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Art.VIII.—An Endeavour to Elucidate Rashiduddin's Geographical Notices of India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
One of the most interesting articles in the late Sir Henry Elliot's work, “The History of India as told by its own Historians,” is that which consists of extracts from Rashiduddin's Jámi'-ut-Tawárikh. A large part of that worthy's notices of India is indeed taken from Albiruni, but the concluding portion is presumably his own, and speaks of a state of things existing in his own time. It is to this portion of the article that the following observations refer. In the original edition of Sir Henry Elliot's work this was crammed with obscurities. Many of these have been removed by the recent editor, Professor Dowson, through the comparison of various MSS., but obscurities still remain. Eecent studies having directed my attention to this subject, I have been trying to clear these up. In many cases I have utterly failed; in some I trust to have succeeded in throwing a little light, and I venture to submit the result to the Society, in the hope that others, much more competent, will lend aid in cracking some of the hard nuts that are left.
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References
Page 340 note 1 The substance of part of these remarks has been already printed in notes scattered over Cathay and the Way Thither; a work issued by the Hakluyt Society.
Page 347 note 1 Oder. Raynaldi Annul. Ecclesiast. An. 1330, lv.
Page 348 note 1 See Lett. Edif. (First Edition) 1722, Eec. XV.; Lyons Edn. 1819, Vol. VII.
Page 348 note 2 See Gesch. der Ilchane, II. 51–2, etc.
Page 349 note 1 The saggio of Venice was 1–6th of an ounce, but in Asiatic estimates Polo probably uses it for the miskál, which was not very different. The miskál of gold would be worth about 13s. in gold, giving £325 for the price of a horse; whilst 100 marks of Bilver would be a little over £200 in silver of pur present money. But I have elsewhere shown reasons for believing that the relation of gold to silver in civilized Asia was then as 10 to 1; and this would make the two values nearly equivalent.
Page 349 note 2 Hammer, ib. 197 and 205–6.
Page 351 note 1 Ceylon, Fourth Ed., I. 551–2.
Page 355 note 1 We do find Kanja and Sanji in Edrisi (see the extracts, p. 90), though it is difficult to know where to look for them. Kanchi and Gingee are the nearest conjectures I can make, if the names in the text are genuine, but I cannot think these probable.
Page 355 note 2 I suspect they were Singphos, but no modern report attests the existence of the custom ascribed to them among any tribe on that frontier.
Page 356 note 1 Col. Burney (VI. 436) says Gandálarét is the classical name for China. But my friend, Sir Arthur Phayre, informs me that it applies to some part of Yunan.