Note 229 — Chapter II · (continued 2)

The king of Persia above mentioned was probably Abbas, the son of Shah Muhammed Mirza. He began to reign in 1585, and died in 1628, in his 70th year. He was called “the Great,” although his character and life were stained by vices but too common to Oriental princes. To him succeeded his grandson Shah Súfí, in 1627, and died in 1641; then the son of the latter, Abbas II, not yet ten years old, was proclaimed king; at the date above mentioned, viz. 1643, he was about twelve years old, and could therefore not be the king characterised by Kalin Bharati, who could very easily, but fifteen years before the epoch above mentioned, have seen Abbas “the Great,” then, as he says, “full of years.”