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incomplete. The works of Mir 'Alisher are to be the treaty of the Pruth in July, 1711. There is found in several examples : especially remarkable also a very old cosmography, translated from is the dated copy of his diods of the year A.H. 887 the Persian. The original Dr. Rieu assigns and the copy of his Majdlis-an-nafaris of A.H. 987. to the beginning of the fourth century A.H., There is also the historical work of Tadarikh- but it has not been found. Everyone who is Gucida-i-Nusrat-nama, compiled in A.H. 908, acquainted with the Persian Catalogue of Dr. which contains the history of Shaibani Khân. The Rieu, will find in this new work the same excel. Shaibani ndma, according to Dr. Rieu, appears lent qualities which made that a model. We to be an abridgment of this work. The London see in it the same vast erudition and perfect copy is incomplete. Among Chughatai MSS. is criticism. Moreover there is a copious index. the only known copy of the great Chughatai- The Persian Catalogue of Dr. V. Pertsch, Persian dictionary, Seng-Lakh, compiled by contains a description of about 1150 manuscripts. Mirza - Mahdi Khân, the historian of Nadir Shah. Numerically Berlin is the richest in this branch, Among Osmanli MSS. very rare are the Turkish but in quality it yields to the British Museum translation of Tabari (in MSS. of the fifteenth and probably 'to Paris and Oxford. There are and sixteenth centuries), the diván of 'Ashiq however some ancient MSS. one a Recueil of Påsha, the contemporary of Dante in an excellent Edifying Tales, dated A.H. 543. Six dated MSS. copy, a treatise on Sufism by the patron of the refer to various years of the seventh century A.H. Janissaries, Haji Bakbash, the Iskandar-Nama, We may here mention the Persian translation of of Ahmadi, composed A.H. 792 in three copies, the Kallla-wa-Dimna of A.H. 669, the very rare Futul-ash-Sham by the Pseudo-Wakidi, (com- Astronomy of Muhammad al-Masti'de of A.H. 685, piled, according to Dr. Rieu, A.H. 795, by Zarir- the Cosmography of Tusk of A.H. 687. There are Mustafa of Erzerum), the very rare Safi treatise six MSS. belonging to the eighth century A.H. Bashdrat-ndma, by a certain Rafi who wrote One of A.H. 731, a very rare translation of A.H. 811, the Khushrav and Shirin of Shaikht Samarkandi. One of A.H. 734, a little treatise in three old copies. These books must be studied on the difficult words in the Quran, &c. if we wish to have a really scientific Ottoman Persian MSS. of the ninth century A.H. meet grammar and Ottoman dictionary.
us pretty often in all great libraries. The writer In history the British Museum Collection has not remarked many rare ancient works on is poorer than that of Vienna, but it possesses a l going through the Catalogue. There are, however, small number of valuable MSS. even in this a short encyclopaedio work of Avicenna, almost branch. In some of them we may hope to find unique; a rare Tazkira of Aufi, a valuable copy of fresh information about the Crimean Khanate, or the mystic poem of Senaie, and the Diviin of his eventa connected with Russian history : for pupil Sozeni; and some comparatively old copies example, the History of the Ottoman Sultans from of the works of Nizami. No ancient copies of Ilderins Bayazid to the death of Muhammad II, the Shah-Nama of Firdasi are to be found in this written by Sinan Chelebi, surnamed Bihishth library, and the manuscript of the Vis-1-Ramir the contemporary of Neshri, the Histories of has no value. But an old copy of the kreat Bayasid II. and Selim I. by an unknown author, Medical Encyclopaedia of Jurjánt and two copios but a contemporary. Here we should perhaps find of the Cosmography of Tast deserve notice. This an account of the stay of Salim at Kaffa and the last work is very interesting both in contents and visit he paid to Mengli Ghirei. Valuable are the language, and deserves editing. works of Koji Nishanji and Mustafa JalAlgada Besides these there is a copy of Tabak.lt. on Sulaiman the Great and Selim I. The London | Nasir, incomplete but somewhat old ; two good copy of the latter work is the third which has copies of Zafar-Nama; a comparatively rare been found.
Dustúr-u'l-Vusard of Khondamir; the History of The History of Islám-ghirei from A.H. 1054
the Kirman Seljúks, not long since edited by 1060 (1644-1650) has a direct connection with the Houtsma; the History of Haidar-Rdzí; this Memoirs Crimen; the copy is almost unique. The con- of Shah Tahmasp, important for the modern quest of Georgia, by Lala-Mustafa-Påshi, is told history of Persia ; &c. in the Wusrat-nuima, written by 'Ali of Gallipoli, Generally speaking, the Berlin Collection is his secretary, which is préserved in an excellent richest in Indo-Persian history and literature, as copy.
might be inferred from the fact that the greater In the collection of Letters of Abu'l-Kasim part was brought by Sprenger from India. The we appear to have the oldest specimens of Catalogue here published is the best known of Ottoman prose. In another collection are Persian literature, with the exception of that of letters from and to Peter the Great, and a copy of Dr. Rieu. The condition of Dr. Pertach in
