bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Name Munjān and Some Other Names of Places and Peoples in the Hindu Kush.
Authors: Morgenstierne G.
Published: January 2010

At present Munjān is the name of the upper part of the Kokcha valley, above the place where the Anjuman-Kurān stream joins the main river. According to Yule the district formerly extended towards the north-west, right up to the neighbourhood of Khānābād and Tālīkān. However this may be, some place-names seem to indicate that Munjī was once spoken further north than is the case at present.
A Kharosthī Inscription from Endere
Authors: Noble Peter S.
Published: January 2010

Among the numerous Kharosthi documents recovered from Chinese Turkestan and transcribed and edited by A. M. Boyer, E. J. Rapson, and E. Senart, is one which is in many ways unique. This is the oblong wooden tablet which is numbered 661 in the second volume of these scholars' Kharosthī Inscriptions, where there is given on plate 12 a photographic reproduction of the document in question. It is one of the few documents discovered at Endere, which seems in ancient times to have been a sort of military fort situated about halfway between Charchan (Calmadāna of the inscriptions) and Nina or Niya (Cad'ota). Not only does it show some marked peculiarities of alphabet, dialect, and general style of composition, but as can be seen from the reproduction the form of writing also is quite unusual.

It is written in a very stiff and archaic form of script, but the ink is fresh and the writing is very well preserved and clear and Konow is probably right when he says in his paper on “ The Names of the Kings in the Niya documents ”, published in Acta Orientalia, that “ it does not seem possible to ascribe a late date to E. vi, ii, i, which is probably not an original but a copy from an old tablet ”. Various indications supporting this view of a very early date for the original of this document will be noticed in the course of the following commentary. For the sake of convenience of reference, I repeat the text of the inscription here.
Deux Noms Indiens du Dieu Soleil.
Authors: Przyluski Jean
Published: January 2010

LES textes vèdiques ne nous renseignent guére sur la nature du “ Bouc monopede ” (Aja ekapād). Dans la plus ancienne littèrature, il est gènèralement en relation avec le “ Serpent du fond ” (Ahi budhnya) et cette association s'affirme jusque dans le rituel domestique.1Atharva-veda, xii, 1, 7, nous apprend que Rohita, le “ Rouge ”, après avoir ordonné l'univers et ètabli la voûte cèleste (nāka), èrigea un support pour ètayer le ciel. V. Henry, suivi par Bloomfield, admettait que cet animal mythique ètait une entitè solaire (Les Hymnes Rōhitas, p. 25 ; SBE., xlii, p. 664).

H. Oldenberg n'en voulut rien croire (Religion du Vèda, trad. Henry, p. 60, n. 2). A. Hillebrandt reste indcis (Vèd. Myth., iii, p. 340). Macdonell, approuvè par Keith, identifie le “ Bouc monopède ” avec l'èclair (Ved. Myth., p. 74 ; Rel. and Phil, of the Veda and Upanishads, p. 137).Suivant l'èpopèe, le Soleil est formè de deux parties : l'une lumineuse qui nous èclaire, et l'autre obscure qu'on appelle son “ pied ” (pāda). Au moyen de ce “ pied ”, il pompe l'eau pendant huit mois et la fait ensuite retomber en pluie pendant quatre mois (Mhbhār., 8, 79, 78, et xii, 363, 5 et suiv.; cf. Hopkins, Epic Mythology, p. 85).Ce dernier mythe a pu être suggèrè aux populations de l'Asie des moussons par le spectacle des trombes.
Viśvarūpa
Authors: Rünnow Kasten
Published: January 2010

Viśvarūpa Tvāṣṭra, the son of Tvaṣṭar, is the name of a certain demon of whom we hear in the Rig-Veda and elsewhere. Indra, the demon-hunter par préférence, fought with him and killed him ; but his chief adversary no doubt was originally Trita ሀptya, an old Aryan water-god, whose deeds and fame have slowly been usurped by the all-overshadowing Indra. Reasons which cannot here be dwelt upon, as I have already explained them elsewhere,2 make it probable that Viśvarūpa was originally a serpent deity of the class which was later on generally styled nāgas. We shall here try to find out something more definite concerning his original surroundings and sphere of activity.
A Curious Case of Idiomatic Sanskrit
Authors: Otto Schrader F.
Published: January 2010

In the Introduction to his translation of the Vaikh1nasasmārtasūtra (p. xiii fll.) Professor Caland has called attention to certain Tamilisms in the said work, such as anyāṃ vivāhaṃ kuryāt (═ vēru peṇṇai vivākam ceytu-kolla-vēṇum), vedān … adhyayanaṃ Jcaroti, etc. In a work like the Vaikhānasa-sūtra, which is obviously not written in the best Sanskrit, this is not very surprising, nor can it be said that these irregularities render the text unintelligible anywhere. But there seem to be, even in the works of well-known Sanskrit authors, cases of Sanskrit influenced by the vernacular which actually embarrass the reader. One such case is the following one which I came across recently in Śankarānanda's Bhagavadgītā-vyākhyā.
Modern Persian Colloquial
Authors: Ross E. Denison
Published: January 2010

In connection with an invitation I had received to make a supple-ment to Steingass's Persian dictionary I happened to ask a young Persian friend of mine who was staying in London if he would go through Steingass and note any important omissions. The name of my friend was Mr. M. A. Maliki, and when I made this request I knew very little about his linguistic attainments. By good fortune he turned out to have a really astonishing feeling for language and a very special knowledge of his mother tongue.
A Chinese Vocabulary of Malacca Malay Words and Pharases collected between A.D. 1403 and 1511 (?)
Authors: Edwards E. D. , Blagden C. O.
Published: January 2010

The list of words and phrases contained in this article is one of ten manuscript vocabularies bound up in a volume lettered Kŏ Kwŏ Yï Yü which forms part of the collection of Chinese books made by the well-known missionary, Morrison (who lived from 1782–1834), and has been deposited on permanent loan by University College, London, in the Library of the School of Oriental Studies.
Hanoi dorsal finals
Authors: Sampson Geoffrey
Published: January 2010

Hanoi Vietnamese, although not apparently genetically related to Chinese, is a language phonologically of the Chinese type; in the terminology of Hockett (1955, 60–1, 129), Hanoi Vietnamese phonology constitutes a system without interludes, with syllable juncture, and with tones as ICs of syllables. Hanoi phonology is in fact rather close to the phonology of Middle Chinese (Karlgren's ‘Ancient Chinese’, cf. Pulleyblank, 1962, 64), the source, via the dialect of Chinese called ‘Sino-Vietnamese’ (Haudricourt, 1954, 79), of the majority of Vietnamese lexical items.
A manuscript biography of the Sudanese Mahdi
Authors: Shaked Haim
Published: January 2010

Recent surveys of historical writing on the modern history of the Nilotic Sudan show the rather late appearence of critical historical studies which draw on contemporary Arabic source materials. Only in the last decade or so has the abundant contemporary Mahdist documentation been decribed, partly classified, and utilized by scholars. So far, few of these documents have been reproduced and, although some attempts to prepare critical editions of texts have been made, they remain unpublished.
Some new Syriac inscriptions and archaeological finds from Edessa and Sumatar Harabesi
Authors: Drijvers H. J. W.
Published: January 2010

During a journey in the Near East I spent some days in Urfa, the ancient Edessa, in the south-east of Turkey, and from there I visited Sumatar Harabesi in the Tektek mountains on 27 and 29 January 1971. The object was to study all known Syriac inscriptions in Urfa and its surroundings, which date from the first three centuries of our era,in situfor their republication in a small corpus. In Sumatar Harabesi my attention was primarily directed upon the inscriptions published by Segal, all situated upon the so-called Central Mount, clearly an ancient cult site. I also visited the cave with bas-reliefs and inscriptions discovered by Pognon. It is now inhabited by a Bedouin family, but in spite of the inconveniences caused by this circumstance, it was possible to read the inscriptions, blackened as they were, by the light of a pocket torch and an oil-lamp, and it was impressive to observe once more how able an epigrapher this French consul was.
The library of Emperor Tewodros II at Mäqdäla (Magdala)
Authors: Pankhurst Rita
Published: January 2010

The Emperor Tewodros II (1855–68), although remembered to-day mainly as an energetic modernizer, was also involved to a significant degree in the history of traditional Ethiopian libraries.

Tewodros had intended to build a great church dedicated to Mädhane Aläm ‘Saviour of the World’, on Christian ground near the natural fortress of Mäqdäla which had served him as state prison, granary, and family sanctuary no less than as a storehouse for his accumulated treasures.
The church of Saint George at Urfa (Edessa)(BSOAS, xxxv, 3, 1972, 606 ff.)
Authors: Segal J. B.
Published: January 2010

Closer examination of photographs suggests that the stroke above the first word of inscription 1 is a variation of the three dots usually placed over the letters YH, the abbreviation of the Hebraic tetragrammaton, at the beginning of ecclesiastical documents
Bb Shahrbn and the Lady of Prs
Authors: Boyce Mary
Published: January 2010

Interest in the Zoroastran religion is widespread among scholars, and knowledge of Zoroastrian practice has been diligently acquired. The main source of information has, however, been the Indian branch of the community; and a number of evidently ancient customs observed in the Persian homeland have passed almost, and sometimes indeed entirely, unnoticed in the West.
A Greek crossing on the Oxus
Authors: Minorsky V.
Published: January 2010

The present notice is merely an annex to V. V. Barthold's article on Ḥfiẓ-i Abr which has stood the test of 70 years.

Ḥfiẓ-i Abr, a Khorsnian by birth, was a distinguished historian of Timrid times. He belonged to the class of those learned men whom rulers liked to attach to their courts. He studied in Hamadn, and worked under the patronage of Tmr, Shhrukh, and Prince Baysunqur. He died in Zanjn in 83414301.
Un Sūtra composite de l'Ekottarāgama
Authors: Lamotte Par Étienne
Published: January 2010

L'Ekottarāgama, ou ‘Corpus des enseignements gradués’, est un recueil de textes bouddhiques, parallèle á 1'Anguttaranikāya du Canon pali. II n'est connuen sa totalité que par une unique traduction chinoise: le Tseng-i a-han ching.

Le moine tokharien Dharmanandin qui connaissait par coeur le Madhyama et l'Ekottarāgama arriva è Ch'angan en 384 p.-C. et, sur l'invitation du magistrat local Chao Cheng, entreprit de publier ces deux ceuvres indiennes en chinois. La traduction de l'Ekottara commenca le 7 mai 384 et se termina en novembrede la même année ou au printemps de l'année suivante. Dharmanandin ‘récita oralement le texte indigène’, c'est-è-dire l'original indien; les śramaṇes chinois Hui-sung, Chu Fo-nien, et d'autres ‘reçurent au pinceau’.
The Origins of the School of Oriental Studies
Authors: Hartog P.J.
Published: January 2010

The Director of the School of Oriental Studies has invited me to contribute to this first number of the Bulletin a sketch of the history of the foundation of the School. The present article has only the modest ambition of supplying to the future historian of the School certain references, dates, and facts indispensable for his task.
Metre and Accent
Authors: Anderson J.D.
Published: January 2010

The primary business of a teacher is to teach. But everyone who has had practical experience of teaching has found that he has learned from his pupils almost as much as he has taught, since contact with younger minds supplies a new point of view, which imparts a fresh novelty to familiar facts. For example, when a man is acquiring a living language, he learns the pronunciation (not only syllabic pronunciation but the significant tones and inflexions of the language) by sheer imitation, by trusting to his aural memory and his power of grasping sounds unfamiliar to him in his own tongue. But when he tries to impart his accomplishment to others, he must needs analyse, if he is to explain, what he has learnt. Hence teaching, if it is not mere mechanical transmission of information, such as can be got from a book, becomes, in effect, a species of research.
Malay
Authors: Blagden C. O.
Published: January 2010

The Malay language is one of the leading vernaculars of the world, and has been growing in importance of late years owing to the development of trade and particularly of the rubberplanting industry. It is an easy language to acquire a smattering of, as it involves few difficulties of phonetics, accidence, or syntax in the form of it which is current as a lingua franca. But this jargon bears the same relation to the real Malay language as the Pidgin English of the China ports does to our own English. The real Malay is the speech of the Malays themselves. It is a leading member of a vast family of languages, commonly styled the Austronesian, or Malayo-Polynesian, or Oceanic, family, which is of Asiatic origin, but has an almost entirely insular domain. It includes Madagascar, Indonesia, with a part of Formosa, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia, as well as the greater part of the Malay Peninsula, a portion of the coast of New Guinea, the Mergui Archipelago off the coast of Tenasserim, and a small tract in Eastern Indo-China, which was probably the original centre of dispersion of the whole family. Its extreme, points in Polynesia are (inclusively) the Sandwich Islands, Easter Island, and New Zealand. With the exception of the languages of Northern Halmahera and a few Papuan ones in or near New Guinea, all the numerous native languages of this extensive area are related together and to Malay.
Commercial and Political Connexions of Ancient India with the West
Authors: Barnett L. D.
Published: January 2010

There is not much evidence of regular commerce by sea between India and the Near East previous to about 700 b.c. The Bible (1 Kings x, 11; 2 Chron. ix, 21) speaks of Solomon (c. 1000 b.c.) as importing by sea gold and wood of almuggim or algummim trees from Ophir, likewise peacocks, the Hebrew name for which, tukki, comes from the Tamil tōgai, together with other things that were brought by the fleet of Tarshish. But Ophir cannot be located with certainty in India; almuggim or algummim are an unknown quantity (2 Chron. ii, 8, speaks of algum trees in Lebanon!); so perhaps these statements may be anachronisms. There is better evidence for an overland trade route. On the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser II (b.c. 860–825) are the figures of an Indian elephant and a rhinoceros brought as tribute to him by an Armenian tribe; and the Rig-veda (VIII, lxxviii, 2) mentions a golden manā, possibly the Assyrian maneh.
The Language of Southern Rhodesia
Authors: Werner Alice
Published: January 2010

Though the development of the mining industiy consequent on European occupation has brought natives of several different tribes into Southern Rhodesia, there appears to be virtually but one indigenous language in this territory. The Zulu spoken by the Matebele and the Sesuto of Sebituane's people, who settled on the Zambezi about the middle of last century, are comparatively recent intrusions.
A Hindu “Paradiso”: Sabara-Sankara Vilasa, I, 54–85
Authors: Barnett L. D.
Published: January 2010

In the following pages is presented a translation of a passage from Shaḍakshari Dēvar's famous Kanarese poem Śabaraśaṅkara-vilāsa. Some of the more tedious passages I have omitted; enough remains to show how the pious Śaiva conceives his Paradise. Certainly Shaḍakshari's visions of heaven are very unlike those of Dante and Milton. But they have much value as documents both of religion and of poetry.
Indo-Aryan Vernaculars
Authors: Grierson George
Published: January 2010

[The following pages form a portion of what has been written by me for the section of the Grundriss der Indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde, dealing with the Indo-Aryan Vernaculars. The work was not completed when the War broke out, and as there is no immediate prospect of their publication as originally intended, I gladly accept Sir Denison Ross's suggestion, and offer them as they stand for preliminary publication in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies.]
Note on the Development of the Modi Characters
Authors: Doderet W.
Published: January 2010

The Devanāgarī alphabet has been shown by Bühler to have been -L derived from the Brahmī, in which the earliest documents and most of Asoka's inscriptions are written. With the revival of Sanskrit learning and literature, which took place in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. under the Gupta emperors, the development of the Brahml script proceeded apace. The first step or innovation was the method adopted by which the letters were made to hang from the horizontal top-line. This line first appears to a marked degree in the period, dating from 350 after Christ, but becomes only fully developed in the scripts circa A.D. 800–1200. Thus the p of the Baijnāth Prasastī (A.D. 804) has an open top, but appears with a closed top, , in the Kanheri cave inscriptions, only to open out again in the tenth century. The character may be regarded as having become fixed in the eleventh century (vide Bhimadeva's script A.D. 1029). And similarly with other letters.
The Character of the Kurds as illustrated by their Proverbs and Popular Sayings
Authors: Noel Edward
Published: January 2010

There is a great deal to be said for the contention that national character expresses itself in popular sayings and proverbs. That the latter are sometimes paradoxical and tend to extremes cannot be denied. Truth is, however, often seen at her best on the tight rope.

The following selection of well-known Kurdish sayings is made with a view to illustrating the character of the Kurds. As an excuse for its imperfections reference can be made to the lack of Kurdish literature and the existence of many dialects, which make it somewhat difficult for a foreigner to acquire a working knowledge of the language as a whole.

The Kurds are a mountain race, with all the characteristics of mountaineers—love of freedom, violent passions, and a clannish feeling of pride. These primary traits dispose the Kurd to fly to arms at small provocation, and engage with zest in bitter blood feuds.
On The Interpretation of Some Passages in Al-Thaʻalibi's “Ahsan ma Sami'tu”
Authors: Storey C. A.
Published: January 2010

Dr. O. Rescher is one of the most industrious of Arabic scholars, and in the last few years he has done a large amount of valuable work. During a prolonged residence in Constantinople he devoted his attention to the libraries of Stambul, and he has published descriptions of a large number of the most important manuscripts, especially those relating to poetry, philology, and belles lettres. His descriptions, which form an important contribution to Arabic bibliography, are to be found in various periodicals, such as the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, the Rivista degli Studi Orientali, Le Monde Oriental, the Mélanges de l'Université St. Joseph à Beyrouth, and the Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes. It is scarcely necessary to say that these descriptions have made known to European scholars not a few works the existence of which would otherwise have remained unsuspected. Bibliography, however, is by no means the only branch of learning which has benefited by the activity of Dr. Rescher.
Arabic Literature Singe the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
Authors: al-Raziq Shaykh M. H. ʻAbd
Published: January 2010

The dawn of the nineteenth century marks a new era in the history of Arabic literature. After five centuries of mental lethargy, beginning with the irruption of the Mongols into the Muslim world in the thirteenth century, a renewed zeal for learning has dispelled the gloom which so long overshadowed the Arabic-speaking countries. Many factors were at work to bring about a beneficial change. The West began to take varied interest in the dormant East by collecting and studying its long-forgotten literatures.
Studies in Kurdish History
Authors: Driver G. R.
Published: January 2010

Although even at the present day nothing is certain in regard to the origin of the Kurds, even less was known to ancient writers, whose accounts are purely mythical. They were, however, generally so little studied that speculation on this question does not seem to have become common until a comparatively late period, and even then to have been almost exclusively confined to eastern scholars.
A Corean Vocabulary
Authors: Ogura S.
Published: January 2010

When, in the beginning of last May, I visited Professor Sir E. Denison Ross, of Oriental Studies, he showed me a book entitled Ch'ao hsien Kuan i yu. It was of great interest to me, as I had not seen it before, and T asked permission to examine it. He willingly complied with my request, but at the same time asked me to write some explanatory notes on the book. Being only on a visit to the country, I am unable to refer to Corean books of reference, and for the explanations, etc., which follow, can only trust to my memory.
Some Notes on the Pronunciation of the Kanuri Language of West Africa
Authors: Ward Ida C.
Published: January 2010

By the courtesy of the Commissioner for the Nigerian Section of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, I was able to make the following notes on Kanuri, after about a dozen sittings with a native of Kano, in 1924, and a few more in 1925. The native, whose name is Arigana, spoke no English other than a few isolated words such as yes, good morning, come, sit, etc. I knew no Kanuri at all, nor Hausa, which he could also speak. Mr. Nicholson, who was in charge of the natives in 1924, explained to Arigana what I wanted, and I worked on the following plan. I had Kanuri Readings, by P. Askell Benton, and Koelle's Grammar of Kanuri. In the first of these books several stories are written in a Koman script, with a word for word and a free translation, a Kanuri-English and English-Kanuri vocabulary, the latter a particularly full one. Between the summers of 1924 and 1925 I also used Noël's Petit Manuel de Francais-Kanuri and von Duisberg's Kanuri-Sprache.
Kodagu Peda, Tulu Pudar
Authors: Tuttle Edwin H.
Published: January 2010

In the fourth volume of the Linguistic Survey of India, which includes most of the important varieties of Dravidian, Konow has tried to classify the languages described. Evidently Kanara goes with Tamil, Gondi with Kui, and Kurukh with Malto, while Brâhui and Telugu do not seem to be closely related to any of the other main divisions. Unfortunately the Linguistic Survey fails to give accounts of Kodagu (the language of Coorg) and Tulu.
‘A Bag of Meat’: A Study of an Early Hadīth
Authors: Kister M. J.
Published: January 2010

The manuscript Qarawīyūn 727 in Fez contains on folios 37b–38a a tradition reported by Yūnus b. Bukayr on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq. The tradition tells of a meeting between the Prophet and Zayd b. ‘Amr b. Nufayl, one of the ḥunafā' in Mecca. During the meeting Zayd b. ‘Amr was offered meat which he, however, refused to eat, arguing that he never ate meat sacrificed before idols.
The rise of Shaykh al-Balad 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr: a study in the accuracy of the chronicle of al-Jabartī
Authors: Livingston John W.
Published: January 2010

The year in which 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr, Mamlūk ruler of Egypt (1760–72), first came to power as shaykh al-balad, the most important office in Egypt from the middle of the eighteenth century to Bonaparte's expedition, has been a matter of some disagreement. The Western contemporary accounts of Lusignan, Savary, and Volney give 1763, or the Muslim equivalent 1177. Later historians, Marcel, Cattaui, Combe, Heyworth-Dunne, Rossi, Mahmūd al-Sharqāwī, Wiet, and Shaw accept this date—though in another article Shaw changed his earlier date of 1177/1763 to 1171/1758 for the rise of 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr to the office of shaykh al-balad. Ahmad Haydar al-Shihābī and Masson also chose 1758. Other dates for this event have been given: 1757 by Dehérain, 1766 by 'Alī Pasha Mubārak and François Charles-Roux, and finally 1760 by the contemporary chronicler 'Abd al-Rahmān al-Jabartī. Muhammad Ramadān and P. M. Holt accept al-Jabartī's date. The object of this article is to show that al-Jabartī's dating and account of 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr's rise to power are accurate, and in so doing, to explain the sources of confusion in so many of the studies that have treated 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr's early history.
A definite article in the Modern South Arabian languages
Authors: Johnstone T. M.
Published: January 2010

The likely reaction of a Semitist on reading for the first time a Mehri grammar or text, is to assume that, in forms like ɧayd (ḥayd) ‘hand’, ɧawguur (ḥawgûr) ‘slave’, ɧəyuum (ḥeyûm) ‘sun’, the ɧ(a)– element represents a definite article. A later reaction might be that the ɧ(a)– element, since few forms so affixed occur without this prefix, is perhaps a fossilized definite article.
Eastern Iranian architecture: apropos of the Ghūrid parts of the Great Mosque of Harāt
Authors: Chirvani A. S. Melikian
Published: January 2010

The Great Mosque at Harāat ranks among the largest religious buildings still standing in Iranian lands. In the past it has been referred to as an example of Ghūrid architecture heavily restored at various periods. In fact, anyone standing inside the four-ayvān courtyard and looking at the typical arches (plates I-II) or at the marble columns so similar to the stone work at the Gāzargāh, and the mausoleum of Gawharshād, would be inclined to regard it as a typically Tīmūrid mosque. But as soon as one walks into the ayvān this vault takes on unusual proportions: on each side are passages with remarkably strong pillars; and the points of the arches differ from the usual Tīmūrid modulum. The same is true of the complex passages leading from the eastern façade, almost entirely rebuilt in recent years: here also strong square pillars support arches the spans of which come closer to twelfth- or thirteenth-century models rather than those of the late fifteenth century. It would be unwise, of course, to reappraise the period of such an important structure on the basis of a passing impression; a thorough study on the spot, including the drawing of the over-all plan and elevations, and accurate measurements, is necessary.
Central government and provincial élites in the early 'Abbāsid caliphate
Authors: Kennedy Hugh
Published: January 2010

During its first half-century of existence, from the time of the revolution of 132/749 to the death of Hārūn al-Rashīd in 193/809, the 'Abbāsid caliphate embraced a huge area. From Ifrīqiya to the banks of the Indus and the deserts of Central Asia, governors were appointed to rule provinces, taxes were collected and armies sent to punish any who dared to rebel against the authority of the Commander of the Faithful. It is a very impressive achievement. If we seek an explanation of how this was possible from the great chroniclers of Islam, al-Ṭabarī, Ibn al-Athīr or al-Ya'qūbī, we are left with the impression that it was all very simple; the provinces were ruled by governors sent by the caliph and their authority was absolute until they were dismissed by their master. If any of the local people were so misguided as to attempt a rebellion, then units of the great Khurāsānī army, which had brought the dynasty to power, could be drafted in to chastise them. The system was, in short, an absolute military dictatorship.
Les mystères des Psaumes, traité éthiopien sur l'emploi des Psaumes (amharique ancien)
Authors: Strelcyn Stefan
Published: January 2010

L'emploi des Psaumes en dehors de l'usage liturgique est bien attesté aussi bien dans la tradition juive que dans la tradition chrétienne. Il y a d'abord la bibliomancie à proprement parler. Comme tous les livres bibliques, les Psaumes peuvent servir à la divination. La méthode la plus courante dans la bibliomancie est celle où l'on ouvre le livre au hasard et l'on prédit l'avenir d'après le passage que le doigt touche ou bien on cherche à répondre à une question posée au préalable.
The Islamic Background of Ibn Khaldūn's Political Theory
Authors: Gibb H. A. R.
Published: January 2010

It seems an odd coincidence that within the last three years there should have appeared four different studies devoted to the work of Ibn Khaldūn, considering that in the half-century following the issue of de Slane's translation of the Muqaddima, apart from von Kremer's study and a few short articles drawing the attention of a wider circle of students in various countries to its significance, it was not until 1917 that the first monograph on the subject was published by Dr. Ṭāhā Ḥusain. This work, like most of the earlier articles, dealt primarily with the sociological aspects of Ibn Khaldūn's historical theory, and the same interest predominates in all but one of the three or four articles published since 1917. Of the latest studies it may be said that, though still giving prominence to the social aspect,they cover as a whole a rather wider ground. Dr. Gaston Bouthoul, indeed, limits himself in his title to Ibn Khaldun's “Social Philosophy”, but the contents of his essay overleap these bounds, especially the first thirty pages, devoted to a very suggestive analysis of the personality and intellectual outlook of the historian. Professor Schmidt's tractate is in the nature of a survey of the field ; he assembles and examines the views of earlier writers on different aspects of Ibn Khaldun's work, but does not put forward any synthesis of his own. Lastly, the two recent German works of Drs. Kamil Ayad and Erwin Rosenthal mark a return towards the more strictly
Graeco-Indian Notes
Authors: Stein Otto
Published: January 2010

In one of the contributions to the volume of Indian Studies presented to Professor Rapson (BSOS., vi, 2, pp. 285 ff.), Dr. L. D. Barnett criticizes the explanation of the term Pramnai in Strabo'sGeogr., xv, 1, 70 (C. 719), given by Mr. E. R.Bevan(CHI., i, 421). Instead of the identification of the Pramnai with theprāmānikasDr. Barnett proposes to see in the word a Sanskritprājña. I must confess not to be convinced by the explanation of Dr. Barnett, neither from the point of view of an antagonism betweenbrāhmanasand sectaries, who, “opposed to Aupanisada Brahmans, and to Brahmans generally”, “endeavoured by means of a carefully disciplined and studiously harmless life to attain toprajñā, practical cleverness, skill in grasping the principles of their crude creed, and in adjusting their conduct to its Procrustean demands”; nor from the philological point of view.
Early Hindi and Urdu Poets: No. V
Authors: Bailey T. Grahame , Malik Shāh
Published: January 2010

India Office Catalogue of Hindustānī MSS., No. 3, Sharī'at Nāma, a Dakhnī poem by Shāh Malik: written on 48 small folios and containing 516 lines. We may deseribe it, as a compendium of Muslim doctrines.
Nabatæan Inscriptions from Egypt–II
Authors: Littmann Enno
Published: January 2010

The Site numbers used in the present study are marked in the general map accompanying the first article (BSOAS xv, 1953, p. 28). More detailed maps of the central Eastern Desert and the Eastern Delta appear below, p. 212. The E. Delta map shows two new site numbers: (a) Site 17 (at El-Maḥemdīlya = Gerra ?) is the spot where Clédat actually found inscription No. 82 and it may be that Site 16 (at ancient Mons Casios) does not figure in the present study (see classical notes, p. 242). (b) Site 18 (QaṣEsr Gheiṭ), east of El-Qanṭara on long. 33° E., has a Nabatsæn fragment, No. 83. Nos. 50–1 and 52 (at Sites 11 and 9, see BSOAS xv, p. 17) are briefly repeated here for convenience, as. Winkler's inscriptions from the Leucos Limen road came to light after the first article had gone to press.
Verbal Phrases in Lhasa Tibetan—II
Authors: Sprigg R. K.
Published: January 2010

Part I concluded with the suggestion that certain general-phonetic features, those of rounding and spreading, and those of vowel closure, might profitably be given a prosodic statement for the word as a whole, as:—

I. a 3-term system: y/w/ә

II. a 2-term system: o/c

A given word might thus be assigned to a prosodic category, to the ‘ y ’, the ‘ w ’, or the ‘ ә ’ term, and treated as a ‘ y word ’, ‘ w word ’, or ‘ neutral word ’ (yW, wW, әW). Similarly a given word might be assigned to either term of the closure system, and treated as a ‘ close word ’ or as an ‘ open word ’ (cW, oW). Theoretically it is a matter of indifference which of the two systems should be stated first. Since, however, they cannot be stated simultaneously in practice, the method of statement adopted here gives priority to the w/y/ә system; the exponents of ‘ w ’, ‘ y ’, and ‘ ә ’ are stated in turn. The o/c system is considered within the framework of these three categories, the exponents of o/c being given for wW, yW, and әW in turn, immediately after the exponents of ‘ w ’, ‘ y ’, and ‘ ә ’ respectively.
Types of Word Junction in Yoruba
Authors: Rowlands E. C.
Published: January 2010

European students of Yoruba are usually slow in learning to understand the spoken language because, apart from having to grapple with the unfamiliar phenomenon of tone, they often find it difficult at first hearing to recognize in medial position words with which they have become quite familiar when occurring initially or finally. This is due to the frequent occurrence of junction situations where a word with vowel final1 is in close syntactic relationship with a following word which, in its isolated form, has a vowel initial, resulting sometimes in the elision of one or other of the vowels in contact, sometimes in an assimilation of one vowel to the other, and sometimes in each vowel retaining its identity. The tones of the junction syllables may also be elided or modified. The European, with his literate approach to language study, is further handicapped by the anomalies of the accepted orthography, which in some cases indicates the junction phenomena and ignores them in others. An added complication is that in many Yoruba books it is hard to find two consecutive pages which are consistent in maintaining the same set of anomalies. This means that, while in some cases the orthography provides a sufficient clue to the pronunciation of a word, in other cases a word cannot be correctly pronounced without reference to the surrounding words and without a detailed knowledge of the usages of the language.
Communication from Mr. G. M. Wickens
Authors: Wickens G. M.
Published: January 2010

Two articles of mine on the poetry of Ḥāfiẓ1 were recently criticized severely, even violently, by Dr. N. E. M. Boyce in an article written in a kind of informal collaboration with Professor W. B. H. Henning.2 Dr. Boyce was good enough to send me a page-proof copy of her article very shortly before publication, and I noted at the time how widely divergent were our respective views, both as regarded general approach and also in matters of detailed interpretation. This, however, occasioned no surprise, and in the normal way I should probably have been content to bring my observations privately to Dr. Boyce's notice; but, for personal reasons, I eventually decided to circulate a reply on my own initiative, for the information of colleagues who might have had the original critique brought to their notice before its publication.

I realized that, by taking this action, I might prejudice any chance the reply had of appearing subsequently in print. But such prospects already appeared slender in view of my article's length and largely negative value; and the ordinary delays attending publication appeared even more unwelcome than the probability that the reply might never be read at all in printed form.
Heterodox Isma 'Ilism At The Time Of Al-mu 'Izz
Authors: stern S. M.
Published: January 2010

THE historian of Isma'Ilism, to whichever part of its chequered history he turns, is confronted with unusually difficult problems of historical criticism. These are due, at least partly, to the character of the movement itself. There can be hardly any doubt that when Isma'Ilism, which had started as an underground organization in the middle of the 3rd/9th century, established itself in the 4th/10th century as a powerful empire under the Fatimids, the official leadership endeavoured to cover up the origins of the movement with a thick smoke-screen. On the other hand, its enemies and Isma'Ilism was the besthated sect in Islamadded to the confusion by giving currency to sensational and fanciful accounts, curious mixtures of truth and fiction.
Georgia In The Reign Of Giorgi The Brilliant
Authors: Lang D.M.
Published: January 2010

THE political career of King Giorgi V of Georgia, commonly known as Giorgi Brdsqinvale or George the Brilliant, spans an eventful period in the history of the Near East. When Giorgi first came to the throne in 1299, the Il-Khan dynasty of Persia under the able Ghazan Mahmud Khan was at the summit of its power. Ghazan's empire with its vassal states stretched from India to the Mediterranean and Black Seas. He controlled most of Anatolia, including the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and the Christian kingdom of Little Armenia. In 1300 he even seized and held Damascus for a short period. From these strategic positions, the Mongols of Persia were a constant menace to both the Mamluks of Egypt and the Khans of the Golden Horde.
The Tonal System Of Tibetan (Lhasa Dialect) And The Nominal Phrase
Authors: spring E. K.
Published: January 2010

The purpose of this article is to re-examine some of the ways in which tone has been stated in certain of the spoken Tibetan dialects, and to apply to the Nominal Phrase in one of them, Lhasa Tibetan (LT), the suggestion that such statements can be more profitably associated not with the syllable, as hitherto, but with the word.
Ad BSOAS., XVI, 298-319, ‘The -E/-Ü Gerund in old Ottoman’
Authors: Mundy C. S.
Published: January 2010

‘Thus decreed and ordained T’lb lord of pastures, and S‘Dm and YHM’L of Suhaim, for their tribe the people of the town BRN and T‘Rm and ’SRm and DR and all territory belonging to the town BRN: that they (namely the people of BRN, etc.) shall cause this grazing-ground to be delimited and prohibited to every herdsman belonging to the pasture areas of the hill-town dDB‘NN, so that the latter may not drive any flocks on to it as (it is) defined by the boundary-cairns of this grazing-ground along all its boundaries; by virtue of the grant of grazing-rights made to them (namely the people of BRN, etc.) by their lords the Banu Suhaim.’
Franke's Geschichte Des Chinesischen Reiches
Authors: Sprenkel O. Berkelbach van der
Published: January 2010

When the first volume of Otto Franke's great Geschichte des chinesischen Reiches was published in 1930 it bore the descriptive subtitle ‘An account of its origin, nature, and development up to most recent timesx2019;. But alas, in spite of the author's prodigious efforts, the times were unpropitious, and the great design was not, in the end, to be fully realized. The first volume (Das Altertum und das Werden des konfuzianischen Staates) took the story from the earliest age down to the fall of the Han. The second volume (Der konfuzianische Staat, I, Der Aufstieg zur Weltmacht) appeared in 1936 and carried the account of China's history on through the period of division between North and South (Universalismus und völkische Krafte) to the centuries of re-unification under the Sui and T'ang dynasties (Der Sieg des Universalismus: die konfuzianische Weltmacht). In the following year came volume three, with the notes and supplementary materials to the first two.
Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts of the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine in London
Authors: Strelcyn Stefan
Published: January 2010

The Library of the Wellcome Institute is devoted to the history of medicine and related sciences. Apart from some 250,000 printed books, it contains about 10,000 manuscripts, half of which are in Oriental languages.

In 1970 I was entrusted with describing the Ethiopian manuscripts belonging to this library. There were 34 of them: 17 mostly of religious content and completely unrelated to the interests of the Institute, 16 magical scrolls, and one manuscript mainly of divinatory content. Without constituting medical manuscripts in the strict sense of the term, the scrolls are designed to combat demons and diseases and to keep people in good health. They can be called magico-medical scrolls and belong to the field of ethnomedicine. The scrolls are written in Gə'az with strong Amharic influence. At the suggestion of Dr. F. N. L. Poynter, Director of the Wellcome Institute, the Wellcome Trust decided to donate the first group of manuscripts to the British Museum, to whom 14 were presented in June 1970 and 3 others in June 1971. All these manuscripts have been described by the present writer in the Catalogue of the Ethiopian manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since 1877 (in preparation). The present catalogue notes contain only the description of the 16 scrolls and the divinatory manuscript.
The Qal Va-Ḥomer Argument in the Old Testament
Authors: Jacobs Louis
Published: January 2010

Every student of Rabbinic literature is aware of the formal argument known as qal va-ḥomer ‘the argument from the minor to the major’. There are numerous instances of the argument in Rabbinic literature, dating from pre-Tannaitic times down to the close of the Talmud. The argument runs: if A is so then B must surely be so; if the ‘minor’ has this or that property then the ‘major’ must undoubtedly have it. It is of interest to Old Testament scholars that the Rabbis purported to detect many examples of the use of this argument in Scripture. The Rabbis use the argument as one of their hermeneutical principles by means of which they expand and elaborate on the Biblical teachings. However, they rightly contend that they did not invent the argument but that it is found in the Bible itself. The purpose of this paper is to examine this contention more fully and to note possible implications for Old Testament studies.
A Novel Interpretation of Hafiz
Authors: Boyce Mary
Published: January 2010

The odes of Hafiz have been for some 600 years a source of delight to Persians, and an object of their serious study. To Europeans they have been known for less than half that time; yet here too, many scholars and poets have laboured to understand and interpret them. Much remains, no doubt, still to be done; but it is unlikely that anyone will now discover in the poems wholly new ranges of meaning, which have been hidden from generations of scholars among the poet's own countrymen. Any claim to such discovery must necessarily be subjected to the strictest scrutiny.
The Pilgrimage and Death of Sākūra, King of Mali
Authors: Beckingham C. F.
Published: January 2010

It is recorded in a number of standard works on the western Sudan and northern Nigeria that about the year A.D. 1300 Sākūra, the usurping King of Mali, performed the pilgrimage to Mecca and was murdered by the Danakil on the return journey. Delafosse writes: ‘C'est en revenant des lieux-saints par le Yémen et l'Erythrée, vers l'an 1300, que Sakoura trouva la mort: il fut dévalisé et assassiné par des Danakil sur la côte de Tadjourah, comme il venait de débarquer sur la terre d'Afrique.’ Meek, de Pedrals, and Bovill give the same story, and the last-named comments: ‘He was not returning by the customary route through Cairo, but through Eritrea and the Eastern Sudan, following what has now become the great pilgrim road of West-Central Africa.’ Now if Sākūra was killed in what is to-day French Somaliland, or for that matter anywhere in Somali or Dankali country, he was far to the south of ‘the great pilgrim road’, which does not cross Eritrea at all. Nor is it conceivable that it should ever have done so. It goes through Bornu, Wadai, and Darfur to the Nile and now reaches the Red Sea at Port Sudan. There is no reason why pilgrims should have gone so far to the south of the latitude of Jidda and so have given themselves the task of climbing over the Abyssinian plateau which was, moreover, in Christian hands. A glance at the map will show what a very strange route Sākūra is alleged to have chosen. Having landed at Tajura he would have had three alternatives. The first was to follow approximately the line of the modern railway to Addis Ababa, climbing the steep escarpment in Shoa, and then making his way across Ethiopia and down the other side of the plateau to the Nile valley in Sennar, whence he could have reached Darfur. This would have been very difficult for topographical reasons and would have necessitated a long journey through Christian territory. The second possibility was to travel northwards along the coast until he reached a place such as Suakin where he could have turned westwards and headed for the Nile. This would have been even more difficult, given the character of the Danakil and their country. Last and most difficult of all, he could have attempted the little-used and circuitous route that led through the Sidama States, on the southern borders of Ethiopia, to the White Nile. It is almost inconceivable that he should have been trying to do any of these things.
Ariaca
Authors: Bailey H. W.
Published: January 2010

Stein MS. Ch. xlvi 0012 c contains part of a Vita of the teacher Prajñāttīrṇa of the city of Humädāṃ. The folio is numbered 3 on the margin.

Recto 1 paysānāma kṣamī vajrracchaidikyi prrajñā-pārme nva carya

2 tsūma ttāra tca'ca hīs|ma dharma-mūkha mūkha niṣkalyāme hīya padaja ‖

3 cu prrajñāttīrṇa āśi'rī mi|styau jāyaryau gaṃbhīra jaryau gaṃbhīra Verso 1 jāyaka brraṣṭe humädāṃ kītha ysāyī hāvä bujse | vīra anihvarrda biśä ysirrnai ba'ysna ba'ysūśtä kṣmä ṣi' mī tvaḍa bistä salī garrvā

2 māṃde | vara na śūjye nva dva mārgaupadeśā parāe' parrīyasta cu

3 biśe caignye jana ve vīra kalyīamittra ya hīya biśā'yūṃ jsa tvā gaṃbhīra jāyaka pacaāana ka ba

1. vajrracchaidikyi ‘Vajracchedikā’ exists in a Khotanese version edited in 1916 by Sten Konow. The sutra is preceded by introductory verses which offer an explanation of the name (2 a 4 ff.).
Theories of Human Nature in Mencius and Shyuntzyy
Authors: Lau D. C.
Published: January 2010

The problem of how human nature is constituted, we have good reason to believe, was current before Mencius and, from the time of Shyuntzyy onward, has been one of the central problems throughout the history of Chinese philosophy. The point at issue between Mencius and Shyuntzyy has traditionally been taken to be something like this. There is a thing called human nature, which is good according to Mencius, but bad according to Shyuntzyy. The same thing cannot be both good and bad at the same time, hence at least one of the two philosophers must be wrong. That this was how most thinkers of subsequent ages understood the position can be seen from the remedies they recommended. There were two ways of reconciling the conflicting views.
Some Notes on the Authorship of the Lii Ling/Su Wuu Letters—II
Authors: Whitaker K. P. K.
Published: January 2010

In my first article on this question the following conclusions were reached: (1) that all the five letters referred to were spurious; and (2) that letters 1, 2, and 3 were probably written by one and the same author. In this article I shall attempt to show that the themes, style, and atmosphere of the three letters in question lead to the further conclusion that their author was probably Jiang Ian of the Liang Dynasty (tzyh Wen-tong , A.D. 444–505). Before discussing this special case of literary ‘forgery’ it may be helpful to cast a glance at the practice of literary forgery in China generally, while directing our attention especially to the motives for such activities.
The Aq-qoyunlu And Land Reforms
Authors: Minorsky V.
Published: January 2010

THERE still remain many interesting and important problems connected A with, the emergence in the 14th century of the Turkman federations of the Qara-qoyunlu (780–874/1378–1469) and Aq-qoyunlu (780–908/1378–1502). The roots of the Persian risorgimento under the Safavids (1502–1722) go deep into this preparatory period. On the internal policy of the Qara-qoyunlu our documentation is still insufficient. Having succeeded the Jalayirs the Qara-qoyunlu must have inherited the administrative pattern evolved under the Mongol il-khans.1