PREFACE. 
Ill 
been, but there are, I believe, some others, besides that of Muhammad 
Sadiq which relate the story of the Kashghar Khojas, and Mr. Shaw 
may have had one of them in his possession, though it may have been 
lost with others of his documents after his death. But whatever in¬ 
fluence the collation of the two original histories may have had in 
modifying the printed text and the full translation, the epitome derived 
from them, containing as it does only the main facts, does not seem 
to have been affected to any appreciable degree. This will be seen 
from the foot-notes which I have added in a few places to indicate 
sometimes the variations from the manuscript and sometimes the 
actual statements, in detail, of Muhammad Sadiq. 
It may be mentioned here that while still in hope that a search for 
the missing leaves of the original manuscript (at the Baptist Mission 
Press) might prove successful, I caused a translation to be made of all 
that there is of it, through Persian into English. This was accom¬ 
plished, with the help of a Turki Munshi from Bukhara, by Khan 
Bahadur Maula Bakhsh and Mirza ‘Abdu-llah, of the Khurasan Agency 
to whom my thanks are due for their labour. Knowing nothing of 
Turki myself, I hesitate to publish this translation; but it has proved 
a most useful resource in enabling me to ascertain the differences 
between Mr. Shaw’s text and Muhammad Sadiq’s manuscript, in 
amplifying certain passages in the epitome and in compiling the genea¬ 
logical tables of the Khojas and Khans. It has also afforded the 
means of forming an opinion of the value to he placed on Muhammad 
Sadiq’s work. 
As regards the history itself, it must be confessed that it is a dis¬ 
appointing one. Whatever the literary attainments of the author may 
have been, he was evidently lacking in historical knowledge. He tells 
us that he was persuaded to undertake the task of writing a record of 
the Khoja period by the wife of the “ Hakim,” or Governor, of Rash- 
ghar, at that time (1768), one TJsman Beg. 1 Of himself the author 
gives no information, but there are indications, in his narrative, that 
he must have been connected by descent with one of the Khoja families 
and seeing that his sympathy for the Ishaqi, or black party of the 
Khojas is very marked throughout, it is probably from a branch of 
this faction that he sprang. In all likelihood too he would have been 
a Mulla, for his mind seems to run on the lines of a religious devotee 
1 Mr. Sliaw notes that this ‘Usman Keg was son of Mir Zahidi, a religious chief of 
Kashghar. 
