THESE two histories, though circulating under different names, may be considered as essentially one and the same.
Dr. Bernhard Dorn, at p. xv. of the Preface to his “History of the Afgháns,” describes the Mir-át-i'Álam as a most valuable universal history, written in Persian, by Bakhtáwar Khán, who by travel and assiduous study had qualified himself for the task of an historian. Dr. Dorn mentions also that the history of the Afgháns by Ni'amatu-lla, which he translated, frequently corresponds, word for word, with that found in the Mir-át-i'Á'lam.
He gives the following abstract of a copy in the British Museum:
“Section I.—History of the Patriarchs; of the Israelite Kings; of Lukmán and Daniel; of the Hebrew Prophets; of Jesus and the Apostles; of the Seven Sleepers; of some Saints, as Georgius, Barseesa, Samson, etc.; of the ancient Sages, as Solon, Pythagoras, Socrates, Diogenes, Plato, Aristotle, Pliny, Homer, Zeno, Ptolemy, Thales, Euclid: after that follows the history of the Persian Monarchs and of the Yemen Kings.
Section II.—History of Muhammad.
III.—History of the Khalífs of other Dynasties, as the
Saffárides, etc.
IV.—History of the Roman and the Turkish Em-
perors, etc.
Section V.—History of the Sharífs of Mecca and Medína.
VI.—History of the Turkish Kháns, etc.
VII.—History of Changíz Khán and his successors.
VIII.—History of different Dynasties in Írán, etc., after Sultán Abú Sa'íd Bahádur Khán. After that, a history of India follows, in which there is the History of the Kings of Dehlí, from Shahábu-d dín to Ibráhím Lodí; of the Kings of the Dakhin, of Humáyún, Sher Sháh, Islám Sháh, and 'Ádil Sháh; of the Kings of Bengal, etc.; of Jaunpúr, Kashmír, etc.; Humáyún's conquest of Kábul.”
Dow also quotes the work as one of his authorities in his Continuation of Firishta, and in the Preface to his third volume speaks of it as being composed by Názir Bakhtáwar Khán, a man of letters, who led a private life near Farídábád, within a few miles of Ágra, and states that it contains the history of the first ten years of Aurangzeb.
This latter description corresponds with the Mir-át-i Jahán-numá usually met with in this country; and though the name of the author is the same in both instances, it is evident that Dr. Dorn's and Colonel Dow's descriptions of the portions devoted to Indian history can scarcely refer to the same work. The contents also of the several books differ in many respects, as will be seen from the following abstract of the Mir-át-i Jahán-numá, which is found in India; but as there can be no doubt that the two works are the same in substance, there is reason to apprehend that Dr. Dorn's description is defective in some particulars.
The Mir-át-i Jahán-numá is divided into a Preface, seven Books (Áráish), and a Conclusion. These are subdivided into several Sections (namáish and pairáish) and Sub-sections (namúd), of all which the following is a full detail: