Page:The Tarikh-i-Rashidi - Mirza Muhammad Haidar, Dughlát - tr. Edward D. Ross (1895).djvu/18

Rh as to lend me a helping hand, at various stages of my task. To no one am I more grateful than to Sir Henry Howorth, whose interest in the book, from first to last, has been manifested in so many practical ways, that it is perhaps doubtful whether, in its absence, the manuscript would ever have reached the printer. Dr. Rieu's good offices I have already alluded to; but I herewith offer him my thanks for the grace and patience with which he rendered them, in part to myself, and in part to Mr. Ross in connection with the technicalities of the translation. My gratitude is also due to Mr. Stephen Wheeler for the valuable advice he has accorded me, and for many references to books and other documents which his extensive reading—perhaps unsurpassed on most Asiatic subjects—enabled him, with great generosity, to place at my disposal. In tendering my acknowledgments to Dr. L. A. Waddell for the favour he has done the reader in adding some notes to Mirza Haidar's chapters on Tibet. I have only to refer to his able and original work on 'Lamaism in Tibet,' to guarantee appreciation of his remarks. I gladly avail myself of this occasion, also, to express my sense of obligation to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, for the material assistance so liberally accorded by him, towards securing the publication of the volume.

Finally, I must echo the author's words when he tells his readers that he knows his book to be full of mistakes. The subject on which I have chiefly to beg the indulgence of the critical is that of the spelling of Asiatic names, though there may be other errors and omissions, due to a want of those minute and repeated revisions of the proofs, that a book of this kind requires. My time on furlough, however, is limited, and as it has been necessary to complete the revisions before leaving England to return to Khorasan, some hurry has been inevitable.

Mirza Haidar also tells his readers that no one but a Moghul can be interested in this history. Let us hope that he may not be entirely right in his forecast. Some few who are not Moghuls may regard the preservation of his work as an advantage, and may find some attraction in it, even in an English dress; but how far these will bear with an editor who knows but little of his author's language, is another question. It may be thought that a scholarly knowledge of the language of a book is essential in one who undertakes to elucidate it, in order