A very excellent Tarikh, the title or author of which I am not yet able to ascertain; it begins (after the usual bismillahi) with the words <Arabic> and contains an account of the Creation, the Prophets and Patriarchs, ancient, Kings of Persia, the Khalifs, &c. to the year 951 of the Hegira, (of Christ 1544.) This manuscript bears the impression of M. Le Gentil’s Persian seal.

Another very curious and valuable Tarikh, or History of the Patriarchs, Prophets, ancient Persians and Ara­bians, Mohammedan Princes of Persia, Arabia, Hindoostan, &c. to the year 773 of the Hegira, (A. D. 1371.) Of this work I cannot discover the title; it is a large folio volume, and begins abruptly <Arabic>

Tarikh Subah Saduk, <Arabic> a general History of the Asi­atick World, ancient and modern, by Mohammed Saduk, of Isfahan; in four large volumes, folio: a very rare and valuable work.

A folio volume, imperfect both at the beginning and ending. It con­tains a variety of most curious historical anecdotes, some of which shall be translated in another work.

Tarikh Alfi, <Arabic> or The Chronicle of a Thousand Years, (i. e. after Mohammed;) a very excellent compilation of Asiatick history, in three large folio volumes. The begin­ing of the first volume affords some anecdotes of Yezdegerd, and the invasion of Persia by the Musulmans.

The Nizam al Towarikh, <Arabic> a very curious epitome of Persian history, by Abou Saied Abdallah ben Almouelli.

Tarikh Nizam al Molk, <Arabic> or Seiaset wa Seir al Molouk, <Arabic> a celebrated work, composed about the year of the Hegira 485, (A. D. 1092.)

Meràt al Aulum, <Arabic> or Tarikh Bakhtaver Khani, <Arabic> a general history of the ancient and modern Sovereigns of Asia, by Bakhtaver Khan; in two large quarto volumes.

The Dabistan, <Arabic> of which part has been translated in the New Asiatick Miscellany of Calcutta.

But few of these historical compo­sitions in prose, afford more useful or curious information to the Persian Antiquary, than the great Heroick Poem of Ferdousi, <Arabic> intitled <Arabic> Shah Nameh, or Book of Kings, composed in the tenth and eleventh centuries of the Christian Æra,* from some original annals in the Pehlavi language, which escaped the general destruction of Persian books when the Musulmans invaded and conquered Iran. This celebrated work contains, in more than sixty thousand distichs, the ancient records of Persia, from Caiumuras to Yezdegerd, interspersed with astonishing fiction and delightful romance. But from the traces of real history, which frequently appear, I am induced to suspect that the Chronicle of Tabari was not unknown to our Persian Poet: this suspicion I may be allowed to entertain, without dero­gating from the authority of those Pehlavi annals above mentioned; since I am well persuaded, that even at this day, many valuable manuscripts, in the ancient language of Iran, still exist in that country, and may yet reward the labours of some inquisitive and ingenious traveller.

From three fine copies of this admirable work,* I have derived much curious information. I have occasion­ally used, also, the two Persian abridg­ments of this work; the first of which M. Anquetil du Perron styles “Tava­rikh du Schah Namah,”* an epitome, by Tavakhol Hosseini; this is, however, the work usually denominated Mun­tekhyb Shah Nameh, <Arabic> or Muntekhyb Shemshir-Khani, <Arabic> composed by Tavakol Beig, and dedicated to Shemshir Khan; it con­tains, in almost every page, some verses of the original Shah Nameh. The other abridgment is that quoted by the learned Hyde, in his Relig. Veter. Per­sarum, as “rarissimus liber,” intitled Shah Nameh Nesr, <Arabic> This work was composed for the use of Dr. Hyde, by desire of the English Agent at Surat. The Parsi, whom he employed, mentions this circumstance in the preface, and in some wretched verses which he has subjoined at the end: the abridgment, however, is very ingeniously executed, in the most pure and easy prose. Of this work, which is preserved in the British Museum, there did not exist a second copy until I obtained permission to transcribe it.*

Of Nizami’s five poems,* three afford some curious matter: the Sekander Nameh, <Arabic> or History of Alexander—the <Arabic> Heft Peigur or Seven Forms, containing the romance of Baharam Gour—and Khosru Shireen, <Arabic> or the story of Khosru Parviz and his celebrated mis­tress Shireen—the Aineh Sekandery, <Arabic> or Mirror of Alex­ander, by Emir Khosru—and the <Arabic> Kherd Nameh Sekan­dery, Alexander’s Book of Wisdom, by the celebrated Jami, furnish some pas­sages on the Macedonian Conqueror’s history.

From the Beharistan, and other works of the voluminous Jami,* I have extracted many curious illustrations; some also I have found scattered through the various works of Ferid-eddin Attar, such as his <Arabic> Jouahir Alzat—<Arabic> Khosru Gul—<Arabic> Lesan al Ghaib— <Arabic> Mantuk al Tair, and the others.

Besides the work of Emir Khosru above mentioned, his <Arabic> Neh Speher—<Arabic> Hesht Behisht— <Arabic> Shireen Khosru, &c. afford historical matter; also the Bostan, Gulistan, Risalehs, and other com­positions of Sadi—the <Arabic> Jaum-i-Jem, or Cup of Jemsheid, by Auhedi— the Hadiket of Senai, <Arabic>— the <Arabic> Mesnavi of Gelaledin Roumi; and many other poetical works which the limits of this Preface will not allow me to enumerate.

The geographical treatises, from which I have chiefly derived my illus­trations, are, that admirable work, the Nozhat al Coloub, <Arabic> by Hamdallah Mustoufi, whom M. D’Her­belot styles “Le Geographe Persan.” <Arabic> The Mesalek ù Memalek* —the <Arabic> Ajaieb al buldan—the <Arabic> Shiraz Nameh; a most curious and rare manu­script, quoted by Kæmpfer in his Amœnit. Exot.* —the <Arabic> Heft Aklim—the <Arabic> Tahkikh al Irab, a geographical dictionary, by Mohammed Saduk Isfahani—the Ajaieb al Makhloucat <Arabic>— the <Arabic> Tohfut al Irakein, by the celebrated Khacani—the Ajaieb al Gheraieb, <Arabic>—the geographical index at the end of Mirkhond’s Rozet al Sefa, and many others.