bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Notice of an unknown Anthology of Ancient Arabic Poetry, “Muntaha 'l-ṭalab min Ash'âr-i 'l-'Arab,”, by Muḥammad b. al-Mubârak b. Muḥammad b. Maimûn
Authors: Husain S. M.
Published: March 2011

At Oxford, in 1927, while hunting up references to the verses of an unknown anthology of ancient Arabic poetry, which I hope to present shortly to the students of Arabic, I came to find mention of another unknown anthology of Ancient Arabic poetry: Muntaha 'l-Ṭalab min Ash'dr-i 'l-'Arab by Muḥammad b. al-Mubârak b. Muhammad b. Maimûn, said to contain one thousand Arabic odes. Although the anthologist, Muḥammad b. al-Mubârak b. Muhammad b. Maimûn, was no familiar figure in Arabic literary history, the name of the anthology and the note about its enormous extent at once struck me and led me to think that it was a very valuable work. So I at once consulted the well-known expert, Mr. (now Dr.) F. Krenkow about it. Mr. Krenkow informed me that he also had come across the name of this anthology, most probably in the catalogue of the books in the late De Slane's library. Afterwards, when I visited Germany and met Dr. Hommel of Munich, he felt immensely interested in this anthology, and suggested to me to be on the look-out for it in my intended Near East tour especially in the libraries of Istanbul and Damascus. As a matter of fact, in Istanbul I came upon a codex of this work in the library of Laleli, where it is numbered 1941. But this codex, 2·1 cm. × 1·5 cm., containing 164 folios, was only a small part—one-sixth—of the whole work. Again in Cairo I found two manuscripts of the Muntaha 'l-Ṭalab in the Royal library.
Was the Arabian and Persian Lute Fretted ?
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

It was in reference to this claim that I was once asked by the author of Musik des Orients (1929), Dr. Robert Lachmann, now the director of the Department of Extra European Music at the University of Jerusalem, whether I had actual evidence in regard to frets on the Arabian and Persian lute in the Middle Ages. He asked the question because a German writer, Karl Geiringer, had searched Arabic and Persian manuscripts which gave delineations of the lute without finding a solitary example which revealed the presence of frets on the instrument.
The Punch-marked Coins: A Survival of the Indus Civilization
Authors: Fábri C. L.
Published: March 2011

“Punch-marked coins are the earliest Indian archæo-logical ‘document’ that exists,” wrote Mr. E. H. C. Walsh in 1923 in a thorough study of these interesting remains of Indian proto-historic times. At the time when he wrote his article, very little, if anything, was known of the freshly discovered prehistoric civilization in the Indus Valley, at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Even in a more recent publication, in Professor Chakrabortty's numismatic handbook,2 no attempt is made to explain the symbols punched upon these primitive coins, and it still holds good what Mr. Walsh said in 1923: “Until our present sources of information are added to, the significance of the marks on punch-marked coins must remain the subject of speculation and surmise.” The late Mr. W. Theobald's study is an excellent collection of materials, but his explanations might fitly be called “archaic”. Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar has given some very ingenious interpretations of a number of these rūpas. But these interpretations concern only a very few of the large number of symbols.
The Eastern Relations of Early Hungarian Folk-music
Authors: Szabolcsi Benedict
Published: March 2011

The latest scientific opinions concerning the origin of the Magyars may be summed up as follows. The primary home of the Magyars as an Ugro-Finnish tribe was probably in Eastern Europe between the Volga and the Ural Mountains. Here they may have lived with kindred Ugro-Finnish peoples, the ancestors of their near relatives, the Ostyaks and Voguls, and of their more distant relatives, the Finns, Lapps, Mordwins, Zyryäns, and Tsheremis, about 2500–2000 b.c. From there they drifted eastward. In the fifth century a.d. they moved south-westward in close connection with several peoples of the Turkish race, chiefly with the Bolgars, Sabeers, “Blue” Turks, and Khazars, absorbing a considerable Turkish stratum, to become organized into a nation, or rather an alliance of several tribes, on the territory of South-Eastern Europe of to-day. About the year 800 they were in the region of the Caucasus, then on the northern coast of the Black Sea. In the last years of the ninth century the Magyars, under the pressure of kindred tribes, proceeded westward and occupied their present home in the basin of the Carpathians.
Junayd
Authors: Arberry A. J.
Published: March 2011

Professor Louis Massignon, the value of whose contributions to the study of Sufism cannot be overestimated, gives a short but penetrating account of the doctrines of Junayd in his Essai sur les Origines du Lexique Technique de la Mystique Musulmane. This account is preceded by an analysis of the contents of the manuscript of Junayd's opuscula which is preserved at Istanbul. In his Recueil de Textes Inédits Massignon gives extracts of this manuscript. It has recently been my good fortune, through the generosity of the Egyptian University, to obtain a photograph of this manuscript—and I must not omit to acknowledge the kindly services of Dr. Ritter in this connection—as a preliminary to the fulfilment of what has been for some time my immediate intention, namely, to write a monograph on the life and doctrines of Junayd, and to edit all his surviving reliquiae.
The Instructions of the East India Company to Lord Macartney on His Embassy to China and His Reports to the Company, 1792–4. Part I: Instructions from the Company
Authors: Pritchard Earl H.
Published: March 2011

From 1600 until 1833 the East India Company held a monopoly of all British trade with China. Private individuals, licensed by the Company to reside and trade in India, were permitted to carry on the so-called “Country” trade between India and China, and the commanders and officers of the Company's ships were permitted to carry on “Private” trade in minor articles and to a limited extent in tea and raw silk directly between England and China. With these exceptions British trade was a closed monopoly, but despite this favourable situation the Company found much to complain of because the Chinese had their own ideas of monopoly and of how foreign trade should be carried on.
The Kitāb al-malāhi of Abū Ṭālib Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Salama
Authors: Robson James , Farmer H. G.
Published: March 2011

The notices of Ibn Salama are short. Al-Nawawī (d. 1277) and Ibn Khallikān (d. 1282) make reference to him only in the biography of his son, Abū '1-Ṭaiyib, who died in 920.

Ibn Salama was a grammarian of the Kūfan school. He studied under his father, Salama ibn 'Āṣim, a friend of Al-Farrā' (d. 822) and teacher of Tha'lab (d. 904); but Yāqūt says that he departed from his father's views. The Fihrist, followed by Ibn Khallikān, says that he met Ibn al-A'rābi (d. 846) and other learned men. Yāqūt says that he studied under Ibn al-A'rābī, Tha'lab, Ibn al-Sikkīt (d. 860), and others.
Demetrias in Sind?
Authors: Johnson E. H.
Published: March 2011

Certain periods of Indian history present extraordinary difficulties to the scholar who would deal with them, because he should be equally expert inso many different languages and literatures, and no one in practice can be a specialist in all. This is particularly true for the centuries when the Greeks were a force in the land. Incomplete and scattered statements from Greek and Latin historians and geographers have to be dovetailed in with the stillmore imperfect information to be derived from Sanskrit and Pali literature, as well as with inscriptions and coins; and in addition Chinese reports haveto be reckoned with. Hitherto this period has been mostly treated from the Indian angle and, though much use has been made of the classical authorities, that use has not been accompanied by adequate critical knowledge of the sources. We Indologists have therefore every reason to be deeply grateful to Dr.Tarn, whose recently published Greeks in Bactria and India, the fruit of many years' labour, explains authoritatively the bearing of the Greek evidence and enables us for the first time to see the history of the age as a coherent and intelligible whole. In carrying out his task, he has naturally had occasion to draw deductions from the Indian material, for which he is dependent on second-hand information. Now, while I have no desire spill ink on so useless a matter as purely destructive criticism, I am of opinion that some of his inferences are based on misunderstanding of the evidence from this source and will not stand the test of critical examination.
Some Observations on the Jātakas
Authors: Law B. C.
Published: March 2011

Though much has been written on the Jātakas or Buddha's Birth-stories, there is no consensus of opinion as yet about the exact signification of the term Jātaka as employed in Buddhist literature. One may correctly say, no doubt, with the late Professor Rhys Davids that the Jātaka proper is atītavatthu or the “story of the past”. It is precisely in this sense that the Bharhut labels designate many of the illustrations. Though this is generally the case with the Jatakas, Professor B. M. Barua contends for a definition of Jataka which embraces also the paccuppanna-vatthu, or the “story of the present”. He points out that according to the Culla-Niddesa, a work of the Pāli Canon, which cannot be dated earlier than the third century b.c., the term Jātaka is obviously applied alike to the story of the present and to that of the past, the undermentioned four Suttantas being mentioned as typical examples of Jātaka:—

(1) Mahāpadāniya.

(2) Mahā-Sudassanīya.

(3) Mahā-Govindiya.

(4) Maghādeviya.
The Rescue of the Chinese Rhinoceros
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

Some twenty-four years ago there was carried on a high and formidable argument between two Professors of Chinese concerning the rhinoceros and his Chinese name. In the end each contestant remained, as is usual in such literary warfare or “incidents”, of the same opinion still, while the third parties to the dispute finding their minds in some confusion on the matter, concluded that either Professor A was in the right, or else, perhaps, it was Professor B. And so the question rested for some years, and sleeping dogs were allowed to lie. But in due course An Yang in the Province of Honan surrendered its long hidden store of bone and tortoise-shell, inscribed with archaic characters. And on the discoveries and problems thus presented we have been browsing ever since. Among these novel forms are two, each of which is partly one and partly the other. Discoveries, because though written forms do exist, these do not descend from the archaic figures under discussion. Problems, because the equation of certain bone pictures with the exact identity of the quadrupeds indicated in the inscriptions, has hitherto been disputed or equivocal. The bone figures of both these novelties display beasts of large bulk, both have horns, and both are furnished with tails, carefully marked by trifid tufts by the scribe. In the recording entries both follow a word chu, meaning to chase, and those who hunted the quarry were the Yin Sovereigns of the time. Where then is the difficulty in identifying the particular species of Big Game hunted by the sporting rulers of the Shang-Yin line ? Briefly, the horns in each case have been a dilemma hindering full assurance of our conclusions
Nahapana and the Saka Era. Part II
Authors: Banerji R. D.
Published: March 2011

In the first part of this paper it was suggested that a cave was dedicated at Nasik either in or before the eighteenth year of the reign of Gautamïputra Śātakarṇi, and was given to people for whose benefit land previously enjoyed by Uṣavadāta was granted. Subsequently Śātakarṇi's mother, Gautamï Balaśrī, caused this cave to be enlarged by adding chambers which she claims to be her own benefaction. At that time I believed the veranda in cave No. 3 at Nasik to be the original cave dedicated by Gautamïputra Śātakarṇi and the remaining parts of the same cave to be the gift of his mother. During the last four years I had to visit Nasik repeatedly on duty and I have come to the conclusion that a portion of cave No. 3 of the Pandu Lena group, as it stands at present, must have been dedicated by Gautamïputra Śātakarṇi, and inscriptions No. 4 (Kshatrapa 13) and No. 5 (Kshatrapa 14) had been incised in the walls of this original cave before its enlargement by Queen Gautamī Balaśrī, when inscriptions Nos. 2 (Kshatrapa 18) and 3 (Kshatrapa 19) were incised on another wall.
Clues for the Arabian Influence on European Musical Theory
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

In the diffusion of the sciences of the Saracens throughout Western Europe in the twelfth century, says Professor Haskins in one of his valuable contributions to the English Historical Review, “ England occupies a position of considerable importance. An English scholar, Adelard of Bath, seems to have been the chief pioneer in this movement of study and translation, while the existence of a certain number of dated treatises of his contemporaries and successors makes it possible to follow the spread of the new learning in England with greater definiteness than has so far been attempted elsewhere.” That these Arabian sciences played an important part in the intellectual awakening of England, there cannot be much doubt. Mathematical sciences especially attained a height with the Arabs which had never been reached before in Western Europe.
Muḥammad Ibn Ḥabîb and his Kitâb al-Muḥabbar
Authors: Lichtenstädter Ilse
Published: March 2011

Unfortunately very little is known about the life and personality of the author of the Kitâb al-muḥabbar. Abû Ja‘far Muḥammad b. Ḥabîb, al-Hâshimî al-Baghdâdî as he is usually called, was a mawlâ of the family of Muḥammad b. 'Abbâs b. Muḥammad al-Hâshimi. Ḥabîb is stated to be the name of his mother, a freed woman of the Hâshimite family, his father's name being unknown. However, in the Fihrist and by Yâqût who quotes the Fihrist he is called Muḥammad b. Ḥabîb b. Umaiya b. 'Amr. The date and the place of his birth are equally unknown and the only date we know for certain is that of his death, which occurred in Sâmarrâa in the year a.h. 245 (a.d. 859/860) in the reign of al-Mutawakkil. All the sources agree about this date, some adding the month, Dhu'l-Ḥijja, and the day, namely the 23rd of this month.
The Structure of the Arabian and Persian Lute in the Middle Ages
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

The most popular instrument of music with both the Arabs and the Persians during what we term the Middle Ages was the lute. It was to them what the lyre and cithara were to the Greeks of old. At the same time it was not an instrument of the people. It was the instrument of the professional musician and all music theory was made conformable to its technique.
The Ships of the Arabian Sea about A.D. 1500
Authors: Moreland W. H.
Published: March 2011

THE origin of this note is to be found in a passage in Mr. C. N. Parkinson's Trade in the Eastern Seas (Cambridge, 1937), where, in connection with the Portuguese enterprise in the East, the suggestion is made that Asiatic seamen were deterred from rounding the Cape by want of courage rather than technical equipment. The passage is as follows (p. 6).
Notes on Flower Symbolism in China
Authors: Yetts W. Perceval
Published: March 2011

Scant attention has been paid to this subject by Western writers, so even an incomplete approach to it may not come amiss. The field being far too wide for any attempt at comprehensiveness within the space of a short article, I have singled out the numerical categories, since they offer a fairly coherent and manageable group.
Music: The Priceless Jewel
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

The interminable debate between Muslim legists concerning the propriety of “audition (al-samā')”, or more properly “musical audition”, is probably the most interesting of Arabic polemical literature. The subject of the dispute has been dealt with by several writers, and translations from three celebrated Arabic disputants, Ibn Abi'l-Dunyā (d. 894), Al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), and his brother Majd al-Dīn (d. 1126), as well as a Persian author Al-Hujwīrī (d. c. 1072) and the Jewish philosopher Maimonides (d. 1204), have been published in English.
Ctesias on Indian Manna
Authors: Johnston E. H.
Published: March 2011

Little attention has been paid by Sanskrit scholars to the fragments of Ctesias's account of India since McCrindle brought out a translation of them in the Indian Antiquary, x, 296–323, but, though later classical writers chose their excerpts almost entirely for their “news-value” as fairy tales of a distant and little-known land, it is to be hoped that they will be re-examined when Dr. F. Jacoby's new edition is published. This paper attempts to show that such an inquiry might well prove instructive, particularly with regard to Greek methods of reporting Indian names.
A Note on Persian Grammar
Authors: Minovi M.
Published: March 2011

I Remember when I was quite young, one day I heard a boy shout out to his mother:

.

and the mother immediately corrected him by saying, “The rice is not a human being, , you must say ”.
Art. I.— On the Uriya and Kondh Population of Orissa
Authors: Frye Lieut. J. P.
Published: March 2011

The term maliah, or malo, rendered “hill tracts,” is a corruption of the Sanscrit word “mala,” signifying “a garland;” and is applied to the continuous jungles which cover the surface of the Eastern Ghauts. The words “rajio,” or “deso,” signifying “a principality,” or “country,” are employed to designate the zeinindaries which surround them; while the open country, stretching from their bases to the coast of Orissa, is called “tolo deso,” or “low country.” The above terms belong to the Uriya language. The Kondh calls bis own country “Kui Dina,” or “Kui Pruti” and that inhabited by Uriyas, he designates “Sasi Dina.”
Art. IV.—Summary Review of the Travels of Hiouen Thsang, from the Translation of the Si-yu-ki by M. Julien, and the Mémoire Analytique of M. Vivien de St. Martin
Authors: Wilson H. H.
Published: March 2011

In an appendix to the publication of the translatíon of the Travels of Fa Hian, the Foe Koue Ki, was added an itinerary professing to be that of another Chinese traveller, Hiouen Thsang, who visited India in the first half of the seventh century. As it was an extract from a geographical Encyclopædia of comparatively recent compilation, some doubt was suggested as to the degree of confidence to which it was entitled, although enough of interest was obviously attached to the account, and it was most desirable that we should have access to the original through the medium of a translation into some familiar idiom. The eyes of European scholars were naturally directed to the most eminent of sinologues, M. Stanislas Julien, who, in compliance with their wishes, undertook and has now completed the task. Some notice of the result of his labours will be, no doubt, acceptable to the Royal Asiatic Society, although the limited space that is compatible with the extent of the Journal compels me to a more summary review than a careful and minute analysis would require.
Art. VI.—Remarks by Raja Radhakanta Deva, on Art. XI, Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XVI, p. 201;
Authors: Wilson H. H.
Published: March 2011

The sixteenth volume of the Journal of our Society, has given insertion to a communication made by me, on the supposed authority of the Vedas, for the burning of Hindu widows, in which I have shown that the passage quoted as enjoining the practice, and as published by Mr. Colebrooke, in his Paper in the Asiatic Researches, upon the “Duties of a Sati or Faithful Widow,” had been either purposely or accidentally wrongly read, and that so far from authorizing the rite, its real purport was the reverse; and that it expected the widow to repress her affliction and return to her worldly duties. This view was entirely confirmed by the explanation of the passage given by the celebrated commentator, Sayana Acharya, and by the precepts of Aswalayana, cited by Professor Maximilian Miiller, published in continuation of my remarks on the same occasion. The revised reading has not proved acceptable to the Pandits of Calcutta, and the following letter is the expression of their sentiments. The writer, a friend of many years, Raja Radhakant Deb is well known as a leading member of the Native Society of Calcutta, who adds to the distinction of rank and station, that of a foremost place amongst Sanskrit scholars, as evinced by his great Lexicon or Literary Encyclopaedia of the Sanskrit language, in seven quarto volumes; the Sabdakalpadruma, which enjoys a European as well as Indian celebrity. Any opinion coming from him on subjects connected with the ancient literature of hia country is entitled to the greatest deference. The question of the authority for the Sati cremation is now, as he rightly observes, a matter merely for literary discussion, but as it is not without interest for the historian and antiquarian, his remarks will, I doubt not, be highly acceptable to those scholars who are engaged in the investigation of the ancient religion and history of the Hindus; and as he has no objection to their being laid before the public, I have thought it advisable to request a place for them in the Journal, although, as I shall subsequently explain, they have not induced me to modify in the least my opinions on the subject, as my esteemed correspondent seems t o anticipate.
Art. VII.—Note on the supposed Discovery of the Principle of the Differential Calculus by an Indian Astronomer
Authors: Spottiswoode W.
Published: March 2011

In the number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal last received, No. III., of 1858, is a short article by Bapu Deva Shastri, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the Government College of Benares, in which he has undertaken to show, that Bháskaráchárya, an astronomer who flourished at Ujjayin in the twelfth century, was fully acquainted with the principle of the Differential Calculus, one of the most important discoveries of the last century in Europe.
Art. XIII.—Account of some Golden Relics discovered at Rangoon, and exhibited at a Meeting of the Society on the 6th June, 1857, by permission of the Court of Directors of the East India Company
Authors: Sykes
Published: March 2011

On the 10th May, 1855, Brigadier C. Russell, Commanding at Rangoon, reported to Captain Thomson, the Assistant Adjutant-General of the Pegu Division, for the information of Major-General Sir S. W. Steel, K.C.B., Commanding the Division, that on the 13th April, 1855, some labourers employed at Rangoon in levelling a Buddhist temple for the future site of European barracks, had met with the gold relics enumerated in Brigadier Russell's letter. They, no doubt, had been placed under the floor of the temple, as was the practice in the Stupas, in the Punjab, in Afghanistan, at Sarnath, and elsewhere.
Notes on the Phonetics of the Gilgit Dialect of Shina
Authors: Lorimer D. L. R.
Published: March 2011

The publication of vol. viii, pt. ii of Sir George Grierson's monumental work, The Linguistic Survey of India, which contains a section on the Shina () language, and the appearance of a short but valuable critique of it by Dr. the Rev. T. Grahame Bailey in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of July, 1921, are immediately responsible for the present essay on Shina phonetics.
Art. X.—An Account of the Autograph MS. of the first volume of Ibn Khallikán's Biographical Dictionary
Authors: Cureton W.
Published: March 2011

The Biographical Dictionary of lbn Khallikán, although it hardly merits the extravagant praise bestowed upon it by Sir William Jones, has always, and deservedly so, been held in great estimation by all those who have been induced to enter upon the study of the noble language and extensive literature of the Arabs. There is, perhaps, no other book in the whole range of the learning of Islamism which throws so much light upon Arabic literature; while the extensive erudition, and general accuracy of the writer, have caused it to be considered of great authority upon all such subjects of information as come within the design of the work. It has consequently been very frequently referred to by Orientalists, and many detached lives have from time to time been given in different publications. Within the last four years two complete editions of the entire work have been undertaken by the zeal and industry of two distinguished Oriental scholars: the one by M. Wtistenfeld, lithographed, 4to. Göttingen, 1835–31), of which seven fasciculi, comprehending six hundred and ninety-eight lives, have been published; the other, in type, by the Baron Mac Guckin de Slane, 4to. Paris, 1838–40, of which three livraisons have appeared.
Art. XII.—Remarks on the Site and Ruins of Tammana Nuwera
Authors: Chitty Simon Cassie
Published: March 2011

Tammana Nuwera hold sa very important place in the Singhalese history, as having been founded by Vijaya, the first in the list of the kings of Ceylon, so far back as 2382 years from the present time, or 5.13 before the Christian era. It bears in pali the name of Tambapanni, which it is surmised the Greeks and Romans corrupted into Taprobane, and applied as an appellation to the island itself. Tambapanni signifies “copper-coloured,” and is said to refer to the reddish colour of the soil in the place, as Albion did to the colour of the chalky cliffs on the southern coast of England.
A Specimen of the Thūlung Dialect
Authors: Wolfenden Stuart N.
Published: March 2011

The dialect here under consideration was first given attention by Hodgson, and was later briefly described from Hodgson's materials by Professor Sten Konow in the Linguistic Survey of India. No connected specimen in the language has so far been made available.

The following story and notes, therefore, gathered in the Darjeeling District in 1931 will perhaps serve as a supplement to our knowledge of this imperfectly known form of speech.
The Dating of Chinese Bronzes
Authors: Karlgren Bernhard
Published: March 2011

One of the fundamental tasks of archæological research in regard to thedating of archaic Chinese bronzes is to determine which bronzes date in the Chou period and which are pre-Chou, i.e. of the Yin (Shang) period. In my work “Yin and Chou in Chinese Bronzes” (in Yin and Chou Researches, 1935, also in Bull. Mus. Far East Ant., 1936), I have tried to establish a real dating in regard to a great number of inscribed bronzes by aid of their inscriptions. I found three types of inscriptions which I concluded to be of pre-Chou time: those containing the so-called ya hing, those which had the three symbols traditionally (but very tentatively) interpreted as si tsï sun, and those which had the symbol traditionally transcribed as kü. In this way I obtained a considerable number of illustrated bronzes which I used as research material for determining the types of bronzes existing prior to the Chou era.
Notes on the Silver Punch-marked Coins, and the Copper Punch-marked Coins, in the British Museum
Authors: Walsh E. H. C.
Published: March 2011

In a previous paper notes have been, given on some points in connection with the Silver Punch-marked Coins of the Older Thin Class in the British Museum. Here further notes are given on the Silver Punch-marked Coins of the Later Thick Class of the Mauryan Period, on the Copper Punchmarked Coins, and on the Tribal Coins: for convenience of reference the paragraphs are numbered in continuation of those of the previous notes.
Bibliography of Indian Music
Authors: Aiyar M. S. Ramaswami
Published: March 2011

The first attempt to treat of Indian music, at least incidentally if not systematically, was made by the Sikshas and the Prātisākyas, though both of them related to its vēdic phase. Of these two works, the latter displaced the former on account of a lucid and simple style, although Nārada Siksha still continues to remain indispensable, because no Prātisākya for Sāma Vēda is available.
The Puranic Line of Heroes
Authors: Ruben W.
Published: March 2011

After Pargiter Kirfel especially has pushed on the textual criticism of the Purāṇas. He collated carefully the so-called central part of certain Purāṇas (B-H, Bḍ-Vā, Mt-P, Ga, Vi, A, Li, Kū, Vā, Mr). This part may be called the “world's history” of the Vaiṣṇavas, containing the famous “five topics” of every Purāṇa: the creation, the creation in detail, the lines of the first beings, the world's ages, the lines of the heroes. Kirfel discovered that the oldest version of this text is preserved in the nearly identical recensions of H-B, but he did not go on to the end. (1) He could not identify the chapters of his text with the five topics, (2) he did not always follow the readings of H-B (cf. § 8), (3) he did not ask if H or B has the older text, and (4) if the source of H-B is still extant. Reading the story of Kṛṣṇa in the Mbh, H, and B, I gathered some other material useful for this problem, which is of some importance for the history of Indian religion and literature. If we consider that according to Indian tradition H is purely a supplement to the Mbh, then the question arises: Has H borrowed this world's history (vaṁśa) from B, and was this text originally an independent one still preserved in B, or had B taken the text from H ? The main point of this paper is that B has borrowed from H, and that H really is a supplement to and an imitation of the Mbh.
The Ancient Trade Route past Hatra and its Roman Posts
Authors: Stein Aurel
Published: March 2011

In the spring of 1938 I was able with valuable help from the Royal Air Force and the material support of the Iraq Petroleum Company to carry out a survey of ancient remains along a portion of Rome's Mesopotamian Limes in the extreme north-west of Iraq. These explorations were closely connected with the researches which Père A. Poidebard, S.J., had effected before on the Syrian Limes and recorded in a masterly publication. In the following autumn the survey was resumed by me with the same generous aid and continued until May, 1939, along all routes protected by Roman defences that could be traced from the Tigris and Euphrates into the Syrian desert and thence through Transjordan down to the Gulf of Aqaba.
Alphabetical List of Directors of the East India Company from 1758 to 1858
Authors: C. H.  , Philips D.
Published: March 2011

The only existing alphabetical list of Bast India directors for the period 1758–1858 was prepared and published in 1885 by Charles Prinsep in his book, The Services of Madras Civilians. Unfortunately it is an extremely inaccurate list, mistakes in the directors' years of service having been made in a great number of cases. Among other errors, Prinsep endowed two of the directors, John Smith Burgess and William Thornton Astell, with dual personalities; the two David Scotts, on the other hand, he treated as one; and although going so far as to invent one director, Joseph Bosanquet, he omitted at least five others—R. Atkinson, A. Campbell, G. Johnstone, R. Jones, L. Peel.
Some Early Documents in Persian (I)
Authors: Minorsky V.
Published: March 2011

This article consists of a short Introduction enumerating the oldest documents in Modern Persian, and of a decipherment of a deed from Khotan (501/1107) and of some private documents from Bāiyan (6077/1211).
The Unprinted Indigenous Arabic Literature of Northern Nigeria
Authors: Whitting C. E. J.
Published: March 2011

It is uncertain when Islam began to penetrate the “western Sudan”: for a review of the evidence, reference may be made to the earlier chapters of Bovill's Caravans of the old Sahara. That the age-old north to south and west to east trade routes (carrying outwards gold and slaves, inwards cloth and manufactured articles, internally dates and salt as the main articles of commerce), provided the vehicle can be in little doubt, as also that, by the fourth century a.h. if not earlier, appreciable Moslem influence had begun to work in the area shown on modern maps as northern Nigeria. In this area Arabic is not a tongue spoken, save in dialect by the numerically insignificant tribe of Shuwas in the northeast. But with the spread and pre-eminence at first cultural and later political of Islam, written “classical” Arabic, which provided the only means of a literary education became the medium of diplomacy, commerce, and correspondence. This position it maintained until a few years ago, suggesting a parallel to the use of Latin in medieval Western Europe. Yet, so far as is known, although original works were produced farther north in the Sahara proper, until the “reforming” Fulani jihad at the end of the eighteenth century a.d. (active operations began 21.2.1804), few original compositions in Arabic emerged. The stimulus of this jihad appears, among other results, to have evoked the nucleus of an original indigenous Arabic literature, none of which has been printed or translated, save a few historical documents.
Lakshmibai Rani of Jhansi
Authors: Kincaid C. A.
Published: March 2011

I Have no space to relate the early history of Jhansi. Before her marriage, the Rani's name was Manubai Tambe. Her father, Moropant Tambe, was a Karhad Brahman from Wai in the Satara district. He obtained employment with the last Peshwa Bajirao II, and through his influence married his daughter to Gangadharrao Newalkar, the Raja of Jhansi, who was of the same caste as himself. According to Indian custom, Manubai thereafter changed her first name to Lakshmibai.
The Bearskin, another pictographic reconnaissance from primitive prophylactic to present-day panache: a Chinese epigraphic puzzle
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

Among the several hundred archaic forms preserved in the inscriptions on the bone fragments of the Honan Find which research has failed to identify there is a minority demanding special attention. And in it perhaps the most outstanding challenge to aggressive epigraphists is the figure appearing in Plate II. This inscription discloses a human shape of grotesque design. Above the emaciated and linear frontal figure of a man, appears an object covering but concealing his head, which resembles an outsize and ill-designed bowler hat. From what seem like ear-flaps depend two oval earrings perhaps, and in front of the bulky headgear two small apertures are remarkable. Such is the leading figure in the sequence of the four characters in the centre of the plate. On each side of the three main rows are several characters perhaps not all connected with the three main columns.
Chinghiz Khan's First Invasion of the Chin Empire
Authors: Martin H. Desmond
Published: March 2011

In recent years the advances made in the study of nomad history have done much to dispel the popular misconception of Chinghiz Khan. Carried away by the great conqueror's feats of arms, writers have frequently treated him as a political phenomenon, unique and apart from the current of history to which he properly belongs. In reality his career constitutes the most outstanding chapter in the history of the nomads of Northern Asia. Surpassing the most famous of his predecessors, he outstripped the greatest of the Hsiung-nu and Turkish rulers and left behind a name that is a household word from China to the Danube. Of all his exploits, none has impressed the Occident so much as his invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire. This, with its tremendous consequences for the world of Islam and Eastern Europe, has tended to draw attention away from his wars in China. Also it is only since the labours of M. Pelliot and other distinguished Sinologists that many valuable Chinese documents on Chinghiz Khan have become known.
“The Mysterious Paiśācī”
Authors: Master Alfred
Published: March 2011

The only Pai. quotation connected directly with the Bṛh. is given by Mārkaṇḍeya (seventeenth century): Bṛhatkathāyām kupaci pisāḷam (Grierson, EPG., 134). Keith, HSL., p. 269, observes, “We really cannot be sure that we have a single relic of the Bṝhatkathā, still less that so late a grammarian as Mārkaṇḍeya actually had the text before him.” Pisālaṃ, moreover, is a neo-Indian form, which normally would not occur before the twelfth century, for the words in AMg pisalla (PG 595) and in Pkt. pisalla (Hem., i, 193) are normal Mid-Indian as contrasted with Mar. pisāḷeṇ “madness”.
Raqami
Authors: Burn Richard
Published: March 2011

In chapter 15 of the Ain-i-Akbari (translation, ii, p. 88), Abul Fazl says that when Khwaja Abdul Majid Asaf Khan was Vazir the jama-i-witayat was raqami. The late Mr. Moreland in The Agrarian System of Moslem India (App. E, pp. 238 sqq.) came to the conclusion that jama-i-witayat meant the valuation of land revenue, but he was unable to explain the term raqami with certainty. Its meaning here is of importance in the history of land revenue assessment, and various guesses had been made to explain it. Jarrett (Ain., trs., ii, p. 88) thought it meant “estimated”, while Beveridge (Akbarnama, trs., ii, p. 402, n. 2) suggested that it might refer (a) to the system of arithmetical notation known in India as raqam or siyāq which is based on contractions of Arabic names of numbers, or (b) to assessment depending on the kind of produce, raqam being used in the sense of description.
The Penetration of the Copernican Theory into Feudal Japan
Authors: Szcześniak Bolesław
Published: March 2011

Western science began to penetrate to the Far East at the end of the sixteenth century, along with the Christian faith spread by Portuguese Jesuits.

Astrology was important in both China and Japan. It included not only a limited knowledge of astronomy, but some philosophy and logic. The advent of astronomical knowledge as understood in Europe was the beginning of a new kind of science, which did not affect the East's traditional view of the universe; although at first information from Europe about medicine, physics, and astronomy reached the Far East along with the doctrines of Christianity, as a means of attracting converts to what the Chinese termed a new philosophy of life. An early propagator of Western civilization in China was the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1553–1610), who taught medicine and astrology together with the principles of Catholicism. Another Jesuit, Francis Xavier, advised his superiors to send a mission consisting not only of the devout but also of the cultured.
Something New on Ibn Quzmān
Authors: Lévi-Provençal E.
Published: March 2011

To judge by the number of works published during the last ten years the study of Ibn Quzman should have made appreciable progress. It has marked time. If the opposite seems to have happened it is because students of the Romance languages have taken up the study which students of Arabic had dropped because of the many pit-falls in the way.
Indian Influence in the Malay World
Authors: Winstedt Richard
Published: March 2011

It might be thought that geography would have opened the Malay archipelago predominantly to the influence of China, but oddly enough the impact of her great civilization on the Malay world has been slight. As early as the seventh century a.d. Chinese monks sailed down to Sumatra to study the Buddhist canon, and eight centuries later the Sultans of Malacca and other Malay princes were still sending envoys to China as Malay rulers had done for hundreds of years. But China's difficult language and intricate ideographs, and her want of missionary zeal and of continuous overseas imperialism were barriers to other than trade relations. To the western half of the Malay archipelago India was nearer, and India got first into the field. With little exaggeration it has been said of Europe that it owes its theology, its literature, its science, and its art to Greece: with no greater exaggeration it may be said of the Malayan races that till the nineteenth century they owed everything to India: religions, a political system, medieval astrology and medicine, literature, arts and crafts.
The Music of The Arabian Nights
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

In the Nights the instrument of music is generally referred to as the ālat al-ṭarab or ālat al-malāhī. The types mentioned are fairly considerable, although in most instances the mere name occurs. In the case of the 'ūd (lute), however, certain subsidiary details occur incidentally which are of value.
The Early History of the Gotras
Authors: Brough John
Published: March 2011

There are few aspects of Vedic civilization and history more neglected by modern scholars than the organization of ancient Brahmanical society in exogamous clans. It is, of course, recognized that from the time of the Sūtras to the present day the rule has always been that, as well as marrying within his caste, a Brahman must marry outside his own gotra; but further than this few have cared to inquire. The reason for this neglect is no doubt in part the extraordinary state of textual corruption in which our chief sources, the Pravara-adhyāyas of the Śrauta Sūtras, have come down to us, as well as the suspicion, not altogether justified, that the material contained in them is not truly “historical”, or at least has suffered a considerable amount of “künstliche Behandlung”.
The date of Jāmī's Silsilat al-dhahab: Supplementary Note
Authors: Robertson D. S.
Published: March 2011

Since the publication of my article (JRAS., 1945, pp. 165 ff.) Dr. A. A. Hekmat has kindly sent me a copy of his book Jāmī, published at Teheran in 1941 (A.H. 1320). In view of Ṣāfīs evidence, he there (pp. 185 f.) dates the first daftar of the Silsilat al-dhahab between A.H. 873 (accession of Sulṭān Huṣayn) and A.H. 877 (Jāmi's pilgrimage). He also calls attention to a relevant passage in the poem itself, strangely overlooked by Ethé and by all other scholars. The important line, which will be found on p. 214 of the lithograph of the Nafaḥāt al-unsand Silsilat al-dhahab published at Cawnpore in 1874, runs as follows:—
The “Era of Zoroaster”
Authors: Taqizadeh S. H.
Published: March 2011

It is well known that the time of Zoroaster and the date of his birth or that of the announcement of his mission have not so far been indisputably established. In spite of very numerous writings published during more than two centuries, in which the question has been studied by many scholars, no unanimous conclusion has been reached. The opinions of famous scholars in the last eighty years have differed so widely that the date suggested has ranged between the eleventh or tenth centuries and the last part of the sixth century B.C. We are still hardly near to agreement on the matter.
The Early History of the Gotras
Authors: Brough John
Published: March 2011

A Part from the evidence already discussed, the Sūtra period yields very little information for the study of the gotras. The Buddhist and Jaina canonical works, however, do supply some valuable confirmation of the general picture we have been able to extract from the Brahmanical texts. These canons as we know them now are admittedly late, and for the most part may be taken to reflect the life of a different geographical region from that of the Sūtras. Yet they must contain much genuine tradition of the lifetimes of the respective founders, and it is therefore of considerable interest that the gotra-names recorded agree with the Brahmanical sources. As is well known, the Buddha was a Gautama (see p. 84 ); and since the Gautamas were included in the Āngiras group, he is also on occasion addressed as Āngirasa. In addition, numerous Brahmans appear in the Pali books, with most of the commoner gotra-names.
Yaksha and Wife from Bharatpur
Authors: Das Chaturvedi Rawat Pandit Chaturbhuj
Published: March 2011

Recently at the village of Noh in Bharatpur Tensil on the Bharatpur-Chiksana (or Agra) road I discoveŕed the two colossal figures here illustrated. The Yaksha with a lateral topknot on his head is of the same type and stone as one from Parkham village, now in the Curzon Museum at Muttra. It also has an inscription like that on the feet of the Parkham Yaksha. Its height above the ground is 5 feet and its girth round the upper arms 7 feet.
Buddhism in Ceylon
Authors: Crosby Josiah
Published: March 2011

The three Buddhist sects, peculiar to Ceylon, are agreed upon all fundamental points of doctrine. The differences between them are confined to points of practice and of outward observance.

As has been seen the Siam Sect was founded after the arrival at Kandy in a.d. 1753 of a delegation of monks sent from Siam at the request of King Kīrti Srī to renew the validity of monastic orders, which had come to lapse in Ceylon in the course of frequent wars and internal disturbances. The following quotation is taken from Donald Obeyesekere's Outline of Ceylon History (Colombo, 1911):—

“In 1750 the Emperor (i.e. King Kīrti Srī), with the assistance of the Dutch, dispatched an embassy with presents and a letter to King Dammika of Siam, requesting the latter to send some learned priests for the purpose of advancing Buddhism in Lankā (Ceylon). Accordingly there arrived in Lanka a learned high priest, named Upali, with over ten other, priests, bringing with them books of Dharma and the Vinaya, such as were not to be found in Ceylon. They were received with great ceremony and honour by the Emperor, and ere long the rite of ordination was conferred, amid great rejoicing, on the principal sāmaneras (novices) of Ceylon. The Siamese priests were given the Malwatta Vihīra to reside in. Another chapter of priests, together with the high priests Mahā. Visuddhācariya and Varananamuni, were sent over to Ceylon during this reign by the King of Siam, and hundreds of Sinhalese underwent the upasampadā ordination.”
The Chuvash Word for “Knife”
Authors: Benzing J.
Published: March 2011

The Chuvash language contains many words lacking a clear etymological relation to the Turco-Tatar languages (of which the Chuvash is a member) as well as to the neighbouring Finno-Ugrian languages. One of these odd expressions is the word for “knife”, zězě, which, according to Ashmarin's Thesaurus Linguæ Tschuvaschorum (vol. xiii, pp. 109–110), has no derivations in this language. Among the examples of the use shown there, one is of some interest for students of folklore and may therefore be inserted here in translation: “Having buried the maid they put a knife at her head, saying: Cut thou with this knife the bread yonder; and they put a needle and thread, saying: Sew the chemises with them.”
The Meaning of in Judges viii, 14
Authors: Leveen Jacob
Published: March 2011

The correct interpretation of has presented a problem so far not satisfactorily solved. Acting on the a priori assumption that in the time of Gideon writing could hardly have been so generally diffused that a mere lad caught casually would write down the names of the chiefs of Sukkoth, the Revised Version renders, somewhat disingenuously, “and he [the lad] described for him [Gideon] the princes of Sukkoth, etc.” Realizing, however, that such a translation was quite indefensible lexicographically, it safeguarded itself by adding in the margin, “Or, wrote down.”
The Dong-So'n Genius and the Evolution of Cham Art
Authors: Wales H. G. Quaritch
Published: March 2011

Since publishing my general theory of cultural differentiation in Greater India I have read M. Stern's important book L'Art du Champa (Paris, 1942). His new chronology provides a firmer basis from which to operate than was hitherto available; so I propose now to make a more detailed analysis from the point of view of testing my conclusions as to what caused the Cham evolution to take the particular direction it did.