asons that
these cities are now deserted may be found in the fact that Agha
Muhammed, having raised another army in Afghanistan, proceeded a second
time to the conquest of Persia. The Zoroastrians, who had fared worse at
the hands of Luft-Ali-Khan than under the Afghan rule, were persuaded to
join Agha Muhammed against their Perso-Arab oppressors, in hopes of
obtaining some relief to their misery, but history does not relate what
became of them. They were never heard of again. One fact only is known,
that very few of those living in Kerman at the time succeeded in escaping
massacre. That previous to this the Zoroastrians must have been very
numerous in Kerman can be judged by the remains of many fire-temples to
be seen, especially in the neighbourhood of the city.

[Illustration: Ruined Houses of Farmitan.]

[Illustration: Plan of House at Farmitan.]

In his second invasion of Persia Agha Muhammed again reached Kerman in
1795 and besieged the city defended by Luft-Ali-Khan. The inhabitants,
who had suffered at the hands of their saviours as much if not more than
at those of their oppressors, made a half-hearted resistance and
eventually, in the thick of the fighting, the city gates were opened by
treachery. Luft-Ali-Khan and a handful of his faithful men fought like
lions in the streets of the city, but at last, seeing that all hope of
victory had vanished, and forsaken by most of his men, Luft-Ali-Khan rode
full gallop in the midst of the Afghans. According to chronicles, he
defiantly ran the gauntlet with only three followers, and they were able
to force their way through the Kajar post and escape to Bam-Narmanshir,
the most eastern part of the Kerman province, on the borders of Sistan.

Agha Muhammed demanded the surrender of Luft-Ali-Khan; the city was
searched to find him, and when it was learned that he had succeeded in
effecting an escape, the wrath of the Afghan knew no bounds. The people
having declared that they could not find Luft-Ali, he ordered 70,000 eyes
of the inhabitants to be brought to him on trays, and is said to have
counted them himself with the point of a dagger. But this punishment he
believed to be still too lenient. A general massacre of the men was
commanded, and no less than 20,000 women and children were made into
slaves. To this day the proverbially easy morals of the Kerman women are
attributed to the Afghan invasion, when the women became the concubines
of soldiers and lost all respect