Xll 
INTRODUCTION, 
Mahomed Hassan Khan had several sons: Hossein Kooli 
Kiian, the eldest, was father to the present King of Persia, and 
was killed in a battle with the Turcomans: Aga Mahomed Khan, the 
second son, was the immediate predecessor of his nephew on the 
throne. 
Mahomed Hassan Kiian had not long assumed the crown, when 
he was opposed by Kerim Khan, a native of Courdistan; who, 
under pretence of protecting the rights of Ismael,* * a lineal descen¬ 
dant of the Seffi family, and then a child, secured to himself so large 
a share of influence and authority in the state, that he very soon 
supplanted virtually the pageant that he had erected; and, while he 
still concealed his ambition under the name of Vakeel or Regent, exer¬ 
cised all the real powers of the sovereign of Persia. The birth of 
Kerim Khan was obscure; but the habits of his early years qualified 
him for the times in which he lived, and the destiny to which he 
Nadir Shah, p. 89. His eldest son was Mahomed Hassan Khan, whose pretensions 
and rise and fall are stated fully by Olivier, vol. vi. 13-17-82, and whose history, (under 
his various names ofBABA Khan, Mumtaz Khan, Fultra Alla Khan, &c.) is noticed 
in Franklin, p. 299. Ives, p. 220. Foster, vol. ii. 199. Tooke’s Catherine, ii. 60. 
Scott Waring, &c. &c. 
* Ismael was said by his first patron, Ali Merdan Khan Backtyari, to be the son 
of Seyd Moustaph a, by a daughter of Shah Hussein. Olivier, vi. 21. He was the 
pageant recognised by three several competitors; he was first proclaimed King by Ali 
Merdan, again in 1756, by Kerim ; and a third time, in the same year, by Mahomed 
Hassan, who, like his immediate rivals, and like Nadir, still i% his first successes pro¬ 
fessed himself to be the slave of the rightful monarch. 
