تحقيق ما للهند (Al-Biruni's India — Sachau edition, BnF)

VIII

and the former gives the first fruits of his labours on the book in his Mémoire sur la propagation des chiffres indiens Memoir on the propagation of Indian numerals, Paris, 1863.

After Woepcke had died in 1864 and Munk had become blind and died in 1867, Mac Guckin de Slane, then already far advanced in years, undertook to carry out for the Société Asiatique Asiatic Society the work which it had not been given to his predecessors to finish. Meanwhile, the course of my studies led me to Paris in the spring of 1872 and when one day collating the manuscript of the great chronological work of Alberuni, which I have since published (Chronologie Orientalischer Völker von Alberuni Chronology of Oriental Peoples by Alberuni, Leipzig, 1878) and translated (The Chronology of Ancient Nations, London, 1879), I was accosted by a tall, venerable old gentleman of military appearance who gave me his name—it was de Slane—and proposed to me to undertake the edition of the Indica Alberuni’s treatise on India in his stead, as he believed himself to be too old to complete the task. At the same time he desired me to pledge myself by word of honour, that I should endeavour to bring out an edition of the Arabic original and its translation in some European language. I gave him my word, being well aware of the importance of the book and at the same time feeling honoured by the confidence of a man whom I esteemed as one of the greatest Arabic scholars the world has ever seen.

At a meeting of the Société Asiatique Asiatic Society, 12th April 1872, Jules Mohl proposed to the Société Society to abandon their long-cherished plan of an edition of the Indica Alberuni’s treatise on India and to cede the work to me. The proposition was carried. Mohl sent me the materials left by Woepcke These materials consist 1. of the copy of some parts of the manuscript Schefer (fol. 3a 12a, fol. 39a—40v, fol. 44a—46b, fol. 84a—136a); 2. of some leaves containing certain tables of the Indica Alberuni’s treatise on India with a transliteration of the Indian words into Devanagari ancient script used for Sanskrit characters, the numbers, planets, months, zodiacal signs, the 7 earths and heavens, the dvîpas continents/islands; the manuscript of a treatise, published in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres tom. XVIII, p. 331, and some slips of paper with various jottings., and at the same time M. Schefer entrusted to me his manuscript, a treasure quite unique in its way. Thus it has come to pass that the confidence and the kindness of M. G. de Slane, Jules Mohl and Ch. Schefer have laid on my shoulders a burden the whole weight of which I did not realize when I charged myself with it. And certainly if the work has been brought to a successful end, the learned world is before all indebted to the exceptional liberality of M. Chrétien Schefer, Membre de l'Institut, etc. Member of the Institute, etc. My edition is little more than a reproduction of his manuscript and it would have been quite impossible for me to prepare it, if he had not, by leaving it entirely in my hands up to the present hour,