01-17-50

SP

1-16-50

TO THE MEMORY

OF

FRIEDRICH AUGUST GRAF VON NOER

I DEDICATE MY SHARE IN HIS WORK.

A. S B.

PREFACE.

It was after visiting Fathpúr Síkrí, Ágrah and Sikandrah, and in presentiment of one of those lacunæ in Anglo-Indian life when a house is filled by memories only of its children that I resolved to add to Akbarana such unscholarly contribution as a woman might who is unversed in Arabic and Persian.

While considering the materials at my command, I became aware of the existence of Graf von Noer's Kaiser Akbar and learned the story of the author's pathetic life and death. Kaiser Akbar occupied in some measure the niche I had desired to appropriate. Its translation into English appeared therefore my first safe step.

In my ignorance of the process of the making of books, I had imagined translation an easy task. It has, in this instance, proved far otherwise. By reason of the untoward circumstances of Kaiser Akbar's publication-its author's failing health, his death in mid-work and its passage for completion into other hands less in touch with its matter-it has been necessary to collate the translation with the sources used by Graf von Noer. This, though full of the personal compensation of widened acquaintance with interesting books and their authors,-has rendered my work lengthy and laborious. By this means, I have effected such amendment as might have been made in a second edition of the German text, had its author lived to perfect his work. In the majority of instances of amendment, the fact is indicated by a foot-note referring to the authority relied upon.* This

*One place where this has not been done is Vol. I, 344. There 1596 has been changed to 1598 because J. A, S. B. 57, Part 1, p. 33, shows that Akbar practiced sun-worship in 1598. This paper contains an interesting description of Akbar by Father Jerome Xavier. It may here be recorded that the 1st volume of the Count's book has been translated into French by M. G. Bonet Maury (Leyden 1883).

ii

revision has been made by permission of the owner of Kaiser Akbar-the widowed Gräfinn von Noer.

The question of the orthography of proper names was one of great initial difficulty. I was not able to adopt the spelling used in the German text because, however correct its transliteration, its appearance is too unfamiliar for AngloIndian toleration. After duly considering the diverse methods of Blochmann, Erskine, Elphinstone, Elliot, Dowson, and other historians of the Mughul period, I elected to be guided by Professor Blochmann. This I did, because his writings enable me to present most of the personages and places mentioned in Kaiser Akbar in an English form in which they have appeared at least once before. It has not been agreeable, it must be admitted, to substitute Patnah for the familiar Patna, but it seemed safest to be faithful to our example and not to re-enter the abyss of variation.

The transposition of Indian eras to the Christian has been a task of some difficulty, and I fear, many errors remain. In this, I have been aided by General Cunningham's "Book of Indian Eras" and by the chronological tables in Gladwin's Revenue Accounts. For many verifications of dates by reference to the Persian, I am indebted to my husband.

I have to acknowledge the great courtesy of the Royal Asiatic Society in lending me the valuable M.S. of Chalmers' translation of the Akbarnamah.

To my husband I owe a debt, difficult of acknowledgment from its magnitude, for help the most diverse, for counsel and guidance, and for unwearying readiness to place his knowledge of the Persian authorities at my service.

Accuracy appears to be in literature an ideal of rarest attainment. Probably no writer has seen his work issue from the press without desiring to hasten the day for revising his second edition.

ANNETTE S. BEVERIDGE.

ILFRACOMBE, May 15th, 1890.