The History of Humāyūn (Gulbadan Begam) 7.2

7.2

Hope was again aroused by a mention of Gul-badan's book in a recent work, the Darbār-i-akbarī of Shamsu-l-ʻulamā Muḥammad Ḥusain Āzād. Mr. Beveridge paid two visits to the author in Bombay, but could learn nothing from him. He appeared mentally alienated, denied all knowledge of the work, and that he had ever written of it. His reference may conjecturally be traced to my article in the Calcutta Review upon Gul-badan Begam’s writings, and does not, unfortunately, appear to indicate access to a second MS. The MS. from which I have translated belongs to the Hamilton Collection in the British Museum, and was bought in 1868 from the widow of Colonel George William Hamilton. It is classed by Dr. Rieu amongst the most remarkable of the 852 MSS. which were selected for purchase out of the 1,000 gathered in by Colonel Hamilton from Lucknow and Dihlī. It does not bear the vermilion stamp of the King of Oude, so the surmise is allowed that it came from Dihli. It has been rebound (not recently, I believe), plainly, in red leather; and it is unadorned by frontispiece, margin, or rubric. Whether there has ever been a colophon cannot be said; the latter pages of the work are lost. The folio which now stands last is out of place, an error apparently made in the rebinding. Catchwords are frequently absent, and there are none on the last folio. There are blank fly-leaves, prefixed and suffixed, of paper unlike that of the MS.