'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎374] (427/714)

S74 PERSIA
and destroyed. In the course of the winter, the Persian chief of
Giltin sent an agent to Astrakhan offering 1 to surrender Resht
which was then besieged by the Afghans, to Russia. Overjoyed
at this windfall, Peter despatched another army early in 1723.
Resht opened her gates to the new-comers, and the greater part
of the province of Gilan passed into Russian hands. In July of
the same year, Baku, after suffering a bombardment from the sea,
also capitulated. The young Shah Tahmasp, who meanwhile was
stihing to make headway against the Afghans in the north, now
thought it time to enter a claim of nominal ownership over his
fast-shrinking dominions. What weakness, however, rendered him
unable to dispute, policy suggested that he should amicably con
cede. Accordingly, an ambassador was sent to Peter, and the
teims of a bargain, which in all probability neither party had any
idea of keeping, were embodied in a treaty of alliance that was
signed on September 3, 1723. It contained four principal articles.
The Czar was to drive out the Afghans from Persia, and to rein
state lahmasp on the throne. In return the Shah was to cede to
Kussia in peipetuity the towns and dependencies of Derbend and
Paku, as well as the jjrovinces of Gilan, Mazanderan, and Astra-
bad. He further undertook to furnish camels and provisions for
the Russian aimy of invasion, linally, full liberty of commerce
as guai anteed between Russia and Persia. 1 The Russians, as
has been shown, had occupied Gilan even before the treatv was
signed, and the agreement in that respect was little more than a
latification of the status quo. Ihey do not appear ever to have
set foot in Mazanderan or Astrabad, having their hands full else
where, or realising the doubtful policy of such a proceeding. In
11 25 I eter the Great died, and his schemes of Oriental aggrandise
ment were temporarily shelved. In the same year the Russian
forces took Lahijan, the second town to Resht in the province;
but they advanced no further to the east. Basil Batatzes, the
Greek merchant, whose travels I have cited when speaking of
Kelat, was in Gilan during the period of the Russian occupation
and had an interview at Resht with General Levasoff, the Russian
commander. 2 Finally, about the year 1734, ' the Russians, then
involved in domestic commotion and intrigue, were compelled to
evacuate their Caspian dominions, with only a permission to hold
1 Han way, Historical Account, vol. iii. p. 181.
2 Noureaux Melanges Orientaux (Paris, 1886), lines 933-950.
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