466 



Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 



[No. 4, 



" The Tabaqdt i NAsiree is a general history, compiled by Minhaj 

 ol-din Jawzj&ni. It commences with the birth of Adam, and con- 

 cludes with the biography of Nasir ol-din Mahmud b-Shams ol-din 

 Altimash, the eighth king of Delhi of the Ghori dynasty. 



"It must be evident that that portion of Minhaj ol-din's work which 

 treats of ancient history, is of no value for illustrating the history of 

 Mohammadan India. The account he himself gives of this part of his 

 history is as follows : — 



" He found, he says, a tabular chronicle compiled by the Imam Mo- 

 hammad Ali Abu 1-Kasim Imadi, in the time of Nasir ol-din Sobokti- 

 km, containing in a very concise form, some account of the prophets, 

 the early and later Khalifahs, and something of the life of Nasir ol-din 

 Soboktikm. This he desired to enlarge ; and by giving a more extend- 

 ed account of the kings of Arabia and Persia, including the Tobbas of 

 Yemen, the kings of Himyar ; the Khalifahs, the Buyahs, Tahiryan, 

 Saffaryan, Samaniyan, Saljtikyan, and Bumyan, so make a complete 

 history. 



" But, for this portion of general history, we cannot expect to learn 

 anything very new or instructive from Minhaj ol-din ; for, we have 

 older, and better, and more numerous, authorities than those he used ; 

 and many of these works have been already printed and published. 



" There is, however, a portion of his history which is of great value 

 for our purpose, viz. : that which contains the chronicle of his own 

 times, commencing with the Grhori dynasty, (of the Royal House of 

 which he was himself a protege,) and concluding with Nasir ol-din 

 Mahmud b-Soltan Altimash. Of the contents of the work, the late 

 Mr. Morley in his catalogue, gave a brief outline : and from the exa- 

 mination I made of the book, his remarks appeared to convey an 

 accurate impression of its value : of the propriety then, of our publish- 

 ing the portion mentioned, there could not, I think, be a question. 



" It might be thought that this author's account of the Kings of the 

 house of Nasir ol-din Soboktikin (in whose time, and by whose order, 

 the chronicle on which Minhaj ol-din professes to have based his 

 account of this period was compiled) would be valuable. But it ap- 

 pears to be very meagre. The reigns of three or four kings, are 

 sometimes discussed in half the same number of pages, three only 

 being allotted to Mahmud the great, and his twelve invasions of 

 India. 



