PREFACE. 
Y 
But the interval of some two hundred years has hitherto been almost 
a blank, and it is this void that Muhammad Sadiq’s book helps us, 
however imperfectly, to fill up. It cannot, as will be seen further on, 
be said to extend over the whole of this interval, for though it is im¬ 
possible to point to any particular date as its commencement, it may 
be regarded, generally, as only starting from the early part of the 17th 
century, while it carries us down to about the opening of the year 1756, 
a date well within the author’s recollection. 
Nor can it be claimed for Mr. Shaw’s epitome that this is the first 
time a summary of Muhammad Sadiq’s story has appeared in 
Europe. In 1865 Messrs. John and Robert Michell published, in their 
book of translations from the Russian, called “ The Russians in Central 
Asia”, an account of Eastern Turkistan by Captain Valikhanoff—a 
Russian officer, who, in 1856, had travelled in the country and had 
devoted a chapter 1 to a review of its history. The sources from 
which he derived his information of the Khoja period he has nowhere 
mentioned, but, for two reasons, it seems certain that the chief authority 
must have been the TazJcira-i-KJiwajaaan . In the first place he tells 
us 2 that, when at Kash gh ar. he obtained a copy of the book, and 
secondly, on reading his summary, there is abundant internal evidence 
that this was one, at least, of the works he used. As a “son of a 
Kir gh iz Sultan and a native of the steppes 3 ”, Captain Valikhanolf 
may be supposed to have been at home in the Turk! language, yet, 
strangely enough, his review of the Khoja domination contains many 
vital mistakes, the proper names are so distorted as to be barely recog¬ 
nized, while a number of statements and a few dates are inserted (not 
always correctly) for which the author of the Tazkira cannot be held 
responsible. In short, it is scarcely a summarised translation, but more 
properly a general account of the period based mainly on our author’s 
book. A detailed criticism would serve no useful purpose; it need only 
be remarked that on first reading Captain Valikhanoff’s version, in 
connection with the translation made for me of Muhammad Sadiq’s 
original manuscript, it appeared to be a question whether, in spite of 
serious inaccuracies, it might not be superfluous to print a second 
summary—whether, in fact, anything but a complete translation would 
1 See Russians in Central Asia , Chapter VI. 
2 lb. End of Chapter III, 
8 lb. Preface. 
