Persia has since been under many dynasties, either ruling in whole as it now is, or in parts of it. The khalifs ruled from A.D. 632 to 1258, when Mustasein was put to death by Hulaku, the grandson of Chengiz Khan ; the Samani of Bokhara, Khorasan, and Persia held sway A.D. 874 to 998 ; the Ghaznavi of Persia and India, A.D. 975 to 1183 ; the Seljuk in Iran, Kirman, and Anatolia, A.D. 1037 to 1283 ; the Mosul branch of the Atabegs of Irak, under the Seljuk, from A.D. 1127 to 1197 ; the 11-Khani of Persia, a Moghul dynasty, A.D. 1259 to 1346 ; and the Sufi and Zand of Persia, A.D. 1499 to 1797.
Under the Kaianian, Parthian, and Sassanian dynasties, the metropolis of the empire was moved from Persepolis to Pasargadre, and thence to Susa ; and in modern times the Sufi, Zand, and Kajar reigning families have successively chosen as their respective capitals, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Teheran. The last place is within a few days' march of the native districts of the ruling Kajar tribe, near Astrabad—Aga Muhammad Khan, Kajar, in 1788 having founded the present dynasty.
Kurna is one of three Apameas built by Seleucus in honour of his first wife, Apamea, daughter of Artabazus. It is situated at the point of a triangle formed by the confluence of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and was formerly a place of consequence. Kurna is situated on a low flat, with apparently a rich soil, and along the river are low banks to prevent the country being flooded. Meshed, the capital of Khorasan, forms the connecting link of Central Asia and Persia, the Caspian and Afghanistan. Meshed lies on the highway from the Caspian to Herat, distant about 215 miles from the latter place. Its garrison consists of nine battalions of infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and a couple of field bat teries, in all about 8000 men. A force of about 1000 horsemen employed in 'patrolling the road between Mashad and Khosan, the frontier town. Tabreez, the administrative centre of Azerbijan, draws to itself the commerce of Turkey, of Persia, and of Russia, and distributes around the manu factures for which it has ever been famed.
The men of Kasvin, Tabreez, Hamadan, Shiraz, and Yezd are as remarkable for their courage as those of Kum, Kashan, and Isfahan are for their cowardice. The nomade tribes are all predatory, and glory in that, but they hold thieving in detestation ; they delight to listen to romantic tales. The Iliyat nomade tribes are sincere, hospitable, and brave, but rude, violent, and rapacious. The chiefs of the military tribes form
the hereditary nobility.
From time immemorial, the three races, Persian or Pehlavi, Arab, and Turkoman, have been striving for mastery, but the Persian inhabitants of the towns and those of them engaged in cultivation are not warlike, and the contest has been between the Persian nomade and the Tuilto man nomade, the two great military classes of the population.
The Persian nomades all belong to the Pchlavi stock, though their dialects are different. They inhabit Kirmaji, nearly all Fars, a part of Irak, and the whole of Kurdistan, a region stretching through the ranges of highlands from near the entrance of the Persian Gulf in a north-west direction, along the left bank of the Tigris as far as Armenia.
The Turkoman nomades entered Persia with conquering armies, and have come from the banks of the Volga, from beyond the Oxus, and from the plains of Syria. Their habits are the same as the Persian nomades, but they speak a different language, and from the invasion of the Arabs till the death of Nadir Shah, the rulers of Persia had either been Arab or Turkoman. No member of the Persian nomads tribes had ever ascended the throne. It is this, probably, that gave rise to the bloody strife between the Zand and the Kajar tribes.
The Zand are the most illustrious of all the Persian tribes, and one of their chiefs, Karim Khan, after the death of Nadir Shah, succeeded in establishing himself in Isfahan and the southern provinces. The Kajar are a Turkish tribe brought by Timur from Syria, and settled between Elburz and the Caspian. After the death of Nadir Shah, a deadly war raged between Karim Khan, Zand, and Muhammad Hasan Khan, Kajar, which ended in Karim Khan's accession. Lutf Ali Khan (1795) was the last of the Zand rulers. —Kinneir ; Watson ; ; Wheeler ; Illorier ; Fraser; Monteith; Shiel, by Lt.-Col. MacGregor, iv. pp. 358-516.
In addition to the revolutions resulting from contests by the different races within, these terri tories have been repeatedly overrun by foreign armies, and since the beginning of the 18th century their armies have been defeated by Afghans, Russians, and British ; and Russia has compelled Persia to renounce the right of keeping war-ships on the Caspian Sea, and has established for herself a naval station on the island of Ashurada, at the south-east corner of the sea commanding the approach to Asterabad.