30. Ante, chapter 53, [19].

31.  These epistolary formulas mean no more than the similar official phrases in English, ‘Your most obedient humble servant’, and the like.  The ‘fortunate occurrence’ of the Mutiny—­for such it was, in spite of all the blood and suffering—­cut out many plague-spots from the body politic of India.  Among these the reeking palace swarm of Delhi was not the least malignant.

32.  Azrail is the angel of death, whose duty it is to separate the souls from the bodies of men.  Israfil is entrusted with the task of blowing the last trump.

33.  The resurrection, and the signs foretelling it, are described in the Mishkat-ul-Masabih, book xxiii, chapters 3 to 11. (Matthews, vol. ii, pp. 556-620.)

34.  The Hindoo ‘ages’ are (1) Krita, or Satya, (2) Treta, (3) Dwapara, (4) Kali, the present evil age.  The long periods assigned to these are merely the result of the calculations of astronomers, who preferred integral to fractional numbers.

35.  This kind of education does not now pay, and is, consequently, going out of fashion.  The Muhammadans are slowly, and rather unwillingly, yielding to the pressure of necessity and beginning to accept English education.

36.  Imam Muhammad Ghazzali, who is also entitled Hujjat-ul-Islam, is the surname of Abu Hamid Muhammad Zain-ud-din Tusi, one of the greatest and most celebrated Musalman doctors, who was born A.D. 1058, and died A.D. 1111. (Beale, s.v.  ’Ghazzali’.) The length of these Muhammadan names is terrible.  They are much mangled in the original edition.  See ante, chapter 53, note 10, and Blochmann (Ain) pp. 103, 182.

37.  Khwaja Nasir-ud-din Tusi, the famous philosopher and astronomer, the most universal scholar that Persia ever produced.  Born A.D. 1201, died A.D. 1274. (Beale.) See ante, loc. cit.

38.  Especially the Bustan and Gulistan.  Beale gives a list of Sadi’s works.  See ante, chapter 12, note 6.

39.  This is a very cynical and inadequate explanation of the prevalence of Conservative opinions among Englishmen in the East.

40.  Ante, chapter 30, [6].

41.  In the original edition the portrait of Akbar II is twice given, namely, in the frontispiece of Volume I as a full-page plate, and again as a miniature, dated 1836, in the frontispiece of Volume II.

42.  The most secluded native prince of the present day could not be guilty of this absurdity.

43.  Babur was sixth in descent from Timur, not seventh.  Babur’s grandfather, Abu Sayyid, was great-grandson of Timur.  Babur, not Babar, is the correct spelling.

44.  This may be an exaggeration.  The undoubted facts are sufficiently horrible.

45.  Timur was a man of surpassing ability, and knew much ‘else’.  See Malcolm, History of Persia, ed. 1859, chapter 11.

46.  Timur’s ‘historian and great eulogist’ was Sharaf-ud-din (died 1446), whose Zafarnama, or ‘Book of Victories’, was translated into French by Petis de la Croix in 1722.  That version was used by Gibbon and rendered into English in 1723, Copious extracts from an independent rendering are given in E. & D., iii, pp. 478-522.  The details do not always agree exactly with Sleeman’s account.