V Assamese prose; and our present chronicle has the additional charm of an artistic prose imbued with an archaic literary grace and flavour. The language of the diplomatic letters inserted in the chronicle is a curious medley of Persian, Hindi, and Assamese. Remember- ing the processes of transcription which the letters had undergone before they reached their present stage in the manuscript we may say that the text has been well preserved. In publishing this chronicle our object has been to place at the disposal of the public a mass of original materials. A critical examination of the evidence will be a premature labour unless we have access to all the available sources or data to go upon. The preparation of a correct text, which the uninitiated reader will be able to follow with the aid of the marginalia, is our objective at the present. Readers who desire to pursue further their study of the Muham- madan wars of Assam before and during the days of the Moguls will find ample enlightenment from the following Persian chron- icles-Shah-nama, Tarikh-i-Ferishta, Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, Riyaz- us-Salatin, Akbar-Namah, Ain-i-Akbari, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, Padi- shah-Namah, Fathiyah-i-Ibriyah or Tarikh-i-Ashan or Tarikh-i- Mulk-i-Ashan, Alamgir-Namah, Ma'asir-i-Alamgiri, Muntakhab-ul- Lubab or Tarikh-i-Khafi-Khan, Hadiqat-us-Safa, Risalat-us-Shu- hada, Maasiru-l-Umara and the recently discovered Baharistan-i- Ghaibi by Mirza Nathan. By a closer examination of the Persian and Assamese sources it will be seen there is more agreement than discrepancy in the two corresponding accounts. I express my indebtedness to the Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti for their permission to publish portions from the Padshah-Buranji; to Mr. Narendranath Ganguli, Manager, Bengal: Past and Present, for kindly obtaining for me the permission of the Calcutta His- torical Society to reproduce the picture of Nawab Mir Jumla and for lending me the Society's half-tone block of the same which was prepared from the original picture belonging to the collection of the late Rao Bahadur D. B. Parasnis of Satara to Rev. A. J. Tuttle of the American Baptist Mission at Gauhati for lending me the manuscript of the chronicle to Maulavi Abul Fazl Sayiid Ahmed, M.A., of the Department of Islamic Studies in the Cotton College, Gauhati, and a Corresponding Member of the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies for his ungrudging assist- ance in the preparation of the texts of the historical letters. I shall fail in my duty if I do not record in this connection the gratitude of all students of Assam history to His Excellency Sir Laurie Lucas Hammond, K.C.S.I., C.B.E., Governor of Assam, during whose administration the Department of Historical and Anti- quarian Studies was established; to Mr. J. R. Cunningham, C.I.E., whose initiative and instrumentality brought the Department into
