Asia : Persia and India

Contents: Foreword/Ramakanta Chakrabarty. 1. Introduction/Aniruddha Ray. 2. Overviews of the maps/Manosi Lahiri. 3. Asia : Persia and India (Facsimile)/John Ogilby.

From the Foreword: "John Ogilby\'s Asia : Persia and India (1673), an extremely rare book, was found in a pile of books kept in a corner of the library of Bangiya Sahitya Parisat of Kolkata, which, though a famous cultural institution, suffers both from chill penury and lack of space for keeping its 2,00,000 books and journals in proper order. It is known that Ogilby\'s book was donated to the library of Bangiya Sahitya Parisat by an affluent merchant and collector of rare books, named Yatindra Nath Pal, who lived in Kolkata. After the discovery of this book, The Publication Department of The Asiatic Society approached the authorities of Bangiya Sahitya Parisat with the proposal that permission might be given for its publication by The Asiatic Society during its bicentennial Silver Jubilee in 2008.

This edition of Ogilby\'s Asia : Persia and India is embellished by a critical introduction contributed by Professor Aniruddha Ray, a noted mediaevalist, who has carefully summarized Ogilby\'s accounts and observations. This edition is further enriched by the inclusion of Dr. Manosi Lahiri\'s critical note on the historical maps of Persia and India prepared by John Ogilby for this book.

The pictures and plans Ogilby has drawn in deeply dark colour in white and thick papers fully brings out the characteristic features of two almost similar mediaeval civilizations. This is an attractive feature of the book."