AMEEN-AD-DOWLAH. 
131 
As the modern state of Ispahan is in great measure identified with 
the Ameen-ad-Dowlah, and as his history gives great insight into the 
vicissitudes of Persian life, the following account of him may, I hope, 
be found acceptable. He was originally a green-grocer in Ispahan, of 
which city he and his family are natives. His first rise from this 
humble station was to become the Ket Khoda (or deputy) of his mahdly 
or division ; his next, to become that of a larger mahal: he then was 
promoted to be the Kelanter, or mayor, of the city; and thence he 
became the Thaubit, or Chief, of a rich and extensive district near 
Ispahan, where he acquired great reputation for his good government. 
He afterwards made himself acceptable in the eyes of the late King, by 
a large peesh-kesh, or present; and as the then Governor of Ispahan 
was a man of dissolute life, oppressive and unjust, he succeeded in de¬ 
posing him, and was himself appointed the Beglerbeg: here, from his 
intimate knowledge of the markets, and of all the resources of the city, 
and of its inhabitants, he managed to create a larger revenue than had 
ever before been collected. He became the partner of every shop¬ 
keeper, of every farmer, and of every merchant; setting up those with 
capitals who were in want, and increasing the means of others who 
were already in trade. He thus appeared to confer benefits, when, by 
his numerous monopolies, he raised the prices of almost every commo¬ 
dity. But as this revenue was apparently acquired without the oppres¬ 
sion of the peasant, his reputation as a financier greatly increased; and in 
spite of all the opposition of his enemies, he advanced rapidly in the 
confidence of the reigning monarch, and in the honours to which it 
led. When the present King came to the throne, his zeal, his devoted¬ 
ness, and particularly his presents, secured to him a continuation of 
the royal favour, and at length he rose to be the Ameen-ad-Dowlah, 
the second Vizier of the state. How he acquired the riches which first 
enabled him to emerge from his green-grocer’s stall, is not exactly 
known. His enemies say, that during the last civil wars in Persia, a 
string of Jaafer Khan’s mules were passing close to his house, in the 
middle of the night, when two of them by chance were detached from 
the rest: that they strayed into his yard j and that they happened to 
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