51 
1887.] E. E. Oliver— The Safwi Dynasty of Persia. 
and when in 1130 H. Mahmud slew him with his own hand, the latter was 
at once hailed as king. The failure of the Persians to hold their own 
in other directions encouraged Mahmud to attack them, and in 1133 H. 
he invaded Persia by way of Kirman, which immediately submitted. 
He was, however, shortly after met and driven back by the Persian 
general, Lutf ’Ali Khan. The following year this very general was dis¬ 
missed, a signal for his army to disperse, while another brother Fath 
’All Khan the prime minister, was deposed and blinded, by which or¬ 
ders of the wretched court of Isfahan the Shah lost the best of his advi¬ 
sers. This brings us down to 1134 H. 
Serious troubles in other quarters have been referred to. In 
1132 H. the Kurds had advanced to Hamadan, and committed robberies 
under the very walls of Isfahan. The Uzbaks had carried terror all 
over the northern part of Khurasan. In Daghistan, on the western 
side of the Caspian, the Lesgis were masters of Ganja and Shamakhi, and 
in 1134 H. w r ere at the gates of Irwan. Hirat had revolted, and the 
Abdali Af gh ans, under Asadu-llah Khan, entirely defeated 30,000 Per¬ 
sians under Safi Quli IQian, and threatened Mashhad. The Arabs of 
Muscat were recovering the islands in the Persian Gulf. Even the 
elements added to the general misfortunes : Tabriz was destroyed by an 
earthquake, in which 80,000 persons are said to have perished, and 
astrologers held that an extraordinary dimness of the atmosphere por¬ 
tended the destruction of Isfahan. The prophecy was not long unful¬ 
filled. Mahmud renewed his attempt with a larger and better ap¬ 
pointed army, overran the whole of Southern Persia, taking city after 
city, by Sistan, Kirman, Y azd, and finally defeated Shah Husain’s 
army at Gulnabad, 3 miles from Isfahan. The victory placed the 
capital at his mercy, suburb after suburb fell, Farahabad, Julfa, 
’Abbasabad, and Ben-Isfahan. Finally starved to the direst stage 
Husain surrendered his capital, and marching through the streets in 
deep mourning, with his own hands placed his royal plume in the turban 
of Mahmud, and in a somewhat dignified speech, wished him prosperity. 
The Ghilji king had become the Shah of Persia, and the Safwi dynasty 
was practically at an end, 1135 H. (23rd October, 1722 A. D.) 
THE AFGHANS IN PERSIA. 
Mahmud 1135—1137 H. 
• 
The Af gh an rule—it could hardly be called government—in Persia 
was short; less than eight years, but they were eventful years, and for 
the country ruinous. Mahmud, who in some respects just missed being 
a great man, showed at the commencement of his reign a certain amount 
