“Vol. I. Commencing with the birth of Abú Sa'íd, son of Uljaitú Sultán Muhammad Khudábandah.—The history of Tímúr, from the rise of his fortunes to his death, i.e., from A.H. 704 (A.D. 1304) to A.H. 807 (A.D. 1404), giving a detailed account of his reign in 'Irák, Túrán, and other countries.*
“Vol. II. The history of Tímúr's descendants, from the accession of Sháh Rukh, in A.H. 807 (A.D. 1404), to that of Sultán Hasan Mírzá, in A.H. 875 (A.D. 1470), the time when the author wrote.”]
'Abdu-r Razzák's embassy to India does not seem to be related either in the Rauzatu-s Safá or the Habíbu-s Siyar, though their narrative of that period is copious.
This history is not so well known in India as in Europe. The best MS. I have seen in India is in the possession of Muhammad Raziyau-d dín, chief native judge of Allahabad. It is a well written folio in the Naskh character, containing in the first division 426, and in the second 452 pages, of thirty-one lines to a page. There are copies in the British Museum, the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, and other public collections. [The second volume seems to be more common than the first; the Library of the East India Office has a copy, and so had* the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society. This professed to be an autograph copy of the author, but Mr. Morley saw reason to doubt the truth of this statement. The India Office copy, which is a finely written folio with illustrations, written in the year 1601 A.D., has been used by the editor for the following Extracts respecting the Embassy to India.]
[There is among Sir H. Elliot's papers a copy of that portion of the first volume which relates the history of Tímúr's expedition to India. On comparing this account with the Malfúzát-i Tímúrí and the Zafar-náma, it proves to be a mere reproduction of Tímúr's own narrative. 'Abdu-r Razzák evidently used both the memoirs and the Zafar-náma. His narrative is less verbose than Tímúr's, and more simple in style than the language of Sharafu-d dín; still the details are essentially the same, the facts being related in the same order without addition, modification, or comment. So notwithstanding the high reputation of the Matla'u-s Sa'dain, this portion of the work proves, like the celebrated Zafar-náma, to be nothing more than another version of Tímúr's memoirs. Three short Extracts have been printed as specimens. The Extracts relating to the author's Embassy to India were translated by an English gentleman,* and have been revised and annotated by Sir H. M. Elliot.]
[* “A fragment of the Matla'u-s Sa'dain relating to the Embassy to China, in the time of Sháh Rukh, and translated by Galland, was printed in Thevenot's collection of voyages; this fragment re-appeared in Prévost's Histoire Generale des Voyages, and was again translated into Dutch, and inserted in Witsen's great work, Noord en Oost Tartaryen. The account of the embassies and letters that passed between the Emperor of China and Sháh Rukh was published at Calcutta, in Persian an English, by W. Chambers,* and was afterwards translated into French by M. Langlès.* The latter Orientalist also gave an account of the work in the Notices et Extraits des MSS.,* and introduced a version of 'Abdu-r Razzák's description of India into the second volume of his Recueil portatif des Voyages. M. Charmoy has given a short notice of the Matla'u-s Sa'dain, together with the text and translation of an extract from it relating to Tímúr's expedition against Tuktamish Khán, in the Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg.* The most satisfactory description of the work will be found, however, in the elaborate article by M. Quatremère, in the fourteenth volume of the Notices et Extraits des MSS.* The learned Academician has given a French translation of a great portion of the life of Sháh Rukh; and the text, accompanied by a version in French, of two other extracts from 'Abdu-r Razzák's history, relating respectively to the voyage of the ambassadors of Sháh Rukh to China, and to that of 'Abdu-r Razzák himself to India. M. Quatremère passes the most favourable judgment as to the merits of the work, saying, that it is incontestably one of the most curious and veracious histories that have been written in any of the Eastern languages.]*
The “Sáhib Kirán” Tímúr having exterminated the Aughání
forces, on the 1st of the month Muharram returned to the fort
of Naghz, and appointed Sháh 'Ali Faráhí with a force of 700
cavalry and a company of foot soldiers, as guard of that place,
so that if the royal army should go any distance, the ambassadors
and servants of the princes might have easy ingress and
egress, and be fearless of the Aughání robbers. On the 8th of
the same month, Tímúr pitched his camp on the banks of the
river Sindh, in the same place that Sultán Jalálu-d dín Khwárizm
Sháh crossed the river in his flight from Changíz Khán, and
where the latter rested without crossing the river. Tímúr
ordered that boats should be collected and a bridge be made for
crossing the river. Saiyid Muhammad, of Medina, who had
been to Mecca and Medina, said that “the nobles of these countries
having humiliated themselves, are anxiously awaiting your
presence.” The ambassador of Sháh Sikandar, King of Kash-