A descriptive catalogue of the historical manuscripts in the Arabic and Persian languages, preserved in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

  • William Hook Morley
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A descriptive catalogue of the historical manuscripts in the Arabic and Persian languages, preserved in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    iiicinoirs of tlie Emperor Jaliangir, from liis accccssion to tlio tlironc, to A.II. 10-J9 ( v.i). 1619). Jaliiingir succeeded to the empire of Hindustan immediately on the death of his father Akbar, in a.ii 1014 (a.d. 1605), and dieil in A.ii. 1037 (a.d. 1627). The autobiography of Jahangir is undoubtedly one of the most curious and interesting works in tlie whole range of the Muhammadan literature of India, presenting, as it does, a complete picture of the private life of one of the most powerful and despotic monarchs of the world, of his own views, moral and political, of the manners of his court, and of the chief events of his reign. Of these memoirs there are certainly two editions, which differ so much the one from the other, that they can scarcely be called the same work. The present MS. is most probably the oldest copy of the auto¬ biography of Jahangir now extant, having been written in a.ii. 1040 (a.d. 1630), only three lunar years after the death of the royal author ; and for this reason I shall style the memoirs, as contained iu this volume, the first edition.* This edition was translated by the learned and indefatig.able Major Price,* from a MS. which will be presently described. I have had the opportunity of examining no less than five copies of the first edition, viz.: three in the present collection,* one in the library of the East India House,* and a fifth in the British Museum,* all of which agree, more or less, one with another, although some discrepancies occur. I will now advert to what I would style the second edition. In the year 1786 Mr. Anderson ]>ublished some extracts from Jahangir’s memoirs in the Asiatic Miscellany,® and other portions were subsequently given by Mr. Gladwin, in the appendix to his His¬ tory of Jahangir.’ These differ materially from the translation bv Major Price, being the same in substance only, but couched in very different language ; they, however, agree tolerably with each other. Mr. Elphinstone, iu his History of India, says that Gladwin possessed ' I would so call it, merely from the period at which the present MS. was transcribed; it may possibly be only an abridgment, or rather an altered version of the larger work, described infra. No. CXX. 2 Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir, written by himself; translated by Major D. Price. 4to. Lond. Printed for the Oriental Translation Committee. 1829. * The present MS., and the two next following. * No. 546. * Addit. No. 6,554. Asiatick Miscellany. Vol. ii. p. 71 etseq., 17- ct srq 4to. Calcutta, 1786. ' History of Ilindostan, vol. i. p. 96 el scq. 4t<). Calcutta, 178tl. I