History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

56 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. II,

happy under the succeeding rulers. In a letter received in the year 1511 from them by their brethren at Navsari, they stated that never since the rule of Kaiomars had they suffered more than what they were then undergoing. In sooth, they declared that they were more oppressed than their race had ever been at the hands of the tyrants Zohak, Afrasiab, Tur, and Alexander.

Within the last two hundred years four revolutions have greatly conduced to the destruction of the Zoroastrian population of Kerman, which is now reduced to the insignificant number we have mentioned. The Ghilji Afghans, who had long groaned under the misrule of Persia, determined at last to emancipate themselves, and raised the standard of rebellion under an able chief named Mir Vais, who in a short time made himself master of Kandahar. The Persian monarch Sultan Husen, unable to reduce them by force of arms, sent emissaries to persuade them into submission, but the messengers were treated with contempt. The next Afohan chief who succeeded to the authority of Mir Vais determined to invade Persia, and a favourable opportunity soon presented itself. At the moment when the northeastern frontier of the kingdom was threatened by the Abdali Afghans of Herat, and while the Arabian ruler of Muscat was seizing the country bordering on the Gulf, Mahamud (who had succeeded his father,