and Hussein, the last of the Sophys possessed of power, surrendered his throne, and person to the Afghan Khan. The beginning of the new king's reign promised well for Persia, but maddened by disease he committed savage cruelties, and was at length put to death by his own family. Ashruff, his successor, also opened his reign favourably. He quieted the centre provinces of Persia, and though sorely tried by an alliance of the Turks and Russians for the dismemberment of Persia, he succeeded by great exertions in defeating the armies and designs of both powers. In the mean time Nadir Kuli, a chief of the Affshars, a Kuzzilbash tribe in north Khorasan, was consolidating his power by victories over the desert Turks, and the Abdalli Afghans. At length he got to his camp Tamasp, the son of Shah Hussein, proclaimed him Shah of Persia, and avowed himself the foe of all invaders. He defeated Ashruff in two successive battles, drove him from Ispahan to Shiraz, and from Shiraz to the desert, whence the head of the Afghan king was sent by traitors to the triumphant Nadir. Nadir having defeated the Turks, and having had himself elected Shah of Persia,* entered Afghanistan.

Nadir Shah followed the line of Alexander's march up the Helmund to Candahar. After a protracted siege he took that city, and achieved by negociation, bribery, and force, the same sort of military possession without conquest that the English did in 1839. The mountaineers were invincible, but he made leagues with their chiefs, and following the example of every great general who had beaten the Afghans, he enlisted them in his forces, and preferred them to his native troops. Half the army, with which he entered India, and plundered Delhi, was, (be it glory or shame) composed of Afghans. This enlisting of Afghans in Nadir's army was the immediate cause of the rise of the Durani emperors. Nadir, insolent from triumph, avaricious by nature, fevered by constant war, and irritated by disease, having committed many abominable cruelties, at last engaged the foreign troops in his service to murder the Persian soldiery in his camp near Mushed.

This horrid project was discovered by the Persian generals, who resolved to be before-hand with him. On the evening of that night in which his design was to have been perpetrated, they slew him in his tent. The Persian soldiery united, warned, and indignant, were too strong, and too steady to suffer from the attack of Nadir's brother conspirators, and before another sun had set, that host which had overthrown Turk, Tartar, and Indian, "melted from the field."

It was then (in the autumn of 1747) that Ahmed Khan of the Abdalli Afghans, one of Nadir's principal generals, and three thousand of his national cavalry, turned their horses heads towards home. Defeating the

This event took place on the plains of Mogan, on the borders of the Caspian, in the year 1736. The election of a successful general to the throne, in an assembly surrounded by 100,000 veterans, was a natural occurrence enough, but the condition on which he accepted the crown, namely, that the army and the nation should renounce the tenets of the Sheah sect, and adopt those of the Sunis, is almost without a parallel.

Persian detachments and seizing a convoy of treasure on their route, they reached Candahar, bringing the welcome news of the conqueror's death. Ahmed was only twenty-three years of age, and belonged to the house of Suddozye, part of a small tribe; but he was supported by Haji Jumal, and the Barukzyes; he was already famous as a leader and surrounded by veteran troops- he was crowned shah of all the Afghans. Possessed of fine talents, a warrior trained in the best school, (the school of victory,) a subtle and firm politician, he created a great empire, and made Cabul once again, what it had so often been before-the political centre of Asia. Six expeditions into India added the Punjab, Cashmere, and both banks of the whole Indus to his domain. Twice he plundered Delhi, and his marches, after its second conquest, extended three degrees east of that capital, and he nominated the governors of all Upper India. His power was then at its height, for he had just before broken the Mahrattas on the famous plains of Panniput, the ground of a hundred "king-making victories." Add to his Indian wars, three expeditions into Persia, which subdued Khorasan; the conquest of Balkh, the confirmation of his feudal superiority over Scinde and Beluchistan, and you have the achievements of a life of unceasing action.

Ahmed dying in 1773, was succeeded by his son, Timur Shah, a weak man. Protected by the reputation of his race, and the institutions of his father, Timur tottered through twenty years of empire,* without one success worthy of remembrance, or one misfortune deserving of sympathy, Timur died in 1793, and left a numerous progeny, of whom the most notable were Humayun the eldest, Zeman, Mahmud, Sujah, (the present or late shah, for a report of his assassination reaches us, as we write) and Eyub. The four last have been at different times on the throne of Cabul, and two of them are still alive; Zeman blind, and an English pensioner at Ludianah; Eyub also a pensioner. Mahmud died in 1829. When Timur died at Cabul, his first-born, Humayun, was governor at Candahar, and Mahmud at Herat. Availing themselves of these circumstances, the favourite wife of Timur, and the khan of the Barukzyes, Sirafraz (the grandson of Haji Jumal) succeeded in placing Zeman on the vacant throne. The new monarch suppressed the first insurrections of his

*The empire left by Ahmed Shah, extended 19o in longitude, from Tubbus in Khorasan, to the east point of the valley of Cashmere; and 13o of latitude, from the Kori mouth of the Indus, to the Oxus above Balkh. This empire was symmetrical enough in shape, but its parts had no cement but force. No doubt that force was advantageously placed, for it consisted of the Afghan tribes who occupied the great mountain regions, forming the core of this huge empire. The country of the conquerors was hard to attack, while the Afghans seemed to hang on the declivities of their mountains, ready to fall down on any province that might revolt. They, in this too, possessed the immense strategical advantage of moving an army from a centre upon any point of a surrounding circle, and yet, from the nature of their country and people, having the rear of that army secure. These were the causes which enabled not only that great commander Ahmed Shah, but his feeble descendants, to hold together such an unnatural and mischievous combination.

brothers, and was thereupon acknowledged by all the provinces of the empire. Enterprising, fickle, and headstrong, he made many enemies, yet subdued them as fast as they appeared. After repeated insurrections Humayun was taken prisoner, and blinded. Balkh and Scinde were compelled to pay their tribute, but the Sikhs gave him constant employment by their unceasing revolts. He repeatedly overran the Punjab. In 1797, after a brilliant campaign, he advanced to the Sutledge at the head of fifty thousand veterans, and summoned the Mohammedans to arms. A new conqueror seemed at hand, all India was in excitement, a British army marched to the frontier, and Calcutta itself trembled; but an insurrection in Khorasan dissipated the thunder cloud, and recalled Zeman from projects of conquest, to defend his heritage. This insurrection was one of the many raised by his brother Mahmud. Defeated in his internal hostilities, Mahmud sought foreign aid, and in 1795-6 the Persian king entered Khorasan with him, and overthrew the chieftain, (a grandson of the great Nadir), who held it as a fief under the shah of Cabul. The advance of Zeman from Peshawur to Herat frightened the Persians, and they abandoned their spoils. A similar result attended his march from the Sutledge to the Helmund in 1797. Once more he dashed into the Punjab, galloped over it, and received the submission of every Sikh in it, Runjit Singh among the number, and leaving that young chief as governor at Lahore, he returned to consolidate his kingdom on the Persian side.

This period, 1798-9, was the most promising part of Zeman's reign, yet his destruction was at hand. His vizier Wuffader had quarrelled with Sirafraz, and the Barukzye chiefs. They conspired-were betrayed, seized, and beheaded; but the son of Sirafraz survived, Futteh Khan, (the eldest brother of Dost Mohammed.) Futteh first fled to his castle of Girhisk, and after many adventures leagued with the pretender Mahmud, and thenceforth conducted his affairs. Abandoning foreign aid, Mahmud and Futteh penetrated into Seistan with a handful of cavalry, and marched up the valley of the Helmund. Gathering the clans of the Duranis as they advanced, they drove Zeman's master of the horse into Candahar, and laid siege to the city. Zeman was then at Peshawur, preparing for a fresh invasion of India. Surprised, and recollecting only how often he had defeated his brother, he forgot he had done so by the aid of those chiefs whom he had since alienated. He detached twenty thousand men to suppress the disturbances in Cashmere, and left his brother Sujah in cantonments at Peshawur, intending to persist in his Indian expedition. The next time he entered India he was a dethroned blind fugitive. At Cabul he discovered his danger, and sought to conciliate his khans, for he had with him many leaders, and thirty thousand soldiers. But Futteh was an over-match for him; he seized the brother of Ahmed Khan, who commanded Zeman's van guard. Ahmed was then wavering; fear for his brother's life determined him, and he joined Mahmud. The whole army followed his example, or dispersed. Zeman fled to the hills, but was taken, and his eyes were lanced. He

remained a prisoner till Sujah's accession, and since then has lived at Lahore, or Ludiana, a pensioner of England or of Runjit. The reign of Mahmud was short, but, as long as he occupied himself with show, and left the government to Futteh, fortunate-if triumph in civil war can be called fortune. In 1801 the revolts of Sujah and of the Ghiljis were suppressed. 1802 witnessed a greater triumph. On the eighth of March in that year, Sujah and twelve thousand Khybers were defeated in the plain of Peshawur: on that day the Uzbeks, who had invaded the north, were overthrown; and on the same day fifty thousand Ghiljis, divided into three corps d'armée, were routed near Logur. These events confirmed the uncertain supremacy of the Duranis; but the empire was melting away. The tribute of Scinde and the military services of Beluchistan were withheld. The Persians poured into Khorasan, and took city after city, till Herat became the frontier fort of the Afghans.

The first dethronement of Mahmud took place in the following way. There were quarrels on religious grounds between the Kuzzilbash guards, who were Sheahs, and the people of Cabul who were Sunies. One Muktar, an Afghan chief, leaguing with the priests, and taking advantage of the absence of Futteh at Herat, pushed on these quarrels as a means of revolution. A war was waged in the streets of Cabul, till the conspirators brought in large bands of the neighbouring mountaineers, who defeated the guards, and drove the king into the Bala Hissar. Sujah, who was lurking in the Khyber hills, immediately came to Cabul professing singular zeal for the Suni dogmas. Futteh and his little army, wearied with forced marches, were defeated after a hard battle close to the town, and Sujah was proclaimed king. Futteh fled to Girhisk to prepare troubles for the new shah, but his first attempts were unsuccesful, and Sujah and his vizier Muktar in repeated campaigns conquered each province as often as it rebelled. At length Muktar having subdued Cashmere, (while Sujah beat the insurgents of Candahar, and enforced his tribute from Scinde) revolted too, but was likewise unsuccessful, and lost his army and his life. Just after this (1809,) Mr. Elphinstone's embassy reached Peshawur, charged with the duty of detaching the shah from his Moslem alliances in India. While the embassy was with Sujah, fresh disturbances broke out, the army of the new vizier was slaughtered by the Cashmerians, and Mahmud with the indefatigable Futteh again appeared in arms near Cabul. The embassy therefore, disgusted at the uncertain state of the government, returned to India, having seen Sujah raise his standard a few days before they left. But fortune was against him; at Nimla, a plain near Jelalabad, his army, mustering 15,000 men, was broken by the charge of Futteh at the head of 2,000 of his mountain clan. Sujah became a fugitive, Mahmud recovered his throne, and Futteh assumed the vizierate. Futteh made a league with Runjit Singh for the joint invasion of Cashmere, but having accomplished his object with his own troops unaided by the Sikh, he refused to pay Runjit

the promised gratuity, and now the two wilyest and fiercest spirits of middle Asia came into collision. Runjit bribed the governor of Attock, and thus got possession of the western gate of the Punjab. Having secured himself on that side, he collected his battalions in the north to oppose Futteh, who descending from Cashmere engaged him on the plains of Chuch. The first line of Afghans headed by Dost Mohammed, broke Runjit's right wing, and captured the Sikh artillery, but a false report reached the victor, that his brother was outflanked and routed; while a similar lie was imposed on Futteh. The Afghans became unsteady; the Sikhs rallied, and Dost Mohammed was happy to succeed in disengaging his troops, and reaching the Indus, which he crossed in safety. Since that day the Afghans never entered the Punjab; yet Futteh defeated the Persians, reduced all the revolted provinces west of the Indus, and distributed the governments among his numerous brothers, Azim, Mohamed, &c. This led to his ruin. The shah and his son were jealous and fearful, and in 1818 the Warwick of Afghanistan was seized and blinded at Herat, by Prince Kamran, and in a few months after, he was brought, says Burnes, "blind and bound into the court of Mahmud," exposed to tortures which he bore with the calmest defiance, and was at length "cut to pieces, by the sabres of the whole court."

This cruelty was not unpunished. Futteh's brothers rose at once, and, Azim, the governor of Cashmere, rushed down furious upon Cabul; but ere he reached it, Mahmud vanished from the scene, and fled to Herat. Azim and the Barukzyes now offered the throne to Sujah, sending him a Koran as the pledge of their sincerity; but finding that his first step, on reaching Peshawur, was to displace some of their dependants, they dismissed him, and set up Eyub as a puppet King. But from the battle of Nimla the Barukzyes were the real kings, and Eyub was soon sent after his brothers. Sujah established himself in Shikarpur in Scinde, within a few marches of the Bolan pass; and here, says Burnes "The conduct of Sujah while at Shikarpur was ill calculated to support his falling fortunes. He forgot the dignity of a monarch in low intrigues with his subjects, in which he tarnished their honour as well as his own. The fitness of Sujah ul Mulk for the station of sovereign seems ever to have been doubtful. His manners and address are highly polished, but his judgment does not rise above mediocrity."

From thence he fled to Ludianah, but never ceased his intrigues. This, added to the rivalry of the clans, and the reckless spirit resulting from long civil wars, dismembered the empire. The Amirs of Scinde threw off all allegiance; Beluchistan and Balkh had done so already. Herat and its districts were in the hands of Mahmud; Runjit surprised Serinuggur, and seized the whole valley of Cashmere; then turning southward, in successive campaigns he acquired Multan, Leia, and Dera Ghazi. In 1823 he crossed the Indus a little north of where the Cabul river enters it, and marched to Nonshero. One division of the Afghans, under Azim and Dost Mohamed, were on the south bank of the Cabul