Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥaydar Dughlāt on the Harāt School of Painters

Extract

Muslim historians have put on record such scanty and insufficient materials for the biographies of painters that any fresh information deserves attention, especially if it is provided by a contemporary of the painters in question. The following extracts from the Ta'rīkh-i- Rashīdī have hitherto escaped notice; the Persian text of this interesting work has not yet been printed, and these passages were not included in the abbreviated translation which Sir E. Denison Ross published in 1895. But he recently drew my attention to them, and kindly placed at my disposal two MSS. of the text in his private possession, and, further, revised and amended my translation; to his erudition are due whatever merits it may possess.