bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Revaluation of Islamic Traditions
Authors: Schacht Joseph
Published: March 2011

I should like to present some ideas on what, I think, is necessary revaluation of Islamic traditions in the light of our present knowledge; but am at a loss whether to call my conclusions something new and unprecedented, or something old and well known. No one could have been more surprised than I was by the results which the evidence of the texts has forced upon me during the last ten years or so; but looking back I cannot see what other result could possibly be consistent with the very foundations of our historical and critical study of the first two or three centuries of Islam. One of these foundations, I may take it for granted, Goldziher's discovery that the traditions from the Prophet and from his Companions do not contain more or less authentic information on the earliest period of Islam to which they claim to belong, but reflect opinions held during the first two and a half centuries after the hijra.
Some Early Travels in Arabia
Authors: Beckingham C. F.
Published: March 2011

There are a number of journeys made, or alleged to have been made, in Arabia between the middle of the fifteenth and the middle of the seventeenth century of which there is no mention, or at least no adequate account, in Hogarth's Penetration of Arabia or in R. H. Kiernan's Unveiling of Arabia. Many of these omissions are due to the little use they made of the Portuguese historians.
The Death of Eucratides in Medieval Tradition
Authors: Bivar A. D. H.
Published: March 2011

The introduction by Chaucer into his Knight's Tale of the character of Emetrius, who does not occur in any of the regular source material of the Thebaid story, has never been satisfactorily explained by Chaucerian scholars.
The Epistle of the Fatimid Caliph al-Āmir (al-Hidāya al-Āmiriyya)—its Date and its Purpose
Authors: Stern S. M.
Published: March 2011

The strife over the succession of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustanṣir left a decisive mark on the later history of the Ismaili sect. The quarrel between the followers of his two rival sons, al-Musta'lī and Nizār, did not end with the defeat and death of the latter; his adherents, the Nizāris, formed a sect of their own, and the rulers of the Musta'lid branch had no enemies more bitter. The fortunes of the whole Ismaili movement might have taken a very different turn had the redoubtable Assassins made common cause with the Fatimids of Egypt, instead of seizing every opportunity to harm them.
Two Tribal Law Cases (Documents): (Wāḥidī Sultanate, South-West Arabia)
Authors: Serjeant R. B.
Published: March 2011

During a year in Ḥaḍramawt I was able to collect a number of legal documents which contain valuable material for a study of the social structure of the country. Amongst these are two groups of deeds relating to the Ḥawṭahs of al-Ḥāwī and Thibī, typical examples of the sacred enclaves of this part of Arabia. Another set of documents defines the rights of the townsmen of the Sūḳ quarter of Tarim, with some references to the ceremonies connected with hunting the ibex, and I have various other documents relating to tribal cases, a house-sale deed, etc.
The Ottoman Archives as a Source for the History of the Arab Lands
Authors: Lewis Bernard
Published: March 2011

One of the classical difficulties of the student of the history of the Islamic Middle East, as contrasted with his colleagues in the European field, is the lack of archive material. While the western medievalist, for example, has at his disposal a mass of records, central and local, public and private, political, administrative, judicial, and ecclesiastical, the orientalist has to rely for the most part on literary and archæological sources. In many fields of history his findings are in consequence often vague and general; they are in the main limited to the public and external life of the communities and individuals he studies. Only the events and personalities important enough to achieve literary mention are known to him, and then only through the reflecting medium of literary sources. Even the great figures, with few exceptions, remain dim and formalized outlines, while for the life of the people he has to rely mainly on occasional hints and scraps of evidence. Large numbers of individual documents survive in isolation—some in the form of inscriptions, others quoted in the texts of the chronicles; but only for one period after the rise of Islam is any important body of original documents available—and the light they have shed on the period from which they derive has deepened the surrounding darkness. The Egyptian papyri of the early Islamic period have imposed a rewriting of much of the history of the early Caliphate, as recorded by the chroniclers and jurists. Yet even the papyri are not archives in the true sense of the word.
Two Tribal Law Cases (Documents) (Wāḥidī Sultanate, South-West Arabia)
Authors: Serjeant R. B.
Published: March 2011

The general procedure in this case is very similar to that of the aforegoing, but here we have the decision of the tribal muḳaddam (pi. maḳādimah) or headman. Bin ‘Awzar's solution of the problem is, of course, very different from a legal decision in a European court to-day, but our methods would probably fail where decisions such as this are effective in obtaining justice. The two parties are constrained to produce other individuals to give evidence to clear or convict them, on an oath which, if false, they firmly believe will swiftly bring upon them the direst consequences. Bin ‘Awzar, however, envisages a possibility that neither party will be able to produce suitable evidence, and should this happen, he has instructed them to refer back the case to him.
The Changes of Meaning Undergone by Certain Persian nomina agentis in -tār (-dār)
Authors: Boyle J. A.
Published: March 2011

THE original function of the suffix -tār (-dār) was to form nomina agentis, and such is still its function in some cases, e.g. xārīdār “purchaser”, parastār “worshipper”, “attendant”. But some nouns in -tār (-dār) are now passive in signification, e.g. giriftār “taken prisoner”, “prisoner”; and in several cases the meaning has been so much altered that the original nomen agentis has become to all intents and purposes a nomen actionis, e.g. kirdār “action”, guftār “speech”.
The Authenticity of the Works Attributed to al-Ghazālī
Authors: Watt W. Montgomery
Published: March 2011

Before the invention of printing, when copies of a book were few, it was common to find works falsely attributed to an author. The person of unorthodox opinions, like the PseudoDionysius, assigned his works to someone of unimpeachable reputation in order to avoid censorship or other obstacles to circulation. Or a man might insert heretical material into a rival's book to discredit him. Of al-Ghazali's Maḍnūn (? aṣ-Ṣaghīr), D. B. Macdonald wrote: —

“Of course it is quite possible and in accordance with the rules of Muslim polemic that there should also have been in circulation a false Maḍnūn teaching these heretical doctrines. Many such cases occur. A book against the belief in saints was ascribed to Abū Bakr ar-Rāzī (d. cir. 290–320) … and, it was suspected, falsely, in order to bring him into discredit. The same thing happened to ash-Sha'rānī. One of his enemies obtained a copy of his Al-Baḥr al-Mawrūd, left out parts and inserted others of a heretical nature, and then spread it as the original work. In defence ash-Sha'rānī was compelled to lay before the ‘Ulamā’ of Cairo his original copy signed by themselves, and so demonstrate the spuriousness of the other. Again, ash-Sha'rānī had to defend Ibn al-'Arabī against a similar injury. Some hostile theologians interpolated his Futūḥāt with heresy. Even Fakhrad-Din ar-Rāzī suffered from this; and there were enough suchcases for ‘Alī b. Muḥammad al-Miṣrī to make up a list of them. So we need not be at all surprised if this befell al-Ghazālī also …”
Diyā-yi Fārsī
Authors: Ḥasan Mas'ūd
Published: March 2011

AS Professor Robertson in his note on Ḍiyā-yi Fārsī (JRAS., Pts. I and II, 1951) referred to the MS. of the Majmū'a-i Ash'ār in the collections of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, I consulted the Majmū'a to find out anything that could throw further light on this little-known Persian poet. But unfortunately the MS., which bears no date of transcription and neither the name of the compiler nor of the copyist, is silent regarding the poet. The book is a mere collection of poems and fragments of famous as well as obscure poets who have been dealt with in no chronological order and with no scheme whatsoever. Only four odes or rather the fragments of four odes are recorded under the name of Ḍiyā'u'd-Dīn Fārsī. The first two of these do not occur in Badā'ūnī's Muntakhabu't-Tawārīkh where alone, so far as my information goes, his poems are accessible in print. The three couplets in the third fragment form the first three verses of the second ode in the Muntakhab which consists of twenty-two. In the fourth fragment, containing eight verses, only five, viz. the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 8th (with slight variations and one or two careless omissions) are found in the 1st ode of the Muntakhab, again comprising twenty-two verses.
Tibetan Inscriptions at Žva-ẖi Lha Khaṅ (Part I)
Authors: Richardson H. E.
Published: March 2011

The first two of these Tibetan inscriptions are from stone J. pillars (rdo riṅs) at Dbu Ru Žva-ẖi Lha Khaṅ, a small chapel some fifty miles north-east of Lhasa, on the left bank of the Skyid Chu river, almost opposite the point where, on its course down from Pho Mdo, the river takes a turn to the south-west.
Crosses from the Walls of Zaitun
Authors: Foster John
Published: March 2011

In November of 1952 I received a note from a medical doctor who some two years earlier had returned to Britain from Ch'üanchou, in the province of Fukien. A Chinese acquaintance had given him photographs of carved stones, Buddhist, Muslim, and Christian, collected by him in recent years, with the hope that someone in the West might publish them. At first glance I recognized fifteen undoubtedly Christian crosses, five with figures of angels on either side, and seven with considerable inscriptions. With the photographs came a copy of a Chinese monograph published by the collector, Wu Wen-liang, An Introduction to the Ancient Stone Carving of Ch'uan-chou. I had enlargements of the Christian set of photographs made, as published in plates II to XVII, 2 sent a set to Professor A. C. Moule, and sought his help. That help has been generously given, in translating part of Wu's monograph, in corresponding with other scholars who might decipher the inscriptions, and in assessing the significance of these new finds. It seems more suitable to recognize general indebtedness here than to refer to him by footnote at the end of every paragraph.
A Dravidian turn in Apabhraṃśa
Authors: de Vreese K.
Published: March 2011

In the chapter on Apabhraṃśa in Hemacandra's Prākrit Grammar (Siddhahema, iv, 330 if.) are found some instances of a curious phraseological turn to express the ablative of motion, which is unknown from OIA, viz.:—

iv, 355

jahāhontau āgado “from where he came”; tahāhontau āgado “from there he came”; kahāhontau āgado “from where did he come ?”;

iv, 379

mahu hontau gado, majjhu hontau gado “he went from me”;

iv, 372

tau hontau āgado, tujjha hontau āgado, tudhra hontau āgado “he came from you”;

iv, 380

amhahã hontau gado “he went from us”;

iv, 373

tumhahã hontau āgado “he came from you”.
The Possessive Adjectives of Late Prakrit
Authors: Schwarzschild L. A.
Published: March 2011

Possessive adjectives are not strictly essential parts of speech; their place can often be taken by the genitive of the personal pronouns. This has led to a certain lack of continuity in their development, which has, however, often been exaggerated. Apart from very isolated survivals like maīa, the Sanskrit possessives had already died out in Prakrit. The Modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars have entirely new formations, the most widespread of which is that in -r-. In the singular one can distinguish three main groups of possessive adjectives in r-:—

(1) Western Hindi, as characteristic of the first group has mērō, tērō for the possessive. (Oblique forms of the pronoun are mō, muj, mohi, muhi, and tō, tuj, tohi, tuhi.)

(2) Gujarati and most of the Rajasthani dialects except Mewati belong to a second group whose main characteristic is the vowel -a-: Gujarati mārō, tārō (oblique base ma, ta).

(3) Eastern Hindi and the Magadhan languages on the whole have -o- as the vowel of the possessive, thus Avadhi mōr, tōr (oblique mō, tō).
Hibil-Ziwa and the Parthian Prince
Authors: Drower E. S.
Published: March 2011

When revising my translation of the Mandæan scroll The Baptism of Hibil-Ziwa which has just been published by the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Studi e Testi, No. 176, I was struck by certain resemblances in the narrative to the story of the journey of the Parthian prince in search of the Pearl as related in the Syriac Acts of Judas Thomas. This poem is sometimes called the Hymn of the Apostle Thomas and by Professor F. G. Burkitt (the Quest, vol. v, July, 1914) the Hymn of the Soul. In his Zwei Gnostische Hymnen (Giessen, 1904) which contains both the Syriac text and the translation into German, Erwin Preuschen calls it Das Lied von der Erlösung.
The ParthianGōsānand Iranian Minstrel Tradition
Authors: Boyce Mary
Published: March 2011

The wordgōsānis known to occur twice in Persian literature. One passage is in the poemVīs u Rāmīn, now shown to be of Parthian origin. Here, while the king Mōbad is feasting with his wife and his brother Rāmīn, agōsān-i navāgarsings to them. His song is of a lofty tree, shading the whole earth. Beneath it is a sparkling spring, with sand in its sweet water. A bull of Gīlān grazes by it, drinking the water and eating the blossoms at its brink. “May this tree continue to cast its shade,” ends thegōsān, “the water ever flowing from the spring, the bull of Gīlān ever grazing at it!” His pretty song was well calculated, however, to frustrate this pious wish; for it was in fact a dangerous and provocative allegory, the tree representing Mōbad himself, the spring his wife Vīs, and the bull his brother Rāmīn, the queen's lover. This meaning the king instantly divined; but his rage flared up, not against thegōsān, but against his brother, on whom he sprang to kill him.
A petition to the Fāṭimid caliph al-'Āmir
Authors: Khan Geoffrey
Published: March 2011

The document which is published here comes from the Michaelides Collection, formerly belonging to G. A. Michaelides and now in the possession of Cambridge University Library. In addition to a substantial number of Arabic papyri this collection also contains Arabic paper documents. The paper documents are very varying in date, ranging from the Fāṭimid to the Ottoman periods. The present document is a petition from the Fāṭimid period. Some Fāṭimid documents of this type have already been published. Several unpublishedFāṭimid petitions have come to my attention. Most of these are from the Cairo Genizah and will be published as part of a corpus of Arabic Genizah documents. I am publishing the present document from the Michaelides collection separately.
A re-examination of al-Ash‘arī's theory ofkasbaccording toKitab al-Luma‛
Authors: Abrahamov Binyamin
Published: March 2011

Man's moral responsibility for his actions is a tenet of Islamic revelation which no Muslim has ever tried to reject. Likewise, the notion of God's omnipotence, which the Qur'ān teaches, has never been challenged by Muslims. However, there is a great difficulty in explaining how true moral responsibility coincides with God's omnipotence; if God creates all things, He also creates man's actions, and this being the case, man cannot be responsible for them. As is well known, the Mu'tazilite solution to the antinomy of God's omnipotence and man's responsibility consists in affirming man's capability, granted to him by God, of creating his own works. Adhering to their principle of God's justice, the Mu'tazilites asserted that if God were to create a man's unbelief while commanding him to believe, He would be unjust in punishing him for unbelief, since the man could not, in this situation, help but disbelieve. According to them, ought implies can. In upholding man's responsibility for his own actions, the Mu'tazilites saved God's justice, but according to the Ash'arites, detracted from God's omnipotence. The Ash'arites taught that since God is the sole creator, He creates human actions. In order to safeguard both God's omnipotence and man's responsibility, al-Ash'arī, having been influenced by the teaching of al-Najjār, developed a theory ofkasb(lit. acquisition) according to which God creates man's actions while man appropriates them and thus becomes responsible for them.
Une etoffe orientale, le kaunakes
Authors: Przyluski Jean
Published: March 2011

En, 1887, Léon Heuzey consacra au kaunakès une étude fondamentale dont il n'est pas superflu de reproduire ici les passages essentiels, car cet article n'est pas mentionné dans plusieurs travaux récents dont j'aurai ci-après à discuter les conclusions.
Notes on the Nyāya-praveśa by Śaṅikarasvāmin
Authors: Tucci Giuseppe
Published: March 2011

The Nyāya-praveśa by Śaṅkarasvāmin, recently printed in the Gaekwad's Oriental Series of Baroda, is a text of great interest for the study of Indian logic; in fact, in spite of its conciseness it contains an extremely clear exposition of the Buddhist logic as it was taught in India, at least among some particular schools, as those of the Yogācāras and the Sautrāntikas in that lapse of time which separates Diṅnāga from Dharmakīrti. That the book was written after Diṅnāga, but before Dharmakīrti, is proved by its peculiarities, which in many a point differentiate the theories held by the author from those maintained by the other two great logicians already quoted.
Two Notes on Indian Head-dress
Authors: Fábri C. L.
Published: March 2011

The importance of the history of costumes and fashions cannot be emphasized enough. Concerning India practically nothing has been published in this line, barring some discussions on the costumes of the Mughal period. A thorough examination of small details would possibly yield very valuable results, and the following two brief notes may be considered as a modest contribution to such a study of Indian head-dress.
Grammatical Sketch of the Ple-Těmer Language
Authors: Schebesta Paul , Blagden C. O.
Published: March 2011

The translation and publication of this article have been unavoidably delayed by the pressure of other work. For typographical reasons the Sakai words, written originally in the Anthropos alphabet, have been transcribed into the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association, and an explanation of some of the symbols used may be helpful.
Discovery of the lost Phonetic Sutras of Panini
Authors: Vira Raghu
Published: March 2011

The Taittīnya-Āraṇyaka mentions, for the first time, the various constituents of the ancient science of phonetics:

Prap. vii, An. 2.

At the present day no Śikṣā work contemporaneous with the above and comprising all the said parts is to be traced. In general, the Prätiśākhyas and the still later Śikṣās deal at sufficiently great length with traditional Sanskrit phonetics of their own times; but the common source from which Patañali derived most of his quotations, which was afterwards used by Candragomin to form his Varṇa-sūtras, and which has been extensively quoted and reproduced by subsequent commentators of such high repute as Jayāditya, Jinendrabuddhi, the author of Prakriyā-Saṅgraha of the Jain Śākaṭāyana School, Sṣṭridhara and a host of others, was little known till recent times.
Shāh Jahān III
Authors: Burn R.
Published: March 2011

In his interesting note on the Rāīsīna grant Pt. B. N. Reu describes the puppet ruler who was set up by Ghāzī-ud-dīn after the murder of 'Ālamgīr II as Muhī-us-sunnat, with the title of Shāh Jahān II. He has evidently followed the Sairul-mutaākhīrīn (III, p. 375, Cambray's edition). But Mr. S. H. Hodivala has shown (p. 310, “Historical studies in Mughal numismatics”) that there is better authority for describing him as the son of Muhī-us-sunnat, and that his name was Muhī-ul-millat or Muhī-ud-dīn. In any case he was the third Shāh Jahān, as this regal title had also been assumed by Rafi'-ud-daula in a.h. 1131 (a.d. 1719).
The “Kitāb al-muntaẒam” of Ibn al-Jauzī
Authors: de Somogyi Joseph
Published: March 2011

It is at a relatively late date that the writing of history begins in the Arabic literature. The Arabs of the earliest period of Islām seem to lack all historical sense, and their theologians proved entirely hostile to historical studies. The impetus towards such investigations was not given until the second half of the second century A.H., when, under the ‘Abbāsides, the Arabs came into close touch with the Sāsānides, whose political ideas and civilization were accepted by the caliphs of Baghdād. Persian customs, Persian knowledge pervaded the empire and brought forth one of the most remarkable phenomena of history: the subjugation of the conqueror by the conquered, possessed of higher intellectual gifts.
The Two Ends and the Middle Way A Suggested Reconstruction
Authors: Davids C. A. F. Rhys
Published: March 2011

Of the five opportunities given me these thirty-nine years for such a talk on such an occasion as this, the present one may well be the last. I have on these occasions considered, in the Buddhist field, Women, the Will, Natural Causation, and the Man as Real. I would now say a few words on that which is, historically speaking, the most central subject of all—the subject which is, by general assent, within and without that religion, the New Word with which it was introduced, the first Mantra recorded as of the Founder of it, the so-called Benares ‘sermon’. For we may talk much about legends of him on the one hand, or about the many ways in which his teaching expanded at later periods, in so-called philosophy and in this and that word-value, obscuring the man-value, but the one thing of chief historical importance is and remains the Mantras he first uttered as teacher, and their significance in the religious history of the there and then. To this I would add, in the pertinent phrase of a recent synoptical narrative, “the meaning which these will have had in the mind of their original author.”
Epigraphic Notes
Authors: Sircar Dines Chandra
Published: March 2011

According to Sanskrit Lexicons the word hiraṇyagarbha has two principal meanings. First, it is a well-known epithet of Lord Brahman; secondly, it is the name of one of the ṣōḍaśa-mahādāna, i.e. the sixteen Great Gifts, which are enumerated and explained in books like the Matsya-Purāṇa, Hēmādri's Vratakhaṇḍa, and Vallālasēna's Dānasāgara. The sixteen mahādānas are dāna (offering) of the following things:—
Daḳā'iḳ al-Ḥurūf by ‘Abd al-Ra’ ūf of Singkel
Authors: Johns A.
Published: March 2011

Maka terkadang kechil rupa dalam chermin itu sebab kechil chermin, dan terkadang panjang ia sebab panjang chermin; dan terkadang bergerak ia sebab bergerak chermin, dan terkadang bergerak ia sebab bergerak chermin, dan terkadang berbalēk ia, apabila ada chermin itu di-atas atau di-bawah; dan terkadang berbetulan kanan-nya dengan kanan yang berchermin (E. 148) tatkala banyak chermin, dan terkadang berbetulan kanan-nya dengan kiri-nya, apabila ada chermin itu di-hadapannya. Maka ada-lah sakalian itu menunjokkan kapada rupa yang kelihatan dalam (C. 56a) chermin, bukan ia sa-kali-kali diri yang berchermin dan bukan ia lain daripada-nya pun karena yang berchermin itu tetap jua ia saperti ada-nya, tiada ia berubah; hanya yang berubah-ubah itu kenyataan-nya dalam chermin jua sebab berubah-ubah penerimaan chermin: demikian-lah kita hendak mithalkan dengan tiada tashbih akan tajalli Hakk ta'ala pada hamba-nya berbagai-bagai ia, sebab berbagai-bagai hamba-nya dan segala hal merēka itu jua.
Notes on the Edition of the Kitāb al-Nafs ascribed to Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn
Authors: Ḥasan Muhammad Ṣaghir
Published: March 2011

Kitāb al-Nafs al-mansūb li Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn, published by Dr. Aḥmad Fu'ād al-Ahwāni along with the Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-Nafs of Ibn Rushd (Imprimerie Misr S.A.E., Cairo, 1950), appears to be the earliest extant Arabic commentary of the De Anima of Aristotle. The edition is based on the only known manuscript, in the Escorial Library of Madrid. Though the opening words of the text clearly indicate that it is the translation of Aristotle's De Anima, it is in fact a commentary and not a translation. Hartwig Derenbourg, the cataloguer of the Escorial Library, was misled by the opening words of the manuscript and has, therefore, ascribed it to Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn. Casiri, an earlier cataloguer, was equally wrong when he ascribes the work to Ibn Rushd. Terms and expressions clearly demonstrate that the work is either a maiden attempt of Isḥāq, or done by somebody who preceded him and was not associated with his school. Terms such as (form), (matter), (the final cause) and (the common sense), and the like which occur in the work were represented by Isḥāq and his school by expressions such as , and respectively. It is, therefore, difficult to accept the ascription of the work to Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn.
The Legend that al-Walīd asked for and obtained help from the Byzantine Emperor. A Suggested Explanation
Authors: Creswell K. A. C.
Published: March 2011

Arabic authors are fond of recording the help that al-Walīd received from the Byzantine Emperor when he was building the Mosque of Madīna and the Great Mosque of Damascus.

Let us take Madīna first. Balādhurī (c. 868) merely states that “al-Walīd wrote to 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Azīz, his Governor at Madīna, ordering him to demolish the mosque and reconstruct it. He had money, mosaics and marble sent to him and eighty Rūmī and Coptic craftsmen, inhabitants of Syria and Egypt… ”
The Bird 'Anūq
Authors: Kopf L.
Published: March 2011

It has long been known that the ancient Arab philologists not infrequently misinterpreted difficult words and that, consequently, Arabic lexicons contain a number of unwarranted explanations. The principal reason for such errors was that rare words were often interpreted by mere guess, when the fault lay with the professional philologists. In other instances, certain words were misunderstood and wrongly applied before Arabic philology came into existence and the philologists had no choice but to assign them the meanings attributed by tradition or actually found in oral or literary usage, although when checked by literary evidence, the explanations were often wrong. Words of foreign origin in particular underwent that process on being accepted into the Arabic language but doubtless, indigenous words, too, became so affected.
An Indian Contribution to the Study of Arabic Lexicography—The “Bul

gh

a” of Muḥammad Ṣiḍḍīq Ḥasan

Kh

an Bahādur (1832–1890)
Authors: Haywood John A.
Published: March 2011

We are at present witnessing a timely revival of interest in Arabic lexicography. The completion of Lane's Dictionary is planned by the International Congress of Orientalists. A small part of Noldecke's projected dictionary has been printed. J. Kraemer has drawn attention to Fischer's voluminous notes for a new dictionary of classical Arabic. All this fills a real need, but it contributes only incidentally to the study of Arabic lexicography. Indeed, the tendency is now to obtain material for dictionaries from Arabic literature direct, rather than from the old philological works. On the other hand, there are signs that the study of Arabic lexicography as an end in itself, rather than as a source of vocabulary, is gaining ground. There is the new Beirouth edition of the Lisān al 'Arab. Moreover, two theses on Arabic lexicography have recently been presented for higher degrees—that of L. Kopf to Jerusalem, and that of A. Darwish (dealing especially with al Khalīl ibn Aḥmad and the Kitāb al ‘Ain) to London. Still, there is a pressing need for more work in this field, which presents fascinating problems. For example, whence did the Arabs derive their lexicographical technique? What influence had Greek and Sanskrit models? What does European lexicography—a comparatively late growth—owe to the Arabs. These questions are not yet answered and they are not likely to be answered so long as Semiticists and Indo-European philologists work in isolation. Moreover, lexicography is hardly taken seriously as a science even now and little has been written on European lexicography.
Kinuni—an Arab Manor on the Coast of Kenya
Authors: Kirkman J. S.
Published: March 2011

On the coast of East Africa there were, in addition to walled towns such as Gedi, Mombasa, Ungwana, etc., numerous small settlements consisting of one or two houses and a mosque, which corresponded to the villas of the late Roman Empire or the manors of contemporary Europe. One of the most interesting of these minor sites is at Kurwitu, between Takaungu and Kikambala, about twenty-five miles north of Mombasa (Fig. 1).
Tibet in Anglo-Chinese Relations: 1767–1842
Authors: Lamb Alistair
Published: March 2011

From 1764, when the British position in Bengal was established beyond challenge, until 1842, when the Treaty of Nanking gave Britain the island colony of Hong Kong, the shortest route between British and Chinese territory lay across the Himalaya mountains. Until the Gurkha War of 1814–1816, the southern slopes of the Himalayas and the states that lay along them formed a narrow buffer between British territory and Tibet. As a result of the Gurkha War, British influence was brought right up to the Tibetan border, through the annexation of Kumaon in the western Himalayas, and through the establishment of a vague protectorate over the tiny hill state of Sikkim. Tibet had been evolving into a Chinese dependency since the beginning of the eighteenth century. This process, nearly complete by 1750, reached its final stage in 1792, when Tibet became, to all intents and purposes, an integral part of the Chinese Empire. The British in India were well aware of their proximity to this outpost of the power of the Chinese Emperor. In a period when British dealings with China were confined to trade at a single port, Canton, in conditions that were far from ideal, it would have been most surprising if no attempts had been made to develop Anglo-Chinese relations across the far from impassable barrier of the Himalayas.
John of Plano Carpini's Return from the Mongols
Authors: Sinor Denis
Published: March 2011

In 1943, at the Bibliothèque Nationale, whilst browsing in the Historiae Hungaricae Fontes Domestici edited by M. Florianus, I came across a short notice, No. 2 of Adnotationes Historicae seculi XII et XIII, entitled: “Quos Bela rex Hungarorum, velut dominus papa, nuntios ad Thartaros direxit.” An explanatory note states: “Notitia … de electione novi imperatoris Tartarorum, et nuptiis Stephani Belae IV-i filii cum filia regis Cumanorum celebratis descripta ex codice Parisiensi Luxemb. Fol. 22. sec. XIH-i, edita fuit in opere collectitio cui nomen “Thesaurus historicus” Budapestini anno 1878.” It took me some time to establish that the “Thesaurus historicus” mentioned here was in fact the Hungarian periodical Történelmi Tár. Fortunately I had no difficulty in finding the volume referred to by Florianus, and in it I saw reproduced the same Latin text accompanied by a note to the effect that the MS referred to contained also a version of Piano Oarpini's Historia Mongalorum. There was also a reference to the “Zeitschrift für deutsche Literature, XVII”. I had been chasing this reference intermittently for years when, in 1951, Mile. Marie-Thérèse d'Alverny, conservateur adjoint at the Bibliothèque Nationale, told me that Marczali's reference was wrong, and was to be corrected to “Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum”! There I found an article by W. Studemund, in which the note mentioned by Florianus and Marczali had been published, probably for the first time.
A Strange Rule of Smṛti, and a Suggested Solution
Authors: Derrett J. Duncan M.
Published: March 2011

Since the period between May, 1955, and December, 1956, when the Hindus of India lost their system of “personal law”, and the latter was replaced by a new system comprised in the so-called “Hindu Code”, the Sanskrit books which contain the accumulated learning of the dharmaśāstra, or so much of the ancient Indian “science of religious-and-civil law” as survives the ravages of time and the neglect of private owners of manuscripts, have ceased to be the fundamental source of Hindu law, and it is only in marginal contexts that for practical purposes reference to them will ever again be made in that country. Yet the relegation of their ancient learning to practical uselessness may be expected to have a beneficial effect on the study of the dharmaśāstra itself, and that literature, which has been widely neglected in all continents, may once again receive the volume of attention which it could command about eighty years ago. About that time it was still very doubtful what the śāstra had to say on topics of practical importance, and Bühler and Jolly, for example, could be sure that their researches, despite their predilection for the ancient and the “original”, would be of use in the Courts in addition to providing material for academic exercises. By the end of the first decade of this century it was evident that at least as far as British India was concerned the law was about to develop along lines which were to a certain extent incompatible with the śāstra, and the relation of academic study to practical advocacy became intolerably delicate.
Four-line Yamaka in the Old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa
Authors: Hooykaas C.
Published: March 2011

The variety of yamakas in the OJR is roughly restricted to seven main types. The number of yamaka-stanzas is very considerable, about 240. Their distribution over the whole poem seems to be rather unequal, but this lack of balance can be ascribed to the presence of three extended episodes. (1) Sarga XVI.1–14 describes the building of the damconnection (setubandha) between the continent of India and the island of Lĕṅkā, between Mount Mahendra and Mount Suwela; the rest of the sarga (15–47) counts some twenty yamaka-stanzas devoted to a description of the loveliness of Mount Suwela. (2) The description of The Paradise on Earth in Restored Lĕṅkā, XXIV.97–123, consists nearly exclusively of yamakas. (3) The Aerial Flight from Lĕṅkā, to Ayodhyā by Heavenly Chariot Puṣpaka (XXIV.253–XXVI.9) consists of nearly nothing else. Once these passages are lifted from the Table, yamakas appear to be scattered more or less equally over a majority of sargas; we find the yamaka-form often continued in some consecutive stanzas.
Zaitún's Five Centuries of Sino-foreign Trade
Authors: Smith D. Howard
Published: March 2011

The modern city of Ch'üan-Chou, in the Province of Fukien, China, and Situated Near to Amoy on the Formosa Strait, was from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries the chief port for the ocean-going trade between China and the West, particularly during the Sung (A.D. 960–1280) and the Yüan (A.D. 1280–1368) dynasties. An extensive and lucrative trade was carried on with Java, Sumatra, India, and the Persian Gulf. Through Arabic, Persian, and Syriac speaking intermediaries precious products of China found their way on to the European markets. In the thirteenth century the city of Zaitún, as it was known in the West, excited the admiration and wonder of the Polos, the early Franciscan missionaries, and Muslim travellers by the size and wealth of its commercial undertakings. With the fall of the Mongol (Yüan) dynasty about the middle of the fourteenth century the city fell on evil times from which it never fully recovered, for though some considerable trade was carried on during the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, Ch'üan-chou as an international port declined, and its great rival, Canton, grew from the time that Portuguese traders were allowed to establish themselves at Macao.
The Trade of the English East India Company in the Far East, 1623–84
Authors: Bassett D. K.
Published: March 2011

Much has been written about British activities in the Far East, particularly in China, in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, especially by American historians. Dr. H. B. Morse's monumental Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China was first in the field and Professor E. H. Pritchard and J. K. Fairbank have been worthy successors. English scholarship on the subject is naturally somewhat older but, possibly for that reason, the work done has not usually been as detailed or thorough: an exception is Michael Greenberg's recent book, British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800–42. To find general surveys of Anglo-Chinese relations by British writers which extend back into the seventeenth century, it is necessary to turn to the books of A. J. Sargent and J. Bromley Eames. But as far as the seventeenth century is concerned historical research has been scanty. That Greenberg should have regarded a summary of events before the period with which he was immediately concerned as sufficient for his purpose was only natural. Fairbank's introductory chapters are more comprehensive but show greater interest in the attitude of the Chinese to external intruders than in the efforts of the East India Company to intrude. Sargent, as he himself acknowledged, was mainly concerned with the nineteenth century and his attempt to provide a historical background was very superficial. Eames paid considerable attention to early British contacts with China but was prone to errors of fact which make him unreliable.
Abu'l-Qasim al-Bustī and his refutation of Ismā'īlism
Authors: Stern S. M.
Published: March 2011

This is a preliminary account of Abu'l-Qāsim al-Bustī's refutation of Ismā'īlism with what information is available about the author as a background.
Notes on some words meaning “immediately” in Middle Indo-Aryan
Authors: Schwarzschild L. A.
Published: March 2011

One of the major advantages of the study of synonyms is that it provides a link between descriptive and historical linguistics. In Professor Ullmann's words: “Synonymic structure implies the formation of associative groups between senses on the ‘langue’ level. The firmness and constancy of such associations can best be gauged from the diachronistic developments which they may initiate.” Among the first words to be studied from this point of view were the Middle English adverbs which meant “swiftly” and later “immediately”. Words of this meaning are of interest also in Middle Indo-Aryan where they form a closely-knit group. This is proved by their formal as well as their semantic development.
The Islamic Arabic Manuscripts in the Mingana Collection
Authors: Hopwood Derek
Published: March 2011

The Mingana Collection of Oriental MSS., in the Selly Oak Colleges Library, consists of some 2,700 items purchased and brought to Birmingham by the late Dr. Mingana.
Two Images of Agni and Yajñapuruṣa in South India
Authors: Harle J. C.
Published: March 2011

Some twenty years ago, Professor J. N. Banerjea identified a statue on the north gopura of the Naṭarāja temple at Cidambaram (Fig. I), hitherto considered to represent Agni, as Yajñapuruṣa, a minor manifestation of Viṣṇu. No other image of Yajñapuruṣa being known at the time, this was an important identification. It served, moreover, to call attention to the iconography of an extremely unusual figure as it possessed two heads (with their necks, rather than simply a pair of faces) and was directly derived, so Banerjea claimed, from a verse in the Ṛgveda.
The Anglo-Maratha Confrontation of June and July 1803
Authors: Bennell A. S.
Published: March 2011

At the beginning of June, 1803, a new phase opened in the relations of the British Company and the Marathas. It was symbolized by two events; the march northwards from Poona on 4th June of the detachment of East India Company troops commanded by Arthur Wellesley and the assembly near Malkapur on the 5th or 6th June of the armies of Daulat Eao Sindhia and the Raja of Berar. Since what was at stake, in diplomatic terms, was the contest of the British Company and Sindhia for overlordship of the Peshwa, it was appropriate that in military terms this should be expressed by the confrontation, not far from the capital city of the Maratha people, of the Company's army and what could be formed of an army of the Maratha Confederacy.
South-Arabian Bronze Plaques of the Royal Asiatic Society
Authors: Jamme A.
Published: March 2011

I am much indebted to the Royal Asiatic Society for having given me the opportunity to study three bronze plaques owned by it and also for having sent me excellent photographs of them.

RAS a = RÉS 3125; forgery after CIH 516/3–9.

Plaque:

11·35 cm. × 16·8; thickness: 0·35 cm. (top) and 0·45 (bottom).

Remarks on RÉS 3125: add a word divider before b in 1. 1 and at the end of 1. 8 omit the word divider at the end of the line.
The Account of the Yavanas in theYuga-Purāṇa
Authors: Sircar D. C.
Published: March 2011

Students of early Indian history are aware that theYuga-purāṇasection of theGārgī-saṁhitācontains an account of the Yavanas or Indo-Bactrian Greeks, important because it speaks of a Yavana invasion of Puṣpapura (i.e. the city of Pāṭaliputra, the capital of the Mauryas) and some other areas apparently forming parts of the Maurya empire, and assigns it to a date shortly after Śāliūka who was a descendant of Aśoka and flourished about 200 b.c. So the Yavanas invaded Pāṭaliputra not long before the Brāhmaṇa general Puṣyamitra killed his master, the last Maurya king Bṛhadratha, and occupied the Maurya throne about 185 b.c. There can be little doubt that the success of the Greeks against the Mauryas is associated with the dynastic revolution, and that the rise of Puṣyamitra was due to the Greek occupation of Maurya territories.
Sāmanta—its varying significance in Ancient India
Authors: Gopal Lallanji
Published: March 2011

In the epigraphic and literary records of medieval Hindu India the term sāmanta is used to mean vassals and nobles. Thus the sāmantas were vitally connected with the structure of Indian society. But, in spite of its importance, the term has not received a full-length study.

According to its derivation the term sāmanta is an adjective and means ‘being on all sides’, ‘neighbouring’ or ‘bordering’. In earlier works we find it used in this sense.
The Political Attitudes of the Mu'tazilah
Authors: Watt W. Montgomery
Published: March 2011

The following is an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of Mu'tazilite theology by looking at the political attitudes of its exponents. I am much indebted to H. S. Nyberg's pioneer work, notably his article Mu'tazila in the Encyclopedia of Islam and his edition of Kitāb al-Intiṣār. If different conclusions are reached, that is because his work has made possible a more radical estimate of the sources.
Pottery Sites Near Aden
Authors: Doe D. B.
Published: March 2011

In the vicinity of Aden and Abyan there are many pottery sites of archaeological interest, which are still little known, although this is in no way due to any difficulty in finding the sites for there is usually extensive surface evidence. In fact in some places wind erosion has exposed thick layers of pottery fragments.
Egypt and the Caliphate 1915–1946
Authors: Kedourie Elie
Published: March 2011

It is common knowledge that religion and politics in Islam are closely related, and that in this relationship, the prevalent mode has been for the man of the sword to dominate the man of the pen. This is so both in theory and practice: passive obedience to the ruler has been erected into a religious duty, while religious dignitaries, muftis, qadls, and such have been usually content to play the rôle of

an attendant lord, one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two,

Advise the prince; no doubt an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;…
Ratna the Son of the Cāhamāṇa Hammīra and the Sack of Chitor
Authors: Singh Jogendra Prasad
Published: March 2011

Dr. Kalika Ranjan Qanungo's short work “Studies in Rajput History” consists of six lectures on the history of Rajasthan. The first is entitled “A Critical Analysis of the Padminī Legend”, and we disagree with Dr. Qanungo in many vital points, the most important of which is his theory on the main cause of the sack of Chitor by ‘Alā-ud-Dīn Khaljī. His error is linked up with his confusion about the various chiefs named Ratnasiṁha mentioned by different sources.
The Wooden and Bamboo Strips Found at Mo-Chü-Tzu (Kansu)
Authors: Loewe Michael
Published: March 2011

The recent discovery of a comparatively large collection of inscribed wooden and bamboo strips in north-west China has aroused considerable interest on the part of Chinese scholars, as the material concerns both the extension of the Han government and the early methods of textual compilation in China. As the material finds are not available for inspection, the following notes can be no more than a summary of the information given in the few Chinese articles that have been published on the subject.
The Question of the Vidátha in Vedic India
Authors: Sharma Jagdish Prasad
Published: March 2011

There are more views and opinions about the nature and character of the vidátha than the number of scholars who have worked on the subject. That the sources are open to different interpretations is obvious from the divergent views held about the origin, development and functions of the sabhā́ (council) and sámiti (assembly), the chief political institutions of Vedic India. The Vedic literature provides numerous vague references to the vidátha. In the Ṛg Veda alone at least 97 verses refer to it, while the Atharva Veda mentions it in about 20 hymns. The Vājasaneyī Saṁhitā, the Brāhmaṇas and the Ṯaittirīya Āraṇyaka also contain references to the vidátha. Most of the evidence, however, is provided by the Ṛg Vedic hymns, and references to this institution are fewer in the later compositions of Vedic literature.
The Mission of an Ottoman Secret Agent in France in 1486
Authors: Ménage V. L.
Published: March 2011

Upon the sudden death of Meḥemmed II in May, 1481, his two surviving sons, each hastily summoned from his provincial governorate by his own partisans among the Ottoman statesmen, set out with all speed to Istanbul. The race was won by the elder, Bāyezīd; but the younger son Jem had so strong and numerous a following that it was not until July, 1482, that he was finally obliged to admit defeat and take refuge at Rhodes with the Knights of St. John. The Grand Master, Pierre d'Aubusson, with a lively appreciation of the value of his guest as a hostage to insure Christendom against aggression by the new sultan—it was only two years since the Knights had beaten off a determined Ottoman siege—lost no time in removing him to France, where he would be less exposed to the danger of assassination by one of Bayezld's agents. For six years, well-treated but strictly guarded, Jem was confined in various houses of the Order in Savoy and France, his last prison, from whence he was handed into the custody of the Pope at the end of 1488, being the castle of Bourganeuf, in the present department of La Creuse, some 40 km. west of the Grand Master's native Aubusson. Jem's subsequent detention in Rome was brought to an end when he fell as a prize of war to Charles VIII of France in 1495, only to die at Naples a few weeks later.