Translator's Preface.

may be considered buried. I had nearly completed the work when a translation by Mr. T. P. Manuel came to my notice. That version was published at Calcutta in 1860 and is not very generally known. It gives a very fair idea of the work, but the translation is not sufficiently close to answer the purpose for which this work is intended. I am told there is another translation, published in India by a Muhammadan gentleman, but I have not met with it.

The original Arabic work has been translated into German by Professor Dieterici of Berlin. Our Hindustani translator, in his Preface, tells us something of the great work from which it is derived. It is a kind of Encyclopedia of considerable extent. Notices of the work have been published by Professor Flügel in volume 13, and by Professor Dieterici in volumes 15 and 18 of the Journal of the German Oriental Society original: "Zeitschrift des Deutschen Morgenlandische Gesellschaft".

The present translation has been made from the excellent edition of the text published by Doctors Forbes and Rieu, and the chapters and paragraphs follow the arrangement observed there.

The style of the Hindustani translation is considered very pure and elegant, and the language is generally clear and easy to understand original: "perspicuous", but it contains a very large proportion of Arabic words. The nature of the subject rendered the introduction of many Arabic scientific terms a matter of necessity; however, these foreign words are often employed even when pure local original: "vernacular" words might have been used with more benefit. This, however, is the general fault of these translations.