Machine summary:
Since the reading of a large number of geog• raphical names in the work was uncer• tain and the risks of publishing a com• plicated text from a single manuscript were too great to be taken with a light heart, the text was not printed but photographically reproduced.
from Paris to London as Reader in Persian has resulted in the most valuable acqui• sition which the London School of Oriental Studies has made in recent years, has · I;{udud al-'Alam is not only scientifi• cally important as a complete descrip• tion of the World as it was known to the Eastern Muslims in the tenth century of the Christian Era. but it also possesses a great philological interest.
In a book which is one of the earliest prose works in Persian literature, older than the Shdhndmah itself, every word and turn of phrase is interesting and important from the linguistic point of view.
In this commentary, which is a very valuable part of the work, he has sought to explain the text by identifying the places and names mentioned in it and has also tried to ascertain the sources of the book.
Be• sides checking the names and locating the places, whenever the text gives any new information, he has done his best to elucidate the question in the light of all accessible data, using by preference rhe sources contemporary with, and older than the work under review.