1856.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 463 



Dictionary of Persons who knew Mohammed, a Dictionary of Tech- 

 nical Terms and a History of the Conquest of Syria. 



Of these the Handbook of History was undertaken in the year 

 1851. The Society then had at its disposal three very ancient 

 MSS. while at that time in all Europe there were only four, and 

 every one of them more recent than the most modern copy in the 

 possession of Dr. Sprenger, who had kindly undertaken to edit the 

 work. Under these circumstances there seemed to be no reason to 

 expect that any one else would anticipate the Calcutta edition. 

 But before 60 pages of the work had been printed, the Committee 

 were informed that Professor "Wustenfeld of Berlin had lithoera- 

 phed the whole book, and there existed no further occasion to 

 print it in this country. They, therefore, immediately put a stop 

 to the Society's edition, and have now to recommend that it be 

 dropped altogether. 



2. — The Sekandernamah has been printed to the extent of nearly 

 one half; the other half will fill about one fasciculus. The MSS. 

 available for this portion are correct, and as soon as Dr. Sprenger 

 has compared them with a printed copy lately brought by him from 

 Bagdad, it should be carried through the press under the super- 

 intendence of a competent Mawlavi. 



3. — Of the Dictionary of Persons who knew Mohammed thirteen 

 fasciculi have been published. This portion includes nearly one 

 fourth of the work, and has been printed at a cost of about 

 Es. 4000. To complete it, it will be necessary to incur an addi- 

 tional expense of at least Es. 10,000. The MSS. from which the 

 first portion of the work has been printed, belong to individuals to 

 whom they must be immediately returned by Dr. Sprenger, having 

 been already detained for more than three years, so that the work 

 can no longer be continued. The committee therefore propose that 

 the published portion be offered to any publisher, who will under- 

 take under proper guarantee to complete the work and present to 

 the Society 50 copies of the continuation. 



4.- The remarks made with reference to the Biographical 

 Dictionary apply equally to the Dictionary of Technical Terms, and 

 for its completion the Sub-Committee would recommend a similar 

 plan. But in as much as really one half of the work has been 



3 r 



