The Conclusion, or Geographical Appendix, is more rarely to be found than the other portions. In this also there are several interpolations by Khondamír. There is an excellent copy of it in the Asiatic Society's Library.

The entire text of Mírkhond's history was published in litho­graphy at Bombay in the year 1848, and the first part of a Turkish translation was issued at Constantinople in 1842.

We have no entire translation of this work, but at different times, and in different languages, several portions of the History have been made available to the European reader.* The early volumes of the Modern Universal History derive the history of Persia from the Rauzatu-s Safá,—a portion of the work which has been attributed by some to Dr. Hunt, by others to George Psalmanazar.* It is alluded to in the Dictionnaire Historique of Moreri, under the name of Tarik Mirkon.

Major Price has used the Rauzatu-s Safá more copiously than any other work in his Retrospect of Mahommedan History, and in his History of Arabia. The substance of a great por­tion of the history has been presented by Pedro Texeira, a learned Portuguese, in his Relacion de los Reyes de Persia, and more accurately in a French work, entitled Les Etats, Empires, et Principautés du Monde, Paris, 1662. A translation was pub­lished at Paris subsequently by Cotolendi, in 1681, which is characterized in the Biographie Universelle as “assez mauvaise.” It was translated into Italian by Alfonso Lasor, and into English by Captain J. Stevens, in 1715.

The following is a list of the publications drawn from this History:—

Historia priorum regum Persarum, post firmatum in regno Islamismum Pers. et Lat. cum notis geographicis et litterariis. Auct. M. Jenisch. Viennæ, 1782.

Memoires sur diverses antiquités de la Perse, et sur les médailles des rois de la dynastie des Sassanides, suivis de l'histoire de cette dynastie, trad. du persan de Mirchond. Silvestre de Sacy. Paris, 1793.

Historia Samanidarum, Pers. et Lat. F. Wilken. Göttingen. 1808.

Notice de l'histoire universelle de Mirchond, suivie de l'histoire de la dynastie des Ismaëliens de Perse extrait du même ouvrage, en persan et en français, par M. A. Jourdain. Paris, 1812.

Mirchondi historia Taheridarum, Pers. et Lat. E. Mitscher-lich. Göttingen, 1814; Berlin, 1819.

Mirchondi historia Ghuridarum, regiæ, Persiæ Indiæque atque Carachitajorum imperatorum Tatariæ, Pers. et Lat., ed. et anno-tavit Dr. E. Mitscherlich. Frankfort, 1818.

The Peshdadians and Early Kings of Persia, with the Intro­duction. David Shea. London, 1832.

Historia Ghasnavidarum, Pers. et Lat., annotationibus historicis illustravit. F. Wilken. Berlin, 1832.

Geschichte der Sultane aus dem Geschlechte Bujeh, Pers. und Deutsch. F. Wilken. Berlin, 1835.

Erläuterung und Ergänzung einiger Stellen der von Mirchond verfassten Geschichte des Stammes Buweih durch Franz von Erdmann. Kasan, 1836.

Historia Seldschukidarum, Persice. Dr.J.A.Vullers. Giessen, 1837.

Historia Seldschukidarum, translated into German. Vullers. Giessen, 1838.

Vie de Djenghiz Khan, Texte Persan. M. Am. Jaubert. Paris, 1841.

Histoire des Sultans de Kharezm, Texte. Defrémery. Paris, 1842.

Histoire des Samanides, Texte et Traduction. Defrémery. Paris, 1845.

History of the Atabeks of Syria and Persia from Mirkhond. H. Morley. London, 1850.

Histoire des Soultans Ghourides, Texte et Trad. Defrémery. Paris, 1843. (Journal Asiatique.)

Sur le Kiptchak et les Chirwanchahs. Journal Asiatique, iv. série, tome xvii.

Besides these, some extracts will be found in the Notices et Extraits, vol. vii., 1799, by Langlès; in Wilken's Auctarium ad Chrestomathiam, Leipsic, 1805; in the Appendix to Stewart's “Catalogue;” in Extraits des MSS.; in Sur les Origines Russes, by Hammer-Purgstall, St. Petersburg, 1825; in Dorn's History of the Afghans, London, 1829; and in the Mem. de l'Acad. Imp. de St. Pétersbourg, tome iii., by M. Charmoy.*

The names of the numerous authors used by Mírkhond in the compilation of his history, are not given by him, but two are named in the Habíbu-s Siyar and Firishta. One of them is the famous Abú Ríhán al Bírúní. Briggs (Firishta, i., 113) has strangely perverted the name, transcribing it as Anvury Khan, but the Persian original, lithographed at Bombay, gives it correctly.

There are several manuscripts of the Rauzatu-s Safá in India and in Europe, but few are perfect. M. Jourdain, in his article in tome ix. of Notices et Extraits des MSS., quotes no less than eight different copies; and the prefaces to the several translations noticed above give an account of several valuable MSS. which contain portions of the Rauzatu-s Safá in the different Libraries of Europe. The one lithographed at Bombay in 1848, in two folio volumes, is the most perfect copy known to me. It contains the Seventh Book and the Conclusion. The execution of so laborious and expensive an undertaking, reflects great credit on the Native Press of Bombay, but it is to be regretted that the work was not critically edited, with notices of the variants.

Sultán Mahmúd was ill for two years. Opinions differ as to his disease: some say it was consumption, others a disease of the rectum, and others dysentery. During the time of his illness he used to ride and walk about just as he did when in health, although the physicians forbad his doing so.

It is said that two days before his death he ordered all the bags of gold and silver coins which were in his treasury, and all the jewels, and all the valuables which he had collected during the days of his sovereignty, to be brought into his presence. They were accordingly all laid out in the court-yard of his palace, which, in the eyes of the spectators, appeared like a garden full of flowers of red, yellow, violet, and other colours. He looked at them with sorrow, and wept very bitterly. After shedding many tears, he ordered them to be taken back to the treasury, and he did not give a farthing to any deserving man, notwith­standing he knew that in a day or two he must depart from this world. When the compiler of this book read this account in history, he was much disgusted with this victorious king, and has never since been able to listen to any excuse for him. It is for the same reason that he has occasionally made mention of this glorious king in the course of his narrative simply by the name of Mahmúd. When the king had seen the valuable contents of his treasury, he sat in a litter and went out to the field. There he reviewed all his personal slaves, his cattle, Arab horses, camels, etc., and after casting his eye upon them, and crying with great sorrow and regret, he returned to his palace.

Abú-l Hasan 'Alí Maimandí says that one day Sultán Mah-múd, having asked Abú Táhir Sámání what quantity of precious stones the Sámánian kings had collected in their treasury, he was told, in reply, that Amír Kází Núh bin Mansúr possessed seven ratls* in weight. On this he placed his face on the earth, and said, “Thanks be to God, who hath bestowed on me more than a hundred ratls.”

Abú Bakr 'Alí, son of Hasan, clerk of Muhammad bin Mah-múd bin Subuktigín, relates that Sultan Mahmúd departed from this perishable world to the eternal abode on Thursday, the 23rd of Rabí'u-l ákhir, A.H. 421, in the sixty-third year of his age. Even during his illness he sat upon the throne and gave audience to the people. His remains were buried in the palace of Fíroza, at Ghaznín, in a dark night, when rain was falling. He was very bigoted in religion. Many authors have dedicated their works to him. He undertook repeated expedi­tions against India, a brief account of which we have given in these pages. It was a great blemish on his character that he was exceedingly covetous in seizing the riches of wealthy people. On one occasion it was reported to him that a person in Naishapúr was possessed of immense riches, so he called the man to Ghaznín, and told him that he had learnt that he was an infidel Karmatian. The man replied he was not, but that the Almighty had bestowed much wealth of this world upon him, and he would rather that the king should take it all from him than stain his character by that name. The Sultán took his property, and ordered a royal certificate to be given of his orthodoxy.