ve myself by associating with our celebrated doctors, and to
make my own abilities known by the part which I might take in their
disputations. I succeeded to the utmost of my wishes, and acquired
considerable reputation. I only wanted an opportunity of distinguishing
myself, and that was soon afforded me by the following circumstance.

'In the time of our famous Shah Seffi; who was himself half a heretic,
the Franks (a sect of the Christians) had considerable establishments
at Ispahan for the purposes of commerce, and were much patronized
and encouraged by him. He allowed them free exercise of their
religion,--permitted them to build churches, to import priests, and,
to the scandal of the true faith, even allowed them the use of bells to
call them to prayer. These Franks have a supreme head of their church--a
sort of caliph, whom they call _Papa_--part of whose duty, like that
of our own blessed Prophet, is to propagate his religion throughout
the world. Under different pretexts, convents of his dervishes were
established, some in Ispahan itself, and some in Julfa among the
Armenians. Most of these have been abandoned, and the buildings fallen
into decay; but one whose object more particularly was the propagation
of the Christian faith still existed, and to its destruction my
endeavours and those of some of our most zealous mollahs were directed,
notwithstanding the opposite views of the government, who are anxious to
encourage the Christians to settle in Persia, owing to the riches which
they introduce by their trade.

'This convent was served by two dervishes, one of whom was in himself a
calamity!--one who understood the world,--a man of deep design,--and of
a wit so sharp that the shaitan in person was not fit to be his father.
He was tall, thin, and strong. His eyes were like live charcoal, and his
voice like a high wind. He never lost an opportunity of entering into
argument with our most learned men upon points of religion, and would
boldly assert, with the heart of a lion, that our holy Prophet, "the
chief of created beings, the sealed intercessor, Mohammed Mustapha",
(upon whom be eternal blessings!) was a cheat and an impostor. In short,
he embarked in the sea of controversy, as if he had Noah for a pilot;
and, not content with words, he even wrote a book, in which he pretended
to prove the truth of his mad assertions. This book was unfortunately
attempted to be answered by one of our divines, who did not reco