Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/13

INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR This volume, consisting of selections from Sir Henry M. Elliot's great work on the history of Moham- medan India as told by its own historians, may be re- garded as a new contribution, in a way, because it pre- sents the subject from that standpoint in a far more concise form than was possible in the original series of translations from Oriental chroniclers, and it keeps in view at the same time the two volumes of Professor Lane-Poole immediately preceding it in the present series. Tributes to the value of Elliot's monumental work are many, but one of the best estimates of its worth was given by Lane-Poole himself, from whom the following paragraph is, in part, a quotation. " To realize Mediaeval India there is no better way than to dive into the eight volumes of the priceless His- tory of India as told by its own Historians, which Sir H. M. Elliot conceived and began, and which Professor Dowson edited and completed with infinite labour and learning. It is a revelation of Indian life as seen through the eyes of the Persian court annalists. As