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Heg.1144,

Armiaud was but just embarked to return home, J.C. 1732. loaded with the favors of the grand vizier, when & 1145. that minister was depofed by the intrigues of the kiflar aga, the mufti, and the valid fultanefs, pofed. who perfuaded Mahmout, that Topal Ofman

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protected the Giaurs too openly. The emperor liftened much to his mother; but he would not punish a man who had done good. Ali bafhaw, who commanded in Georgia, was recalled to come and govern the empire under the orders of the imperious valid. Topal Ofman was fent in the place of the new grand vizier, with the title of bafhaw of three-tails.

He is de

and J.C.1733Heg.1145, He & 1146.

with Perfia

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Topal Ofman poffeffed talents for war, foon found an occafion to exercise them. was hardly arrived at Teflis, when he learned the The war news of a third revolution in Perfia. Thamas recomKouli-khan, notwithstanding the fignification of Thamas the name which he had taken, having declared khan emhis difapprobation of the peace concluded by his master and mafter without his participation, had entered If- regency. pahan, fhut up Shah Thamas in a close prison, and caufed a child of that prince, about fix weeks old, to be proclaimed fophi of Perfia. He had declared himself regent of the kingdom under the name of this child; and the troops had acknowledged him without any one's prefuming to oppofe his defign, or even murmur in favor of the dethroned prince. Thefe commotions had been foreseen at Conftantinople some time before they happened, becaufe Thamas Kouli-khan had prefumed

VOL. IV.

Y y 2

J.C.1733. fumed to write in the name of his mafter, to difHeg.1145, & 1146. claim the peace which had been concluded; and that a few days after, fresh dispatches had arrived from Ifpahan, by which Shah Thamas in his turn difclaimed his minifter. When Topal Ofman wrote to Conftantinople that Shah Thamas was dethroned, they had juft learned there that the Ruffians had concluded a peace with Perfia, and that all the efforts of the new ufurper were going to be turned against the Porte. Mahmout wrote a circular letter to all the Perfian governors to exhort them to be faithful to the fophi, reminding them how much mischief the preceding revolutions had done their country.

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Meanwhile Thamas Kouli-khan, who had confirmed the peace made with Ruffia, menaced Bagdad. The bafhaw of that place had fhut himself up there with a ftrong garrison. bafhaw of Aleppo had received orders to join Topal Ofman, bafhaw of Teflis. All the beglerbegs and fangiacs of Afia had likewife fent off the corps that they commanded, to increase the army of Topal Ofman. This general, who knew the value of time, had haftened to fuccour Bagdad before all these troops had joined his army. kept Thamas Kouli-khan in obfervation, and prevented his beginning the fiege; but he would not give him battle 'till he should be the strongest. Battle near At length, as foon as he had gotten together an gained by hundred and fifty thousand men, he began his march to attack the Perfians. Thamas Kouli

Bagdad,

Topal Of

man.

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khan

Heg.1145,

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khan would rather go against an enemy than wait .C. 1733 for him in a disadvantageous fituation: in order & 1146. to defend his camp against the garrison of Bagdad, which he knew to be confiderable, he left twenty thousand men there. The battle was long and bloody; the difpofitions of Topal Ofman were fo made as to enable his army to furround the Perfians. Notwithstanding their valour and the talents of their general, after an uninterrupted ftruggle of feven hours, they took to flight, leaving thirty thousand dead on the field of battle. Thamas Kouli-khan had been dangerously wounded in the beginning of the battle; this misfortune contributed greatly to the defeat of his army. The garrifon of Bagdad fallied out to attack the guard of the camp, which was presently put to flight. The Turks pillaged the tents of this Perfian who two days before had menaced to fack Bagdad and drag all thofe who fhould efcape the fword into the dungeons of Ifpahan. Topal Ofman having the next day made his entry into the town, the fort of rejoicings made by the Turks fhewed that they had not yet forgotten their ancient barbarity; for, inftead of these brilliant feftivals made by the Chriftian people, where tafte, magnificence, and gaiety, reign at the fame time, the Turks, to celebrate their victory, raised, in the middle of the grand fquare at Bagdad, a pyramid compofed of all the heads of the Perfans that they could find, and gave vent to their ferocious joy at the fight of this carnage, which

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J.C.1733 fhould have occafioned only pity, difguft, and

Heg.1145,

& 1146. horror.

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fufed the

money ne ceffary to pay his troops.

Topal Ofman learned that Thamas Kouli-khan was at Hamadan, where he had gathered together the broken remains of his army, and where the neceffity of healing his wounds retained him against his will. The Turkish bashaw would willingly have purfued the vanquished enemy; but he wanted the means to fubfift his troops. The defolated country offered but very few reral is re- fources, and the grand vizier, Ali bashaw, who had fent Topal Ofman orders to make war, had neglected to furnish him with the money necessary to maintain a great army in a barren country, These circumstances forced the general to confent to the feparation of his forces, which he could not otherwife maintain. He fent fix thousand men to occupy the narrow paffes that separate the country of Hamadan from Georgia, and retired himself to Kerkoud with thirty thousand men only, difperfing the rest of his victorious army in the fangiacates from whence they had been taken, Topal Ofman was quiet at Kerkoud and proposed to pass the winter there, as his want of money would not permit him to profit by the victory, when he learned that Thamas Kouli-khan, whofe wounds were healed, had juft received a reinforcement of forty thousand men, which his fon had brought him from feveral provinces of Perfia. Topal wrote to Conftantinople to prefs the fuccours necessary to act against the Persian ufurper, reprefenting

J.C.

procure

representing how wrong it was to prolong the war, Heg.1743, whilft with victorious troops he could have put & 1146. an end to it gloriously in a single campaign, if he had been furnished with the money neceffary to fubfift these brave men three months only. The court of Conftantinople was at that time taken up with European affairs; and the valid fultanefs, the kiflar agafi, and the grand vizier, would fain deprive Topal Ofman of the means to acquire more glory. The general received no answer: he thought it his duty to do his utmoft to ferve He finds the cause of his master, in fpite of those who be- means to trayed him. Topal Ofman folicited the neigh- fome. bouring Arabians, in the name of the powerful emperor of the Turks, to lend him money, for which he had the greatest occafion, and which, he faid, circumstances had not permitted to be sent into Georgia, but that should be faithfully repaid, and would bring them recompenfes proportionable to the fervice. He pawned every thing that he had valuable, and, with the refources which his zeal furnished him, he affembled forty thousand men, whom he encamped under Kerkoud, as likewife the thirty thousand that he had there already behind intrenchments which he had made by way of employing his troops when they were at reft. This army was fcarcely gotten together, when Topal Ofman learned, that the defilés which he had caufed to be guarded had just been forced by the Perfians, and that Thamas Kouli-khan was advancing towards him with his

army;

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