As correspondent to _The Pall Mall Gazette_, and to _The Times of India_ from Central Asia, it is the pleasant duty of the author to acknowledge the permission of Sir Douglas Straight and Mr. L. G. Fraser to make use of certain articles which, although entirely altered and greatly amplified since their original appearance, were first presented in the respective columns of these organs. These extracts, a few brief paragraphs on various pages, are confined solely to the first six chapters of the book. Acknowledgments are also due to the proprietors of that esteemed Indian journal _The Pioneer_, whose London staff permitted the files of their well-known paper to be inspected; to the proprietors of _The Daily Graphic_ for permission to reproduce the block of the Amir’s proclamation, and accompanying translation, appearing on pages 370, 371; to Messrs. Macmillan for the right to reproduce their copper engraving of Dr. A. J. Gray’s painting of the Amir Abdur Rahman; to Baron Herbert de Reuter, Managing Director of Reuter’s Telegram Company, for courteous assistance; to Mr. J. D. Holmes, an Indian photographer of renown, whose unique photographs of the Khyber Pass illustrate chaps. xvi. and xvii.; to Lieutenant Stewart, whose photographs appear in chap. ix.; to Lieutenant Olufsen for the right to reproduce certain interesting photographs from that informative work _Through the Unknown Pamirs_; to Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich for authority to base upon his original sketches enlarged drawings of Herat and Kandahar, by Mr. Percy Home; to Major Cleveland, I.M.S., to whose great credit very many of the illustrations in this volume must be placed; to Major Molesworth Sykes, H.B.M. Consul at Meshed, for photographs appearing in chap. vii.; to Professor Victor Marsden, of Moscow University, for general courtesies; to Captain Charles Bancroft for assistance in translating extracts from papers placed at the author’s disposal by his Excellency Prince Khilkoff, Russian Minister of Railways; to that well-known military novelist, Mr. Horace Wyndham, who has been good enough to assist the author in the revision of his proofs; and to Mr. Thomas Bumpus, of Messrs. J. and E. Bumpus, Limited. The final, but by no means the least gratifying, duty now remains to be fulfilled. It is concerned with the dedication of this volume which, by special permission, is inscribed: TO HIM WHO, BY THE SPLENDOUR OF HIS GIFTS AND THE WISDOM OF HIS RULE, HAS LEFT AN INDELIBLE AND MEMORABLE IMPRESSION UPON INDIA: LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., P.C. ETC. ETC. ETC. AUTHORITIES CONSULTED