122 Pioceed'nujs of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



history, would be in a position, intentions of flattery apart, to make 

 erroneous statements regarding his reign. Thousands of people were 

 living at the time, who were eye-witnesses of the events that occurred. 

 It was with some surprise I found, then, that Kamgar Khan Hosaini 

 made no allusion to Motamad Khan's work in his preface. After a 

 cursory examination, however, I discovered that there was good cause 

 for this omission. Ho has transferred a good portion of the Iqhdl- 

 ndmeh to his pages, the first portion indeed being copied verbatim, 

 and the remainder is almost, if not wholly, based upon it. We need 

 hardly go beyond this for an opinion as to the estimation in which the 

 work was held in the East, by the most competent persons, at the time 

 when the public were best able to judge of its merits ; but I will adduce 

 one more proof of the propriety of the recommendation made by the 

 Council, viz., that the books originally proposed for publication to the 

 Philological Committee, the Jahdngir-nameh, and the Iqbdl-ndmeh-i- 

 Jahdngiri, are the authorities on which the author of the Kholdsat-al- 

 Tawdrihh, who lived in Aurung-zeb's time, has based his account of 

 the events of this period. There are few, if any, general histories of 

 India, which, in my opinion, are better or more trustworthy than this 

 work, and it is satisfactory to me to find that my opinion is so well 

 supported. In speaking of the Iqbdl-ndmeh moreover the author 

 specially remarks on the style of the book, which he says is clear 

 (^-*o|j) while that of the Jahiingir-ndmeh is regal (&jIa UoU). The 

 Society may then, I think, without any misgivings, accept the recom- 

 mendation of the Council, and authorize the publication of the Iqbdl- 

 ndmeh in the Persian series of their Bibliotheca Indica. 



The Chairman expressed a hope that the paper which had been just 

 read would be held to bear out the Council in their adoption of the 

 Philological Committee's report. It had been their practice in select- 

 ing works for the Persian series of the Bibliotheca Indica to publish 

 such as were considered to be reliable, though, as in the case of Budao- 

 ni's history of Akbar lately published, that author's narrative might 

 differ from that which had hitherto been accepted. 



The formal sanction of the meeting was then taken for the proposed 

 publication. 



Letters from Mr. J. W. McCrindle, Dr. F. N. Macnamara, Capt. D. 

 Macdonald, Capt. T. (.«. Montgomerie, R*ja Banspat Singh, Mr. A. 



