84 Annual Bcporf. [Feb' 



is the only reliable native history of Aurangzib's reign that we possess. 

 Tlie author is most exact in his chronology, and his work will be found by 

 historians to be an excellent check on the confused and frequently inter- 

 rupted account of Khafi Khan. It was no doubt owing to this fact that 

 the author of the Tazhirat ussaldtin i Ghaghtaiyali used the Maasir i 'A'lam- 

 giri for his account of Aurangzib's reign in preference to Khafi Khan's 

 work. 



Maulawi Agha Ahmad 'All's edition is completed in six fasciculi, the 

 last of which is accompanied with a useful Index of Persons and Geogra- 

 phical names, and a short account of the author himself. 



The Society has also issued during last year the Haft Asman by 

 Maulawi Agha Ahmad 'All. This work contains a most interesting history 

 of the Masnawi, or epic poetry, of the Persians, and constitutes the editor's 

 introduction to Nizami's Sikandarndmah i Baliri (or Kliiradnamah i Sikan- 

 d-ari) , which, was edited for the Bibliotheca Indica by Dr. Sprenger, Agha 

 Muhammad Shustari, and Agha Ahmad 'Ali, in 1852 and 1869. As 

 Persian epics are written in seven metres, Maulawi Agha Ahmad 'All gave 

 his Introduction the title of ' Haft Asman,' or ' the Seven Heavens.' Un- 

 fortunately, Agha Ahmad 'All died at Dhaka in June last, and only the 

 general portion and the first of the seven chapters have been completed. 

 But incomplete as it is, the Introduction will be found to contain a most 

 valuable account of the history of the Persian epic and full notes on Niza- 

 mi's works. 



The death of Maulawi Agha Ahmad 'Ali has deprived the Bibliotheca 

 Indica of a most painstaking editor. During the years 1865 and 1873, 

 he edited for the Society the epic Wis o Udmin, the first and third volumes 

 of Baddo7ii's histoY J, the Iqhdlndmah i Jalidngiri (jointly), the Madsir i 

 ^Alamgiri, one-half of Nizami's Sikandaimdmali, and the first two fasciculi 

 of Abul Fazl's Akharndmali. He was enthusiastically devoted to Persian 

 Literature. Besides the Haft Asman, which he compiled for the Society, 

 he published in 1865 and 1868 his Muayyid i Biirhdn and the Shamslier i 

 Teztar, two important lexicographical works ; the JRisdlah i Tardnah, an 

 essay on the lluba'i of the Persians, in 1866 ; and in 1872 the JRisdlah i 

 Ishtiqdq, an elementary Persian grammar. 



Abul Fazl's Alchamdmah, which Maulawi Agha Ahmad 'All had com- 

 menced to edit, has been entrusted to Maulawi 'Abdurrahim, of the Calcutta 

 Madrasah, and Mr. Blochmann has promised to superintend the edition as 

 far as the names of persons and the geography of the work are concerned. 



Translations. Of translations from Persian into English, the Society 

 published during 1873 the first two fasciculi of Major Raverty's transla- 

 tion of the Tahaqdt i Ndgiri, which is being printed in England. The 

 third and fourth fasciculi (as far as page 392) have likewise been printed, 



