E. E. Oliver —The Safwi Dynasty of Persia. 
38 
[No. 2, 
length by a contemporary, and so far as Nadir’s court is concerned, an 
eye-witness. 
Soon after Shah Isma’il founded the dynasty, Europeans appeared 
on the scene. In the memoirs of those gallant Knights, Sir Anthony 
and Sir Robert Shirley, who went to Persia in the enterprising days of 
the great Queen Elizabeth, the former of whom took service under the 
first ’Abbas, and the latter of whom went as the Shah’s ambassador to the 
Court of James the First; in the account of Father Krusinski, the 
Procurator to the Jesuits who was at Isfahan for twenty years, from 
Shah Husain to Ashraf (1705 to 1725 A. D.) ; in the tracts of 
Chardin, Tavernier, de Valle, da Silva, Herbert, Thevenot, and others ; 
and in the vernacular histories, like the Zubdatu-t-Tawarikh of Qutb 
bin Isma’il, an officer of some eminence at the Court of ’Abbas the 
Second, are to be found accounts more or less complete, covering a 
greater part of the entire dynasty. These dynastic sketches, however, 
as I have previously said, do not pretend to be more than the outlines 
of history—subject to any subsequent correction or modification, before 
they would even be capable of any detailed filling—and in the case of 
the Safwis it is necessary to condense rather than to amplify. 
In the subsequent pages I have followed mainly Malcolm’s History 
of Persia,* Jonas Hanway’s Travels,! and Mr. Stanley Lane Poole’s 
tables for contemporary dynasties^. But even in the case of a dynast)’ 
so well-known, there are still many details, historical, geographical, 
and certainly numismatic, required to make any history complete. 
More information is wanted in regard to the fortunes of the secondary 
houses, some of whom at times exercised considerable power; the 
limits within which the various princes ruled at different periods ; 
their range of mint cities ; and the identification of others no longer 
recognisable. No doubt the comparison of a sufficient number of their 
coins might enable the territorial limits of individual princes to be very 
approximately fixed, though how little can be done by one observer 
may be judged from the fact that out of several hundreds of coins sent 
to me for examination by various friends, I have only met with one 
specimen of the ’Abbas whose rule was so famous in Persia for nearly 
forty years, while I have seen half a dozen of ’Abbas III., a baby who 
occupied a nominal throne for less than four. But among the renders 
of the Journal arc most probably others who can add largely to the 
list, and who if so disposed might contribute tho most valuable data. 
# 2 VoIh. London, 1815. [A froo IVrHiun Traualation was published by 
Ihoihi’I Huirut, Professor of tho Elphinstono Colh'go in llombay, 1872. Ed.] 
t 2 Vols. London, 1753. 
\ In some cuHOB I have used Eralcino and occasionally Vambery, 
Mfrsa 
