[Footnote 5: Ferishta (apud Dow, Hist. of Hindostan, vol. i.
p. 49) mentions the report of a gun in the Indian army. But
as I am slow in believing this premature (A.D. 1008) use of
artillery, I must desire to scrutinize first the text, and
then the authority of Ferishta, who lived in the Mogul court
in the last century.
Note: This passage is differently written in the various
manuscripts I have seen; and in some the word tope (gun) has
been written for nupth, (naphtha, and toofung (musket) for
khudung, (arrow.) But no Persian or Arabic history speaks of
gunpowder before the time usually assigned for its
invention, (A.D. 1317;) long after which, it was first
applied to the purposes of war. Briggs's Ferishta, vol. i.
p. 47, note. - M.]