Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

partly in boats and r' 1
partly by swimming,
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FOUNDING OF KAJAR DYNASTY 391
the Russian general encamped for the winter
plain of Moghan, with the entire country
to the north
to take
in his possession. Aga Mohamed was preparing
the field in the spring,
when the Empress Catherine died,
he army was withdrawn, and the Russian peril disappeared.
The Shah, delighted at this extraordinary piece of
good fortune, resolved to invade Georgia again.
He
was within sixty
miles of the Araxes when the inhabitants
of Shisha, who had expelled their governor, begged him
to take possession of the fortress. After a forced march
he found the Aras in flood ;
but his men crossed it,
st fell into his hands.
and Shisha at
The Assassination of Aga Mohamed Shah, A.H. 1211
(1797). Three days after the capture of this stronghold,
the Shah was disturbed by the noise of a quarrel between
two of his personal servants, and ordered that both should
be at once put to death. Sadik Khan Shakaki interceded
for them, and on the ground that it was the night of
Friday 1
and sacred to prayer, the execution of the sentence
was deferred until the following morning. With folly
so extreme that it almost suggests mental derangement,
Aga
Mohamed allowed the condemned men meanwhile
to perform their duties about his person. At night, with
the aid of a third accomplice, they assassinated their
master. Like his victim, Shah Rukh, he died in the
sixty-third year of his age.
His Character. Thanks to Malcolm we have a lifelike
portrait of the Eunuch -Shah. At a distance his
slight form resembled that of a youth,
but a close inspection
revealed a beardless and shrivelled face horrible
to contemplate. Yet he was a remarkable man, and his
keen insight
into character, his sagacity, patience, and
courage secured to him the throne of Persia in spite of
his physical
disabilities. Malcolm states that his three
ruling passions were power, avarice, and revenge, but
that he was able to subordinate everything
to his passion
for power. This was in the first instance personal, but
it also aimed at
making the Kajars the royal tribe. Seeing
1
The night of Friday begins at sunset on Thursday.