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which he had himself been a witness. This work seems to be lost. However, an extract of it has come down to us as the last part of the great chronicle of the royal house of Maḥmûd, composed by Albaihaḳî, the edition of which we owe to the industry and learning of the late W. H. Morley ("Bibliotheca Indica," Calcutta, 1862, pp. 834, &c.).

With A.H. 408 begins a new period in the author's life, when he enlarged the circle of his researches on mathematics, astronomy, geography, chronology, and natural sciences by his study of India, its geography and history, of the language and literature, manners and customs, of the Hindûs. It was the period when he gathered all those materials which he deposited towards the end of his life in his famous "Memoir on India."

After Albîrûnî had settled in Ghazna, he paid at least one more visit to his native country. He died, probably, at Ghazna. Whether he travelled much in other countries besides India, I have no means of proving. From the present book we can only infer that, besides his native country and Hyrcania, he also knew parts of Media, e.g. Rai (Rhagæ).

Albîrûnî calls his work Alâthâr Albâḳiya ʻan-il-Kûrûn Alkhâliya, i.e. monuments or vestiges of generations of the past that have been preserved up to the author's time, meaning by monuments or vestiges the religious institutes of various nations and sects, founded in more ancient times, and, more or less, still practised and adhered to by the Oriental world about A.D. 1000.

With admirable industry the author gathers whatever traditions he can find on every single fact, he confronts them with each other, and inquires with critical acumen