After all the Labours and Attention of our best Academicians to form just Plans, and draw complete Maps of the whole Terraqueous Globe, there are many large Empires and powerful Nations, which their Enquiries have not reached; so that they are not only ignorant of their Position, but even of their Existence. Of this Number are the vast Dominions of the King of the Kofirans, of which hitherto we have had not the least Idea; and which probably would ever have continued unknown to us had not an Arabic Manuscript of the famous Traveller Krinelbol luckily fallen into my Hands.
This illustrious Enquirer, of whom we have several Works, which ostentatious Translators, on Account of their Excellency, have published as their own, that he might not be misled by the various geographical Descriptions of the Globe, determined to ground his Knowledge upon his own Experience. With this rational View he left Arabia Felix, his native Country, and travelled all over both Asia and Africa. Always careful to take an accurate View of every Thing which was worth being seen or known, and making a judicious Collection of what was most remarkable in the Customs and History of the Countries which he visited. But a very small Part of his Collection has reached us. That we are so unhappy as to have only mutilated and unsatisfactory Fragments of an Author of such Veracity, and in such curious Matters, must be imputed to the want of Printing in most of the eastern Nations, and the Ignorance of this Traveller's Heirs.
An Acquaintance of mine, who is extremely fond of Travelling, thinking it would be a very acceptable Present, brought me these Sheets from Ispahan, where they cost him twelve Tomans, that is between twenty and thirty Pounds Sterling. I have translated it without either diminishing, augmenting, or altering it in any one Particular. Only, for the Reader's Convenience, I have expressed the Names of Posts and Dignities in our Language, which in the Original were in Arabic, keeping to it in the Appellations of Persons and Nations, out of regard to historical Exactness. I do not in the least claim any Thanks or Acknowledgements for my Trouble; the several Works of this Nature which I have published producing in me an habitual Pleasure of employing my Pen, for the Instruction and Entertainment of polite Readers.
Possibly the whole Universe could not afford a more tranquil, happy Kingdom than that of the Kofirans, would their Princes equitably sit down contented with the Honours and Prerogatives with which they were invested at their Institution, and not falsly imagine, that their Grandeur and Glory consist in the Oppression of their Subjects; and would they be watchful to entail the Harmony and due Subordination betwixt the several Orders in their Government. Whereas for several Centuries past, they have been labouring to erect an Arbitrary Power; and the two last have taken large Steps towards this execrable End.