Note 440 — KING MOHAMMED BIN SABAIK AND THE MERCHANT HASAN. (continued 2)

Probably alluding to the most barbarous Persian practice of plucking or tearing out the eyes from their sockets. See Sir John Malcolm’s description of the capture of Kirmán and Morier (in Zohrab, the hostage) for the wholesale blinding of the Asterabadian by the Eunuch-King Agha Mohammed Shah. I may note that the mediæval Italian practice called bacinare, or scorching with red-hot basins, came from Persia.