Having restored tranquillity throughout the empire, Shah Abbas set himself to promote its general welfare and improvement. He fixed his residence at Ispahan, which he made the capital of his dominions, and greatly beautified ; and its population was more than doubled during his reign. Its principal mosque ; the noble palace of Chehel-Setoon ; the beautiful avenues and palaces called the Char-Bagh, or " four gardens ;" the principal bridge over the river Zynderood ; and several of the finest palaces in the city and suburbs, were all built by this prince. He carried, at an immense expellee, a causeway across the whole of Mazenderan ; and render ed that difficult country passable for armies and travellers at all seasons of the year. He threw bridges over almost all the rivers of Persia ; and the traveller in that country met, in every direction, the most solid and spacious cam vanscries, which had been erected by the royal munifi cence of this monarch." There have been few sovereigns more deserving of the title of Great than Shah Abbas, if we consider the sub stantial benefits which he rendered to his country. Though distinguished as a military leader, and possessed of great means, he deemed the improvement of his dominions a nobler object than the pursuit of conquest. He attended to the cultivation and commerce of Persia beyond all for mer monarchs, and his liberal policy attracted to his do minions Europeans from almost every country in Chris tendom, who enjoyed during his reign the most abundant toleration. The impression which his noble munificence in the erection of so many useful public buildings made upon the minds of his subjects, has descended to their children ; and the ready answer, which is received to every inquiry respecting the founder of any ancient build ing in this country, is, " Shah Abbas the Great," which is given not from their knowledge of the fact, but from the habit of considering him as the author of all improve ments.
During the greater part of his reign, Persia enjoyed an internal tranquillity which had been unknown for cen turies ; and the impartial Chardin has summed up his character in this respect in few words. " When this great prince ceased to live, Persia ceased to prosper." But notwithstanding this high eulogy, we cannot forget the many cruelties of which he was guilty, particularly towards the members of his own family, which neither the stern dictates of policy nor the jealousy of power can ever justify. His conduct to the princes of Georgia, and the inhabitants of that province, it is impossible to palliate ; and his unnatural treatment of his children, the assassina tion of the oldest Suffee Meerza, and the depriving the remaining two of sight, has left a stain upon his memory which his best deeds will never wash away. It is how ever consolatory to know, that he sincerely mourned the loss of his first-born ; and that the assassin, who had at first been highly rewarded for his crime, was reserved to suffer an even more than adequate punishment. He was
commanded to bring him the head of his own son. The devoted slave obeyed ; and when he presented it, the ty rant demanded, with a smile of bitter scorn, how he Felt. " I am miserable," was the reply. " You should be happy," said Abbas, "for you are ambitious, and in your feelings you are at this moment the equal of your sovereign." This monarch died in his favourite palace of Farrahabad, in Mazanderan, at the age of seventy, and bequeathed the sceptre of Persia to his grandson Sam Meerza, the son of Suffee NIcerza.
Previous to the time of Abbas the Great, the Persian princes had been brought up as soldiers, and had often the command of armies ; but the jealousy of that sovereign led him to change entirely this system of education ; and subsequent to the death of his sons, the princes of the Suffavean dynasty were from their infancy immured in the haram, and associated only with women and eunuchs. His successors consequently bore indelible marks of this pernicious system. Their characters were formed by their condition. Inexperienced and effeminate, they trusted the direction of public affairs to their ministers, and revelled in every sensual gratification.. Effeminacy begat cowardice, and cowardice cruelty ; and all who were at any time denounced as dangerous to their power, were immediately destroyed Sam Meerza was seventeen years of age when he was taken from the haram and set upon the throne of the Great Abbas. He was a tyrant without one redeeming quality. Every male of the blood-royal, however distantly related, and every officer of rank or reputation, were either put to death or deprived of sight ; and the list of his victims was swelled by a great number of females of the highest rank, among whom were his aunt, his mother, and his queen. He died at Kashan, after a reign of fourteen years, every one of which presented the same horrid and disgusting scene of barbarous cruelty.
Abbas the II. was not ten years old at the death of his father, and fell of course into the hands of his ministers, who happened to be men of devout and austere habits. But the restraint in which he was kept only led him to indulge the more when he escaped from their authority ; and though naturally humane and generous, yet in his drunken frolics he committed the most wanton cruelties. His excesses, however, were in a great degree confined to the circle of his court. His subjects at large knew him only as one of the most generous and just monarchs that ever ruled in Persia. During his reign the country enjoyed complete tranquillity ; embassies from almost every nation in Europe, as well as from India and Tar tary, visited his court, and experienced his kindness. Commerce flourished; and his hospitality and attention to strangers attracted vast numbers to his dominions. His excessive indulgence brought on an inflammation in the throat, of which he died in the thirty-fourth year of his age.