388 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVII, 
into a book without proper arrangement. There are many 
instances of glaring violation of chronological sequence or, on 
the contrary, scattering contemporary biographies about in 
sections one with different periods. 
As to the question of literary style, it is possible to think 
that Jami did not pey any special attention to it. He usually 
very closely follows the general spirit of his originals. The 
text of the Tabagat he usually reproduces literally, only replac- 
ing old forms of words by modern ones. But in many cases 
also he changes the warding. probably quoting from memory 
or for the purpose of condensation. It is strange to see that 
&p- 
parently quite unnecessary) Arabic quotations and versified 
passages. 
The biographies which are entirely due to his pen are 
chiefly of two kinds. The majority are based on oral tradi- 
tion, on personal acquaintance, or on such information as he 
could gather about his contemporaries. To this type belong 
all the biographies of the saints of the Naqshbandi affiliation 
(Nos. 434-452), as well as of his other contemporaries and of 
some of their shee os (Nos. 468 bis, 483-484, 506-512). 
He often refers to the oral tradition which he heard, although 
tion as Jami shenla. never have heard of theue There was 
one early work, probably composed in the VIIc. A.H. by 
pois ‘]-lah b. Mas‘ad ‘Alt b. Umar as-Sarraf, dealing with the 
ints of Turkestan, bearing the title Hisasw’ l-atqgiya min 
qian ’l-anbiya, and another, a aniigie -i-Amir Kulal, composed 
by an anonymous author in 808 A. He 
most important notices, i.e. on ‘Abdu’l-lah Ansari, based - 
almost SHR COy. on his own Tana, with probably little addi- 


1 — MSS.., the first a very old copy, were purchased by me in 1915 
in Turkestan and are reserved in the Asiatic Museum of the Russian 
Academy of of | — Petrograd, Nos. 602 and 539 in the Scleebod bear- 
ng my na 


