114 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, [July, 



Capt. Lees then read the following paper ; — 



Note on the Iqhdl Ndmeh-i-J ahdngiri and other authorities for the 

 history of the reign of the Emperor Jehdngir. 



It was proposed by me some time last year, that, for the elucidation 

 of the History of India during the reign of the Emperor Jehangir, 

 the Society should publish in their Persian series of the Bibliotheca 

 Indica, the Jahdngir-ndmeh and the Iqbdl-ndmeh. The first is an 

 autobiography, and, as giving an account of the life of one of the 

 most powerful of the Mogul Emperors, written by his own hand, and 

 at the same time affording, by the frankness with which the author 

 dilates upon his own crimes, follies, weakness and vices, good proof 

 of its truthfulness, may be considered one of the most valuable relics of 

 the History of India we possess. In no other work can we obtain 

 better or more information regarding the reign of this monarch, than 

 is to be found in the Jahdngir-ndmeh. It might have sufficed then 

 for the history of this period : but an autobiography, however honest 

 and truthful, is always open to suspicion, and as the Iqbdl-ndmeh is 

 a contemporaneous history, and was written by Motamad Khan, who 

 was in constant attendance on the Emperor, and the book is very much 

 smaller than the autobiography, it was considered desirable to publish 

 it as supplementary and corroborative of the memoirs. 



During my absence from Calcutta, however, the Jahdngir-ndmeh 

 was published by the Literary Society of Upper India, under the name 

 of the Tuzuk-i-Jalidngiri, and it became unnecessary to publish it in 

 our series, the object of which, as before mentioned, is to place within 

 reach of the future Historian, the materials for founding a good 

 History of India, under the Muhammadan dynasties which have rulec[ 

 over her destinies. 



It became a question then whether, as we had been forestalled in 

 our intention of publishing the Jahdngir-ndmeh, we should not aban- 

 don the supplementary work also; but the Philological Committee 

 decided that notwithstanding our inability to give in our series as 

 complete a view of the occurrences of this reign as we had originally 

 intended, the necessity for a history from an independent authority 

 was not removed ; and on this ground they recommend its publica- 

 tion to the Society. 



