Heg.1144, J.C.1732. army; he even received a letter from that general, 1145 who exhorted him to evacuate Georgia, "or elfe," Thamas faid he, "I will come and take you from your Kouli khan and cradle like a child." In order to understand Topal Of. man brave the meaning of this threat, it is neceffary to know, one ano procally. ther reci- that Topal Ofman, crippled with the gout, could not mount on horseback, and that he appeared conftantly at the head of his army in a fort of litter, which Thamas Kouli-khan thought fit to call a cradle, because he would fain throw ridicule on the apparent effeminacy of his enemy. The Turkish feraskier replied to this insulting letter, that he was fick and crippled; that it was impoffible for him to march to the Perfians; but that he was calmly waiting for them to come to him. The Turks beat the The Perfians appeared in effect the 22d of Perfians. October in fight of Kerkoud to the number of fixty thousand fighting men: they faw with aftonishment that the Turks were well intrenched and more numerous than themselves; for the Perfian ufurper knew very well that Topal Ofman had been obliged to feparate his army; but he knew nothing of the efforts which he had made fince to affemble troops. Topal, who had the advantage of fituation, and a decided ascendency over Thamas Kouli-khan, beat him again, killed seven thousand of his men, and took three thoufand prifoners. Crippled as he was said to be, he pursued him to Keilan, a town about eighteen miles from Kerkoud, where the ufurper reaffembled his routed army. The Persian troops had Heg.1145, On Thamas both Kouli khan afks peace of man, who him. had not had time to recover from their fright; JC. 1733though they were already intrenched, Topal Of- & 1146. man had the glory to beat them a third time. this difafter Thamas Kouli-khan changed conduct and language. He retreated with the Topal Ofremains of his army towards the defilés which it refufes it had been his misfortune to force, and fent two deputies to the vanquisher to fue for peace. Topal Ofman replied, that the invincible emperor his master made no treaties with ufurpers. But as the winter was growing fevere, and the refources which he had made fuch a good ufe of were quite drained, he feparated his army for the fecond time, and wrote from Keilan to the Porte to complain of the fhameful condition in which he was left. Origin of with Ruf The divan of Conftantinople was on the point J.C.134. Heg.1146, of entering into a war with Ruffia. Several ba- & 1147fhaws were for declaring war against that power; the war first, because a Ruffian army oppofed the paffage fa of the Tartars into Perfia, and fecondly, because the Mofcovites, in concert with Charles VI. had fent troops into Poland to fuftain the election of king Auguftus II. elector of Saxony, against that of king Stanislaus Leczinski, whom the Poles had called for the fecond time to their throne. The kings of France, Spain, and Sardinia, were united Efforts of in favor of this laft. The marquis of Villeneuve, engage the the French ambaffador at Conftantinople, had the party of orders to make the divan comprehend, that it was king of the intereft of the Porte to oppose the choice of Poland. Z z VOL. IV, the France to Porte in Stanislaus Heg.1146, J.C. 1734 the emperor of the Weft, and to place a prince on &1147. the throne of Poland who would enter into no leagues either with the house of Auftria or the emprefs of Ruffia, who should be indebted for his crown in part to the Ottoman empire, and who, united to France by gratitude and blood, would be the conftant friend of the Porte like the king his fon-in-law. The marquis of Villeneuve was ordered to send an able negotiator to the khan of the Tartars, to make that prince underftand, that the pretenfions of his crown over that of the Ruffians, from whom the Tartars had for two centuries past been demanding a tribute, could never be better realized than at the time when that nation had fent all its forces into Poland; that he could not find a finer occafion to ravage the Ukraine; and that it would be more advantageous to declare war against the Ruffians, than to experience acts of hoftility from them on the confines of Perfia, without prefuming to undertake any thing against them. The marquis of Villeneuve difpatched baron Tott, a Swedish nobleman, attached to the fervice of France, a man well skilled and inftructed in the interests of princes, who acquitted himself fo well of his commiffion, that the khan of the Tartars said publicly, he would rather lofe his crown than not procure that of Poland for king Stanislaus. The king of Poland Auguftus II. oppofed to all these schemes a great deal of money, which he scattered both in the haram and among the Otto man 1 L Heg.1146, man minifters. Eight hundred purfes given the IC. 1734 grand vizier Ali drew a prohibition to the khan & 1147of the Tartars to march any troops into the Ukraine under pain of being depofed. Nevertheless he declared war against the czarina; he repeated continually to the divan the reafons furnished him by the French ambassador, and he gave for excufe for not fending any fuccours to the brave Topal Ofman, the neceffity of fending Tartars into Perfia through the country which belonged to Ruffia. All Conftantinople was refounding with the noise of these preparations, which were made with as much pomp as flowness, when the news arrived that Topal Ofman, depending too much on his afcendency, had attacked Thamas Kouli-khan with the few troops that he had left; that the Turks had been beaten, and their general killed in the battle; that fince Death of Topal Ofthis lofs, the Perfian ufurper had recovered his man. former valour; that the broken remains of the beaten army had been driven back beyond Tauris; and that there was great reafon to fear for Bagdad. Thefe news threw Conftantinople into Difafter of a confternation, which was the more dangerous, as the jealoufy against Topal Ofman was the fole caufe of this difafter; and all the misfortunes of the war ought to be attributed to the obstinacy of the grand vizier, as he had let the fervarmy ing in Perfia be destroyed, whilft fixty thousand regular troops, affembled in Natolia, waited only VOL. IV. Zz2 for the Turks. J.C.1734 for the orders of the prime minister to repair to Heg.1146, 1147 the fuccour of Topal Ofman. A peace is concluded with Perfia, and dif. owned by the empe The difcontent was at its height, when two months after they learned that Achmet, bashaw of Bagdad, who was plenipotentiary for making a For, who peace conjointly with Topal Ofman, had concluded troops thi- a treaty with Thamas Kouli-khan, almost immedi❤ fends ther, ately after the death of his colleague, by which all Georgia was given up to the ufurper. A divan was affembled, in which the mufti, after lamenting the lofs of Topal Ofman, which he imputed less to the fword of the Perfians than to the malice of his enemies, declared, that the peace just made with the ufurper of Perfia, was against the letter and spirit of the Alcoran, which forbids to remit voluntarily to Infidels or heretics the places in which a lawful worship has been rendered to God. The difcontent of the people was fo general, and the clamours of the effendis had fo much effect, that the vizier, who had wifhed this disadvantageous peace, was conftrained to seem to difapprove it. He got the emperor Mahmout to figu the depofition of Achmet bafhaw, and the dif avowal of the peace fworn to, and he sent off Abdalla, a bashaw of three-tails and lately become brother-in-law to the grand feignior, to Perfia with fixty thousand men that had been stopped for two years paft in Natolia. But this new general had orders to evacuate all the towns in Georgia juft as he fhould be required to; not to commit any act of hoftility, either offenfive or defenfive, |