Book Description

Excerpt from An Oriental Biographical Dictionary, Founded on Materials Collected by the Late Thomas William Beale The Society confided the labour of seeing the Dictionary through the press to their Philological Secretary, Principal Blochmann, of whose qualifications it would be presumptuous to say more than that they have an œcumenical reputation. That distinguished man (of whom it has been observed by Count von Noer that he united the enthusiasm of an artist to the most patient accuracy of research*) undertook the task with his characteristic earnestness and ability. But unhappily for oriental scholarship Mr. Blochmann's lamented death occurred before he had completed the preparation of more than a few sheets; and the duty ultimately reverted to the present Editor. The substance, as already stated, is almost entirely Mr. Beale's; and I cannot close this notice more fitly than by giving the following extract from the preface originally drafted by himself:- "In preparing a work of this nature, intended to be used as a work of reference on matters connected with Oriental Ilistory, it is proper to state that the greatest care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the narrative, as also in the dates of births, deaths, and other events recorded... Various Mss. have been collated whenever discrepancy was observed... To remove all doubt, chronograms indicating the dates with a certainty not to be found by any other method and written when the events were fresh in the minds of men, have been inserted, when available." I may, however, add that it has been judged expedient to omit these chronograms, for the most part, in printing the book. In the chapter of Mr. Dowson's book already cited, will be found an account of this species of memoria lechnica. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.