1887.] 
E. E. Oliver —The Safari Dynasty of Persia. 
43 
the massacre of all the royal princes at Qazwin, save one ’AH Mirza, 
whose eyes he put out. Tahmasp’s eldest son Muhammad had, owing 
to a natural weakness of his eyes, been supposed incapacitated for the 
succession. As above noticed, he had been made governor of Khurasan, 
and subsequently had gone with his eldest son Hamzah to Shiraz, leaving 
an infant son ’Abbas, as nominal governor of Khurasan under a regent. 
Isma’il now sent off orders to Hirat and Shiraz for the immediate 
massacre of Muhammad and all his family, but hardly had the mandate 
for the murders been dispatched, when a breathless messenger sped 
with the news that Isma’il himself was dead. A midnight debauch, 
with a seller of sweetmeats for a boon companion, an unusual quantity 
of liquor, with too much opium, and the king was found dead in a room 
at the confectioner’s (985 H.). 
Muhammad 985—994 H. 
• 
On Isma’il’s death Muhammad, often called Khudabanda “ the 
slave of God ” was instantly proclaimed king (badshah). His first act 
was to put to death Pari Khan Khanam,* and the Chirkas chief, and his 
next, to entrust the charge of the empire to a somewhat able Wazir, 
Mirza Sulaiman, a man whom he subsequently sacrificed. Muhammad’s 
whole character was as weak as his eyesight; he was dissipated and a 
coward, and under his feeble rule the empire of Tahmasp began rapidly 
to fall to pieces. The year following his ascension, 986 H., saw Persia 
invaded by the Turks, the Uzbaks, and the Qipchaq Tatars. Affairs in 
Khurasan fell into the wildest anarchy, and in 990 H. the nobles there 
advanced to Nishapur, and proclaimed his son ’Abbas the king of 
Persia. Muhammad’s first campaign was an ineffectual effort to take 
Turbat. His next the siege of Hirat defended by ’Abbas 991 H., where, 
notwithstanding he handed over the Wazir Sulaiman to the vengeance 
of the Qazalbash chief, he entirely failed to establish his authority. 
In 991 H. his cruelty had involved him with the Turkman tribes of 
Tukulu, and in 993 H. these internal troubles encouraged the Constanti¬ 
nople Sultan11 to invade Persia, whose general ’Usman Pasha succeeded 
in taking Tabriz, Muhammad’s own tribal chiefs refusing him aid. 
Hamzah Mirza, his eldest son, to some extent extricated his weak father 
from his difficulties, compelled the rebel chiefs to submit, and by 
reprisals forced the Turks, whose general ’Usman was dead, to consent 
to peace. But in 994 H. Hamzah was unfortunately stabbed by a 
barber, and Muhammad’s power practically terminated from that date.f 
* [See note on p. 42. Ed.] 
f Murad III bin Salim 982 to 1003 H. 
