[Indian convict autobiography] Muhammad Jaffer Thanesari (1838-1905) Tawarikh-i 'Ajib ['Wonderful

[Indian convict autobiography] Muhammad Jaffer Thanesari (1838-1905) Tawarikh-i 'Ajib ['Wonderful Stories'] [Place illegible:] Temple Press, 1307 AH [1889/90 CE]. 8vo (24.5 x 15cm), recent half leather, in Urdu (except testimonials in English to verso of title-page), lithographed throughout, [2] 100 pp., map of Port Blair in text (p. 66), browning, tissue-repairs to title-page, worming to head and foot of last few leaves similarly repaired, light marginal worming; Mawlawi Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Aghlab Muhani. Nayrang-i Afghan ['The Charm of the Afghans']. Lucknow: Matba' Sham Oudh, 1904. First edition, 8vo (24 x 14cm), recent half leather, in Urdu, lithographed throughout, [2] 4 8 64 344 5 pp., 2 albumen-print photographic portraits of Abd al-Rahman Khan and Habibullah Khan mounted to leaf after title-page, variable browning, corner of pp. 23/4 detached, closed tear in pp. 225/6; Mawlawi Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Haqq. History of Palestine. [Urdu title:] Tarikh Bayt al-Muqaddas. Delhi: Mujtabai Press, 1891. 8vo (23.2 x 14cm), recent half leather, in Urdu, lithographed throughout, [2] 40 pp., 3 plates, marginal repair to title-page, small closed tear in final plate Qty: (3) Note: Muhammad Jaffer Thanesari was a Wahhabi Muslim activist arrested in 1863 for conspiring to smuggle funds to anti-British mujahideen in Afghanistan. From 1866 to 1883 he was a prisoner at the Port Blair penal colony in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Tawarikh-i 'Ajib, an account of his time in prison, is also known under the title Kala Pani. Printed on the verso of the title-page is a testimonial in English from Richard Carnac Temple as cantonment magistrate, Ambala: 'I have known Muhammad Jafir to 10 years, first as a munshi at Port Blair and then as an employe [sic] here under me, whatever may have been his shortcoming in days gone by he seems to have profited by this severe punishment that overtook him and has been as long as I have known him a quiet, inoffensive man [...]'. A date in the colophon suggests that the work may have first been printed in 1887. The second work, Nayrang-i Afghan, appears to be a history of Afghanistan; the author's other works according to a note on the title-page include works on Russia (Kitab-i Rus) and the Islamic schools of law (Haqa'iq-i Madhahib).