First published in 1906, this classic nine-volume history of the nation of India places it among the storied lands of antiquity, alongside Egypt, China, and Mesopotamia. Edited by American academic ABRAHAM VALENTINE WILLIAMS JACKSON (1862-1937), professor of Indo-Iranian languages at Columbia University, it offers a highly readable narrative of the Indian people and culture through to the time of its publication, when the nation was still part of the British Empire. Volume IX, Historic Accounts of India by Foreign Travellers, Classic, Oriental, and Occidental, compiled by the editor, features such entertaining and enlightening selections as: an account of India by the Greek writer Strabo the practice of suttee, or widow-burning, in India, according to numerous foreign accounts a description of India in general by the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hiuan Tsang Al-Biruni's Arabic account of the Hindu religion an account of the Temple of Somnath by the Persian geographer Kazvini the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama at Calicut and his reception by the Zamorin Hindu manners and customs as described by the Dutch missionary Abraham Roger a description of Bengal by the French voyager Francois Pyrard de Laval Sir Thomas Roe's first audience with the Great Mogul and much more. This beautiful replica of the 1906 first edition includes all the original illustrations."