(2) Faṣíḥí of Khwáf.

This notable historian and biographer is known to us only by one book, the Mujmal, or “Compendium” of Faṣíḥí of Khwáf History and Biography, of which, so far as I know, only three manuscripts exist. Of these three MSS. one, belonging to the Institut des Langues Orien-tales du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères de St Pétersbourg is described by Baron V. Rosen, * whose description is supplementary to the fuller and earlier one of Dorn. One of the two others belonged to the late Colonel Raverty, the Pushtú scholar, from whose widow it was purchased in 1907 by the trustees of the “E. J. W. Gibb Memorial.” The third was given to me by my excellent friend Mr Guy le Strange, who bought it from the late Sir Albert Houtum-Schindler. It is much more modern than the Raverty MS., but is accurate and well-written, and has a lacuna of only ten years (A.H. 834-844 = A.D. 1430-1440) instead of the hundred and twenty-two (A.H. 718-840 = A.D. 1318-1437) which are wanting in the other.

In 1915 the expatriated Belgian professors of oriental languages temporarily resident in Cambridge brought out Description of Faṣíḥí's Mujmal at the University Press there a number of the Muséon, to which, at their kind invitation, I contributed an article of thirty pages on this interesting work, with numerous extracts, based on the two English manuscripts, both of which were then in my keeping. The Mujmal, as I there pointed out, consists of an Introduction, two Discourses, and a Conclusion. The Introduction epitomizes the history of the world from its creation to the birth of the Prophet Muḥammad. The first Discourse continues the history down to the hijra, or flight of the Prophet from Mecca to al-Madína. The second Discourse, which is by far the largest and most important part of the book, contains the history of the years A.H. 1-845 (A.D. 622-1442). The Conclusion, which is unfortunately missing in all known manuscripts, contains an account of the city of Herát, the author's birth-place and home, and its history in pre-Muhammadan times.

All that we know of the author, Faṣíḥí of Khwáf, is derived from this book, and I have found no mention of Biography of Faṣíḥí him elsewhere. Rosen says that he was born in 777/1375-6, but I have not been able to verify this statement from the Mujmal. In 807/1404-5 he was employed with three other persons whom he names on business connected with the Treasury. In 818/1415-6 he accompanied Sháh-rukh to Shíráz to subdue the rebellious activities of the latter's nephew Prince Bayqará. In 825/1422 he was sent to Kirmán on business connected with the Treasury. In 827/1424 he returned thence to Bádghís. In 828/1424-5 he obtained favourable notice and State employment from Prince Báysunqur. Under the year 841/1437-8 he cites some verses by Shihábu'd-Dín 'Azízu'lláh of Khwáf commemorating the birth of a son on the 24th of Dhu'l-Ḥijja (June 18, 1438). In 842/1438-9 he mentions the birth of his grandson Mughíthu'd-Dín Abú Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Maḥmúd on the 10th of Dhu'l-Qa'da (April 24, 1439). In 843/1439-40 he had the misfortune to offend and to be imprisoned by Gawhar Shád Áqá, and he was again imprisoned in 845/ 1441-2, with which year the chronicle ends (though the date 849/1445 is mentioned in a verse with which one of the MSS. concludes), and it was apparently in that year, on the 15th of Dhu'l-Ḥijja (April 26, 1442), that he presented his book to Sháh-rukh.

The detailed account of Faṣíḥí's Mujmal which I pub­lished in the Cambridge number of the Muséon to which Characteristics of Faṣíḥí's Mujmal reference has been already made absolves me from the necessity of enlarging on its contents in this place. Its two chief features are a great simplicity of style and a special attention to matters of literary interest. * It is arranged in the form of a chronicle the events of each year, including the deaths of eminent persons of all sorts, being grouped together under that year, and in the necrological part it is remarkable how large is the proportion of poets and men of letters, more especially, of course, of such as belonged to Khurásán and Transoxiana. Moreover it is evident that Faṣíḥí drew his information to a large extent from sources other than those employed by later and better known biographers and historians, which fact gives a special value to his work.

(3) Kamálu'd-Dín 'Abdu'r-Razzáq of Samarqand.

Though born at Herát in 816/1413, * 'Abdu'r-Razzáq is called “of Samarqand,” which was the native place of his father Mawláná Jalálu'd-Dín Isḥáq, a judge and chaplain in Sháh-rukh's army. At the age of 25, in 841/1437-8, after his father's death, 'Abdu'r-Razzáq attracted the notice of 'Abdu'r-Razzáq of Samarqand that monarch by a grammatical treatise which he had composed and dedicated to him. Four years later, in 845/1441-2, he was sent to India on a special mission to the king of Bíjánagar, which lasted three years, and of which he gives a detailed narrative in his history. In 850/1446-7 he was sent on a mission to Gílán; and, on the death of Sháh-rukh in this same year, he was successively attached to the service of Mírzá 'Abdu'l-Laṭíf, 'Abdu'lláh, Abu'l-Qásim Bábur, and lastly of Abú Sa'íd. He afterwards retired into private life, became Shaykh of the monastery or Khánqáh of Sháh-rukh in Herát in 867/1463, and died there in 887/1482. All these particulars are taken from Rieu's Persian Catalogue, * and are for the most part derived either from the historian's own statements or from the notice of him contained in the Ḥabíbu's-Siyar. * The fullest account of his life and work is that given by Quatremère in the Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, * and other references will be found in Rieu's Catalogue.

So far as is known, 'Abdu'r-Razzáq produced only one great work, to wit the history entitled Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn

'Abdu'r-Razzáq's history, the Maṭla'u's­Sa'dayn (“the Dawn of the two Auspicious Planets”), which comprises two volumes and covers a period of 170 years extending from the birth of the last Mongol ruler of Persia, Abú Sa'íd, in 704/1304-5 to the death of his namesake the great-grand­son of Tímúr, * these two Abú Sa'íds being, presumably, the “two Auspicious Planets.” The first volume ends with the death of Tímúr in 807/1405. Reference has been already made to the curious coincidence, noticed by the author of the Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn, that the date of the death of the last great Mongol ruler of Persia, Abú Sa'íd, corresponds almost exactly with the birth of Tímúr, the founder of the next great Tartar Empire in Central Asia.*

Manuscripts of the Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn, though not very common, are to be found in most large collections, and, so Value of the Maṭla'u's­Sa'dayn, and need of an edition far as I have seen, are generally above the average in point of excellence and accuracy. * The work, though based to a considerable extent on the Zubdatu't-Tawáríkh of Ḥáfiẓ Abrú, is of great importance, and a critical edition of it is much needed, for it deals in a very detailed manner with a very important period of Persian history, and is the work of one who wrote at first hand and took an active part in many of the events which he describes.

(4) Mu'ínu'd-Dín Muḥammad of Isfizár.

Mu'ínu'd-Dín-i-Isfizárí is chiefly notable on account of his monograph on the history of Herát entitled Rawḍatu'l-

Mu'ínu'd-Dín-i­Isfizárí Jannát fí Ta'ríkhi Madínati Herát, written for Sulṭán Ḥusayn Abu'l-Ghází, and carried down to the year 875/1470-1; but he was also skilled in the epistolary style (tarassul) of the Court and of Diplo­macy, on which he compiled a manual, and was besides MSS. of his History of Herát something of a poet. * Three MSS. of the History of Herát are preserved in the British Museum; * another, belonging to Mr A. G. Ellis, copied in 1073/1663, has been generously placed at my disposal by the owner; and yet another, belonging to the late Sir A. Houtum-Schindler, came into my possession in Jan. 1917. A detailed account of this important work, written in French by the late M. Barbier de Meynard, was published in the Journal Asiatique, 5th Series, vol. xvi, pp. 461-520. It is divided into 26 Rawḍas or “Gardens,” of which i-vi treat of the city of Herát, its environs, topography and excellence, and its earlier rulers in Muḥammadan times; vii-viii of the Kurt dynasty and its overthrow by Tímúr; and the remainder of the history of Tímúr and his suc­cessors down to the second accession of Sulṭán Ḥusayn Abu'l-Ghází. The name of the month of Ṣafar (<text in Arabic script omitted>), in which the book was completed, yields by the abjad computation the date of completion, 875 (August, 1470). The author enumerates amongst his sources the histories of Abú Isḥáq Aḥmad b. Yá-Sín, Shaykh 'Abdu'r-Raḥmán Fámí, and Sayfí of Herát, as well as the Kurt-náma, or “Book of the Kurt Dynasty” of Rabí'í of Búshanj. He also cites the above-mentioned Maṭla'u's-Sa'dayn in at least one place (in Rawḍa xiii).