168 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XII, 



Chingiz Khan down to his own, he (Sayfi) should write a his- 

 tory of that period basing his accounts exclusively on reliable 

 sources. 



The exact date of composition cannot be ascertained, but 

 internal evidence tends to show that it was completed between 

 a.h. 721 and 729 (a.d. 1321 and 1329) after a labour of two 

 and a half years. In the beginning as well as towards the end 

 of the work we find the name of his natron associated with 



such words as * <^^ - ^IsJf olkU etc., from which it is 



reasonable to infer that the author began to write after the 

 king's return from the pilgrimage he had undertaken in a.h. 

 721 = a.d. 1321, that is, in, or shortly after a.h. 721, and that 

 he completed it before the death of his patron Malik Givas-ud- 

 Din in a.h. 729 = a.d. 1329. 



We are not in a position to form a definite idea of the real 

 extent of Sayfi's history of Herat. The present volume ending 

 with a.h. 721 (a.d. 1321) comprises about 140 chapters, 

 while in the preface we are told that the author divided the 

 work into 400 chapters. 



Again, in the concluding lines of this copy, the author dis- 

 tinctly says that he completed this first volume (daftar) by 

 the grace of God, and that he hopes to write the second 

 volume within a very short time : 



flU J^e ^U ^.^ +fi o^| ^ **ot 



'; vi/*> » ^ er* A> » ; jj JIM jii y* ^JLfet J t)S i 3 *Oc oJLL ^\y 



It is worth noticing that at the beginning, where the 

 author states what period he intends to cover in his history, 

 a blank space has been left for the insertion of the year down 

 to which the narrative was to be brought. The passage stands 



thus in the text : 



^ j is) c*'^ *' *b*~ j r* J*> **~> ;r^ yb »y J** £0 G 



* £»l d* £*** 3 tfia* **.,f _, ^ + + + + + + aU 



I am inclined to hold that when Sayfi commenced the 

 work he had planned to divide it into four hundred chapters 



???oix° lu g t u e , histor y down t0 a kter Period than a.h. 721 

 (i.Wl) with which the present volume closes. The space 



