Sketch of the Sikhs.

Calcutta: printed by A.H. Hubbard, at the Hindoostanee Press, 1810. First edition, an extract from Asiatick Researches, Volume 11. 4to (27 x 22 cm), pp.[ii], (197)-292. A very good copy professionally bound in yellow morocco, with title page supplied. The first substantive published account of the Sikh nation. John Malcolm began to assemble materials for his history while serving with British forces in the Punjab in 1805, noting that "English writers, none of them had possessed more than very general information regarding this extraordinary race..." Malcolm made his own observations and notes in the Punjab, and acquired a number of Sikh manuscripts. When he returned to Calcutta, he interviewed a Sikh on his religion, and acquired a number of English translations of Sikh religious and historical texts from John Leyden. The demands of Malcolm's duties prevented him from compiling a full history, but his briefer text effectively glosses the period from the birth of Guru Nanak in 1469 to the disordered Sikh states of the Punjab in 1805. Malcolm relied on Sikh sources, stating "it is of the most essential importance to hear what a nation has to say of itself; and the knowledge obtained from such sources has a value, independent of its historical utility." He was aware of other contemporary accounts and histories, but preferred the Sikhs' own accounts to the somewhat hostile Mughal records. This text was reprinted at London in 1812 in octavo.