Description
(Vol 1) The causes which led to the publication of this work require some explanation, both because portions of Ferishta have already appeared in English and because the circumstances which gave rise to the present translation did not originate in a desire to supersede the former versions. Several years ago Sir James Mackintosh, then President of the Literary Society of Bombay, with that zeal for the diffusion of knowledge which has ever marked his character, urged me to translate the portion of Ferishta's history which had not yet been touched upon by Europeans. I promised to do so if, on commencing the task, I found myself equal to it; and I trust when this work meets his eye he will think that I have fairly fulfilled my engagement. My professional duties, for some time, prevented my attending to his suggestion, though it was not lost upon me; for in less than one year a consider able part of one of the minor histories was translated; and in two more the task assigned me was completed. During this interval I had compared several authors contemporary with Ferishta, both in the languages of Asia and of Europe, and I then first conceived the idea of writing a complete work on the Mahomedan Power in India, compiled from the various materials to which I might hereafter obtain access. Having resolved to take Ferishta as my basis, I found it requisite to study him very closely; but on examining Colonel Dow's translation of the History of the Kings of New Delhi, I found it so difficult to follow the narrative, owing to the confusion in the proper names of persons and of places, that I had to consult the original throughout, and my notes and alterations alone made nearly a volume. In these observations, it is by no means my wish to detract from the merit justly due to Colonel Dow. It was impossible that he should correct the geographical errors which existed, perhaps, even in his original manuscript, when there were no maps of the country; and it was difficult for him to attain sufficient proficiency in the language of the text to give full force to the narrative of the author at a period when no elementary works in Persian had yet been published. But to Colonel Dow the world is much indebted for bringing even a portion of Ferishta to light, and for exciting in the mind of every person who reads his translation a wish to become better acquainted with the author.