PER 
leave the city under any pretence: befides that, whatever 
people fled thither, through fear of the enemy, from the 
neighbouring villages, were all received into the city ; lo 
that there were within it a multitude of ufelefs mouths ; 
and not only all the houfes, but the court-yards, gardens, 
ftreets, and every public building, was full; yet notwith- 
llanding this, and after the city was inverted, and the 
avenues flopped, provifions were for a little time at an 
eafy rate, but they foon became exceflively dear. Bread 
was fold in the month of July at nine or ten piafters the 
pound (about aos. Englilh), in the month of Auguft it 
rofe to thirty, in the month of September to too, and in 
the month of Odlober, when the city furrendered, it was 
at 200 piafters the pound. Horfe-flelh, on which the 
king himfelf was obliged to feed, was 1200 piafters the 
pound, and cats and dogs were dainties, only to be eaten 
by a very few, and privately ; in (hort, the mifery became 
fuch, that at laft, without horror or lhame, the people 
iiourifhed themfelves with human fielh : and one might 
behold wretches, Ikeletons themfelves, examining human 
carcafles without flelh, of which the ftreets were full, to 
find a tnorfel to fuftain the feeble remnant of their lan- 
guifliing lives, and which famine muft foon make an end 
of: others running through the ftreets with weapons in 
their hands, and deftroying the firft they could meet, and 
greedily feeding upon them afterwards ; and mothers, in- 
fenfible to the cries of the very infants they bore, mafia- 
cred and eat them. Nor was Jt only among the vulgar 
that thefe unnatural cruelties were ufed : people of the 
greateft diftindftion were obliged to come to the like ex¬ 
tremities : fome perfons indeed of honour chofe to die by 
poifon, to prevent their being reduced to thefe inhuman 
neceffities. 
In this fad fituation was the city of Ifpahan during two 
long months and a half: the number of the people who 
died was very great; the gardens and public places were 
now all turned into cemeteries, and filled with dead bo¬ 
dies; and fo many carcafles were thrown into the river, 
that in that year after the fiege, nobody could without 
horror think of eating fifh. In a climate lefs pure and 
falubrious than that of Ifpahan, the air muft have been 
infefted, and diftemper would have deftroyed thofe whom 
famine had fpared : but no contagion arofe, and the mi- 
ferable remnants of the population of the fallen capital 
were referved to witnefs the further difgrace and humili¬ 
ation of their king and country. On the 21ft of October, 
1722, the king came out of his palace, clad in deep 
mourning; he walked, attended by the nobles of his 
court, through the principal ftreets of Ifpahan : he be¬ 
wailed aloud the misfortunes of his reign ; imputed them 
to the bad advice he had received; proclaimed his inten¬ 
tion to abdicate his throne; and tried to confole the 
wretched multitude, by whom he was furrounded, with 
the hopes of more happinefs under a better government 
than his had been. This language, from a prince whofe 
faults (dreadful as their effects had been) were allied to 
the belt virtues of our nature, whofe kindnefs of heart, 
weak lenity, and extremegentlenefs of temper, had brought 
him, after a reign of twenty-eight years, to the fad and 
humble condition in which he then appeared, excited a 
ftrong and univerfal feeling of fympathy: men forgot 
their own fufferingsin contemplating thofe of their fove- 
reign. The heart of Hufl'eyn would have been wounded 
deeply by their reproaches; and he found, in the tears 
which they ftied over his fate, all the confolation that his 
fituation admitted. 
The day after that on which Hufl’eyn took this folemn 
leave of his fubjedls, he figned a capitulation, by which 
he refigned his crown to Mahmud ; and, on the 23d of 
O&ober, leaving Ifpahan, attended by fome of his nobles 
and three hundred of his troops, he moved towards the 
Afghan camp. His ungenerous enemy could not refrain 
from infulting the fallen monarch ; and the melancholy 
proceflion was commanded to halt within a (hort diftance 
of the tents, on the pretext that Mahmud was afleep. 
Vol.XIX. No. 1335. 
S I A. ' 683 
After this delay, which would have been (according to the 
ufage of the country) degrading to one of his fubjeQs, 
lie was at laft permitted to proceed to the palace of Ferra- 
habad, where he was introduced into a great hall, or fa- 
loon, in which he found his conqueror feated ; and he had 
reached the centre of this room before the haughty Afghan 
rofe to receive him. Hufl'eyn immediately addrefled him 
in the following words: “Son, fince the great fovei'eign 
of the univerfe does not will that I fliould reign any 
longer, and the moment has come which he has appointed 
for thy amending the throne of Perfia, I relign the em¬ 
pire to thee. May thy reign be profperous!” After this 
fpeech, he took the hoorah , or royal plume of feathers, 
from his turban, and gave it to the vifier of Mahmud : 
but that prince refufed to accept it from any other but 
the monarch to whom it belonged. The meek Hufl'eyn 
rofe, took it from the minifter, and, while his arrogant 
enemy remained in his feat, he placed the rich emblem of 
royal power in bis turban, and exclaimed “Reign in 
peace!” After the ufual refrefliments of tea and coffee 
had been ferved, Mahmud deigned for the firft time to 
fpeak to his captive. “ Such,” he obferved, “ is the infta- 
bility of human grandeur. God difpofes of empires as he 
pleafes : he takes them from one to give to another: but 
I promife ever to confider you as my father, and to under¬ 
take nothing without your advice.” The Afghans then 
took pofleflion of the gates of the city and palace ; and 
thus terminated the dynafty of the Sophis, which had 
been founded by Ifmael Sofi two hundred and twenty- 
three years before. 
In difpofieffing Hufl'eyn, Mahmud avenged himfelf of 
all thofe who had contributed to the ruin of the (late. 
He confirmed the Perfians in their dignities and employ¬ 
ments, except the port of grand-vizier, in which he placed 
an Afghan. Hufl'eyn gave him his daughter in marriage ; 
and, on that occafion, addrefled a circular letter or procla¬ 
mation to all Perlia, in which he enjoined the inhabitants 
to acknowledge Mahmud as their foie fovereign. 
His fon Tahmafp, or Thamas, however, did not think 
himfelf bound to obey his father’s injunction on this head; 
on the contrary, he caufed himfelf to be proclaimed king 
in Cafbin, a town of Irak. Mahmud’s condutt began to 
infpire the hatred of his fubjeCts; he faw his projects de¬ 
feated, and himfelf beginning to be treated with general 
hatred. He imputed thefe misfortunes to the anger of 
Heaven: to avert which, he impofedupon himfelf a fort 
of penance which continued fifteen days, and which had 
the effeCt of completely deranging his fenfes. His lunacy 
was accompanied with a very painful malady, which baf¬ 
fled the (kill of his phyficians ; and in this condition his 
fufferings only ferved to increafe his cruelty. His cap¬ 
tains, feeing him at the point of death, turned their 
thoughts on Afhraf; but he refufed the crown, except op 
the condition that the head of his coufin Mahmud fliould 
be brought to him. Mahmud was then in the laft llage of 
frenzy, and had but a few hours to live: thefe, however, 
were abridged, and the deftroyer of the dynafty of the 
(halls enjoyed his triumph but two years. 
Afhraf ordered all Mahmud’s guards, his minifters,and 
confidents, to be put to death 5 he did not even fpare thofe 
who had placed him on the throne, left they might do the 
fame good office for another. Mahmud’s only fon and 
his mother fuffered the fame fate. As to the Perfians, 
Afhraf pretended to fhow particular regard to them. 
The defign he had to draw prince Thamas into his power, 
and by his death tofecure the throne for ever to his family, 
made it neceffary for him to diflemble, and to make an 
outward fhow of zeal to the royal family, and to difcover 
a difpofition to place the crown upon the head of the law¬ 
ful prince. Therefore he began his reign with a vifit to 
(hah Hufl'eyn, confoled him upon the bloody aflaffination 
of his family by Mahmud, and gave him what comfort he 
could ; he caufed the fcattered bones of his relations to be 
collected, and placed them under a magnificent maufo- 
leum in the town of Kan, the ancient place of fepulture 
8 M of 
