Later Mughals v1.c4.s2.2

v1.c4.s2.2

To take only one example, he had two MSS. of the Anecdotes of Aurangzib (Ahkam-i-Alamgiri) ascribed to Hamid-ud-din Khan Nimchah, which is not to be found in any public library of India or Europe, and of whose existence historians were unaware, though it is a work extremely characteristic of the Emperor and gives information of first-rate importance concerning his life and opinions. I was happy to have been able to discover another fragment of this work and to present a transcript of it to him. Again, I could find only one copy of the *Chahar Gulshan* in India, and had to base a portion of my *India of Aurangzib* on this single manuscript. But Mr. Irvine possessed three MSS. of it,—two of them having been presented to him by Indian friends. After I had made his acquaintance, whenever I came upon any find of rare Persian MSS. on Indian history, he was sure to secure a copy of them for himself. Thus I was the means of enriching his private library with transcripts of Mirza Rajah Jai Singh's letters (*Haft Anjuman*), the orders issued by Aurangzib in his old age and collected by his secretary Inayetullah Khan (*Ahkam-i-Alamgiri*), the letters of Shah Jahan and his sons as preserved in the *Faiyaz-ul-qawanin*, and the epistles of the Persian king Shah Abbas II. As Mr. Irvine wrote to me,—