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Descriptive of Their Manners, Customs, Habits and Religious Opinions
Made During a Twelve Years' Residence in Their Immediate Society
by
Second Edition, Edited with Notes and an Introduction by W. Crooke
1917
[1832.]
In the present reprint the text of the original edition of this work hasbeen reproduced without change, even the curious transliterations of thevernacular words and phrases having been preserved. The correct forms ofthese, so far as they have been ascertained, have been given in the Notesand in the Index-Glossary. I have added an Introduction containing anaccount of the authoress based on the scanty information available, and Ihave compiled some notes illustrating questions connected with Islamand Musalman usages. I have not thought it necessary to give detailedreferences in the notes, but a list of the works which have been used willbe found at the end of the text. As in other volumes of this series, thediacritical marks indicating the varieties of the sound of certain lettersin the Arabic and Devanagari alphabets have not been given: they areunnecessary for the scholar and serve only to embarrass the general reader.
I have to acknowledge help from several friends in the preparation of thisedition. Mr. W. Foster, C.I.E., has supplied valuable notes from the IndiaOffice records on Mir Hasan 'Ali and his family; Dr. W. Hoey, lateI.C.S., and Mr. L.N. Jopling, I.C.S., Deputy-Commissioner, Lucknow, havemade inquiries on the same subject. Mr. H.C. Irwin, late I.C.S., hasfurnished much information on Oudh affairs in the time of the Nawabi.Sir C.J. Lyall, K.C.S.I, C.I.E., and Professor E.G. Browne, M.A., havepermitted me to consult them on certain obscure words in the text.
Very little is known about the authoress of this interesting book. She isreticent about the affairs of her husband and of herself, and inquiriesrecently made at Lucknow, at the India Office, and in other likelyquarters in England, have added little to the scanty information wepossess about her.
The family of her husband claimed to be of Sayyid origin, that is to say,to be descended from the martyrs, Hasan and Husain, the sons of Fatimah,daughter of the Prophet, by her marriage with her cousin-german, 'Ali.The father-in-law of the authoress, Mir Haji Shah, of whom shespeaks with affection and respect, was the son of the Qazi, orMuhammadan law-officer, of Ludhiana, in the Panjab. During hisboyhood the Panjab was exposed to raids by the Mahrattas and incursions ofthe Sikhs. He therefore abandoned his studies, wandered about for a time,and finally took service with a certain Raja—where she does not tellus—who was then raising a force in expectation of an attack by the Sikhs.He served in at least one campaign, and then, while still a young man,made a pilgrimage thrice to Mec