236 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [November, 1905. 
31. The Nafaisu-l-Maasir—By H. Beverives, 1.C.8. (vetired). 
Among the Elhot manuscripts in the British Museum there is 
a volume which contains, among other things, about a hundred 
pages of an extract from the Nafa’isu-l-Maasir. It is numbered 
Or. 1761 and is described at p. 1022a of vol. III of Rieu’s Persian 
Catalogue. The title Nafa’isu-l-Maasir may be rendered “Choice 
Deeds,” and is a chronogram implying that the book was begun in 
973 (1565-66). It is stated by Dr. Sprenger that a postscript 
gives 979 as the date of the completion of the work, but that much 
later dates are mentioned init. The work was a biographical dic- 
tionary of Persian poets and was written by Mirza ‘Alau-d-daulah 
Qazyvini, the younger brother of Mir ‘Abdu-l-latif, who was for a 
time Akbar’s preceptor. ‘Alau-d-daulah was himself a poet, and 
wrote under the name of Kami. He is described by Badaytni at 
pp. 97 and 316 of the third volume of his history. A copy of the 
original work was seen by Dr. Sprenger in the Moti Mahall Library 
in Lucknow, and he has described its contents at pp. 46-55 of his 
Catalogue; but apparently the manuscript was lost in the Mutiny, 
and there does not seem to be any copy in our public libraries. It 
is to be hoped that a copy will turn up in India some day for the 
work was a valuable one and was the basis of Badayitni’s 
third volume. Sprenger states that the book contained notices of 
about 350 poets, most of whom flourished in the time of Akbar. 
He also gives the index of the names. Fortunately the Elhot MS. 
contains the historical introduction which gives an account of the 
reigns of Babar, Humaytin and Akbar. The account of Akbar is 
the fullest of the three, but only goes down to 982 or 1575, 2.e., to 
the twentieth year of the reign. Though the historical introduc- 
tion is only a sketch, it gives here and there useful bits of infor- 
mation, and it is valuable as being, apparently, the earliest written 
of all the lives of Akbar. Like his father Mir Yahya, the author 
of the Labb-u-tawarikh, ‘Alau-d-daulah is very fond of chrono- 
grams, and gives many of them in his introduction. Among others 
he gives the well-known one about Babar’s birth, and adds that it 
was composed by Maulana Jami. This cannot have been the great 
Jami. On p. 260 he speaks of Babar’s religious poem, and corrobo- 
rates Sprenger’s statement that it was entitled ‘‘Dar Figh.” He 
adds that it was sent to Hazrat Imam A‘zam, who is probably the 
same person as the Maqdtm A‘zam of Transoxiana whose name is 
mentioned in Ney Hlias’s history of the Khojas. That is, he is 
probably one of several Maqdtim A‘zams, for the name was borne 
by more than one saint. At p. 33b we have the statement that 
Humaytn conversed in Herat with the writer’s father, here called 
Amir Nasiru-d-din Yahya. At p. 376 mention is made of a Khwa- 
~ jah Qazi who was Humayun’s prime minister and who, unless he 
be the same as Khwajah Ghazi, does not seem to be named by other 
authorities. It is added that he belonged to the family of the 
famous enthusiast Shams-i-Tabrizi. The account of Humayin’s 
death gives one or two new details. In the first place it says that. 
