682 
P E R 
fortunate Huffeyn ; be offered Mahmud the mod advan¬ 
tageous conditions, viz. his daughter in marriage, and 
the fovereignty of three fertile provinces: but this prince 
returned for anfwer, “The king of Perfia offers me no¬ 
thing that is not at my difpofal already. The prefent 
difputeis, whether he or I fhall have poffelfion of the em¬ 
pire.” 
Such was the language of Mahmud the Afghan. The 
origin of the Afghan tribes, who inhabit the mountain¬ 
ous trafts between Chorafan and the Indus, is varioufly 
traced by different lviftorians. Some affert that this 
peopje are lineally defcended from the Jewilh tribes made 
prifoners by Nebuchadnezzar, and the principal chiefs are 
laid to trace their families to David and to Saul. Though 
their right to this proud defcent is very doubtful, it is 
evident, from their perfonal appearance, and many of 
their ulages, that they are quite a diftinft race from the 
Perfians, Tartars, and Indians; and this circumftance 
alone feems to give fome appearance of credibility to a 
ftatement, which is contradifted by many ftrong fafts, 
and of which no direft proof has yet been produced. 
There is no doubt that the Afghan tribes were con¬ 
verted at a very early date to the Mahometan religion ; 
they are of the feft of Omar. Their condition, from the 
firft periods of which we have any authentic records of 
their hiffory, has undergone very little change. Their 
chiefs have always been more anxious for perfonal inde¬ 
pendence than for the ftrength of the government under 
which they lived ; and their followers have enjoyed a fa- 
vage freedom, which made them holtile to every efl'ort to 
reduce the clans into one mafs, which it was obvious 
could never be effefted without a fubverfion of that or¬ 
der of fociety in which they were born, and in which 
they gloried. It cannot be furprifing that a nation fo 
conftituted ffiould have been unable to refill any formi¬ 
dable attack; and we find that the Afghans made hardly 
any oppofition to Mahmud of Ghizni, to Gengis, or 
Timour, and that their country was long divided between 
the monarchs of India and Perfia; but they were always 
turbulent and dangerous fubjefls. They had triumphed 
over the ruins of the noble city of Ghizni, and a family 
of their chiefs had fat upon the throne of Dellii. The 
next country doomed to fall by their arms was Perfia. 
The fiege of Ifpahan had been turned into a blockade. 
Two battles had been fought under the walls, in the firft 
of which the Perfians were fuccefsful; Mahmud’s camp 
was forced, and all his treafures taken; which fo dazzled 
the eyes of the Perfian general Havoula, that he was more 
anxious to fecure this wealth than to purfue the enemy. 
This avarice coll Perfia very dear; for the enemy took 
poffelfion again of their camp, killed the Perfians they 
found there, and purfued the main army fo warmly, that 
they came up with their rear-guard, attacked them, and 
retook all the baggage and the treafure, and brought it 
back with them to their camp. The news of this'de¬ 
feat, in which more than 15,000 Perfians perilhed, be¬ 
tides the lofs of their baggage, and 25 pieces of cannon, 
loon fpread all over Ifpahan, and fpread with it fuch 
a terror over the inhabitants, and the king himfelf, that 
if the rebels had followed their blow, they might imme¬ 
diately have been in poffelfion of the city and the king; 
but Mahmud, who could hardly credit his own happi- 
nefs, and fearful of an ambulh, contented himfelf with 
advancing llowly; and refolved, moreover, to feize all 
the paffages by which any provifion or fuccours might 
enter; that fo they might reduce it by famine, though 
they could not take it by force. 
The befieged, beholding their town thus blocked up 
on every fide, began to refleft on the miferies of the ap¬ 
proaching famine, demanding earnellly that they might 
be permitted to Pally and engage the foe : but Havoufa, 
who, it was afterwards difcovered, was fecretly in the in- 
terefl of Mahmud, did all in his power to prevent it; tel¬ 
ling them this was not a proper time, that he waited the 
command of the king; and that, as foon as ever there 
S I A. 
was a favourable opportunity, he would not fail to ad ver- 
tife the kingof it. This opportunity, however, was (low 
in coming ; provifions began to fail, and feveral of the 
people were already dead by famine. The nobles, as 
well as the common people, were fenfible how abfolutely 
neceljjary it was to open a paffage whereby neceffaries 
might be brought into the city: but the king, whofe 
fear and indolence had Ihut him up in his palace, would 
give no ear to any advice; on the contrary, he feemed 
to take offence, as if their petitions to lave themfelves by 
their arms had been an infult upon his authority ; and 
behaved towards his people, in this diftrefs, with impru¬ 
dence and cruelty hardly to be paralleled. This unac¬ 
countable conduft of the king had certainly occafioned a 
general infurreftion in the city, if Achmet Aga, a man 
valiant and generous,and extremely attached to the king, 
had not appeafed the minds of the difcontented, by put¬ 
ting himfelf at the head of the troops, to go forth imme¬ 
diately, and give battle to the enemy. In the beginning 
of July, 1722, this fally was made with about 30,000 
men : though they were fuftained but weakly by Havoula, 
they had all the fuccefs they could hope for : they flew 
2000 Afghans, and obliged more to retire ; they feized on 
feveral of the avenues, and opened a paffage for provifions 
to enter the city. 
This fortunate expedition gave great joy to the inha¬ 
bitants, but it was not long-lived ; for Havoufa, who be¬ 
fore only privately favoured the caufe of Mahmud, now 
declared openly for him, and,joining his forces with the 
enemy, they charged Achmet Aga in fropt, drove him 
from the polls he had taken, and put all the Perfians they 
found there to the fword,and purfued the reft fo fall, that 
they could hardly fave themfelves in the city. This trea- 
fon of Havoufa, and the defeat of Achmet Aga, damped 
at once the courage of the befieged, and took from them 
all hope of ever being relieved. The king, more fenfible 
than any of this misfortune, and not knowing how to aft, 
ordered Achmet Aga to be called, and publicly blamed 
him for giving too eafily into the defires of the people; 
he charged him with imprudence, and want of duty, in 
attacking the enemy’s intrenchments without fpecial or¬ 
ders ; and faid, the revolt of Havoufa was occafioned by 
his ralhnefs, in putting himfelf at the head of the troops, 
when the general might with realon believe himfelf in¬ 
jured and his authority flighted. Achmet Aga faid what 
he could in his defence, and endeavoured to make the 
king fenfible that necelfity, the public welfare, and the 
fafety of his majelly’s perlon, were the foie motives that 
urged him to this enterprife ; that, as to Havoula, he was 
known a long time to have kept a fecret correfpondence 
wfith the rebel ; that the little defire he always Ihowed to 
oppofe him, and his great application to remove every 
thing that might check his viftories, w'ere evident proots 
of his infidelity. But, the king being unwilling to hear 
Achmet Aga on that head, the brave man, unealy at his 
mailer’s unjult reproaches, the next night, believing he 
could no longer live with honour, fwallowed poifon, of 
which he died in three or four days. The lofs of this 
great man, whofe compofition was jullice, generofity, and 
good nature, added to the general grief of the people; 
and of the king too, who, having too late correfted his 
prejudices againft him, had refolved to intrull to-him the 
care of defending the city, which had indeed need of fuch 
a governor, in the miferable fituation to which it was now 
reduced by famine. 
Nothing could be more deplorable, than to fee to what 
extremities human nature was reduced by want of food. 
Imagine every thing painted by Jofephus of the city of 
Jerufalem when befieged by Titus Vefpalian, and behold 
all thofe.horrors in the city of Ifpahan. The king, who 
had but little experience in the art of war, and who gave 
in too eafily to the opinions of people not only unwor¬ 
thy of his confidence but incapable of giving advice, 
had, in the beginning of the fiege, publilhed an edift, 
forbidding not only the citizens, but even ftrangers, to 
leave 
