THE HISTORY OF INDIA, AS TOLD BY ITS OWN HISTORIANS. THE MUHAMMADAN PERIOD. THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE LATE SIR H. M. ELLIOT, K.C.B., EDITED AND CONTINUED BY PROFESSOR JOHN DOWSON, M.R.A.S., STAFF COLLEGE, SANDHURST, VOL. VIII. LONDON: TRÜBNER AND CO., 57 AND 59, LUDGATE HILL. 1877. [All rights reserved.] PREFACE. ELEVEN years have elapsed since the materials collected. by Sir H. M. Elliot for this work were first placed in my hands for revision and publication. In bulk the papers seemed sufficient and more than sufficient for the projected work, and it was thought that an Editor would have little to do beyond selecting extracts for publication and revising the press. With this belief I undertook the work, and it was announced as preparing for publication under my care. When the papers came into my possession, and the work of selection was entered upon, I soon found that the MSS., so far from being superabundant, were very deficient, and that for some of the most important reigns, as those of Akbar and Aurangzeb, no provision had been made. The work had been long advertised, and had received the support of the Secretary of State for India, not as a series of Selections from the Papers of Sir H. M. Elliot, but as a continuous "History of India as told by its own. Historians." I had thus unwittingly undertaken the editing of a complete History out of very incomplete and disjointed materials. So I had to determine whether to make the best of the matter provided, or to |