About This Edition and Introduction

About This Edition

This book gives the complete Urdu text and a new English translation of *Ajaibat-e-Farang* ("The Wonders of Europe"), also called *Tarikh-e-Yusufi* ("Yusuf's History"), by Yusuf Khan Kambalposh. It is the author's own account of his journey from India to England and back in 1837 and 1838, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, London, Paris, the Mediterranean, Egypt and Mount Sinai, followed by his travels overland from Bombay through the Deccan to Calcutta and Lucknow.

Source of the Urdu text: Urdu Wikisource (ur.wikisource.org), the page عجائبات فرنگ and its section pages, downloaded in October 2026. The text follows the second edition printed at the press of Munshi Nawal Kishore in Lucknow in February 1898 (Ramazan 1315 AH), whose closing note by the printers is given at the end of the book.

What is left out and what was changed: every part of the author's text is given, in his order. The heading "Preface" has been added to the opening section, which has none in the source. The long section on the author's travels in India has been split into two chapters at his own subheading "Jabalpur", and his smaller place-name subheadings are kept as they stand. Some very long paragraphs have been divided, one couplet that the online text had broken in two has been joined, and nothing modern has been added to the Urdu.

Copyright: the book was written after the author's return and first printed in 1847; the author's death falls long before 1961, and the edition used here is from 1898. The text is therefore in the public domain in Pakistan, India and the United States. The English translation is new. Translator's notes are marked [TN: …]. Persian and Arabic verses and sayings are translated, with the language noted in square brackets. The author often spells English names by ear; where the person or place can be identified, the usual English form is used, and otherwise the name is given as it stands, with a note.

Names are spelled in one way throughout: Yusuf Khan Kambalposh; Nasir-ud-Din Haidar (Sulaiman Jah), king of Oudh; Muhammad Ali Shah; Colonel Low; Mr Butcher; Mr Prinkle; Mr Head; Captain Magness; Mr Killen; the ship *Isabella*; the places Calcutta, Lucknow, Oudh, Hyderabad, Bombay, Poona, Aurangabad, Daulatabad, Ellichpur, Nagpur, Kamptee, Jabalpur, Mirzapur, Benares, 'Azimabad (Patna), Cairo, Suez and Mount Sinai. A glossary of the Urdu, Persian and Arabic terms kept in the translation is given at the end.

Introduction

*Ajaibat-e-Farang* is often named as one of the very first travel books written in Urdu. Its author tells us in his preface that he left his home in Hyderabad in the Deccan, came to Lucknow, and entered the service of the king of Oudh, Nasir-ud-Din Haidar, first as a *jama'dar* and then as a *subahdar*. Wanting to see the world, he learned English, took two years' leave, and on 30 March 1837 sailed from Calcutta on the *Isabella*.

The book follows him round the Cape to London, where he spent several months seeing theatres, gardens, factories, churches, prisons and hospitals, making friends among English families and writing down everything that struck him; then across to France, and home by sea through the Mediterranean to Alexandria and Cairo, overland to Suez with a side journey to the monastery on Mount Sinai, and by steamer to Bombay. From there he rode and walked across India, visiting Elephanta, Ellora and Aurangabad, and reached Calcutta and at last Lucknow, where he found that his royal patron had died.

What gives the book its life is the author's voice: curious, quick to wonder, ready to laugh at himself, and outspoken in his judgements. He admires English order, learning and industry and compares them sharply with what he saw at home, and he is just as sharp about shipmates, monks, innkeepers, officials and holy men who displeased him. His comments are those of a man of his time, and they are translated as he wrote them. The result is a rare picture of Britain, Egypt and India in the late 1830s as seen by an Indian traveller.