A full account of this curious discovery is given in the sixth volume of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Mr. W. Morley, while engaged in making a catalogue of the Society's MSS., met with an imperfect Arabic MS., which proved to be a portion of the Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh. It was written in a beautiful and very old Naskhí hand, with many pictures very creditably executed. He addressed a letter to the Society, giving an account of his discovery, and before the letter was published Professor Forbes accidentally fell in with a much larger portion of the same MS., comprising one half the original volume, of which the Society's fragment formed about one-fifth. The two fragments proved to be parts of the same original, and were thus brought together after many years, perhaps centuries, of separation. This larger portion of the MS. of the Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh belonged to Colonel John Baillie, an eminent orientalist. Shortly after his death, his MSS. and books were prepared for transmission to the family seat in Inverness-shire, but before they were actually despatched Professor Forbes obtained a sight of them. He there picked out a fine large historical MS. on the back of which was written, in a distinct Persian hand, “Táríkh-i Tabarí,” and as if this were not sufficient, there was a note written in Persian, on a blank page, folio 154, of which the following is a literal translation. “The name of this book is The Táríkh-i Tabarí, (the History or Chronicle of Tabarí), the author's autograph. The whole number of leaves, when complete, amounted to 303; now, however, some one has stolen and carried off one half of it, or about 150 leaves. It was written by the author's own hand, in the year of the Hijra 706 (A.D. 1306-7.”) This description of the MS. as being the work of Tabarí was, from the date alone, very suspicious and unsatisfactory, and Professor Forbes, in his enquiries, was eventually led to examine the MS. of the Royal Asiatic Society, when the two MSS. proved to be indubitably portions of one and the same book.
These discoveries were communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and a request was made that the Society would interest itself in searching for manuscripts of the work. A circular was in consequence issued to many of the native chiefs and literati of India, but no satisfactory reply was received. Upon that occasion I pointed out to the Society that the work was probably in their own library, for that an anonymous volume purporting to contain precisely the same matter, was brought by Sir J. Malcolm from Persia, and presented to the College of Fort William, as appeared from a notice at the end of Stewart's Catalogue of Típú Sultán's Library. The work was searched for and discovered, in consequence of this information, among those which were transferred from the College to the Asiatic Society.*
It was not till some years afterwards that I had the satisfaction of reading the superb French publication, entitled Collection Orientale, in the preface to the first volume of which I found that the very same enquiry had been suggested by M. Quatremère, in the following passage: “au nombre des MSS. apportés de Perse par le Major Malcolm et offerts par lui au Collége du Fort William, je trouve un ouvrage ayant pour titre Djami-altawarikh-kadim. Ce livre ferait-il partie du travail de Rashideldin? C'est ce que je n'ai pu vérifier.”* Had this enquiry then attracted the attention of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, it would have resulted in an earlier discovery of the missing volume; but when at last it was drawn forth from their library, it had become of comparatively little importance, for, in the mean time, a manuscript of the Persian original had been found in the library of the East India House, of which a full description was shortly after given by Mr. Morley in the seventh volume of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, from which the following extract is taken:—
“The MS. in question is of a large folio size, and contains in all 1189 pages; but as numerous spaces have been left for the insertion of paintings, the actual volume of the work is not equal to its apparent extent; the character is a small and tolerably clear Nast'alík; the transcriber was evidently both careless and ignorant, and the text abounds with errors,—this is particularly conspicuous in the spelling of the names of places and individuals, the same name being frequently written in two or three different ways in the same page; many considerable omissions also occur in the body of the work, the original from which our MS. was transcribed being, in all probability, damaged or defective in those parts.
“The Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh consists of a collection of histories (as its name imports), each distinct from the other and complete in itself. Those contained in our MS. occur in the following order:—
“I. A general history of Persia and Arabia, from the earliest times to the fall of the Khiláfat; this history comprises a preface and two sections. The preface contains an account of Adam and his children, of Núh and his posterity, of the reign of Kaiúmars, the first of the kings of Fárs, and of the tribes of the Arabs, to the time of the prophet Muhammad. This preface mentions that the history was composed in the year of the Flight 700, from various traditional and written authorities.
“Section 1 contains a history of the kings of Fárs, and of the events that occurred in their respective reigns; also accounts of the prophets from the time of Kaiúmars until that of Yazdajird, the last of the kings of 'Ajam.
“Section 2 contains a copious and detailed history of the prophet Muhammad and his Khalífas to the time of Al Mustasim bi-llah. This history, which in our MS. comprises 364 pages, was transcribed in the month of Shawwál, in the year of the Flight 1081. It is contained entire in the MS. of Colonel Baillie, with the absence of forty-six leaves, seven of which are, however, to be found in the MS. of the Royal Asiatic Society.
“II. A concise history of the Sultán Mahmúd Subuktigín, the Ghaznivides, the Sámánides, the Buwaihides, and some others, to the time of Abú-l Fath Maudúd bin Mas'úd, and the year of his death, viz., the 547th of the Flight. This history comprises fifty-six pages, and was transcribed in the month Zi'l hijja, and the 1031st year of the Flight. This is also in Colonel Baillie's MS., of which it forms the third portion.
“III. A history of the Saljúkí kings and of the Atábaks, to the time of Tughril bin Muhammad bin Malik Sháh, the last of the Saljúks, who was slain in the year of Flight 589. It comprises forty-two pages.
“To this history is added a supplement, composed by Abú Hámid Ibn Ibráhím, in the year of the Flight 599; it contains an account of the fall of the Saljúks, and the history of the kings of Khwárizm, to the time of Jalálu-d din, the last of that dynasty. This supplement comprises twenty-five pages, and apparently formed part of the original Jámi'u-t Tawáríkh, as Professor Forbes mentions two leaves existing at the end of Colonel Baillie's MS., which are occupied with the history of Khwárizm.
“IV. A history of Úghúz, and of the other Sultáns and Kings of the Turks; it comprises twenty-two pages. At the end it is stated that this history is to be followed by that of the Kháns of Chín and Máchín.
“V. A history of Khitá, and of the Kings of Chín and Máchín, to the time of the conquest by the Mongols. It comprises forty-six pages. At the end it is stated that this history is to be succeeded by that of the Baní Isráíl. The concluding part of this account of Khitá is contained in the MS. of the Royal Asiatic Society.
“VI. A history of the children of Israel, comprising forty-
“VII. A history of the Franks, from the creation of Adam to the time when the author wrote, viz., 705th year of the Flight, giving a short account of the various Emperors and Popes, amounting to little more than a list of mis-spelt names. It comprises 122 pages, and bears the date of Rabi'u-l-awwal, in the year of the Flight 1082.
“VIII. A history of the Sultáns of Hind and of the Hindús. It comprises 58 pages. This history exists in the MS. of the Royal Asiatic Society, supplying the lacuna in that M.S, where about six pages are wanting.
“IX. A treatise on metempsychosis, extracted from the Tauzi-