“X. The general preface and contents of the whole volume, headed, ‘This is the book of the collection of histories.’ This preface comprises eight pages. It has been published, with a translation by M. Quatremère, in the first volume of the Col­lection Orientale.

“XI. The first volume of the Jámi'u-l Tawáríkh, entitled the Táríkh-i Gházání, and containing an account of the Turks and Mongols to the time of Uljáítú Khudá-banda, who reigned when the author completed his work. This history comprises 386 pages, and was transcribed in the mouth Sha'bán, and the year of the Flight 1082.”

By comparing this table of contents with the one above given by Rashídu-d dín himself, it will be seen that the India-House Manuscript does not contain the entire work; the parts deficient being the first division of the second volume, containing the life of Uljáítú Sultán, with the supplementary journal, and the whole of the third volume, containing the geography.

It is, however, very probable that the last volume was never written, for we nowhere find any mention amongst Eastern authors of Rashídu-d dín as a writer on geography; and what gives greater colour to this probability is that he intersperses some of his narratives with geographical details, which, in many instances, might be considered to supersede the necessity of any further notice in a separate volume. This may be observed in the case of the Geography of India, his account of which has been printed in Vol. I. of this work. In that brief account he exhausts all that was then known to the Western Asiatics of the geography of India, and he could therefore merely have repeated in the third, what he had already given in the second volume.*

It does not appear that these successive discoveries of the Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh in English collections have been followed by others on the Continent of Europe. None have been announced from Paris, or Leyden, and two passages in the preface to the Geschichte der Goldenen Horde (p. xv. and xxi.) show that, up to 1840, no copy had been discovered in Germany.*

Mr. Morley perhaps attached a little too much importance to his discovery, for he entertained the same opinion as M. Quatre-mère, that the second portion of the Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh was altogether lost. To him is certainly due the credit of having rescued it from oblivion, but the work is by no means so much unknown as they had been led to suppose. Not only do Mírk-hond and the author of the Kímyá-i Sa'ádat, notice it, as ob­served by Professor Forbes, but Sádik Isfahání quotes it under the article “Máchín” in his Tahkíku-l I'ráb, Muslihu-d din-al-Lárí quotes it in his Mir-átu-l Adwár, Hamdulla Mustaufí in his Táríkh-i Guzída, Táhir in the Rauzatu-t Táhirín, Ahmad-al-Ghaffárí in his Nigáristán, and Haidár Rází confesses to have ex­tracted from it no less than 40,000 lines, if bait may be so trans­lated, when referring to an historical work in prose.

In the library of the British Museum there is a very valuable copy of the Persian original (No. 7628, Addit.) written by different transcribers as early as A.D. 1314, four years before the author's death. This copy was noticed by Dr. Bernhard Dorn in the preface to his “History of the Afgháns,” before the appearance of the articles above mentioned. It is supposed to have belonged to Uljáítú Khán, and to have come subsequently into the possession of Sháh Rukh, the son of Tímúr. It would indeed have been surprising had the work been so little known as is supposed, for we are informed in the Táríkh-i Wassáf and Rauzatu-s Safá, that the author expended no less than 60,000 dínárs in the transcription and binding of his own writings. Every precaution was taken by him to secure his labours from destruction, and considerable revenues were set aside for the purpose of copying and disseminating them, both in Arabic and Persian, throughout the most considerable cities of the Muham­madan world.

I know of no copy in India, except the Asiatic Society's volume, which will shortly receive more particular notice; but an exceedingly valuable portion of the Persian version, com­prising the account of India, exists in the Royal Library at Lucknow, under the wrong title of Táríkh-i Subuktigín. It includes portions of three different books, for it begins with the history of Mahmúd Subuktigín and the dynasty of the Ghaznivides, and contains the history of the Kings of Khwárizm, the Saljúkians, the Buwaihides, and part of the history of the Khalifs. It is embellished with paintings which are beyond the average degree of Asiatic merit, and the text is written in a clear naskh character, comprising one hundred and five folios, with thirty-five lines to a page. It would be useful for the purpose of collation, although in many parts it is written very incorrectly, especially in the names of places, where accuracy is particularly desirable. I know of two copies of the Táríkh-i Gházání, but they contain no portion which has not already been made familiar to the public by the French edition of M. Quatremère noticed above.*

In inquiries after this work care must be taken not to con­found the Jámi'u-r Rashídí with the Táríkh-i Rashídí, which is common in Hindústán, and derives its name of Rashídí chiefly (though other reasons are assigned) from being dedicated to the reigning Khán of the Mughals, 'Abdu-r-Rashíd Khán, by its author, Mírza Haidar Dúghlát Gúrgán. It contains nothing re­specting the History of India. There is also a Turkish work of the name of Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh, of which there is an account in Von Hammer's Geschichte des Osmanischen Reichs (Vol. ix. p. 180), and which the same author quotes as one of his authorities in his Geschichte der Assassinen. It was composed A.D. 1574, and is said to be compiled chiefly from the Nizámu-t Tawáríkh of Baizáwí, and Bahjatu-t Tawáríkh of Shukru-lla. There is also an Arabic History, which, from similarity of name, may be mistaken for it, the Mukhtasar Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh, by Ibnu-l-Wárdí, a valuable general History from 1097 to 1543 A.D.

I will now proceed to describe the volume in the Asiatic Society's library, premising that it was copied A.H. 1098, and is written in a clear nasta'lík character:—

I. A history of the Saljúkí kings, to the last of the dynasty, Abú Tálib Tughril, son of Arslán. This extends to p. 44, where a continuation by Abú Hamid Muhammad, son of Ibráhím, com­mences, comprising also the history of the Sultáns of Khwárizm, extending from pp. 44 to 64.

II. A history of Úghúz and the Turks. From pp. 65 to 77. The epigraph states that it is followed by a history of China.

III. A history of the kháns and kings of Chín and Máchín, and of the capital called Khitá. The portraits in this book almost all represent the kings with two tails below their caps. At the end it is stated that this chapter is followed by an account of the Baní Isráíl. This history extends from pp. 78 to 114.

IV. A history of the children of Isráíl, said to be succeeded by a history of the Franks and Kaisers. From pp. 115 to 156.

V. This book is divided into two chapters and several sections.

Chapter 1st. Adam and his descendants.—Núh and his de­scendants.—Ibráhím and his descendants to the Virgin Mary.— Moses.—The kings of Persia.—The Greeks.— The Arabs.— Muhammad.—The Mughals.—The Khalífas to the close of the 'Abbáside dynasty.

Chapter 2nd. On the belief of Christians.—The country of Armenia.—The country, seas, and islands of the Franks.—The birth of the Messiah.—The Emperors of Rúm.—The Popes and Kaisers, with fancy portraits intended to represent each of these two last.

The proper sequence is interrupted by some mistake of the binder, but the whole of this unconnected book extends from pp. 157 to 467.

VI. A history of Sultán Mahmúd Subuktigín.—The Ghazni-vides, Sámánides, and Buwaihides. The subdivisions of this book are as follows:—