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2 A HISTORY OF SHARVAN AND DARBAND
MS. (A), though not so calligraphically written as MS. (B), is much more
correct.
One can judge of the completeness of the Arabic original in comparison
with the Turkish abridgment by the following examples. The three
chapters on the Musafirids, Rawwadis and Shaddadids, which in MS.
(A) cover 21 pages (circa. 651 lines), correspond to only 53 + 31 lines
of the printed Turkish edition (II, 505-7), which omits the Rawwadis
altogether,1 The chapters on Sharvan and Bab al-abwab, which form
the subject of the present study, occupy 25 pages (circa 775 lines) of
MS. (A), whereas the translation (III, 172-8) allots to them only 83 + 46
-)- 56 lines.
The particular value of the Jami* al-d.wwal must have been discovered
by Turkish scholars, though I do not know to whom the priority belongs.
I first heard of the Arabic text some 25 years ago from Mukrimin-Halilbey
(now Prof. M, H, Yinang) and Ahmed Zeki Validi (now Prof. A. Z.
Togan),2
Among the gems preserved in Munejjim-bashi's compilation are his
copious quotations from a Ta'rikh Bab al-abwab (which I shall quote in
abbreviation as T,-B,}, Even in Munejjim-bashi's time the manuscript
oi this history of Darband, etc., was incomplete and one wonders whether
the original will ever emerge from one of the libraries of Istanbul, or of
Mekka where the compiler ended his days in ni3/i702.s It is clear
that Munejjim-bashi abridged some of the information of the T.-B.,
while he certainly added to it some paragraphs in the beginning (§§1-4)
and at the end (§§48-60), using for that purpose such standard sources
as I. Khallikan, Yaqut and the Jihan-ara,
Munejjim-bashi repeatedly states that the work which constitutes
his principal source was compiled in Darband in circa 500/1106, but in
point of fact the latest events recorded in it are of 468/1075. The very
detailed accounts of the sharvanshah Fariburz and of Mansur b.