'The dynasty of the Kajars translated from the original Persian manuscript presented by His Majesty Faty Aly Shah to Sir Harford Jones Brydges ... to which is prefixed a succinct account of the history of Persia previous to that period illustarted with plates and a map of Western Persia' [‎83] (104/684)

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PRELIMINARY MATTER. Ixxxiii
Persian troops with his own, he shortly after ordered
the Afghans to put their comrades to death ; and
even went so far, as to direct numbers of the youth
of Isfahan, capable of bearing arms, to be destroyed.
If, at first, he consulted and advised with the fallen
king, and " omitted nothing to make him easy," he
ended by butchering all his family before his face,
and wounding the sacred person of majesty, when
attempting to avert the fatal blow from a favourite
child.
Such transactions as these lead us at once to
conclude, that Tahmasp and his supporters were
sufficiently active to cause great alarm, and that
Mahmud found his new throne by no means free
from disquietude.
Yezd, the principal city of the province of Ker-
man, a place of great importance, still held out
against the Afghan, and acknowledged Tahmasp.
Mahmud attempted to reduce it, failed, and, in a
sally made by the besieged, left 3000 of his best
troops dead on the field. Flight then became ne
cessary, and his baggage and artillery were left
behind, a prize to the Persians.
This signal disgrace, the multiplied cares of
government, the return of Ashraf from Kandahar,
and the discontented state of the army, so much
affected the mind of Mahmud, that he determined
to undertake a peculiar kind of most rigid penance,
111 the hope of procuring the aid and assistance of
Heaven. This terrible trial of corporeal and mental
strength and abstraction was beyond the power of
Mahmud to support. When the time limited for
'ts continuance was finished, he issued from the