Though differing on many points, they agree in thinking (I) that the island of Sphagia is the ancient Sphacteria, Palaeokastro the ancient Coryphasium or Pylos; (2) that in 425 B.C. the lagoon of Osman Aga was navigable and communicated by a navigable channel with the Bay of Navarino; (3) that Thucydides, if the MS. reading is correct, underestimates the length of the island, which he gives as 15 stades instead of 24 (nearly 3 m.), and also the breadth of the southern channel between it and the mainland.
Ali's son, Hosain, having married a daughter of one of the rulers of Persia before the time of Mahomet, the Aga Khan traced his descent from the royal house of Persia from the most remote, almost prehistoric, times.
Even in the early part of the 19th century sentinels stood on duty night and day, and at a signal of alarm the whole population, including the Turkish aga himself, used to hide in the woods.
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Ali Murad reigned over Persia until 1785, and carried on a successful war with Aga Mahommed in Mazandaran, defeating him in several engagements, and occupying Teheran a,nd Sari.
The Moslems of Herzegovina, under Ali Pasha Rizvanbegovic, remained loyal to the Porte, but in Bosnia Hussein Aga encountered little resistance.
The budget of Ali Aga is almost identical with that of Eyubi Effendi, and is worthy of special note for the conclusions which accompanied it, and which although drawn up 250 years ago, described with striking accuracy some of the very ills from which Turkish finance was suffering throughout the reign of Abd-ul-Hamid.
The re-invasion by Russia of Aga of the provinces and districts he had recently Mahommed.
The Kajars were completely routed and thrown into confusion; but Aga Mahommed, with extraordinary presence of mind, remained in his tent, and at the first appearance of dawn his muezzin, or public crier, was ordered to call the faithful to morning prayer as usual.
From this period up to the accession of Aga Mahommed Khan the summarized history of Markham will supply the principal facts required.
He calls Aga Mahommed chief of Mazandaran, as also of Astarabad and some districts situate in Khurasan, and describes his tribe the Kajar, to be, like the Indian Rajput, usually devoted to the profession of arms. Whatever hold his father may have had on Gilan, it is certain that this province was not then in the sons possession, for his brother, Jiafir Kuli, governor of Baifrush (Balfroosh), had made a recent incursion into it and driven Hidaiyat Khan, its ruler, from Resht to Enzeli, and Aga Mahommed was himself meditating another attack on the same quarter.