bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Three Parchments from Avroman in Kurdistan
Authors: Unvala J. M.
Published: January 2010

The Gr. documents in questions are, apart from their historical interest, very valuable from the point of Iran, philology. They contain many Iran, names, whose forms truly represent the changes which their Av. or AP. forerunners went through in the early Parthian Pahl. language. Fortunately many of the names occurring in these documents are met with in the ancient Arm. literature. During the Parthian period of the history of Persia, about 250 B.C. to A.D. 226, Armenia was the apple of discord between the Parthians and the Romans, and it formed according to the fortunes of war a part of the Roman or Persian territory, or a kingdom under the suzerainty of Rome or Parthia. In consequence the Armenians came much in touch with the Parthians, from whom they borrowed a considerable number of Persian words for their language and a large number of Persian pr. names as well. Thus it is that in Arm. the intermediate forms of Iran. words, those between the A P. and the MidPers. of the Sasanian period, are to be found fossilized. Again, with an equal amount of certainty the MidPers. words of the Sasanian period are met with in Arm., viz., those which were borrowed during the Sasanian period of the history of Persia, about A.D. 226 to 631. We are thus able to trace all the changes, which the original Iran, vowels and consonants went through, from the very early A v. times down to the dawn of NP. period. Nearly all these pr. names treated in the notes are found in the works of one or more of the following Arm.]
On the Phonology of the Malay and Negrito Dialects spoken in the Malay States of Lower Siam
Authors: Lloyd R. J.
Published: January 2010

Mr. W. W. Skeat, M.A., the leader of the Cambridge University Exploring Expedition to Lower Siam in 1899–1900, has placed in my hands for detailed examination the transcriptions and phonographic records of a number of native songs and chants. They were gathered by him in the States of Patani, Kělantan, and Kědah, and are therefore chiefly worded in the Malay dialect of those States, which presents very interesting phonological differences from Standard Malay. But they also comprise specimens of strange primitive chants, sung by remote and fugitive Negrito tribes (Sěmang and Pangan), and worded, of course, in those languages.
Hausa Legend and Earth Pyramids in the Western and Central Sudan
Authors: Palmer H. R.
Published: January 2010

In 1907 M. Louis Desplaques described in Le Plateau Central Nigérien a series of large tumuli—pyramids of earth—the burial places of chiefs of a past era. He notes their existence at El Walaji and as far east as Aménaka, near Zinder, on the banks of the Niger near the Bassa rapids, west to Sikassa, and on the banks of the Senegal. On archaeological grounds, supported by a well-known passage from the Arab writer El Behri, he concludes that they were built by “red” or Berber races of the same stratum of population as the ancient inhabitants of the Ghana Empire. “They remain”, he writes, “as the sole witnesses of the activity, the industry, and civilization of these ‘red’ peoples, whose names and real origin we do not know”.
The Arab Invasion of Kashgar in a.d. 715
Authors: Gibb H. A. R.
Published: January 2010

Nothing is more disconcerting to the student of early Muslim history than the way in which Tabarī and the other historians alternate between detailed and comprehensive narrative and jottings of the most meagre and involved nature, filled out, in some cases, by picturesque but obviously legendary tales. These faults, which are
to a large degree inherent in the method of compilation from oral tradition, come out most clearly in the narrative of the brilliant series of campaigns by which the Arab general Qutayba ibn Muslim conquered and annexed the lands eastward from Herāt and the Oxus to the Pamīr, during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Walīd I (a.d. 705–15). Thus we are given a fairly sufficient account of the long drawn out operations against Bukhārā, but none of the actual conquest and colonization of the city : much 'of the expeditions against various princes subject to the kingdom of Tukhāristān, but practically nothing of the annexation of Tukhāristān itself.
The Manuscbipts collected by William Marsden with special reference to two copies of Almeida's “History of Ethiopia”
Authors: Ross E. Denison
Published: January 2010

When in 1916 the School of Oriental Studies was established on the old premises of the London Institution in Finsbury Circus, an agreement was come to whereby King's College, University College, and the University of London handed over to the School as a temporary loan all their Oriental books, in exchange for an equivalent number of European books belonging to the Library of the Institution.
History of the Mission of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in China and Other Kingdoms of the East
Authors: Wilson Arnold T.
Published: January 2010

In a previous number of the Bulletin, I submitted a translation of a little known work describing the history of the Mission of the Society of Jesus in Persia. I now propose to supplement this history by giving a short abstract, and translation of a part, of an interesting work which appeared in 1681, bearing on the earlier and wider activities of the Society in the East, including Persia.
Some Remarks on Indian Music
Authors: Kanhere S. G.
Published: January 2010

Music is the natural expression of man's feelings. It expresses the sublime and beautiful inherent in man. It comes spontaneously to all persons in all conditions at all times and in all countries. “The very fact of musical utterance,” says Sir Hubert Parry, “implies a genuine expansion of the nature of the human being and is in a varying degree a trustworthy revelatioD of the particular likings, tastes, and sensibilities of the being that gives vent to it.”
The Original Home of the Indo-Europeans
Authors: Charpentier Jarl
Published: January 2010

The question concerning the location of the original home of the Indo-Europeans—by which name is designated, not a certain race or people of which no traces have so far been found, but the peoples or tribes who did at one time speak the no longer existing Indo-European language—has at times aroused great interest and vivid discussion amongst scholars. While at one time the consensus omnium seemed to vote for an Asiatic origin of the Indo-Europeans, and even, owing to a misunderstanding of the linguistic affinities of Sanskrit, looked for their old home within the borders of India, general opinion seems, since the time of Latham, to have decided for Europe as the cradle of Indo-European-speaking peoples. But as to where in Europe the starting-point of the migrations of these tribes should be looked for no uniform opinion is so far on record. The idea, certainly impossible, that the “Urheimat” should be looked for in Germany and then probably on the southern shores of the Baltic, has long been in favour with German scholars who saw in the ideal old Teutons described by Tacitus a real counterpart of the “Indo-Germanic” ancestors; and Scandinavian archaeologists and philologists have been strongly inclined to adopt this rather fanciful theory and to look for the “Urheimat” not only in Germany but also on the Danish islands and in the southernmost province of Sweden. Other scholars looked for a centre of spread in Hungary, and this theory has quite lately been advocated in an able way by Dr. Giles. The late lamented Professor Schrader, in his sound and thoroughly critical way, tried to establish that South Russia, the rich corn-land to the north of the Black Sea, was the original home of the Indo-Europeans; but he was not quite averse to the idea that they might at one time have extended over areas to the east of that part of Europe. There are other theories as well, but they do not need to be taken into consideration here.
A Chinese Treatise on Architecture
Authors: Yetts W. Perceval
Published: January 2010

The chinese have held to the architectural standards of the past no less tenaciously than to other traditions of their ancient civilization. Buildings standing at the present day testify to this fact, and innumerable written records indicate a continuity of architectural practice lasting more than 2,000 years. The probability is that foreign importation has affected Chinese architecture least of all the arts.
The historical background to the elegies on 'Uthmān b. 'Affān attributed to Hassān b. Thābit
Authors: 'Arafat W.
Published: January 2010

A total of 32 poems, including some of doubtful authenticity, are ascribed to Hassān b. Thābit in his Dīwān or elsewhere, which can be wholly or partly classified as elegies. It is remarkable, however, that in this total there is not a single poem on an Ansārī while no less than eight are on 'Uthmān b. 'Affān, as compared with only four on the death of the Prophet. Equally remarkable is the fact that there is a wide variety of style and method of treatment not only among the poems as a whole but among poems on the same subject.
An introductory note on a Safawid munshī's manual in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Authors: Morton A. H.
Published: January 2010

The Persian manuscript which is numbered 40912 in the SOAS accessions list is not given a very full description in the card catalogue of the Library. It has been entitled ‘Calligrapher's manual’, its numerous lacunae are referred to, and it is tentatively dated to the early seventeenth century. Since, for all ts defects, one of the two works it contains is an important and apparently unknown treatise on inshā' and bureaucratic practice of the late Safawid period it deserves a more adequate description. The purpose of this communication is to provide that, and to put forward some speculations about the date and authorship of that treatise.
Un legs pieux du chroniqueur Uruj
Authors: Beldiceanu-Steinherr Irène
Published: January 2010

Dans la deuxième décennie du vingtième siècle, l'historiographie s'est penchee sur un genre littéraire qui perdit très tôt la faveur du public dans l'Empire ottoman. II s'agit de chroniques, de proportions plutôt modestes qui relataient, dans un langage simple, sans enjolivures, parfois môme très archaique, l'histoire de la Maison de 'Osmān. Ne satisfaisant pas, à l'a longue, au goût des hommes de lettres, elles furent remplacées par des ouvrages d'un style plus raffiné. Ces chroniques, souvent, ne donnaient aucune indication quant à l'auteur, mais même lorsque celles-ci en mentionnaient le nom, nos connaissances s'arrêtaient là.
The final paragraph of the tomb-inscription of Darius I (DNb, 50–60): the Old Persian text in the light of an Aramaic version
Authors: Sims-Williams Nicholas
Published: January 2010

The great inscription of Darius I at Bisitun has hitherto been the only Achaemenid inscription known to exist not only in the three versions carved on the rock-face—Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian—but also in an Aramaic translation on papyrus. The fragmentary scroll containing the Aramaic text was first published by Sachau in 1911. In general, the Aramaic version agrees closely with the Babylonian and is therefore comparatively easy to interpret in spite of its poor state of preservation. However, both Sachau and all later editors have been baffled by one passage in the last column of the Aramaic text. The lines preceding and following correspond, at least approximately, to §§44 and 49 of the Babylonian: ‘King Darius states: King, whoever you are, who may arise after me, protect yourself well from lies. Do not trust the man who lies … Believe what I did and tell the truth to the people. Do not conceal (it). If you do not conceal these matters, but you do tell the people, may Ahura Mazda protect you …’. The intervening lines have not been identified up to now and their meaning has remained obscure.
The Indian merchant community of Masqaṭ
Authors: Allen Calvin H.
Published: January 2010

In 1836 the Arabian traveller J. R. Wellsted described the Hindu community of Masqaṭ, 'Umān, as constituting ‘a body of the principal merchants’ of that port. By the 1870s the Indian merchants dominated the commercial life of Masqaṭ and had replaced the Āl Bū Sa'īd rulers of the town as the paramount economic power in 'Umān. While this community has much wider significance than their pivotal role in the commerce of Masqaṭ and 'Umān (the Indian merchants in Masqaṭ were a component of the great Indian Ocean trading network, and as Hindus and Shī'īs in a Sunnī, more properly Khārijī, country they offer potential insights into the status of minority groups in Muslim states) the focus of this study is the more specific problem of their origins, development and social and economic activities in Masqaṭ to the end of the nineteenth century.
A Qaṣīda on the Destruction of Baghdād by the Mongols
Authors: Somogyi Joseph De
Published: January 2010

Hardly ever has Islam survived a more disastrous and more mournful event than the destruction of Baghdād by the Mongols of Hūlāghū Khān in the middle of the month of al-Muharram of the year 656/January, 1258. The Mongol conqueror, after having subdued the Assassins, turned against the capital of the ‘Abbāsids and captured it without any resistance. The fall of the ‘Abbāsid caliphate was followed by a veritable reign of terror which lasted for forty days. Baghdad was plundered during this dismal period, its entire population was massacred mercilessly with the exception of the Christians, the co-religionists of Hūlāghū Khān's wife and father. The Caliph al-Musta'ṣim and his sons fell victims to the fury of the enraged conqueror, who put them to death. And to complete the disaster, a great conflagration destroyed many parts of the city.
Early Arabic Printing at the Cape of Good Hope
Authors: Rochlin S. A.
Published: January 2010

A thorough and scientific treatment of the historiography of the African Muslim peoples and institutions south of the Zambesi is a long-felt and eminent want. As yet, this particular field of research has hardly been explored, and its results, if collected and evaluated, would add tangibly to our contemporary knowledge of Oriental penetration in lands where Europeans have founded new homes and fostered a vitalist conception of Occidental civilization.
Iranian Studies II
Authors: Bailey H. W.
Published: January 2010

A passage of the tale of Husrav and the Page (Pahl. Texts, pp. 29-30, in Unvala's edition, § 30) may form the starting-point for a discussion of kavāt. It has not so far been fully translated.
Kono Tabi: A little-known Japanese Religion
Authors: Waley Arthur
Published: January 2010

In 1802 Kino, a middle-aged Japanese peasant woman in a remote country place, declared that God, having many times tried unsuccessfully to manifest himself in saints and prophets, had “this time” (kono tabi) managed at last to find in her a vehicle for the delivery of his full and final message. From 1802 till 1826 (the year of her death God, through his intermediary Kompira, who plays the part that the archangel Gabriel plays in the Koran), inspired this illiterate peasant with a continuous flow of communications, which from 1811 onwards were taken down in writing and are preserved in some 300 rolls. On the strength of this revelation she founded a sect that despite prosecution in the nineteenth century to-day numbers about 40,000 followers, and which, though its ways of life owe something to Buddhist monasticism, can only be described as a separate religion.
Western Influence on the Poetry of Madhusūdan Datta
Authors: Dasgupta Jayanta Kumar
Published: January 2010

The influence of Western literature is evident in all Madhusūdan's work, but particularly in the Meghanāda Badha Kāvya (1861) -an epoch-making poem, upon which his fame as a poet mainly rests. For the subject-matter of this poem he went to the Rāmāyaṇa. Why was this ? Was it in imitation of Kālidāsa and Bhavabhūti, or was it his love of Kṛittibāsa that led him to the Rāmāyaṇna? Perhaps it was none of these, but his reading of Homer and other poets of Europe which led him to choose a story from the classics of his own country.
A Grammar of the Language of Bugotu, Ysabel Island, Solomon Islands
Authors: Ivens W. G.
Published: January 2010

Apart of the island of the central Solomon Islands which was called Santa Ysabel by the Spanish discoverers is known as “Sambana” to the natives of Narovo (Eddystone) and Mandegusu islands, who used to raid it. The north end of the island is called Kia, and the southern end is known as Bugotu. There is no one native name for the whole of the island.
Two Eyewitness Reports on an Expedition of the King of Kīsh (Qais) against Aden
Authors: Goitein S. D.
Published: January 2010

Arabic documents containing eyewitness reports on historical events are very rare. They are the more welcome when they complement and illustrate the often very deficient literary sources. This is the case with the excerpts from two business letters of the 12th century published here, one sent from Aden to India and one from the same town to Cairo. Both passages describe one and the same event: the attack on Aden by a fleet sent by the King of Kīsh with the aim of taking the town or at least a part of it.
The Transmission of Tirmi

dh

ī's Jāmi‘
Authors: Robson James
Published: January 2010

Abū ‘Īsā Muḥammad b. ‘Īsā b. Sawra b. Shaddād b. al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Sulamī al-Būghī al-Tirmidhī is famous for bis collection of traditions which is one of the six books now generally recognized by Sunnīs. He is reported to have said that his grandfather belonged to Marw, but removed from there in the time of Al-Laith b. Sayyār to Tinnidh, a town on the north bank of the Āmū Daryā. Like many others Tirmidhī travelled in pursuit of learning, and heard traditions from numerous Khurāsānīs, ‘Irāqīs, and Ḥijāzīs. He was a pupil of Bukhārī, and also heard traditions from some of Bukhārī's shaikhs, such as Qutaiba b. Sa‘īd al-Baghlānī (d. 240), ‘Alī b. Ḥujr al-Marwazī (d. 244), Abū Kuraib Muḥammad b. al-‘Alā’ al-Kūfī (161–248), and Muḥammad b. Bashshār al-Baṣrī (167–252).4 An interesting story is told to illustrate his power of committing traditions to memory. On the way to Mecca he met a shaikh from whose traditions he had copied out two juz’.
The -E/-Ü Gerund in Old Ottoman
Authors: Mundy C. S.
Published: January 2010

The gerund here studied is a grammatical form of great interest on account of its phonological variations and the wide range of its syntactical relationships. It occurs in the single form, gide, in a strengthened form, giderek, and in a pair form, gide gide. We find it as an independent gerund and in verbal combinations which vary from mere association to complete fusion, such as gidememek and gideyor (gidiyor). It also has a tendency to become specialized in use as a post-gerund, and numerous particles have originated in this way. It has had a long history, being one of the basic grammatical forms of Turkish, a common feature of the Turkish family of languages from the time of the early inscriptions of northern Asia. In Ottoman Turkish its importance (except in the -erek and pair forms) has gradually declined during the last 500 years, and it is now used only to a very limited extent; but in Old Ottoman it was fairly widely employed, and the texts which have survived provide ample material for study. It is, however, a complicated study. In the work which has been done it would seem that investigators have usually relied on insufficient data, or have applied methods unsuitable for this case. For example, the method of general comparison between Ottoman on the one hand and various speech forms such as Uighur, Chaghatai, and modern Anatolian dialects on the other, cannot give satisfactory results. There are too many unknown factors, too many imponderables. Such a procedure inevitably leads to the comparison of mere isolated examples which do not really prove anything. I have therefore confined myself to Old Ottoman, and my method has been to take whole texts and collect and classify all the examples of this gerund which they contain. This is laborious, but it produces results which cannot be obtained in any other way.
The Language of the Buddhist Sanskrit Texts
Authors: Brough John
Published: January 2010

When Buddist works in Sanskrit were first introduced into Europe, it was at once obvious that the language of some of them as it appears in the manuscripts was, in comparison with Classical Sanskrit, frequently ungrammatical, and on occasion barbarously so. The immediate and natural reaction of scholars accustomed to the regularity of Sanskrit was to stigmatize these shortcomings, and to attempt to remove as many irregularities as possible by forcibly emending the text. It was, however, very soon recognized that many of the seeming anomalies could not be abolished, and that they must be accepted as genuine in their own context. This was especially clear in the case of the verses of some of the older texts, where the metre often guaranteed non- Pāηinean forms; and the language of these verses, variously called the Gāthādialect, mixed Sanskrit, or hybrid Sanskrit, was recognized as something in its own right. The same courtesy was readily extended to the prose of the Mahāvastu, which in places could only have been made to resemble Sanskrit by completely rewriting the text. The prose of the other texts, being in many waysvirtually Sanskrit, took considerably longer to win the same recognition; but for many years now it has been generally admitted that here also is a language which must be judged according to its own standards, and not exclusively by the canons of classical Sanskrit grammar.
The Syrian Law of Personal Status
Authors: Anderson J. N. D.
Published: January 2010

This Law was promulgated under cover of Legislative Decree No. 59 of 17th September, 1953, during the Shishakly regime, and came into force on 1st November of the same year. It thus represents the latest development in the series of reforms in Shari'a law, as applied by the courts, which have appeared, one after the other, in the different countries of the Near East during the last few decades. The first major example—if we ignore legislation primarily concerned with matters of procedure—was provided by the Ottoman Law of Family Rights of 1917 which, short-lived though it proved in Turkey, was applied at the end of the First World War, with minor modifications, in Syria and Lebanon and, with further modifications, in Jordan. Next, there were the series of Egyptian reforms of 1920, 1929, 1923, 1943, and 1946—preceded, interspersed, and followed by similar, but much more piecemeal, innovations in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Then, as the immediate precursor of this Syrian Law, came the Jordanian Law of Personal Status of 1951—while a somewhat similar enactment has now been under consideration for a number of years in Iraq, but seems unlikely, for the present, to be promulgated.
The Qara-Qoyunlu And The Qutb-Shahs
Authors: Minorsky V.
Published: January 2010

THE historians1 who take the death of Jihan-shah's son Hasan 'All in 873/1468 as the end of the Qara-qoyunlu dynasty disregard the fact that for some time the descendants of Qara-Yusuf survived in Hamadan and in the beginning of the 16th century rose to new honours as the Qutb-shahs of Golconda. Under Indian skies they kept up their family traditions, and their court historians summed up afresh the history of the Qara-qoyunlu and restored the missing links in the genealogy of the kings of Golconda. These links form the special subject of the present article.
Polyphemus and Tepegöz
Authors: Mundy C.S.
Published: January 2010

The story of Tepegöz is the eighth of the twelve surviving tales of the medieval Turkish cycle of Dede Korkut. In language and style it is uniform with the remainder of the cycle, but in character it differs considerably, being composed largely of incidents common to the folktales of many peoples. Its most striking feature, and the one which has attracted most attention, is the variant of the story of Polyphemus which it contains. But besides this the story has a peculiar interest of its own. It is not a mere chance retelling of an old tale. Its narrative has been based upon a traditional wording which goes back to a time before the various incidents, of independent origin, were welded together in the present complex story.
Notes on Mon Epigraphy
Authors: Shorto H.L.
Published: January 2010

In the notes here published an attempt is made to explore some of the peculiar linguistic problems involved in the interpretation of epigraphic texts. As a subject for study these have certain advantages for the linguist: the material on which he bases his conclusions is, at any given time, complete, reducing the chances of his being afterwards confronted with evidence which he has overlooked; its nature limits the directions which his inquiries can take; and since the text is irrevocably committed to stone, he is not delayed by the possibility of infinitely refining his phonetic and phonological observations. It is a cardinal principle of the present investigations that such texts in dead languages carry an implication of utterance; it is equally cardinal that what that implication is cannot be determined, and is not to be educed.
The Language of Poetry in Dhofar
Authors: Johnstone T. M.
Published: January 2010

D. H. Müller says of the Śheri poems which he published in 1907 that they are ‘in einem älteren Mehri-Dialekt abgefasst, der dem Überlieferer nicht ganz verstandlich war’. He goes on to say that despite his best efforts he has not been able to make complete sense of all of the poems he wrote down.
The Impact of Balai Pustaka on Modern Indonesian Literature
Authors: Teeuw A.
Published: January 2010

The story of Balai Pustaka begins in 1908, a memorable year in the history of modern Indonesia, for that was the year in which Boedi Oetomo, the first nationalist organization in Indonesia, was founded. In the same year the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies set up aCommissie voor de Volkslectuur, a Committee for Popular Literature. And even though there was no visible connexion between the founding of Boedi Oetomo and the setting up of this Committee, there certainly was an indirect link. Both the foundation of Boedi Oetomo and the need for an institution for popular literature had something to do with the expansion of modern education in the colony.
A Pakthian sound-change
Authors: Sims-Williams Nicholas
Published: January 2010

The existence of M Sogd.prqyš- ‘to imprison’, past stemprkšṯ-, and the meaning of the associated B Sogd. nounprk'š‘imprisonment’ were first established by Henning in 1936. Later he recognized also the equivalent Parth. verbprg'c- ‘to incarcerate’. For the alternation betweenšandčhe compared NPāγōš: Parth. 'gwc(‘side’) and MPāgustan<*ākuštan: Sogd.ākōč-/ākuγd- (‘to suspend’), remarking that ‘the discrepancy is found only in syllables that begin withk- and is therefore probably due to assimilation or dissimilation’.
Addendum
Authors: Ames Roger T.
Published: January 2010

Since the publication of my review of To acquire wisdom by Julia Ching in BSOAS, XL, 2, 1977, 419–20, my attention has been drawn to the fact that the unusual number of printing errors cannot be laid at the door of the author but are, in fact, exclusively the fault of the printers. This has been acknowledged in writing by the publishers.
A consideration of three versions of theBabad tanah Djawiwith excerpts on the fall of Madjapahit
Authors: Ricklefs M. C.
Published: January 2010

The identification and assessment of his source materials are among the historian's most basic tasks. The purpose of the present discussion is to describe three versions of the Javanese chronicle calledBabad tanah Djawiand to provide excerpts describing the familiar story of the fall of Madjapahit in order to show how the same story differs in these three versions. The texts will be compared with regard to date and origin, and their historical value will be considered. This is not an attempt to pronounce on the course of events surrounding the fall of Madjapahit, although scholars interested in that subject may find these texts to be of value. This is rather an attempt to identify and to compare these basic sources. In this consideration, the episode of Madjapahit's fall will be used as an example.
The Place of Politics in the Philosophy of Ibn Rushd
Authors: Rosenthal Erwin I. J.
Published: January 2010

The significance of Political Philosophy for the philosophy of Islam and A Judaism in the Middle Ages has been recognized in recent years, and the importance of Plato's Republic and Laws together with Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for the falāsifa is becoming increasingly evident. Attention has been drawn to Alfārabī's political treatises, to Ibn Bājja, to Averroes' Commentaries on Plato's Republic and on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, to Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqa and to Ibn Khaldun. The reception of Platonic and Aristotelian political ideas conditions—in varying degrees—the attitude of the falāsifa to the State as such, to the Muslim State in particular, and therefore to the Sharī‘a of Islam and to Greek philosophy, both practical and theoretical. This is already clear from the writings of Alfārābī, but in his attempt at blending and harmonizing Greek-Hellenistic and Islamic conceptions no Alfarabian philosophy proper with distinct features of a definitive, authoritatively formulated synthesis emerges. It was left to Averroes—to use the name by which Ibn Rushd was generally known to the West—to work out a peculiarly Islamic religious philosophy. He establishes in unequivocal terms the supreme authority of the Sharī‘a and its identity of purpose with falsafa, religious philosophy in the Faṣl al-maqāl, the Manāhij, the Tahāfut al-tahāfut and his Commentary on Plato's Republic. The last named forms the main subject of the present article. In an earlier study it was considered in connexion with his Commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics already, but not with his other treatises just mentioned. This is, however, necessary in order to gain a correct, balanced view of his philosophy, and especially of his political thought. It is equally important to see his political Commentaries against the background of his active life as qāḍī and of contemporary Muslim history in the Maghreb.
Correction
Authors: Henning W. B.
Published: January 2010

In S. H. Taqizadeh's article, BSOAS., xiv, p. 606, line 24, the first word should have been Ayāθrima in the place of Paitišhahya; and, pp. 610 sq., Nātanz is wrong for Natanz (Natanz). As I was responsible for seeing the article through the press, it is for me to apologize for these mistakes.
Studies in Islamic Metal Work—IV
Authors: Rice D. S.
Published: January 2010

A Cylindrical brass box then belonging to the collection of Mme Delort de Gléon (and now in the Louvre, Inv. No. 7438) was shown at the Exhibition of Muslim Art held in Paris in 1903. It was briefly described in the catalogue and the Arabic inscriptions which decorate it were published by M. Sobernheim. But, to the best of my knowledge, no illustrations of this box have so far been reproduced.
A Controversial Incident and the Related Poem in the Life of Hassān B. Thābit
Authors: Arafat W.
Published: January 2010

Poem No. CXL in the Diwan of Hassan b. Thabit is usually connected with the incident when the poet was attacked and wounded by Safwan b. al-Mu'attal. However, the poem itself, the incident, and the precise relation between poem and incident all seem to have been the subject of controversy. As for the poem, different versions exist in various sources. The opening line is:—
Devshirme and Shari'a
Authors: Wittek Paul
Published: January 2010

MY purpose is to draw attention to the rather puzzling problem laid before the student of early Ottoman history by the apparently complete incompatibility of the devshirme with the shari'a. The periodical forced levy of children from the Sultan—s Christian subjects for the recruiting of his standing army, and the forced conversion of those children to Islam must, indeed, appear—as it always did—as a flagrant disregard of the Holy Law which accords to the Christian subjects the status of dhimmi, implying personal liberty and the right to keep, and exercise freely, their religion. Only recently, making himself the voice of Muslim conscience, Professor Massignon has branded the devshirme as ‘un manquement à la Dhimmat ar-rasul’2
Vedic Is- ‘ To Prosper’
Authors: Burrow T.
Published: January 2010

There is found in the Rgveda and in later mantra literature, but becoming obsolete later, a root noun is- of frequent occurrence. This is normally interpreted by Sayana as meaning ‘ food ’ (annam), and in conformity with this the modern interpreters usually render the term by ‘ nourishment’ or the like. Though this interpretation seems adequately to suit some passages, a survey of the whole material shows that this is too narrow a sphere of meaning to apply to the word in all its contexts. The central meaning is ‘ thriving, flourishing, prospering, prosperity’. This may apply to that thriving which results from adequate nourishment, to that nourishment itself, or to the force inherent in it. But it may also refer, and more frequently does, to men's thriving in economic, material, or social position, to the possession of riches necessary to maintain this status, and to the riches themselves. It also applies to the fructifying influence of rain or river-water necessary for the maintenance of life.
The Date of the End of the Reign of Kumära Gupta I and the Succession After His Death
Authors: Basham A.L.
Published: January 2010

The Girnar Inscription of Skanda Gupta,1 read in conjunction with the Bhitari Inscription of the same king,2 shows that Skanda Gupta came to the throne while the Gupta Empire was in great difficulties as a result of the invasion of the Hunas and the mysterious Pusyamitras. On pacifying the country Skanda gave much thought to the choice of governors for the outlying provinces, and decided to appoint one Parnadatta as governor of Surastra.
Tsaur Jyr's Song Of The Ill-fated Lady
Authors: Whitaker K. P. K.
Published: January 2010

IN Tsaur Jyr's Collected Works (Tsaur Jyi Chyuampyng)1 we find under the title Chieh Baurminq two stanzas, together with a few fragments, believed to be parts of the poem, gleaned from commentaries to works other than Tsaur Jyr's and from the encyclopaedia Beeitarng-Shuchau.2 The title of this poem (literally: ‘I am ill-fated’) suggests the story of an ill-fated lady, deserted by her husband or lover, reduced to dire poverty and therefore constantly in tears, as we find her commonly depicted in Chinese poetry. The I contents of the poem, however, do not tally with this expectation. This fact has been ignored by the majority of scholars who commented on the poem, but two commentators3 have touched on it while discussing the significance of the poem as a whole.
‘Fish-pond’ ornaments on Persian and Mamluk metal vessels
Authors: Baer Eva
Published: January 2010

The Galleria Estense in Mondena possesses an Islamic metal bowl which enriches our knowledge of Islamic metal work in more than one respect. This is a rounded, pot-shaped vessel (plate I), 11 cm. high and 27 cm. wide at its greatest diameter. The projecting part of the body is decorated with eight polylobed medallions intersected by oblong compartments enclosing a nakhī inscription and set against a densely filled background of flowering scrolls. The ‘neck’ of the bowl shows a narrow frieze of 24 running animals, which are placed in eight elongated panels containing three animals each. Whereas generally this frieze closely follows the traditional way of showing quadrupeds in pursuit (plate II (a, b)), there is a remarkable deviation from this arrangement in one of these compartments. It contains a camel, a lion, and a bull; these last two are shown in confrontation and seem to leap at each other as if in mutual attack (plate II (c)).
The contribution of the Serampore missionaries to education in Bengal, 1793–1837
Authors: Laird M. A.
Published: January 2010

Baptist missionaries were the first to operate effectively in northern India. William Carey arrived in 1793, and worked for six years mainly in North Bengal, moving in 1800 to the Danish settlement of Serampore to join Joshua Marshman and William Ward. From the beginning they were concerned with education, starting schools at first in their immediate vicinity and eventually throughout the province of Bengal, from Dacca and Chittagong in the east to Suri in the west; meanwhile other Baptist missionaries in connexion with Serampore ranged south-east as far as the Moluccas and north-west to Ajmer, with many intermediate stations. The climax of their educational efforts in Bengal was reached in the years 1816–18, when over 100 elementary schools were established, and also Serampore College for higher education. During these same years, however, a group of younger Baptist missionaries broke away to form a separate mission based on Calcutta, and simultaneously disputes developed between the Serampore Trio and the officials of the Baptist Missionary Society in London, which resulted in a complete separation between them in 1827. But in December 1837 the Serampore Mission found it impossible to continue, for financial reasons, and had to agree to a reunion with the BMS; Joshua Marshman, the last survivor of the original Trio—and the one mainly responsible for their educational work—died in the same month.
A further note on the dev

sh

irme
Authors: Repp R. C.
Published: January 2010

In his article, ‘Some notes on the devshirme’, Dr. V. L. Ménage deals in some detail with the vexed problem of the status in law of the members of the Ottoman slave institution. His comments are directed toward what he gives as Dr. Papoulia' conclusion concering the problem, that ‘the čikma, the “passing-out” from the various training-schools, amounted to a modified manumission and bestowed a status comparable with that of the “client” (mawlā) in the classical Muslim world’. Having quoted passages from two documents of the mid-fifteenth century and a notation in the comtemporary histories of the same period, Dr. Ménage conculdes: ‘These three examples suffice to show that—in the middle years of the fifteenth century at least—a čikma did not automatically bring with it legal manumission; thus although the čikma as an institution seems to imitate the Mamluk kharj—and the term itself sounds very like a calque—it differed from it fundamentally in that the ič oghlani, unlike the Mamlūk, was not (or Perhaps not necessarily) then ceremonially manumitted’.
Magian cheese: an archaic problem in Islamic law
Authors: Cook Michael
Published: January 2010

One of the less prominent episodes associated with the conquest of Mecca in the year 8 is an encounter between the Arabian Prophet and a Persian cheese. A tradition quoted by Bayhaqī (d. 458) from Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (d. 203) tells the story as follows: ‘When the Apostle of God conquered Mecca, he saw a cheese. He asked what it was; they told him that it was a foodstuff made in Persia (arḍ al-'Ajam). The Apostle of God responded: “Take a knife to it, invoke the name of God, and eat”.’ Similar encounters take place in Ṭā'if in the same year, in Tabūk in the following year, and at places and times unknown.
Object markers and agreement pronouns in Semitic languages
Authors: Khan G. A.
Published: January 2010

The term ‘Object Marker’ is used to refer to analytic particles or prepositions which signal the direct object status of a nominal. These are attested in a variety of forms in Semitic languages. For instance: 'eṯ, which is used in Hebrew and in the language of the Moabite stone, 'yt, which is attested in Phoenician and also in early Aramaic (e.g. Zakir inscription 5; Sefire I B/32, III/11, III/13; Aššur Ostracon 6).wt, which is found with a 3rd person pronominal suffix in the Old Aramaic Hadad inscription 28.yt, frequently employed in the Aramaic Targums (generally in slavish imitation of Hebrew 'eṯ) and also in other Western Aramaic dialects, e.g. Nabataean, Palmyrene, and Galilean Aramaic; in Christian Palestinian Aramaic it occurs regularly before pronominal suffixes but not before full nouns. It is only sporadically found in the Eastern Aramaic dialects, e.g. in early Syriac (about 12 times in the Peshitta, once in the ‘Hymn of the Soul’) and in Biblical Aramaic (once— Dn 3/12).l-, used in many dialects of Aramaic as an Object Marker, also occasionally in the Hebrew of the Priestly Source (e.g. Num. 32: 15) and quite frequently in Late Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew. Akkadianana, sometimes employed as an Object Marker in the later periods of the language, viz. Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Late Babylonian, also sporadically in other periods, e.g. Middle Assyrian. In the South Semitic area may be listed Arabic 'iyyāand Gə'əzkiyya, both of which are used only with pronominal suffixes; Gə'əzlā-; the suffix particle -nin Amharic and Gafat, and the prefix particlesn- in Tigrinya andnä- oryä- in Soddo.
The semantic structure of nominal compounds in modern Hebrew
Authors: Nir Raphael
Published: January 2010

The term ‘derivation’ denotes a process of linguistic creativity. It does not involve creating something out of nothing, rather of availing oneself of material already existing in the language in order to create new lexemes (i.e. new ‘lexical words’). Clearly, the lexicon is not enriched through derivation only; generally speaking, derivation is not involved when a word is borrowed from outside, i.e. from another language. The borrowed word enters the Hebrew lexicon as a moneme, so there is no creativity (or very little of it) involved in the borrowing process.
The Fifth Dalai Lama's Decree Appointing Sangs-Rgyas Rgya-Mtsho as Regent
Authors: Richardson H. E.
Published: January 2010

In 1679 the Fifth Dalai Lama issued a decree appointing Sangs-rgyas rgya mtsho to conduct the administration of secular affairs on his behalf in the post usually known as that of regent. The decree, sealed with the imprint of the Dalai Lama's hands, is inscribed in the Potala on a wall opposite the steep triple stair leading down to the great eastern courtyard called Bde-yangs-shar. It is referred to in the third volume of the autobiography of the Dalai Lama (Du-ku-la III, fol. 128a) and in the Vaidurya ser-po composed by Sangs-rgyas rgya-mtsho in 1698 (VSP, p. 360); but the complete text does not appear to have been published in any Tibetan or western work. The copy transcribed below is derived mainly from a photograph kindly given me by Ernst Krause who accompanied Dr. Ernst Schaefer to Lhasa in 1939. As can be seen in the reproduction in plate I the last two lines are obscured by a wooden frame protecting the Dalai Lama's hand-prints and for that passage I am indebted to the Tibetan scholar and author, Tsipon W. D. Shakabpa.
Did pre-Revival Hebrew literature have its own langue? Quotation and improvization in Mendele Mokher Sefarim
Authors: Glinert Lewis H.
Published: January 2010

In the history of Hebrew letters, few dates have so cavalierly been invested with literary and linguistic significance as 1886/7, the publication date of Mendele's short story BeSeter Ra'am.

Such scholars of literature as Ravnitzki, Klausner and Werses have hailed its style as the pointer or veritable trigger to a redeployment of the traditional ‘synthetic’ (composite Biblical/post-Biblical) Hebrew style—instead of being confined to the registers of non-fiction, it now rose to supplant Biblical Hebrew as the standard for narrative prose. Some historians of language have gone so far as to present it as a total innovation (for its time) in that the aforegoing Haskalah writers had adhered almost exclusively to a Biblical manner.
F. R. Stephenson and M. A. Houlden, Atlas of historical eclipse maps: East Asia 1500 B.C.–A.D. 1900: a review article
Authors: Pankenier David W.
Published: January 2010

Few experiences are as exasperating as being obliged to resort to tedious hand calculation because the reference works available for the purpose of verifying historical eclipse observations are plainly inadequate. To those of us concerned with the history of East Asia who are intimidated enough by the chore of balancing the monthly bank statement, F. R. Stephenson's and M. A. Houlden's Atlas of historical eclipse maps will be a most welcome addition to the reference library.
The significance of the slogan lā ḥukma illā lillāh and the references to the ḥudūd in the traditions about the Fitna and the murder of 'Uthmān
Authors: Hawting G. R.
Published: January 2010

The aim of this paper is to elucidate some of the phrases and slogans which occur in the Muslim traditions about the Fitna, the first ‘civil war’ in Islam, which, according to tradition, begins with the murder of the caliph ‘Uthmān in 36/656 and ends with the recognition of Mu'āwiya as caliph in 41/661. These phrases and slogans are discussed in the light of ideas and terminology found in Judaism, and it is suggested that a better understanding of them can be gained by the comparison with Judaism than by the attempts to interpret them in more traditionally Muslim terms. It is argued that both the lā ḥukma slogan and the ḥudūd references indicate a dispute within the early Muslim community about the authority to be accorded to Scripture, and that the terminology used is so reminiscent of that used in Judaism that it is likely that the dispute was the same as that which we know was the mam one between Jewish sects in the early Islamic period—the relative status of Scripture and Oral Law. This would be an issue which has not previously been mentioned in discussions of the issues involved in the Fitna and, if the suggestions made here prove to be acceptable, it would provide more material for discussion of the sectarian circles which contributed to the development of Islam.
Traditional Najdī mosques
Authors: King Geoffrey
Published: January 2010

With the affluence brought by oil, the cities, towns, and villages of Saudi Arabia are being transformed as they are rebuilt; the older mosques are being replaced by new ones in concrete and built in styles unknown in Najd 30 years ago. As a result, structures built in accordance with traditional designs are being gradually obliterated by modern, alien buildings. This process has virtually wiped out the older mosques on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia and those in Najd may well vanish in the course of the next few years. This article attempts, albeit very incompletely, to catalogue some of the traditional mosques of Najd and to describe their architectural characteristics. I shall deal with these buildings within their geographical areas beginning with al-Ḥawṭca in southern central Najd and moving northwards, towards al-Qaṣīm and Sudayr.
Pālu Kuṟumba riddles: specimens of a south Dravidian tribal language
Authors: Kapp Dieter B.
Published: January 2010

1.l. From May 1974 to May 1976 I carried out field research in the Nilgiri Hills, South India, with the purpose of collecting materials on the languages, oral traditions, religious beliefs and practices, and customs of three tribal communities, the Ālu Kuṟumbas, the Pālu Kuṟumbas, and the Muḍugas.

In this paper I shall present some first specimens of the language and folklore of the hitherto nearly unknown Pālu Kuṟumba tribe.
Tangut or Proto-Burman
Authors: Luce G. H.
Published: January 2010

The Gobi desert has played a vital part in the history of the Burmans, as in that of many other peoples of Asia and Europe. Winds blow continuously between Paris and Peking—from east to west for half the year, from west to east for the other half. Surface soil, once broken (as in the early Neolithic), is loth to settle. Wind-blown soil, or loess, chokes all the rivers and prevents their exit to the seas. Fresh-water lakes go saline and undrinkable. And soon a vast country, from the centre outwards, becomes uninhabitable by man. The problem is still acute. With three of our four continents still desert-eroded, it remains a question whether our planet can be saved from going the way of Mars.