34 Annual Report. [Feb. 



will also include the continuation of the Akbarnamah hy 'lnayatullah Muhibb 

 Ali from the time of Abulfazl's death till the end of Akbar's reign (1014). 

 Maulawi Agha Ahmad 'Ali of the Calcutta Madrasah has been appointed to 

 edit the work, which will be issued in the same size and type as Mr. Bloch- 

 mann's Ain. Two fasciculi have been printed. The edition is based upon 

 nine MSS., belonging to the Society, the Fort William College, the Delhi 

 MSS., and Maulawi Kabiruddin Ahmad. 



The other new work is the translation by Major H. Gr. Raverty of the 

 Tabaqat i Naqiri. This work is being printed in England by Major Raverty 

 himself. Two fasciculi were printed during the last year, and a portion of 

 them will within a short time be received for distribution in this country. 

 Major Raverty has sent the following report on the progress of his works. 



' I have much pleasure in stating, for the information of the Council of 

 the Society, the progress I have made in translating the Tabaqat i Nacirn 

 and other matters connected therewith. 



' When I first offered a translation to the Society, as stated in my letter 

 on the subject, I intended merely to have made a fair copy of a translation 

 I had made of the portions relating to India, in connection with my own 

 particular studies in Muhammadan and Indian History, which I have been 

 engaged in for the last eight or ten years — from the Society's printed 

 edition of the text, edited by Lieut.-Col. W. N. Lees, LL. D. and his 

 Maulawis, and a MS. in the India Office Library, which MS. and that be- 

 longing to the Royal Asiatic Society appear to have been the copies from 

 which the printed text was taken, which printed text, in many places, is 

 unintelligible, and does not correspond with those MSS. 



' Having, subsequently, discovered a very old copy of tke text, and 

 seemingly far more reliable, although defective at the end, and like all MSS- 

 more or less defective in a few other places, on comparing it with the other 

 named above, I found such considerable and important differences to exist 

 between them, that I determined — even without " training a staff" for the 

 purpose — to go over the whole translation again. 



' Our friend, Mr. Arthur Grote, to whom I am greatly indebted for assis- 

 tance in many ways, also advised that I should avail myself of any other 

 copies of the text that might be procurable. 



' In the preface to the printed text, the editor remarks — " When I com- 

 menced the work, we had three copies [of the Persian text], one belonging 

 to the Royal Asiatic Society, one in the India House Library, and one to the 

 High Priest of the Parsis at Bombay. A little while afterwards, Colonel 

 Hamilton, in reply to a circular of the Society, forwarded a copy from 

 Dehli. These MSS. are all apparently good old copies, and are written in 

 very different hands. It was supposed, then, that we had four distinct 

 copies to collate ; but before long, it became apparent that the four had 



