no circumstances can be so instructive as those which hurled to the ground the most potent empire in the universe, and which elevated in its stead nearly at the same moment, that of a race of illiterate and coarse barbarians, in one quarter; and led to the introduction of a highly civilized people in other parts.
The work is written in the style of private memoirs, the most useful and engaging shape which history can assume; nor, excepting in the peculiarities which belong to the Mahomedan character and creed, do we perceive throughout its pages any inferiority to those of the historical memoirs of Europe. The Due de Sully, Lord Clarendon, or Bishop Burnet, need not have been ashamed to be the authors of such a production.
So valuable was it deemed on its first appearance, that Mr. Warren Hastings became extremely anxious to have it translated into English; but either the absence of Persian Scholars among our own countrymen in India, or a want of time, or perhaps of leisure to undertake the task, occasioned the work to be placed in the hands of a French gentleman, who unfortunately undertook to put the
