Of the older geographico-biographical works the Átháru'l-Bilád (“Monuments of the Lands”) of Zakariyyá ibn Mu-ḥammad ibn Maḥmúd al-Qazwíní, * and the Persian Haft Iqlím (“Seven Climes”), composed in 1028/1619 by Amín Aḥmad-i-Rází, are typical specimens. * Monographs on different provinces or cities of Persia are also fairly common, and generally include notices of the more eminent natives of the region discussed. Of modern biographical works produced in Persia I have made extensive use,

The Rawḍátu'l­Jannát. especially in the chapter on the Theologians, of the Arabic Rawḍátu'l-Jannát fí Aḥwáli'l-'Ulamá wa's-Sádát (“Gardens of Paradise, on the circumstances of Men of Learning and Leading”). This comprehensive work, which deserves to be better known, contains some 742 notices of eminent Muslim scholars, saints and poets, ancient and modern, and was compiled by Muḥammad Báqir ibn Ḥájji Amír Zaynu'l-'Ábidín al-Músawí of Khwánsár in the latter half of the nineteenth century. A good lithographed edition (except that, as usual, it has no Index) appeared at Ṭihrán in 1306/ 1888. The notices are arranged in alphabetical order, not very strictly observed, under personal names, such as Aḥmad, 'Alí, Muḥammad, etc., which, of course, are seldom the names by which those who bear them are commonly known. Thus the Muḥammads, who fill the greater part of the fourth and last volume and comprise a hundred and forty-three articles, include the great Shí'a theologians generally referred to as al-Kulayní, Ibn Bábawayhi and Shaykh-i-Mufíd; the historians Ṭabarí and Shahristání; the scientists Rází and Bírúní; the thinkers Fárábí, Ghazálí and Muḥyí'd-Dín ibnu'l-'Arabí; and the Persian poets Saná'í, Farídu'd-Dín 'Aṭṭár and Jalálu'd-Dín Rúmí, nor is any subordinate plan, chronological or other, dis­cernible within these sections, so that the owner of the book who wishes to consult it regularly is compelled to make his own Index or Table of Contents.

The other book which I have constantly consulted as to the lives of the theologians is the Persian Qiṣaṣu'l-'Ulamá

The Qiṣaṣu'l­'Ulamá. (“Stories of the Doctors”) of Muḥammad ibn Sulaymán of Tanakábun, who wrote it in 1290/ 1873. * It contains about a hundred and fifty biographies of Shí'a divines, and is more readable, if less accurate, than the work previously mentioned. Another The Nujúmu's­Samá, and other biographies of Theologians. useful Persian book on the same subject is the Nujúmu's-Samá (“Stars of Heaven”) composed by Mírzá Muḥammad 'Alí in 1286/1869-70, * dealing with the Shí'a doctors of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries of the hijra (seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth of the Christian era). There exist also two special monographs in Arabic on the Shí'a divines of Baḥrayn and Jabal 'Ámil, the Lú'lú'atu'l-Baḥrayn (“Pearl of Baḥrayn”) of Shaykh Yúsuf ibn Aḥmad al-Baḥrání, who flourished in the eighteenth century; and the Amalu'l-Ámil fí 'Ulamá'i Jabal 'Ámil (“the Hoper's Hope, on the Doctors of Mount 'Ámil”), by Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn 'Alí … al-Ḥurr al-'Ámilí, who belongs to the previous century.

Mention must also be made of another modern bio­graphical work of a somewhat special character, which, though the work of a Persian, is written in Turkish. This Calligraphists. is the Khaṭṭ u Khaṭṭáṭán (“Writing and Writers”), * a history of the art of Calligraphy and its votaries by the learned Mírzá Ḥabíb of Iṣfahán, who spent the latter period of his life in Constantinople, where he was a member of the Anjuman-i-Ma'árif, or Turkish Academy.

These are but a selection of the more useful or less known biographical works, of which many more will be Autobiographies. found described in Rieu's, Ethé's, and other catalogues of Persian manuscripts. Of autobio­graphies the most notable is that of Shaykh 'Alí Ḥazín, which contains one of the few first-hand Persian accounts of the Afghán Invasion and fall of Iṣfahán in A.D. 1722. Travels are a special form of autobiography, in which His Travels. late Majesty Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh indulged freely. An account of the mission of Farrukh Khán Amínu'l-Mulk to London and Paris at the close of the Anglo-Persian War in 1857-8 was written by one of his staff, Mírzá Ḥusayn ibn 'Abdu'lláh, but has never been published. * It concludes with a description of the French Departments of State and Public Institutions. More The Bustánu's­Siyáḥat. valuable and varied in its contents is the Bustánu's-Siyáḥat (“Garden of Travel”) of Ḥajji Zaynu'l-'Ábidín of Shírwán, * who wrote it in 1247/1831-2. In a brief autobiography under the heading Shamákhí he tells us that he was born in mid-Sha'bán, 1194 (August 15, 1780), and was taken to Kar-balá, where he thenceforth made his home, when only five years old. He travelled extensively in 'Iráq, Gílán, the Caucasus, Ádharbáyján, Khurásán, Afghánistán, India, Kashmír, Badakhshán, Turkistán, Transoxiana, the Persian Gulf, Yaman, the Ḥijáz, Egypt, Syria, Turkey in Asia and Armenia, and in Persia also visited Ṭihrán, Hamadán, Iṣfahán, Shíráz and Kirmán. He was a Shí'ite and a darwísh of the Order of Sháh Ni'matu'lláh, and in this double capacity made the acquaintance and enjoyed the friendship of many eminent doctors ('ulamá) and “gnostics” ('urafá). The author, a man of intelligence and a keen observer, does not give a continuous narrative of his travels, but arranges his materials under the following heads:

Chapter I. Account of the Prophet, his daughter Fáṭima, and the Twelve Imáms.

Chapter II Account of certain doctors, gnostics, philo­sophers, poets and learned men.

Chapter III. On sundry sects and doctrines.

Chapter IV. Geographical account of towns and villages visited by the author in Persia, Turkistán, Afghánistán, India, parts of Europe and China, Turkey, Syria and Egypt, the names of these places being arranged alphabetically.

Promenade (Sayr). Prolegomena on the arrangement of this Garden, and on certain matters connected therewith.

Rose-bed (Gulshan). Countries and persons to describe which is the ultimate object of the book, arranged alpha­betically in twenty-eight sections, corresponding with the letters of the Arabic alphabet.

Spring (Bahár), containing four Rose-bowers (Gulzár):

(i) On the interpretation of dreams;

(ii) Names of certain halting-places of the author on his travels;

(iii) Various anecdotes;

(iv) Conclusion.

The book contains a great deal of miscellaneous bio­graphical and geographical information, which, owing to the alphabetical arrangement generally observed, and the very full table of contents prefixed, is fairly accessible to the reader. The author was full of curiosity, and, though un­able to visit Europe, lost no opportunity of cultivating the society of European travellers and acquainting himself with the peculiarities of their countries by hearsay. Under the article Firang (pp. 385-7) he discusses the general character­istics of the chief European nations, amongst whom he puts the French first, the Austrians second, and the English third; and he gives a long account of his conversations with an Englishman whom he calls “Mr Wiklís” (<text in Arabic script omitted>) * and with whom he became acquainted at 'Aẓímábád. He also cultivated the society of the Austrian ambassador at Constantinople, who invited him to visit his country, “but,” he concludes, “since there was no great spiritual advantage to be gained by travelling in that country, I declined.” More valuable is his account of the various religions and sects of Asia, in which he treats, amongst other matters, of the Zoroastrians, Mazdakites, Jews, Christians, Hindús, Ṣúfís and Ghulát (extreme Shí'a).