EDITOR'S PREFACE.
In the old volume, Sir H. Elliot introduced a long note upon “India as known to the Arabs during the first four centuries of the Hijri Era,” and under this heading he collected nearly all the materials then within the reach of Europeans. Since that compilation was made, it has been to a great degree superseded by new and more satisfactory translations, and the work of Al Istakhrí has also become available. The translation of Al Idrísí by Jaubert was not quoted by Sir H. Elliot, but an English version of the part relating to India seemed desirable. The subject had thus outgrown the limits of an already lengthy note, and a remodelling of this portion of the book became necessary. The notices of India by the early Arab geographers form a suitable introduction to the History of the Muhammadan Empire in that country. They have accordingly been placed in chronological order at the opening of the work.
Next in date after the Geographers, and next also as regards the antiquity of the subjects dealt with, come the Mujmalu-t Tawáríkh and the Futúhu-l Buldán. In the latter work, Biládurí describes in one chapter the course of the Arab conquests in Sind. The Chach-náma deals more fully with the same subject, and the Arabic original of this work must have been written soon after the events its records, though the Persian version, which
