THE author of this work was Khushhál Chand, a writer in the diwání office of Dehlí, in the time of Muhammad Sháh. His father, Jíwan Rám, held various employments in the time of Aurangzeb and Bahádur Sháh. He was at first in the service of Rúhu-llah Khán and Bahramand Khán, and when Shaikh 'Atáu-llah was appointed intelligencer and bakhshí of Láhore, Jíwan Rám was made his peshkár. After leaving Láhore, he was ap­pointed deputy superintendent of the diwání office at Dehlí, and in the time of Bahádur Sháh was raised to the rank of 150. As he was a poet, he presented several copies of verses to the Emperor, for which he received a reward of two hundred rupees. He died in the year 1164 A.H.

The eldest son, Khúb Chand, succeeded to his father's office, and Khushhál Chand also obtained employment in the diwání office, with which he expresses himself well satisfied, “as it enabled him to fulfil the duties of both this world and the next.” In compliment to the Emperor under whom he was employed, he calls his work Táríkh-i Muhammad-Sháhí, to which he gives also the honorific title of Nádiru-z Zamání, “the wonder of the world,” as it contains, in combination with another word, the date of composition—1152 A.H. (1739-40 A.D.); but the history is carried down a few years later.

The Nádiru-z Zamání is divided into two volumes, one called the Majma'u-l Akhbárát, the other Zubdatu-l Akhbárát, each divided into two books. Independent of the historical matter, the work contains treatises on arithmetic, astrology, palmistry, versification and other irrelevant matters.

The second volume will form the subject of a future notice.* The first, or Majma'u-l Akhbárát, is appropriated as below.