not easy to distinguish the version and the
original. * Note: The European reader now possesses a more accurate
version of Ferishta, that of Col. Briggs. Of Col. Dow's work, Col.
Briggs observes, "that the author's name will be handed down to
posterity as one of the earliest and most indefatigable of our Oriental
scholars. Instead of confining himself, however, to mere translation,
he has filled his work with his own observations, which have been so
embodied in the text that Gibbon declares it impossible to distinguish
the translator from the original author." Preface p. vii.--M.]

[Footnote 2: The dynasty of the Samanides continued 125 years, A.D.
847-999, under ten princes. See their succession and ruin, in the
Tables of M. De Guignes, (Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 404-406.) They
were followed by the Gaznevides, A.D. 999-1183, (see tom. i. p. 239,
240.) His divisions of nations often disturbs the series of time and
place.]

[Footnote 3: Gaznah hortos non habet: est emporium et domicilium
mercaturae Indicae. Abulfedae Geograph. Reiske, tab. xxiii. p. 349.
D'Herbelot, p. 364. It has not been visited by any modern traveller.]

[Footnote 4: By the ambassador of the caliph of Bagdad, who employed an
Arabian or Chaldaic word that signifies lord and master, (D'Herbelot,
p. 825.) It is interpreted by the Byzantine writers of the eleventh
century; and the name (Soldanus) is familiarly employed in the Greek
and Latin languages, after it had passed from the Gaznevides to the
Seljukides, and other emirs of Asia and Egypt. Ducange (Dissertation
xvi. sur Joinville, p. 238-240. Gloss. Graec. et Latin.) labors to find
the title of Sultan in the ancient kingdom of Persia: but his proofs are
mere shadows; a proper name in the Themes of Constantine, (ii. 11,) an
anticipation of Zonaras, &c., and a medal of Kai Khosrou, not (as he
believes) the Sassanide of the vith, but the Seljukide of Iconium of the
xiiith century, (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 246.)]

[Footnote 5: Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 49)
mentions the report of a gun in the Indian army. But as I am slow in
believing this premature (A.D. 1008) use of artillery, I must desire to
scrutinize first the text, and then the authority of Ferishta, who
lived in the Mogul court in the last century. * Note: This passage is
differently written in the various manuscripts I have seen; and in some
the word tope (gun) has been written for nupth, (naphtha, and