“THE Book of Victory” by Mauláná Sharafu-d dín 'Alí Yazdí, who died A.D. 1446. This work, which Mirkhond declares to surpass everything that had up to his time enlightened the world in the department of history, is a very partial biography of Tímúr, written A.D. 1424. It is interspersed with fables, and is well known to the Orientalists of Europe by the accurate French translation of M. Petis de la Croix (Histoire de Tímúr Bec, Paris, 1722, 4 vols. 12mo.), which is one of Gibbon's chief sources respecting this hero.
The translation of M. Petis de la Croix does not contain the second and third parts of the Zafar-náma, nor does it contain the supplement of the original written by Táju-d dín Salmání, who continued the history to the time of Sháh Rukh, A.D. 1410; and as the Zafar-náma does not commence till the twenty-fifth year of Tímúr's age, the translation is by no means to be considered a complete biography, more especially as it is an abridged rather than a full version of the original. The French version was translated into English by J. Darby in 1723. There is also an Italian translation by Bradutti.
[As stated in the foregoing notice of the Malfúzát-i Tímúrí, the Zafar-náma is based upon that autobiography, and so far as the expedition to India is concerned, it is merely a polished reproduction of that work. This fact may be seen on a comparison of the following Extracts with those which precede this from the Malfúzát-i Tímúrí. So identical are they that the Extracts which follow might be dispensed with. But the Zafar-náma enjoys such a high reputation, and has been so largely used and quoted as an authority by writers, both in the East and in Europe, that it cannot be passed over in a comprehensive work like the present.
[The translation has been made by the editor, and he has had the use of four MSS. belonging to the Library of the India Office. In one of these (No. 985), the work has been stripped of much of its florid and redundant ornament—in fact, it has been subjected to a treatment closely resembling that which Petis de la Croix found to be necessary in making his French translation. This abridged MS. does not appear to give any account of the writer by whom it was prepared, but the following extract of a letter to Sir H. Elliot from the late Professor Duncan Forbes in all probability refers to this same work. “Another curiosity (in the British Museum) connected with Tímúr is a very plain and sensible paraphrase of the Zafar-náma, done, by command of Jahángír, by 'Abdu-s Sattár Kásim in the city of Ájmír, A.H. 1024 (1617 A.D.). The doer of the thing says very sensibly in his introduction that Yazdí's book is very flowery and pedantic, written in the 'ibárat-i munshiyána, which we may felicitously translate the Jedediah Cleishbotham style, which he, 'Abdu-s Sattár aforesaid, improves marvellously by leaving out all Arabic and Persian verses that are not to the point, and enriching the narrative from other sources.” The editor has, in general followed this MS., but he has constantly referred to the other copies, and has occasionally introduced from them names and passages which seemed worthy of notice.]*