1134 Asiatic Society. [No. 107- 



* I have reason to suspect, however, that the volume consisted originally of more than 

 303 leaves. In the Society's MS. there is a lacuna of some leaves in the life of 

 Shakmuni, vs^hile the numbers of the folia proceed without any interruption. This can 

 be accounted for on the supposition that the folia were numbered some time after the 

 work was written, but previous to its present dismemberment; and it will be perceived 

 that the ink used in the numbers differs considerably from that of the text. The per- 

 son who wrote the numbers may have known as little about the nature and contents of 

 the work as the writer of the Persian note, who called it The History of Tabari ; and 

 hence, I should think, arose the mistake. 



* I have no means of ascertaining in what part of India Colonel Baillie procured his 

 MS., but I should say, most probably at Lakhnau, where he was long resident. That 

 the Society's fragment came from that quarter, within the last fifteen or sixteen years, 

 can be easily proved. There is a duplicate of the life of Shakmuni in the Society's 

 Library, transcribed at Devi, a village or district of Lakhnau, in May, 1823*. That 

 this was done from the Society's original is all but certain, for the same hiatus occurs 

 in the copy as in the original. The transcriber there mentions, in a note, that "there 

 is one leaf missing (in the original);" but I am afraid, if we judge from circumstances, 

 that ten leaves would have been nearer the mark. In the life of Shakmuni there are 

 twenty-one sections, of which about ten are lost (from the seventh to the seventeenth). 

 Each section before and after the last part occupies at an average a single leaf. 

 I cannot believe, then, that the ten lost sections could have been comprised in one leaf, 

 particularly as what remains of the seventeenth section alone occupies a leaf and 

 half a page. It is not unlikely, then, that there may be other lacunae which may have 

 escaped the notice of the person who numbered the leaves — a point which can be 

 ascertained only by a careful perusal of the work itself. 



' Should this brief account be deemed worthy of insertion in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society, (perhaps, in company with Mr. Morley's more ample communication,) 

 it may prove the means of exciting our numerous Orientalists in India to make 

 inquiries for the remaining fragments of this rare volume. 



' There is every reason to suppose that both the portions of the work now in London, 

 came from Lakhnau ; and in that quarter it is probable the rest may yet be recovered. 

 Mr. Morley has given an accurate fac-simile of a portion of folio 74, and I may add, 

 that where no breaks occur, each page contains thirty-five of such lines. Finally, 

 such numbers as 1 have stated to be missing, will, most probably, have remained on 

 the leaves of the lost fragments, which may thus be easily identified. 



' Nearly two years ago I had the honour of requesting the attention of the Society to 

 some rare Oriental works mentioned in a Persian catalogue of the library of Farzada 

 Kuli, or some such name. In the historical department of that catalogue, one of the 

 first books entered is, " The Chronicle of Tabari, the author's autograph, in the Arabic 

 language, with seventy pictures of Saints, his Eminence the Prophet, and sundry 

 kings, very rare." Now I strongly suspect that the work here described, is none other 

 than Colonel Baillie's MS. of the Jdmi al Tawdrikh. The number of pictures in 

 Col. Baillie's half, is really seventy, and among these is a protraiture of Muhammad. 

 The writer of the catalogue received the work as he found it marked on the back, and 

 in the Persian note, folio 154, without troubling his head about its contents. What 



* Vide Mr Morley's Note, page 23, 



