Page image — the source of record
Machine transcription
33
Persia and provide for the future tranquillity of
the country by helping some one whom they
might think most deserving to the Persian throne.
Ashraff thus in the very beginning of his
reign found himself confronted with powerful
enemies on all sides. But he dreaded the
turbulent Afghan chiefs most of all and made
up his mind to get rid of them before turning
his attention to foreign aggression. His first
measure was to put to death Ilyas the leader
of the guards and the ambitious and haughty
Assadullah and several other Afghan chiefs whose
influence he dreaded. But through this rash act
he lost the sympathy and co-operation of some
of his best friends. After feeling secure from
internal trouble by these drastic measures,
Ashraff turned his attention towards the Turks,
who by this time had made themselve master
of all the provinces assigned to them by the
partition treaty. Ashraff sent an embassy to
Constantinople protesting against the horrible
crime of conspiring with a Christian power against
their co-religionists and making war upon a Sunni
monarch simply to restore a Shia dynasty to
power. The Court was not a little embarrassed
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.