THE author has nowhere given a distinct title to his work, though he says it is a mukhtasir, or abridgment, of the accounts of ancient Sultáns.

Neither the name of the author nor the date of the compo­sition is given; but as, amongst the general authorities which he mentions in his Preface, the latest is the Ikbál-náma Jahángírí of Mu'tamad Khán, we may fairly assume that the work was written early during the reign of Sháh Jahán.

The author tells us that next to the knowledge of God and His Will the most important information to acquire is that de­rived from history; and that acquaintance with the circumstances of former kings, and their nobles and counsellors, is equal to the cup of Jamshíd and the mirror of Alexander; that it also leads to reflections upon the instability of kings and kingdoms, which are always treading the road of annihilation: for when exalted autocrats, with their powerful families, their experienced ministers, their countless armies, and exhaustless treasuries, with all their pomp, splendour and dominion, are swept from off the earth, and no vestige of them remains, what doom can inferior creatures expect?

After these moral reflections, he proceeds to inform us, that though he was endowed with a very small capacity, yet as he associated much with the great, and with the chief officers of the government, and had heard many historical anecdotes during his intercourse with them, he thought it expedient to combine this information with that which he had derived from authentic histories, and compose a work calculated to yield gratification to those who should peruse it. The histories he quotes are the Táríkh-i Mahmúd Ghaznaví, Táríkh-i Sultán Shahábu-d dín Ghorí, Táríkh-i Sultán 'Aláu-d dín Khiljí, Táríkh-i Sultán Muhammad Sháh, Táríkh-i Sultán Ghiyásu-d dín Tughlik Sháh, Táríkh-i Sultán Fíroz Sháh, Táríkh-i Afághana, Zafar-náma Tímúrí, Akbar-náma of Abú-l Fazl, Tabakát-i Akbarí, Ikbál­náma Jahángírí, and Rájávalí.

He devotes his work chiefly to the Sovereigns of Dehlí, but he also adds a short account of the Kings of Gujarát, Málwá, the Dakhin, Bengal, Jaunpúr, Kashmír, Sind, and Multán, all which provinces, after undergoing various vicissitudes, came to be in­cluded within the Empire of Jalálu-d dín Muhammad Akbar.

The copy which I have examined is unfortunately imperfect. It contains none of these minor histories, and does not carry down the Dehlí history later than 962 A.H., just before the accession of Akbar; but this is of very little consequence, for the Mukhtasiru-t Tawáríkh has been followed verbatim by the better-known Khulásatu-t Tawáríkh, which exhibits one of the most impudent plagiarisms that even India can produce; for the Khulásat mentions every conceivable authority in existence, but carefully excludes this one, from which, up to a certain period, it not only derived its chief information, but its very language, even in many instances to the transcription of the poetical quotations.