The history of Persia from the death of Nadir Shah to the accession of the present King, comprehending a period of fifty-one years, presents little else than a catalogue of the names of tyrants and usurpers, and a succession of murders, treacheries and scenes of misery.

After the assassination of Nadir, one of the most formidable of the competitors for the vacant throne, was Mahomed Hassan Khan, the head of the Cadjar tribe, and a person of high rank among the nobles of Shah Thamas, the last king of the Seffi race.3 Mahomed Hassan Khan had several sons: Hossein Kooli Khan, the eldest, was father to the present King of Persia, and was killed in a battle with the Turcomans: Aga Mahomed Khan, the second son, was the immediate predecessor of his nephew on the throne.

Mahomed Hassan Khan had not long assumed the crown, when he was opposed by Kerim Khan, a native of Courdistan; who, under pretence of protecting the rights of Ismael,4 a lineal descendant of the Seffi family, and then a child, secured to himself so large a share of influence and authority in the state, that he very soon supplanted virtually the pageant that he had erected; and, while he still concealed his ambition under the name of Vakeel or Regent, exercised all the real powers of the sovereign of Persia. The birth of Kerim Khan was obscure; but the habits of his early years qualified him for the times in which he lived, and the destiny to which he aspired. His family, indeed, was a low branch of an obscure tribe in Courdistan, that of the Zunds, from which his dynasty has been denominated; and his profession was the single occupation of all his countrymen, robbery,5 which, when it thus becomes a national object, loses in reputation all its grossness. Here he acquired the talents and hardihood of a soldier; and was renowned for an effectual spirit of enterprise, and for great personal skill in the exercise of the sword, a qualification of much value among his people. The long revolutions of Persia called forth every talent and every passion; and the hopes of Kerim Khan were excited by the partial successes of others, and by the consciousness of his own resources. He entered the field; and eventually overcame Mahomed Hassan Khan, his principal competitor, who fled and was killed in Mazanderan. The conqueror having seized and confined the children of his rival, proceeded to quell the several inferior chiefs, who, in their turns, had aspired to the succession. His superior activity and talents finally secured the dominion: and having, in 1755, settled at Shiraz, he made that city the seat of his government. He beautified it by many public buildings, both of use and luxury; and their present state attests the solid magnificence of his taste. His memory is much lamented in Persia; as his reign, a reign of dissipation and splendor, was congenial to the character of the people. In his time prostitutes were publicly protected; their calling was classed among the professions; and the chief, or representative, of their numbers, attended by all the state and parade of the most respected of the Khans and Mirzas, used daily to stand before the Sovereign at his Durbar.

On the 13th of March, 1779, Kerim Khan died a natural death, an extraordinary occurrence in the modern history of Persia, having reigned (according to the different dates assigned to his accession, from the deaths of different competitors) from nineteen to thirty years. From the fall of Mahomed Hassan Khan the better epoch, his conqueror lived nineteen years, with almost undisputed authority.

After his death all was again in confusion; and the kingdom presented a renewal of blood and usurpation. It is scarcely necessary to state the short-lived struggles of his successors: their very names have ceased to interest us. It is sufficient therefore to add, that his sons and brothers, and other relatives, attacked each other for fourteen years after his death; till the fortunes of the whole family were finally overwhelmed in the defeat of Loolf Ali Khan, the last and greatest of these claimants; and the dominion was transferred, in the year 1794, to his conqueror, Aga Mahomed Khan, of the present royal race of Persia.

In latter years, during the war between the East India Company and Tippoo Saib, under the administration of the Marquis Wellesley, the political relations of England and Persia were renewed. An embassy, which Tippoo sent to Fatteh Ali Shah, the present King of Persia, was followed soon after by a rival mission, which the Indian government confided to the care of Mehede Ali Khan, a man of Persian extraction. In the mean time, indeed, Tippoo was killed; and his death left us in possession of the Persian councils. After this Captain Malcolm, in the year 1801, was sent to solicit the alliance of Persia against Zemaun Shah, King of the Afghans. That gentleman concluded a treaty,6 by which it was stipulated that Persia should attack Khorassan and the Afghan States, and that we should contribute our assistance in the expences of the war. The King of Persia carried his arms into Khorassan, and conquered that province.

The mission of Captain Malcolm was returned by one from the King of Persia to the Indian Government. Hajee Kelil Khan was sent as the embassador, but unfortunately he was killed in a fray at Bombay, as he was attempting to quell a disturbance between his servants and some Indians. To explain this untoward event, Mr. Lovett, a gentleman in the Bengal civil service, was dispatched; but he proceeded no further with his mission than to Bushire, and delivered it over to Mr. Manesty, the East India Company’s Resident at Bussorah. Another embassy was now sent from the Persian Court; and Mahomed Nebee Khan, the Envoy appointed, luckily reached Calcutta without any accident.

Some time after, French agents were traced into Persia, and the views of France begun to be suspected. Monsieur Jouannin, an intelligent Frenchman, succeeded in getting the Persian Court to send a mission to Buonaparte. The Envoy, by name Mirza Rega, went from Persia in 1806; and concluded a treaty with France at Finkinstein, in May 1807. On his return, a large embassy, confided to General Gardanne, was sent from France to Persia: this gave rise to the mission of Sir Harford Jones, who, arriving at Bombay in April 1808, found that Brigadier-General Malcolm had been previously sent by the Governor-General to Persia. General Malcolm having failed of success, Sir Harford Jones proceeded.