"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٢‎٥] (٥٦٦/٥٥)

OPERATIONS IN PERSIA
■ • cfj. „ , 7 „„ rc n f ctrife its representative, the eunuch Agha
Foundation fifteen years 01 Sirne ^ x t' \
of Qajar Khan, crushed the Zand lea,der and founded the
dynasty, q • dynasty, which was still in power m •
^ On the death of Nadir, Georgia, throwing off the Persian
yoke had annexed territory up to the river Aras and m 1793
had formed an offensive and defensive alliance with Russia.
Two years later, Agha Muhammad Khan retook the country
before Russia could come to its assistance. Though the
Empress Catherine recovered it in the next year just before
her death, her son Paul abandoned it again as soon as he came
to the throne Agha Muhammad Khan, a sagacious and
courageous ruler with a justifiable reputation for vindictive
cruelty and avarice, was assassinated in 1797, and was succeeded
by his nephew Fateh Ali. ^ . T
British Soon after the latter’s accession, the British m India, appre-
diplomacy, h ens i ve 0 f a n Afghan invasion and of French designs, started
negotiations to induce the Shah to continue hostilities against
the Amir of Kabul. Captain Malcolm, the first English diplo
matic envoy to Persia since the reign of Charles II, was success
ful in 1800 in concluding a political and commercial treaty.
The Shah agreed to make no peace with the Amir of Kabul
unless he renounced his designs on the British possessions in
India, while the British envoy agreed to furnish munitions
of war to the Shah in the case of Afghan or French attack;
French subjects were not to be allowed to settle in Persia,
and British and Indian merchants were to be granted certain
trade privileges.
In the same year the Emperor Paul of Russia, who with
Napoleon was discussing plans for the invasion of India, sent
Georgia military assistance against Persia. The feeble King
of Georgia, much against the wishes of his subjects, was
induced to renounce his crown in favour of the Czar ; and m
1801 Paul started the Don Cossacks on a march to India,
which his death, however, stopped at the Volga. For a short
time after this there was a cessation of Russian activity in
Trans-Caucasia ; but in 1804 they sent a force against Erivan,
France and and Napoleon, on the eve of declaring war with Russia, proposed
Persia, 1807 . a Franco-Persian alliance against her. Fateh Ali, who had
rejected French overtures two years previously owing to his
agreement with the British and who had by this time applied
to both Calcutta and London for assistance against Russia,
temporised. But the East India Company, no longer afraid
of Afghanistan or France, was indifferent, and the British
Government procrastinated. On the other hand, Russia