196 
H. Beveridge —The Khurshtd Julian Numa of 
[No. 3, 
pied with it, more or less, for the rest of his life; but he appears to have 
finished the history of Bengal in 1280 A.H., or 1863 A.D., for this is the 
date to which he has brought down his narration of events. Continuing the 
fancy of the title, he divided his book into twelve Burj, or signs of the 
Zodiac. The first contained an account of the world, and the next five des¬ 
cribed America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Polynesia, and the 
various races and religions of men. The 7th dealt with Prophets, the 8th 
with Philosophers, the 9th with Saints and Poets, the 10th with Teachers 
and Pupils, i.e., I presume, Education, the 11th with Buildings, &c., and the 
12th with an Account of the Author. 
As usual, the work begins with praises of God and of Muhammad. 
Then it proceeds to pronounce an eulogium on Munshi ‘Abdu-1-karlm, the 
friend and instructor of the author. We are told that ‘Abdu-1-karlm was 
originally an inhabitant of Barh, in the district of Patna, that he came to 
Maldah and entered into the service of Ghulam Husain, the author of the 
Riyazu-s-salatin, and who was at the time Dak Munshi, or Postmaster, under 
Mr. George Udny. ‘Abdu-l-karim was for a time Bakhshl, or Assistant, to 
the Nazir, or Sheriff, and afterwards became a Mukhtar. He appears to 
have been a good Persian scholar, and one or two inscriptions for mosques 
which he composed, have been quoted by Ilahl Ba khsh . 
In the portion of the Khurshld Jahan Numa with which we are con¬ 
cerned, the first date given is that of the Deluge. The author tells us that 
this took place 2971 years before the era of the Hijra, a computation which 
gives us the same date as that assigned by Christian writers, for 2971—622= 
2349 B.C. The reason that he comes to mention this date is that he, in 
accord with the Riyazu-s-salatin, derives the name of Bengal from Bang, 
the son of Hind, and the word al meaning an embankment. The latter part 
of this derivation is also that adopted by Abu-l-fazl. According to Gh ulam 
Husain and Ilahl Bakhsh, Bang was the second son of Hind, who was the 
eldest of the six sons of Ham, and consequently a grandson of Noah. 
After this, the author proceeds to describe Bengal and the Bengalis, and 
to give an account of each district. Much of this part is taken from the 
Riyaz and the Araish-i-Mahfil, and except for the account of Maldah, is not 
worth printing. It may be noticed here that Ghulam Husain was a native 
of Zaidpur in Oude, and that neither he nor Ilahl Ba khsh seem to have con¬ 
sidered themselves to be Bengalis. Both are rather severe on the Bengali 
character and customs, but Ilahl Ba khsh has considerably softened Ghulam 
Husain’s remarks. The account of Maldah begins at page 111. The follow¬ 
ing are the only novelties which I noticed in the account of the other 
districts. 
In the account of Calcutta, we have a list of the mosques and copies of 
the inscriptions on them. None of them, however, is old, and it is unne¬ 
cessary to print them. Then at page 20, we have a Persian verse containing 
a pun on the name of Sir John Shore (Lord Teigiimouth). Shor means 
salt or brackish in Persian, and so we are told in allusion to the climate and 
water, and to the name of the Governor-General. 
