effect on the narrative by weakening the implicit confidence in Habur's candour and veracity which his frank way of writing is so well-calculated to command." Elphinstone's opinion of Babur is not that of a reader but of a student of his book ; he was also one of Erskine's staunchest helpers in its production. From Erskine's surmise others have advanced on the detractor's oath saying that Babur used and threw over 'Alam Khan (q.v.).
e. Reconstruction.
Amongst the problems mutilation has created an important one is that of the condition of the beginning of the book (p. 1 to p. 30) with its plunge into Babur's doings in his 12th year without previous mention of even his day and place of birth, the names and status of his parents, or any occurrences of his prae-accession years. Within those years should be entered the death of Yunas Khan (1487) with its sequent obituary notice, and the death of [Khwaja 'Ubaidu'1-lah] Ahrari (1491). "Not only are these customary entries absent but the very introductions of the two great men are wanting, probably with the also missing account of their naming of the babe Babur. That these routine matters are a part of an autobiography planned as Babur's was, makes for assured opinion that the record of more than his first decade of life has been lost, perhaps by the attrition to which its position in the volume exposed it.
Useful reconstruction if merely in tabulated form, might be effected
in a future edition. It would save at least two surprises for readers,
one the oddly abrupt first sentence telling of Babur's age when he
became ruler in Farghana (p. 1), which is a misfit in time and order,
another that of the sudden interruption of 'Umar Shaikh's obituary
DY a fragment of Yunas Khan's (p. 19) which there hangs on a mere
name-peg, whereas its place according to Babur's elsewhere unbroken
P'actice is directly following the death. The record of the missing
Pra-accession years will have included at the least as follows : Day
D1I"th and its place names and status of parents naming and
ceremonial observances proper for Muhammadan children visits
3 kinsfolk in Tashkint, and to Samarkand (aet. 5, p. 35) where he
