Dow, Alexander (translator) | India before the dominion of the East India Company

Dow, Alexander (translator)

The History of Hindostan; from the Earliest Account of Time, to the death of Akbar; Translated from the Persian of Mahummud Casim Ferishta of Delhi… London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, 1768

2 vols, 4to (272 x 215 mm). Frontispiece to each volume; some foxing, a few instances of offsetting, staining, and marginal fingersoiling, Vol. I with long closed tear to folding map, tear with loss to d1 repaired, and closed marginal tear to Aaa with old repair, Vol. II with closed marginal tear to E4. Nineteenth-century half brown calf and marbled paper-covered boards, flat spines gilt-lettered and tooled in blind, edges speckled blue; extremities rubbed, some restoration to spines.  

India before the dominion of the East India Company

First edition of the first English translation of Ferishta's history of India prior to the dominion of the East India Company.

Alexander Dow entered the service of the East India Company in 1760, and quickly became conversant in the Persian language and the history of India during the Moghul rule. When Dow translated Ferishta's text into English, it was regarded by the British as an authoritative source of historical information. 

PROVENANCE

Cholmondeley Library (bookplates to front pastedowns)