Page:The Tarikh-i-Rashidi - Mirza Muhammad Haidar, Dughlát - tr. Edward D. Ross (1895).djvu/11

viii natives of the country, gave him a distinct advantage over the earlier translator.

In the same way, Mr. R. B. Shaw, while on duty in Yarkand and Kashgar, took up a section of the book and translated some passages from it, which were published in the Geographical Society's Journal for 1876. These do not touch on the history, but relate exclusively to the geography of Eastern Turkistan and its neighbouring regions on the south and south-west. They contain translated extracts from Mirza Haidar's opinions, which are fully and accurately elucidated by Mr. Shaw, according to modern knowledge of the subject and local information.

Another short section of the Tarikh-i-Rashidi is found in Elliot's History of India told by its Own Authors—a work that consists of extracts (by various translators) from Asiatic writers, only when these relate to the history of India. The translation, in this instance, is by Professor Dowson, and comprises the one episode of the battle of Kanauj in 1540, when the Afghans, under Shir Shah, won for a time the so-called Moghul Empire of Hindustan. But even this has not been given in full: only the actual account of the battle being thought necessary, by the editor, as an illustration of the events of the period, while some rather lengthy passages, containing the author's views of the policy to be adopted by the Moghuls at that critical moment, have been omitted.

Whether Moorcroft used the book, is not clear from the posthumous narrative of his travels which has come down to us, through Professor H. H. Wilson. He mentions Mirza Haidar's name on one occasion only, and ascribes a statement to him connected with Kashmir, without directly citing his work. If, however, Moorcroft did know the Tarikh-i-Rashidi, he would be, probably, the first Englishman to become acquainted with it, for his reference to it dates from 1822.

In Russia, I believe Professor Grigorieff used the Tarikh-i-Rashidi in editing the Russian version of Ritter's Erdkunde, and it may be that other Orientalists in that country have also reproduced portions of it in their own language; but in French and German Oriental literature, I do not know that the book is more than referred to, and even that very rarely. I make this statement, however, with reserve, for it is quite possible that extracts may have been published, though I have not met with them.

As regards texts in the original Persian (for Mirza Haidar