Brains out, 
but hoped they would believe, that notwithftanding this^ 
they were as good Subjefts as ever, 
At this very Moment Mir Paez had declared himfelf 
Prince of Khandahar, and upon producing the Fefta 
beforementioned, all his Countrymen adhered to him 5 
it was however two Years before they were thoroughly 
perfuaded at Ifpahan, that the Thing was really fo, and 
that they had no more to do with Khandahar as Sove- 
reigns, than with any Province in China. This forced 
them to raife an Army under the Command of the 
new Prince of Georgia, to which they added a Body of 
Perfians, and fent them againft Mir Vaez ; but partly 
through the Difpute between the two Nations, and 
partly through the Treachery of fome of the Council 
at Ifpahan, viho held a Correfpondence with Mir Vaez, 
this Army was routed, and their Commander killed. 
Some other Attempts were made, but made in a more 
feeble Manner, and at laft the Thing was no more 
thought of, fo that Mir Vaez lived and died an inde- 
pendent Prince at his Capital of Khandahar, in 1717, af- 
ter a Reign of about feven Years. 
His Countrymen made Choice of his ilSrother to 
fucceed him, and that Brother was inclined to Peace, 
but Mir Mahmud, the Son of Mir Vaez then about fe- 
venteen, conceiving that this would be prejudicial to 
his Intereft, flipt into his Uncle’s Room one Night 
when he was afleep, and cut off his Head. He then 
fummoned the People, charged his Uncle with being a 
Tray tor to them, and produced Papers under his Hand, 
to prove his Defign of fubmitting to the Perfians. This 
had the defired Effed:, the People approved his Con- 
dud, and declared him their Prince. But it is necef- 
fary to inform the Reader, who thefe People were, be- 
caufe till about this Time, their Names were never 
heard of in Europe. The Afghans are a Nation who 
inhabit Khandahar, and moft of the mountainous 
Countries on the Frontier ; we meet with large Deferip- 
tions of them in the Perfian Authors, but they may 
be all reduced to a fingle Word, which will convey 
the Idea of them diftindly j they are Highlanders 5 
their Drefs, their Manners, their Clans, their Difei- 
pline, and their Hardinefs are precifely the fame *, they 
only differ in Religion, for the Afghans are Mabome-- 
tans, moftly of the furkifh Sed, and zealous to the 
laft Degree. 
Mahmud was firft for drawing in the reft of the Af- 
ghans in the adjacent Countries to be his Confederates j 
but their Chiefs thought themfelves as good Men as he 5 
upon which he refolved to bring that to a Tryal, and 
by beating them, made them ready to do what he would 
have them. When this was brought about, he refolved 
to invade Perfia, though all the Men in his Country 
were not capable of furniftiing an Army any Way 
equal to fuch an Undertaking. He executed it howe- 
ver with the Forces he could get together, advanced 
into the Province of Kirman, and furpriz’d the Capi^ 
tal. Thus far Things went well, but the Shah having 
caft his Eyes upon the Brother of his firft Minifter^ 
Luft Ah Kan, and made him General of his Forces, 
he advanced with a numerous Army againft the Afghans^ 
defeated them totally, and drove them back to Khanda- 
har . The Cabinet Council apprehenfive that fo great 
a Service might free the Prime Minifter from his De- 
10 Z pendance 
