Azerbaijan,
which was the customary position assigned to the Vali Abd, when his
grandfather died, and I have in a previous chapter told of the part
taken by British officers in defeating the Pretenders, who attempted to
dispute his right to the throne. These Pretenders were his uncles Ali
Mirza, the Zil-es-Sultan, and Hussein Ali Mirza, Governor-General at
Shiraz, each of whom proclaimed himself King. Fateh Ali Shah died at
Isfahan while on his way to Shiraz to compel the obedience of his son
Hussein Ali Mirza, who in expectation of his father's death from age and
infirmity had decided to withhold payment of revenue to the Crown. The
rebellious son advanced with an army, and took possession of the jewels
and treasure which his father had brought with him; and his brother, the
Zil-es-Sultan, seized what had been left at Tehran, but Mohamed Shah
afterwards regained possession of the whole.

Nasr-ed-Din, son and heir-apparent of Mohamed Shah, was present at his
post of Governor-General of Azerbaijan when his father died in Tehran,
and there was an interval of disturbance for the six or seven weeks
which passed between the death of the one King and the coronation of the
other. During this period revolution prevailed in the towns, and robbery
and violence in the country. The son of Ali Mirza, the Zil-es-Sultan,
the Prince-Governor of Tehran, who had disputed the succession of
Mohamed Shah, issued forth from his retirement in Kasvin to contest the
Crown with his cousin; but the attempt came to an inglorious end. A
revolt at Meshed with a similar object also failed, and then Mirza Taki
Khan, Amir-i-Nizam, proceeded successfully to consolidate the power of
Nasr-ed-Din Shah, whose long reign, and on the whole good rule, have so
accustomed the people to peace that the old ways of revolution and
revolt on the death of a Shah have been forgotten and changed.

The regalia and Crown jewels of Persia mentioned in these changes of
royal rule have, by inexplicable good fortune, been preserved from
plunder while in the hands of rebels. The Crown jewels are in great part
a portion of the splendid spoil which Nadir Shah obtained in the sack of
Delhi, when it was the capital of the richest empire in the East. On his
assassination near Meshed, the treasury was seized by the troops, and
while a considerable share, including the famous Koh-i-Nur diamond,
which now adorns the English crown, fell to the Afghans with Nadir's
army, the greater p