Page:The Tarikh-i-Rashidi - Mirza Muhammad Haidar, Dughlát - tr. Edward D. Ross (1895).djvu/17

xiv text without any break in the numbering of the chapters, as Mirza Haidar embodies it in his original manuscript, but it has been printed in somewhat smaller type than the rest of the text, in order to distinguish the difference of authorship.

A few words, only, are needed in explanation of the map. In the first place, its object is to show all the places mentioned in the Tarikh-i-Rashidi, which can surely be identified, and the positions of which can be established. In the second place, it was obviously necessary to lay down all the localities alluded to, on a basis of the best data available, regarding the physical geography of the region concerned. But a map containing only the names mentioned by Mirza Haidar would have had little significance. As a guide to their whereabouts, easily recognised points of some kind were needed, and for this purpose a number of the most ordinarily known, and least irrelevant, names in modern geography, have been used. They are marked at fairly wide intervals all over the included region, and may be regarded, for the most part, as mere "signposts" for pointing to the places spoken of by the author.

It might appear, at first sight, that the map would have been more useful, if the designations of the tribes had been inserted, and marked in such a way as to show the regions they inhabited; also that the boundaries, or approximate limits, of the various countries and kingdoms should have been indicated. But information of this kind it is impossible to give on a single sheet, intended to serve for a period of over two centuries in duration. The whole burden of the history to be illustrated is "mutability"; and a series of maps, instead of one, would be requisite to show the boundaries that existed from time to time, or the moves that occurred among the tribes. It has been found expedient, therefore, to omit all information of a transitional nature from the face of the map, and rather to make it exclusively geographical.

For the rest, everything has been done to render it plain and easy to refer to; and with this end in view, all needless details, both in the matter of names and of physical features, have been avoided. It will be found, I believe, to be the only map which contains most of the names used in historical works relating to Central Asia during the Middle Ages. The original drawing is by Mr. H. Scharbau, and is clear and excellent of its kind.

It is with pleasure that I take this opportunity to acknowledge my indebtedness to several gentlemen who have been so good