PREFACE.

By SIR WILLIAM MUIR, K.C.S.I.

THE vernacular languages of INDIA are singularly wanting in sound literature of a useful and amusing sort. Such works as there are abound, for the most part, in matter of an objectionable tendency. There is, for example, next to nothing in the way of instructive and entertaining stories, suitable for the young, or for readers of the fair sex. Hence arises one of the great obstacles to education, and specially the education of girls. Husbands and fathers naturally hesitate to encourage a taste for reading to be gratified only by the perusal of questionable books.

The Repentance of Nussooh was submitted to MR. KEMPSON about ten years ago, when Director of Public Instruction in the North-Western Provinces, in pursuance of a Notification offering prizes for meritorious treatises in the vernacular; and it gained the reward of £100.

In awarding the prize to the writer of The Repentance of Nussooh, the following orders were addressed to MR. KEMPSON, and published in the Gazette of the NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES for 1874:—

The tendency of the book, and the language in which it is written, are deserving of the warmest commendation. Indeed, the vigour of

expression, the chaste and simple beauty of the style, and the singular aptness and richness of idiom, are probably unequalled in Urdoo. The impartial mingling of words of Hindee, and of Persian and Arabic origin, as they are found in the common speech of DEHLI, is a high merit. The copious use of proverbial phrases and poetical adages, especially of phrases occurring in the familiar discourse of domestic life, will add greatly to the usefulness of the book. A most valuable insight is also given into the details of Mahometan family life, which will make this work, like The Bride's Mirror, instructive to the European reader.

But the leading feature of the book is its religious bearing. At the outset the AUTHOR frankly acknowledges his inability to inculcate domestic virtues apart from religion; indeed, his conviction in this matter is couched in the strongest possible language. "My first purpose," he writes, "was to establish the necessity of social and family virtue and morality, without reference to religion.* But, as I proceeded, I found that I might as well seek to separate the body from the soul, to tear the nail from the flesh, to sever the quality from the essence, or to divide the ray of light from the sun." And, accordingly, the moral of the story is that an earnest and sincere following-up of religious conviction is the only sound basis of domestic happiness. No doubt, various opinions will be held upon the maxim here laid down; but there can be no question as to the earnest convictions of the Writer, nor as to the Catholic spirit in which, from a Mahometan point of view, he has carried out his object. On a careful perusal of the whole, HIS HONOUR is satisfied that the AUTHOR has well fulfilled his resolution of avoiding everything that is bigoted, or that might prove offensive to persons of another creed; and, also, of laying such stress upon the great verities which underlie religious belief, that his lessons might, by implication, be well received even by others than professors of his own faith. And in this view, His HONOUR quite agrees with you that the work may prove acceptable not only to Mahometans, but also to the Hindoo and Christian reader. Such scenes as that of the little daughter's conversation with FAHMEEDAH on the duty owing to her MAKER are full of nature and tenderness, and can hardly be perused otherwise than with profit to the reader of whatever creed.

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Such being the case, SIR WILLIAM MUIR has no hesitation in

* The Notification being by Government was necessarily confined to works of a secular character.

admitting this work as properly falling under the scope of the Notification; and in awarding to it the full prize of One thousand rupees, assured that the book is a valuable addition to our vernacular literature, and that it will be highly popular among the Mussulmans, and will be widely read by other classes also.

I believe that, in the present state of Indian literature, no better text-books than these two works of our Author -The Bride's Mirror and The Repentance of Nussooh-could be found for the acquisition by the English scholar of an easy and elegant style of speaking and writing in the Urdoo language. The idiom is that of the pure vernacular spoken in Dehli. The stories abound with characteristic incidents and useful illustrations of the habits and customs of Mahometan life. In this view, both of these works should prove particularly useful for ladies who have occasion to visit the zenânas of Upper India.

The translation has been done by MR. KEMPSON faithfully and ably. The language and colloquial expressions are happily rendered, and the Oriental ideas and allusions are made readily intelligible to the European reader-a task at times of very considerable difficulty. Some of the chapters and dialogues have been, with advantage, much abbreviated, which in the original are unnecessarily prolix.

Not the least advantage of the work is the knowledge it gives of the better tendencies of ISLAM, in the encouragement of virtue and repression of vice. Indeed, the religious cast of the tale is singular, and, for a Moslem, I believe quite unique. It differs in this respect from all other Mahometan treatises that I have met with. Popular religious works amongst them are, as a rule, purely formal, and confined to the inculcation of a round of duties and ceremonies. That Religion should

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be a pervading influence, guiding the household and leavening domestic life, is for a Moslem book a novel theme. In fact, it is only in a country under Christian influences, like those which happily are seen and felt in India, that the idea of such a book would present itself to the Moslem mind. And the fact cannot but be regarded as an encouraging token of the effect of our religious teaching in India. This is the more remarkable as NUZEER AHMED, when he composed the work, was little, if at all, conversant with English literature, and its influence, therefore, must have been purely indirect; and, in some respects, the fact is all the more valuable because the influence is indirect. The tale is not the mere imitation of an English work, though it be the genuine product of English ideas.

For all these reasons I have great satisfaction in commending MR. KEMPSON'S translation to all who are interested in INDIA, and also in advocating with him the use of the original Treatise as a Text-book for the acquisition of HINDUSTANI, and for the examinations of proficiency in the same.

July 1884.

W. M.