Observations on the Mussulmauns of India
By Meer Hassan Ali

Preface to the Second Edition

In the present reprint the text of the original edition of this work has been reproduced without change, even the curious transliterations of the vernacular words and phrases having been preserved. The correct forms of these, so far as they have been ascertained, have been given in the Notes and in the Index-Glossary. I have added an Introduction containing an account of the authoress based on the scanty information available, and I have compiled some notes illustrating questions connected with Islam and Musalman usages. I have not thought it necessary to give detailed references in the notes, but a list of the works which have been used will be found at the end of the text. As in other volumes of this series, the diacritical marks indicating the varieties of the sound of certain letters in the Arabic and Devanagari alphabets have not been given: they are unnecessary for the scholar and serve only to embarrass the general reader.

I have to acknowledge help from several friends in the preparation of this edition. Mr. W. Foster, C.I.E., has supplied valuable notes from the India Office records on Mir Hasan ’Ali and his family; Dr. W. Hoey, late I.C.S., and Mr. L.N. Jopling, I.C.S., Deputy-Commissioner, Lucknow, have made inquiries on the same subject. Mr. H.C. Irwin, late I.C.S., has furnished much information on Oudh affairs in the time of the Nawabi. Sir C.J. Lyall, K.C.S.I, C.I.E., and Professor E.G. Browne, M.A., have permitted me to consult them on certain obscure words in the text.

W. Crooke.

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