Later Mughals v1.c4.s4: Irvine as a Man
Later Mughals v1.c4.s4
- Language
- English
Irvine as a Man
v1.c4.s4.1
The most charming feature of Mr. Irvine's character was the spirit in which he gave unfailing and eager help and appreciation to younger men engaged in researches connected with his own subject. In this respect he presents a notable contrast to most other orientalists whose mutual jealousies and acrimonious criticisms of each other darken their fame. I am only one out of the many students of Indian history who were indebted to him for help, guidance and light on obscure points. But for his assistance in securing for me loans or transcripts of rare Persian MSS. from England, France, and Germany, my *History of Aurangzib* could hardly have come into being. He also freely lent me MSS. from his own collection, and beat down the rates demanded by photographers in London and Paris for making rotary bromide prints of Persian MSS. for me. In every difficulty and doubt that I have appealed to him, he has given me prompt advice and assistance. A certain Indian Nawab has a rare collection of Persian historical letters. I secured his permission to take a copy of it at my expense and engaged a scribe. But for more than a year the Nawab's officers under various pretexts refused my man access to the MS. At last, in despair I wrote to Mr. Irvine about the case. He wrote to one of his friends high in the Civil Service of Allahabad, and this gentleman communicated with the Nawab. The owner of the MS. now had it copied at his own expense, bound the transcript in silk and morocco, and presented it to Mr. Irvine, who lent it to me as soon as he received it! Mr. Irvine also criticized and emended the first five chapters of my *History* as freely and carefully as if it were his own work.
v1.c4.s4.2
Indeed, he rendered literary assistance in such profusion and at so much expense of his own time, that I was at times ashamed of having sought his aid and thus interrupted his own work. In connection with the statistical accounts of the Mughal Empire, I had complained that ancient India, like ancient Egypt, can be better studied in the great European capitals than in the country itself, and Mr. Irvine's reply was to send me unsolicited his three MSS. of the *Chahar Gulshan*, a valuable work on Indian statistics and topography in the early 18th century, of which I had found only one and incorrect copy in India. Similar instances might be easily multiplied.
v1.c4.s4.3
And yet so scrupulously honest was he that the most trivial assistance rendered by others to him was fully acknowledged in his works, as can be seen from the notes and addenda of his *Storia do Mogor*. He overwhelmed me with assistance while he lived, and yet his last letter written only two months before his death closes with the words, "Thanks for all the help of many sorts I have received from you!"