bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Confirmation of Endowments to Priests and Officials by Samsi-Adad V and his son Adad-Nirari III and by Sargon in the Reign of Sennacherib
Authors: Johns C. W. H.
Published: March 2011

Dr. Johns left among his papers a closely written and almost complete manuscript to which he had given no distinctive title. In looking over this manuscript I saw at once that he had copied and joined up K. 2800, Sm. 318, and K. 2655. At any rate, it is obvious that he would have made these joins, if he had been able to return to the British Museum, and would have seen that K. 2655 actually completes the copy of the last edict of Adad-nirari III on the obverse. A discovery of this kind is too important to remain in obscurity, and the discovery surely ought to go to the illustrious scholar who made it. There was only a transcription of the text in the manuscript, and after copying and joining up the three fragments I have given the author's edition with some notes to bring it up-to-date, as the author would undoubtedly have done better than myself. Moreover, Dr. Johns has also given an edition of his own text, K. 3042, in his Assyrian Deeds and Documents, 1077, referring to ancient endowments by Shalmaneser, Tiglathpileser, Adad-nirari III, and Sargon, and confirmed by Sennacherib. This text has also remained unedited for many years. The manuscript, therefore, contained not only a new document of extraordinary importance, but the first edition of an equally important document, and the two texts throw much light upon the history of Assyria from Šamš-Adad III to Sennacherib.
Four Hymns to Gula
Authors: Mullo-Weir C. J.
Published: March 2011

Hymns to Gula are few and scattered. In the present article some of these are brought together. They are treated in the following order:—

(a) King,Bab. Magic and Sorcery, No. 6, 11. 71–95, with the variants there cited and a new variant in Ebeling,KAR. 341. Ašu-il-laprayer.

(b) King, ibid., No. 4, 11. 24 ff. Ašu-il-laprayer.

(c) Craig,Religious Texts, i, 18 (ed. Martin,Textes Religieux, p. 70), with a variant inKAR. 41. Probably akišvb. Bilingual.

(d) K. 232 (= Craig, ibid., ii, 16–18). Perhaps a dedication hymn. Semitic.
The Portuguese and Turks in the Indian Ocean in the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Dames M. Longworth
Published: March 2011

In his paper L'Arrivée des Portugais en Chine, published in T'oung Pao in 1912, M. Cordier, before giving a more detailed account of the events in the Further East following on the taking of Malacca in 1511, gave a lucid sketch of the events accompanying the first establishment of Portuguese power in Eastern seas. I consider that these events require to be further set forth, for as far as I am aware the existing histories do not give any adequate and consecutive account of the struggle for the mastery of the Arabian Sea carried out by the Portuguese against the Muḥammadan states, and more especially against the Turks, who in the sixteenth century were the most powerful military state in the world. In this paper I propose to deal with this subject to the best of my ability.
Geographical Notes
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

The name of the important Seleucid city which occupied the site of the ancient Carchemish is still uncertain. German scholars have identified it with the Oropus or Europus of classical geography, but as is pointed out by Commander Hogarth, who has discussed the question very fully in Carchemish, pt. i, pp. 19 sqq. (1914), if Oropus is identified with the town placed by the Peutinger Table between Birejik and the Sajur, and this again is identified with Carchemish, the mileage attached to it will not agree with the actual facts. There is the further difficulty that, although one of the modern names given to the site is Jerabîs, which could be derived from Oropus, or rather its later Greek deformation Europus, the more usual and probably older name is Jerablûs, which is Hierapolis.
ʻAziz Koka
Authors: Beveridge H.
Published: March 2011

ʻAzīz koka, “the beloved foster-brother” of the Emperor Akbar, is, I think, the most interesting character among the Agra courtiers of the sixteenth century, nnd the enduring, David and Jonathan like, friendship between him and Akbar is the most touching thing in the ponderous volumes of Abul Fazl's history. Not that 'Azīz was the best man among Akbar's servants, or that he was superior to his age. He was violent and full of faults, and there is little doubt the Hindu Rajah Todar Mal and the Muhammedan historian Nizāmu-d-dī Aḥmad were better men. But 'Azīz is more interesting and likeable, and we know more about him, and feel towards him as we do to the crabbed Badayūnī. Both men were honest and fearless, and had an outspokenness which is very refreshing after the pedantry and tortuousness of Abul Fazl. The author of the Masiru-l-Umara accuses 'Azīz of treachery (nifāq), because he wrote plainly to a friend and comrade of Akbar's faults, but he also admits, that 'Azīz had not a particle of timeservingness in his nature: “Aṣia zamāna-sāz nabūd.” He was the only man who had the courage to stand up against Akbar's sciolism and crude heresies, and he acted upon his convictions, for he relinquished his office and his emoluments and went off to Mecca rather than continue to serve an infidel king.
Some Words and Sentences Illustrating the Argot of the Doms
Authors: Cape C. Phillips , Konow Sten
Published: March 2011

The secret language of the Ḍoms, as of other Indian “Gipsy” tribes, is very unsatisfactorily known. I have made some remarks on it in vol. xi of Sir George Grierson's Linguistic Survey, where I have also given references to such other papers about the subject as I have come across. But very much remains to be done, and we must be thankful for the new materials which are now made available. The compiler of the list says about them:—

“The following is a collection of words and sentences in use by the Magahiyā Ḍoms, who have made Benares their centre or fixed abode. The language is known to wandering Ḍoms in the Panjāb, and also to those who live in the United Provinces. It was apparently unknown to village Ḍoms in Bengal, though the town and city dwellers in some parts of the Province were familiar with it. Most of the words and sentences were obtained from gipsy Ḍoms who visited Benares in 1914, and then settled in the city, where they came under the influence of the Wesleyan Methodist Mission, of which the present writer was superintendent. The sedentary Ḍoms of Benares city and the village Ḍoms of the district are acquainted with this argot.
A new Interpretation of Akbar's “Infallibility” Decree of 1579
Authors: Buckler F. W.
Published: March 2011

In the month of Rajab, a.h. 987 (September, 1579), the ‘Ulamā of the Mual Empire issued a joint fatwa (maḥẓar), by which, according to Vincent Smith, “Akbar was solemnly recognized as being superior in his capacity of Imām-i-‘Ādil to any other interpreter of Muslim law, and practically was invested with the attributes of infallibility.” He therefore calls it the “Infallibility Decree”, and he interprets it as the turning-point of Akbar's religious life. He regards it as the “momentous innovation which should extend the autocracy of Akbar from the temporal to the spiritual side, and make him Pope as well as King”. By this step he rendered impossible all opposition to any future developments of his religious policy. This limited interpretation of the maḥẓar, however, in the light of the Dīn Ilāhī, seems to obscure the real policy of Akbar.
Assyrian Prescriptions for Diseases of the Ears
Authors: Thompson R. Campbell
Published: March 2011

The following translations are from the texts in my Assyrian Medical Textsfor sick men suffering from ear-trouble.

No. 80. AM. 34, 4 (K. 2422) + 37, 2 (K. 7096 + 9059 + 11916 + 16434) + 35, 4 (K. 10787) + 4, 7 (81–7–27, 61, already translated as a fragment, No. 14, PRSM. 1924, 15); AM. 33, 1, and 34, 1 (K. 3215 + 3666 + 8109 + 10453) + 36, 1 (K. 3696 + 7221 + 10767 + 11788) + 12, 2 (K. 10019) + 34, 5 (S. 379); AM. 97, 6 (K. 3486); AM. 38, 4 (K. 6661) + 37, 10 (K. 10498) + 38, 1 (K. 13492). From an examination of these four pieces of tablets it seems reasonably certain that they form parts of the same original whole. At the same time it should be observed that AM. 37, 2, rev., has three air holes in the body of the text, and that these occur in the others only in the vertical lines whch divide the columns. Three of the above are in KMI. 18, K. 6661, K. 10498, and 19, S. 379.
On the Tibetan Transcriptions of Si-Hia Words
Authors: Wolfenden Stuart N.
Published: March 2011

SINCE, during the last few years, Si-Hia texts with transliterations into Tibetan character have been brought to light, it seems that a new aspect may be put upon the morphology of this language.

Previously the texts studied provided us only with transcriptions into Chinese characters, and it is on their evidence that reconstructions of Si-Hia words were first based. Writing in 1916 with this class of material before him, Laufer consequently stated that “consonantal prefixes can be pointed out only in four cases: k-ṅü or k-ṅu(‘five’), k-ṅum (‘heaven‘), r-ni (‘ear’), and possibly m-ru, m-lu (‘worm’)”.
Art. XI.—Life and Labours of Mr. Edward Rehatsek
Authors: Arbuthnot F. F.
Published: March 2011

A short notice of this most industrious and intelligent Orientalist has already appeared in the obituary notices of the Journal of January, 1892. But as my deceased friend had devoted the whole of his life to the cultivation and propagation of Oriental knowledge and Oriental literature, it was considered desirable to place on record a more detailed account of his varied labours in this particular field of thought and culture.
VII. The Arzawan Letters and other Hittite Notes
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

In the new volume of the Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler der königlichen Museen zu Berlin (Heft xii, 1915) Dr. Otto Schroeder has published a revised copy (No. 202) of what is known as the Second Arzawa Tablet found at Tel el-Amarna and now in Berlin. As I was the first to point out many years ago (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, xi, 1889), the text of the tablet, like that of the First Tablet addressed to the king of Arzawa, is in the Hittite language. The revised copy of the Second Tablet is a great improvement on what has been previously at our disposal, and with the help of the Hittite Vocabularies (for which see JRAS. October, 1914) and various other tablets from Boghaz Keui, it is now possible to present a translation of it. The tablet contains a letter from a Hittite named Labbaya who was employed in escorting the caravans from Khalirabbat or Eastern Cappadocia to Canaan, and who with his two sons was accused of intriguing with the enemies of the Pharaoh and even occupying Canaanitish cities. We hear a good deal about him in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, which includes two letters from him in Semitic Babylonian, rebutting the accusations that had been brought against him and protesting his fidelity to the Egyptian Government.
Some Foreign Birds and Beasts in Chinese Books
Authors: Moule A. C.
Published: March 2011

The following pages bring together passages from Chinese books, some of which have been translated before in a different context, illustrating them by reproductions of woodcuts which are unfamiliar and of great interest.
A Western Organ in Medieval China I. The Chinese Texts
Authors: Moule A. C.
Published: March 2011

It is well known that the Chinese have had a little organ calledshêngoryüfor many ages, made with bamboo pipes which are fitted with free reeds, and played by suction. The wordsshêngandhuang, the reed, occur in theOdeswhich date from before 500b.c., and are traditionally explained as referring to an instrument like that which is still in use. But attention has not, I think, been called to the fact that a reed organ from the West was brought to China in the thirteenth century, and created so much interest at the time that it was reconstructed to play the Chinese scale. Ten or twelve of these instruments seem to have been made and to have been used in the Imperial orchestra during the Yüan dynasty (1280–1368), but I cannot find that they were used after that period. Three descriptions of theHsing lung shêng, as the organ was named, have been found in books of the fourteenth century, and translations of these are here given, with explanatory notes very kindly contributed by the Reverend Canon F. W. Galpin.
Mongolian Proverbs: A Study in the Kalmuck Colloquial
Authors: Whymant A. Neville J.
Published: March 2011

The great division of the Mongol race which passes under the generic term Kalmuck, is composed of many different tribes and subsections. The name “Kalmuck” is accidental; like many of the terms employed in connexion with Mongolian dialects and tribes, it is a Russian convention. Those Mongols who took up their abode in Europe were of the Khalimak division; this word in Russian mouths soon became Kalmuck.
The Decorative Art of the Aborigines of the Malay Peninsula
Authors: Schebesta P. Paul
Published: March 2011

The decorative art of the aborigines of the Malay Peninsula has already been described in some detail by various writers. The best known and most important of these contributions to our knowledge of the subject are those of A. Grünwedel in the Zeitschrift für Ethnohgie, Bd. xxvi, p. 141 (under the title “Die Zaubermuster der Orang-Utan”) and Bd. xxv, p. 71. In Bd. xxxi, p. 137, of the same periodical Th. Preuss enlarged on the same theme. W. W. Skeat also devoted many pages in vol. i of his Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula to this subject, and J. H. N. Evans has recently expressed his views on it in the Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums, vol. xii, part i.
Bhāmaha, Bhaṭṭi and Dharmakīrti
Authors: Diwekar H. R.
Published: March 2011

The relation between Bhamaha and Bhaṭṭi is very interesting. It was once believed that Bhāmaha preceded Bhaṭṭi. But Dr. Jacobi's discovery that he has borrowed Dharmakīrti's doctrines and phraseology has changed his relation to Bhaṭṭi. Not only is it now presumed that “Bhāmaha probably knew Bhaṭṭi's work”, but that he even “clumsily repeats inalmost identical terms” a verse of Bhaṭṭi. The point, however, does not appear to have been definitely settled, and a few remarks will not be deemed unnecessary in reviewing the entire question.
The Most Ancient Islamic Monument Known Dated A.H. 31 (A.D. 652) from the time of the third Calif 'U

th

man
Authors: El-Hawary Hassan Mohammed
Published: March 2011

In the Cairo Museum of Arab Art there are more than three thousand slabs of marble and stone bearing Cufic inscriptions. Most of these slabs are tombstones found in the ancient cemeteries of Cairo and Aswan. On each of these tombstones are inscribed the name of the deceased and the date of his death; hence they are invaluable in working out the evolution of Arabic writing. Only two hundred of these slabs are exhibited in the Museum, the others being kept in the stores and recesses of the building.
Arab Weather Prognostics
Authors: Robertson Edward
Published: March 2011

The majority of Arab weather prognostics are, as might be expected, concerned with the winter season, when the changeable weather gives scope for forecasting. The summer months in most Arabic-speaking lands are rainless, and except for wind changes offer little or no field for the activity of the weather prognosticator. The sun and moon, the stars, the rainbow, mist, dew, thunder and lightning, birds and insects all form constituents in Arabic weather forecasts.
Some Sāṁkhya and Yoga Conceptions of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad
Authors: Johnston E. H.
Published: March 2011

That the religious ideas of any epoch tend to flow in the channels dug by the philosophy then prevailing is a commonplace, and it is not surprising, therefore, that in the period between the composition of the Kaṭha Upaniṣad and that of the SK. the various religions which are described in more or less detail in the Upaniṣads and the MBh. are for the most part strongly impregnated with Sāṁkhya doctrines. Not that they accepted the Sāṁkhya scheme wholesale; they accept only so much as is necessary for their purposes and have no hesitation in making modifications or discordant additions of their own. Nevertheless we can discern through the confused welter of systems that the general outlines of the scheme set out by Īśvarakṛṣṇa with its summing up of existence under twenty-five heads were accepted as the standard throughout the period. But how disturbing it would be to all our convictions of historical development if, as has been held, not merely was the outer façade of the Sāṁkhya philosophy maintained intact for all that time, but also there was no change inside. In a lapse of many centuries, during which philosophical speculation was so active and new schools with new ideas and methods were developing, we should expect some change in nomenclature and a great deal of change in the conceptions underlying the apparently unchanging scheme; but there is no general agreement yet about the nature and extent of such changes, if any. Partly, the quality of the evidence is to blame; for we have no exposition of Sāṁkhya teaching which is both certainly authoritative and certainly older than the SK., so that a way is always left open to the retort, when a view other than that contained in the SK.
The Libraries of David and Solomon
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

A Little to the north of Latakia on the Phœnician coast important discoveries have been made by French excavators. Bronze Age necropolises, now known as Minet el-Baida, and dating from about 1700 to 1200 B.C., have been found, and on an adjoining site, Has Shamra, the remains of a palace have been uncovered, the most flourishing age of which would seem to have been the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C. In the ruins of the palace an armoury, or, rather, workshop, filled with bronze weapons and implementshas been brought to light, as well as a library. The latter was not only once filled with inscribed papyri, but fortunately also with clay tablets which have survived to our time. At least five different languages are represented by the cuneiform texts of which the clay tablets were a necessary accompaniment. One of these was the official Babylonian of the Tel el-Amarna period. Another was Sumerian, a third probably Mitannian, while a fourth provesto be Canaanite, that is to say, Early Phoenician or Hebrew, written in avery simplified form of cuneiform script which has been reduced into an alphabet of twenty-eight letters. The words, moreover, are divided one from the other.
The Dragon Terrestrial and the Dragon Celestial: A study of the Lung, , and the Ch'ên,
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

The Dragon is a Being, or rather, a nonentity, that though he never existed, has had to be invented. The human race soon found that it could not get on without him, and the imaginative fecundity of primitive man was called in to redress a biological oversight of Nature. When summoned to mythologic but influential life, he discovered no sinecure in his functions. Constant appeals from Oriental Rulers, Shamans, and the populace generally, to “co-ordinate” and “rationalize” his resources, in other words, to distribute rain more often, more widely, and more seasonably, may have seemed hardly compensated by his decorative popularity, or the flattering attentions of his pious but insistent devotees., Still noblesse oblige, and so the Dragon reigns among the thunder clouds above, and the thunder clouds (sooner or later) rain upon the earth beneath. Considerable research has been devoted to the Dragon by Western scholars, among whom may be mentioned Elliot Smith, and especially M. W. de Visser, who cites abundant passages from Chinese and Japanese authorities in his attractive volume. Japanese authorities in his attractive volume. And much earlier than either of the above, Gustave Schlegel had descanted fully upon the Dragon and its astronomic symbolism. The present essay, however, has a less ambitious aim, and a more restricted scope. Its object is twofold. In the first part it will present and publish (among the others) a form of the character lung “dragon”, which seems to have escaped the notice of all the Oriental epigraphists, whether Chinese or Japanese, so far as I can ascertain, but must be one of the most archaic, as it is perhaps the most elaborate, of the designs for the character in question.
The Introduction of the Cadmeian Alphabet into the Ægean World in the light of Ancient Traditions and Recent Discoveries
Authors: Eisler Robert
Published: March 2011

Still more remarkable than all previous results is the exact chronological coincidence of the new epigraphic finds with certain hitherto neglected Alexandrian theories about the date of the legendary “Cadmus” and his expeditions to Thasos, Thrace, Boiotia, etc.
Tibetan Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan. VII: Government and Social Conditions
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

49. M.I. i, 30 (wood, c. 10 × 2·5 cm., broken away at r.; 11. 2 recto + 3 verso, of neat, cursive dbu-can script).

[A 1] [] | : | Śa . cu . pho . ña . gcu … . [A 2] khal . boṅ . bu . rgyab . cha . sga . daṅ . cha[s] … [B 1] gcig | myi. gsum . gyi . zla . ba . gci … [B 2] do . ẖtshal. baẖi . thaṅ . du . brtsis . te . phye . khal . phye … [B 3] ñi . śu . gñis . la | pho . ñar . mchi. ba | b … .
The Ratnavali of Nagarjuna
Authors: Tucci Giuseppe
Published: March 2011

Even if a king follows a path contrary to religion and to reason he is nevertheless praised by his subjects (on account of fear); he, therefore, hardly knows what is appropriate or not.
The Poems of Surâqah b. Mirdâs al-Bâriqî—An Umayyad Poet
Authors: Husain S. M.
Published: March 2011

Surâqah B. Mirdâs al-Bâkiqî was a contemporary of the great trio, al-Akhṭal, al-Farazdaq, and Jarîr, whose names stand out so pre-eminently in the list of the Umayyad bards that all contemporary poets are thrown into the shade. Thus there is no article on our poet in theAghâdnî, and he would have passed quite unnoticed but for his taking part in the literary duel between al-Farazdaq and Jarir. The public scolding match () in which these two masters were engaged for many years attracted our poet and, like the well-known Akhṭal, he, too, joined in the fray with his sympathies for al-Farazdaq. The anecdotes relating to the “flytings” (), which he and Jarir composed against each other, as narrated on the authority of Abû. 'Ubaidah, will be found interesting. It is said that Muhammad b. 'Umair b. 'Utârid al-Dârimî, a noble, offered four thousanddirhamsand a horse to the poet who could compose a poem giving al-Farazdaq preference over Jarîr. Of all poets Surâqah, who had already composed some invective upon Jarîr, took up the challenge and produced a piece of lampoon which was carried to Jarîr, requiring him to make a reply forthwith. Jarîr tried throughout the whole night but failed. At break of day, however, his poetical genius came to his aid and the sharp lampoon that this great poet then produced is said to have silenced Surâqah against Jarîr once for all.
The Ancestral Message
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

In the passage of nearly forty years since the first discovery of the Honan relics and their strange inscriptions, great has been the progress in their decipherment. How much and how solid this gain in knowledge has been, the present writer can perhaps appreciate better than more recent students, when he looks back at his own notes and the correspondence that passed betweenthe late Mr. Frank Chalfant and himself.
The Instructions of the East India Company to Lord Macartney on his Embassy to China and his Reports to the Company, 1792–4. Part III: Later Reports and a Statement of the Cost of the Embassy.
Authors: Pritchard Earl H.
Published: March 2011

In a letter which I had the honor of writing to Mr. Dundas Secretary of State in November [9–11th] last, I communicated to him my intention of convoying in the Lion, if necessary, your Ships of this Season to England and in my letter of last month, I gave him my reasons why I suffered the five Ships which I found laden on my arrival at Canton to sail from thence without waiting for the remainder, which tho more in number, were represented as more in need of protection. I am confirmed in my resolution of accompanying the latter, by the accounts received within these few days, of the Enemy having been in force in the straits of Sunda, where one of your Ships the Princess Royal has been captured. As this event must give you some alarm with regard to the safety of your homeward bound Ships now lying here, it will be some satisfaction to you to know that nothing shall prevent me from accompanying them in His Majesty's ship the Lion, whose force will, I trust, be sufficient for their protection.
The Pargana Headman (Chaudhrī) in the Mogul Empire
Authors: Moreland W. H.
Published: March 2011

Casual references in the chronicles of the time show that the Turkish kings of Delhi recognized, and on occasion utilized, the local functionaries—the headmen and registrar accountants of villages and parganas—who formed an integral part of the Hindu administrative system. No references to these functionaries have been traced under the Afghan kings, but they reappear in the Mogul period, the literature of which enables us to form some idea of the position and duties, as then understood, of three out of the four. The village headman, renamed muqaddam, represented the village in its dealings with the officials, and he was required in particular to be active in agricultural development by bringing the waste land of the village under the plough. The village registrar-accountant, who retained his Hindī name of paṭwārī, kept the records and accounts of the village, and was required to assist the officials in the assessment and collection of the revenue. In the same way the registrar-accountant of the pargana, renamed qānūngo, kept the records of the pargana; and when assessment was made on the village as a unit, his estimate of its capacity to pay was one of the indispensable data. The remaining functionary, the chaudhrī or headman of the pargana, scarcely appears in the chronicles of the period, while the administrative literature contains practically nothing to show what he was expected to do, or how he was remunerated; indeed the only reference to him which has been traced in the Āīn-i Akbarī is the statement (Jarrett, ii, 228) that in the province of Berār the chaudhrī was known as desmukh. This statement shows that the chaudhrī was a familiar figure in the north, but it shows nothing more.
Ibn al-Jauzī's Handbook on the Makkan Pilgrimage
Authors: de Somogyi Joseph
Published: March 2011

The duty of the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Ka'ba (ḥajj), as imposed by Qur'ān 3: 91 on every Muslim, has been expounded in all the collections of traditions (ḥadīth) and all the textbooks of canonical law (fiqh). Historians dealt with the institution of the pilgrimage, and geographers described the sacred cities of Makka and Madīna as well as the surrounding country of al-Ḥijāz. The traditional and topical information about the pilgrimage had in time increased so much that in the sixth century A.H./twelfth century A.D. the celebrated Baghdād polyhistor Ibn al-Jauzī could compile it in a medium-sized handbook.
The Jenks Collection of Syriac Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge
Authors: Goodman A. E.
Published: March 2011

The following article is based on a paper that was read to the Christian Orient Section of the Twentieth Congress of Orientalists in Brussels, September, 1938.
The Interpretation of Dreams in Ad-Damīrī's Ḥayāt Al-Ḥayawān
Authors: de Somogyi Joseph
Published: March 2011

All over the Orient dreams have ever been regarded as divine revelations, and the interpretation of them has developed into a distinguished branch of study. Islām, too, has ever attributed a great importance to dreams, especially under Jewish and Stoic influences. Muḥammad's revelation started with visions while he was asleep, and Qur'ān and Ḥadīth contain plenty of allusions to the significance of dreams. Small wonder that the interpretation of dreams ('ilm at-ta'bīr or 'ilm at-ta'wīl) has developed into an important branch of Muslim science, one of the natural sciences together with medicine, physiognomy, alchemy, and astrology, as also with the Greeks. The interpreters of dreams occupied a high rank in society and were reputed to rank with the prophets, whose miraculous qualities they were believed to possess.
Implements and Vessels used in Vedic Sacrifice
Authors: Vira Raghu
Published: March 2011

Every student of Vedic literature is confronted by vast details of an uncommonly complicated ritual. This ritual engrossed the major part of the religious life of a householder. Every small act promised him riches in cattle and progeny, long life and bliss in the next world. On the other hand, the slightest negligence had to be assiduously atoned for, otherwise it would lead him into misery. Thus it is that even the ropes, the brooms, and their numbers have been carefully recorded, the materials of which they were made, their size, and their functions prescribed with the same thoroughness as the crushing of the soma-juice or the coronation of the king.
The Ratnāvalī of Nāgārjuna
Authors: Tucci Giuseppe
Published: March 2011

The Ratnāvalī by Nāgārjuna was well known from the numerous quotations scattered in the Mahāyāna literature in India as well as in Tibet, but no manuscript of it was up to now available. Fortunately, Nepal, which has yielded so many treasures of ancient Indian literature, has recently rendered back to light a large fragment of this work, the importance of which cannot be overlooked by scholars. Nāgārjuna was certainly one of the greatest thinkers ever born in India, and whatever was written by him deserves our greatest attention. His thought has permeated, as it were, not only the Abhidharma of Mahāyāna, but also the mystical experiences of the Tantric systems. Therefore we must welcome anything written by him, because it will help our understanding of Buddhist, and therefore of Indian, mind.
Reciprocal Influences in Music 'twixt the Far and Middle East
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

In spite of the hoary belief in the conservatism of the Chinese we find that exotic music and instruments of music found favour in “Far Cathay” from quite an early period, long before the Mughal régime. Thanks to the researches of M. Maurice Courant and others, we are able to appreciate with considerable definiteness the influence of the Middle East on the Far East in these matters. On the other hand, the Rev. A. C. Moule is of opinion that “the musical systems of Persia and Arabia seem to have had but little effect on Chinese music, and the use of only a few instruments can at all probably be traced to the great intercourse which existed between those countries and China in the middle ages”.
XI. The Modern Hindu Doctrine of Works
Authors: Grierson G. A.
Published: March 2011

The great mass of Hindūs of the present day follow, and for nearly five centuries have followed, the religious doctrine of salvation by bhakti, or loving faith. This, although nominally based on the Vēdas and Upaniṣads, is strongly opposed both to the advaita Vedantist doctrine of salvation by knowledge and to the Mīmāṃsā doctrine of salvation by works. Its very idea of salvation, a life of never-ending bliss near the Holy One, is radically different from that offered by these two schools.
XII. The Sankhayana Aranyaka
Authors: Keith A. Berriedale
Published: March 2011

Now that the complete text of the Śāṅkhāyana Āraṇyaka will shortly be available, it may be of interest to give a brief account of that comparatively little-known work, and in particular of the part hitherto unpublished, on the basis of the excellent and old manuscript of the text in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
XIII. The Mint of Kuraman, with special reference to the Coins of the Qarlughs and Khwarizm-Shahs
Authors: Dames M. Longworth
Published: March 2011

During the disturbed period in the first half of the twelfth century, when the break up of the monarchy was followed in quick succession by the establishment of the kingdom first in and afterwards in the plains of Northern India, by the invasion of the Shāh of , and finally by the overwhelming and devastating irruption of the under Chingiz the route into India by the Kuṛam Valley and Banū played a very important part, and its possession was eagerly sought after. Thus, when Mu‘izzu’d-dīn Muḥammad bīn Sām had laid the foundations of an Indian Empire, he placed his most faithful Turk servant Tāju'd-dīn Yalduz in charge of the province of Kuṛamān and Shaṅkurān, i.e. the Kuṛam Valley and Shalozān, as we are informed in the Nāṣirī, and halted there every year on his expeditions into India. After his death the successor to the sovereignty, Maḥmūd son of Muḥammad bin Sām (generally known as Maḥmūd bin Muḥammad) confirmed Yalduz in his dignities, and made him of .
XIV. Tales of Official Life from the “Tadhkira” of Ibn Hamdun, etc.
Authors: Amedroz H. F.
Published: March 2011

Huge miscellaneous collections of anecdotes, compiled on no very apparent method, were much to Moslem taste. One of these is the of Ibn Ḥamdūn, a large anthological work divided into fifty Bāb, the headings of which foreshadow imperfectly their contents. The author's life is given by Ibn (de SI. Eng., iii, 90) and by Brockelmann (Gesch. Arab. Lit., i, 280). There is also a notice of him in the Wafi bil-Wafayāt of al-Ṣafadi (Paris, Ar. 5860, 236a), where he is described as a man of culture and of good birth, and as the composer of the on “Adab, Nawādir and a work of large dimensions, extending to twelve volumes, and very well known. Further, that the author was intimate with the Caliph Mustanjid and often conversed with him; that he owed to him his appointment to the Dīwān al-Zimām, his first official post having been that of ‘Āriḍ to the troops, under Muqtafi; and that he was amiable in character and socially pleasant. Certain stories, however, in his work being deemed by the Caliph to be reflections on his government, he was arrested in his office and imprisoned until his death in 572 A.H. In the same MS., at fol. 236b, is a notice of his brother, also named Muḥammad, but with the ‘laqab’ of Abu Naṣr (that of the former being Abu-1-Ma‘āli); that he served as clerk in the Dīwān from the year 513 A.H. until his death in 545 A.H.; and that he composed a volume of “Rasā'il” and a history.
II. The Ahuna-Vairya from Yasna XXVII, 13, with its Pahlavi and Sanskrit Translations
Authors: Mills Lawrence
Published: March 2011

The Ahuna-Vairya was so distinguished by the later use which was made of it that it became a formula of unusual moral and ritualistic importance—indeed, more so than, upon our first glance upon it, we should, the most of us, think that it deserved. But, though bearing unmistakable traces of being somewhat artificially constructed, both in its metre and contents, upon closer study the little group of words seems well worthy of its parentage, for it is a succinct cipher of that remarkable manifestation of the moral idea which, as the one point of Zoroastrianism, must have had enormous influence during successive generations among the inhabitantsof Mid-Asia. The Pahlavi form of the name Ahunaver is but a contraction of Ahuna-Vairya, —the nasal n having intruded from thenasal m of an accusative ahūm, or else from mere euphony.
V. The Babar-Nama Description of Farghana
Authors: Beveridge Annette S.
Published: March 2011

[The following article contains a revised translation of Bābar's account of Farghāna, a passage discussed and quoted by many writers on Turkistān. Some mistaken inferences have been drawn from it as it stands in the Memoirs and Mémoires, because these both lacked a pure textual basis and modern local knowledge. I regret that, obeying a Turk in his Turkī, an autobiographer in his style, my wording departs from Mr. Erskine's. The speech of some Englishmen can go straight into Turkī; out of Turkī, Bābar's should go straight into theirs. They are not schooled, nor was he. Neither blurs meaning by complex statement; neither throws “and” into the pause between two thoughts. Mr. Symonds' rule gathers force from the clearness of the mould of Turkā speech: “A good translation should resemble a plaster cast, the English being plaqué upon the original, so as to reproduce its exact form, although it cannot convey the effects of bronze or marble which belong to the material of the work of art.”]
Vasudeva of Panini
Authors: Mazumdar B. C.
Published: March 2011

When taking part in the joint discussion, which ensued in connexion with the papers which Messrs. Grierson and Barnett read at Oxford (September, 1908), at the Congress of “History of Religions”, I mentioned what Dr. Grierson has now published in the JRAS. (1909, p. 1122). I quoted then from memory the two Sutras, one relating to Buñ and the other relating to Bun, and cited the following line from Kāśikā Vritti: Na cātra Bun-Buñorviśeṣo vidyate kimartham Vāsudeva grahaṇam, etc.
Fragment of an Expiation-Ritual against Sickness
Authors: Mullo-Weir C. J.
Published: March 2011

The text here published occupies part of the Reverse of British Museum tablet Rm. 2,160 and includes part of two prayers, with the accompanying ritual. The first prayer is addressed to some goddess, the second is to the stone ŝadanu. Of the Obverse, only a few signs remain. My thanks are due to the Trustees of the British Museum for their kind permission to publish this text, and I have to acknowledge gratefully the help accorded to me by Professor Langdon in interpreting and restoring it, and by Mr. C. J. Gadd in collating for me some of the lines.
Qadi an-Nu'man The Fatimid Jurist and Author
Authors: Fyzee Asaf A. A.
Published: March 2011

Any complete biography of Qādī an-Nu'mān, the most illustrious of Ismā'īlī jurists, must necessarily be based on two kinds of sources, internal and external. He was a very prolific author, and although not all his works which were extant some 400 years ago have come down to us, a good many of his akhbār and fiqh works are still preserved. It would be necessary to go through all of these and collect all autobiographical information before the definitive biography of the Qāḍī can be attempted. Even purely fiqh works like the Mukhtaṣaru'l-Athār contain occasional references to contemporary events. The brief biography given below does not profess to be exhaustive; it is based in the main on three external sources, which seem to contain all that was definitely known of this great lawyer, the founder and the greatest exponent of Ismā'īlī jurisprudence. The difficulty of writing on Ismā'īlī subjects is well known; it is next to impossible to expect any co-operation from the sectarians themselves. I am trying, however, to obtain information from different sources, and if ever I am able to study all the works extant of the Qāḍī, a more comprehensive biography may be attempted.
Tibetan Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan. VII: Government and Social Conditions
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

In regard to civil conditions in Chinese Turkestan the documents are not much more widely informative than in regard to other matters. The states along the northern trade route, Karashahr, Kuca, Aksu, Kashgar, although from about a.d. 675 they were dominated (not indeed occupied) by the Tibetans, appear to escape all mention; and this is the more regrettable as these states would seem from the culture objects recovered by archæological research to have enjoyed a rather fuller development of material civilization than those south of the desert. Their natural resources were not inferior, they were aligned along a more profitable route of trade and communication, they were less exposed to encroachment of the desert; their archæological remains are more extensive and better preserved. To these states, and to the Wu-sun people of the Tian-shan valleys, we have perhaps—unless the Khu chief (Khu Maṅ-po-rje) of the Tibetan Chronicle is really the Khu ruler of Kao-chang—not a single reference. The twin states of “Anterior” and “Posterior” Chü-shih, i.e. Turfan-Kao-chang and Gu-chen at the extreme east of the Tian-shan, do indeed seem to be indicated as goal of hostile expeditions (1931, pp. 821 sqq.). As has been made clear by Chavannes in Ancient Khotan, pp. 533–6, and Sir Aurel Stein, Innermost Asia, pp. 579–587, they maintained a precarious existence nearly to the end of the eighth century a.d., the Tibetans failing, despite their occupation of Kan-su, to secure possession of them either by diplomatic proposals to China or by force until the year a.d. 790.
New Coin Evidence from Sīstān
Authors: Walker J.
Published: March 2011

The downfall of the Umaiyad and the rise of the ‘Abbāsid Caliphate, the central protagonist in which was the formidable Abū Muslim, is one of the most fascinating periods in Islamic History. Numismatic research is gradually revealing more and more vestiges of these troublous times. Recently in the JRAS. (July, 1932) Mr. Rhuvon Guest published a copper coin of Abū Muslim, now in the ‘Irāḳ Museum, which had been unearthed during irrigation work on the lesser Zāb, and which provided interesting corroborative evidence of the statements of the early Arab chroniclers. In a similar way I propose to draw attention to two copper coins in the British Museum, until now unpublished, which not only throw some light on the family relationship of Abū Muslim and his provincial politics, but moreover preserve for us a variety of coin legend which has hitherto been unrecorded and is perhaps unique in Muslim numismatics (Plate I).
The Origin of the Ras Shamra Alphabet
Authors: Burrows Eric
Published: March 2011

In 1931 the cuneiform alphabet of Ras Shamra was derived from the Sinaitic alphabet by M. Sprengling and A. T. Olmstead (The Alphabet: Its Rise and Development from the Sinaitic Inscriptions, Chicago); and in March, 1934, by E. Ebeling, apparently without knowledge of the work of Sprengling and Olmstead, from Babylonian cuneiform (Zur Enstehungsgeschichte des Keilschriftalphabets von Ras Schamra, Sitz.-Ber. d. Preuss. Akad. d. Wiss.). In June, 1934, J. G. Février, also independently of Sprengling and Olmstead, showed connections with South Semitic, suggesting that the South Semitic alphabet was for the most part derived from the Ras Shamra cuneiform or from a common source (Rev. des Éitudes sémitiques, pp. xiii–xvi). In the same month T. Gaster accepted the theory of Olmstead (Ancient Egypt, 1934, p. 34), and in July, 1935, defended in some detail the origin of the Ras Shamra alphabet from a derivative of the Sinaitic approximating to the Phœnician (PEF. Quarterly, 135 ff.).
An Unpublished Bît Rimki Duplicate
Authors: Weir Cecil J. Mullo
Published: March 2011

The text K. 2612, cited by me in my Lexicon of Accadian Prayers as a duplicate of Ebeling, Quellen, i, 40 f., and K. 2373 and Sm. 690, has now been joined to Rm. 2, ii, 269, enabling a more accurate restoration to be made of several of the lines. The text shows several notable variant readings.
Adh-Dhahabī's “Ta'rīkh al-islām” as an Authority on the Mongol Invasion of the Caliphate
Authors: de Somogyi Joseph
Published: March 2011

Scarcely ever has Islām experienced more tragical times and more hardships than during the Mongol invasion in the course of the thirteenth century a.d. With the despite of the nomads, practitioners of the open-air life, for sedentary occupations, the people of Jengis Khān turned against and mercilessly destroyed the towns and works of civilization everywhere. Their disastrous campaign was only facilitated by the decomposition of the political unity of Islām at that time. In Baghdād the 'Abbāsid caliphate still subsisted, but its splendour was on the wane; to the west of Baghdād, in Egypt, Palestine, and a part of Syria, the Ayyūbids reigned, and in Asia Minor the Seljūqs, while to the east of Baghdād the Turkish princes from Khiva had, a rather insecure hold on the vast stretch of the Khwārizmian empire from the Ganges to the Tigris and from Turkestān to the Indian Ocean. This state of affairs was inviting to an enterprising invader of the sort of Jengis Khān who, in 1218, crushed the Khwārizmian empire, while his grandson, Hūlāghū Khān, put an end to the 'Abbāsid caliphate in 1258. The western provinces of Islām, including Egypt, were, however, spared from the devastating fury of the Mongols by the Mamlūk Sulṭān's victory over Ketbogha, Hūlāghū's general, at 'Ayn Jālūt, Palestine, in 1260. When in 1299–1301 his grandson Qāzān failed in conquering Syria Islām was definitely safe from further Mongol attacks.
Archaic Chinese Characters Being some intensive studies in them: PART II
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

The solution about to be proposed is quite new. By such Chinese specialists as may see it, if any, I confidently expect it to be derided. By the few Western students who concern themselves with this branch of inquiry, it will perhaps seem rather improper, rather improbable, and “rather interesting, all the same”.
The Book of the Cure of Souls
Authors: Arberry A. J.
Published: March 2011

In a former number of this journal I published a specimen translation of one of the Rasā'il of Junayd, as an announcement of my intention to make that famous personage the subject of a monograph. It will be useful at this stage to print the text and translation of what is one of the most interesting of the little treatises preserved in the Istanbul manuscript, both because of its contents, and also for the reason that it is the only work of Junayd for which we have a second authority. It is unfortunately true that the Istanbul manuscript, as the copyist himself is at pains to admit. is derived from a very faulty archetype, and with such an author as Junayd the work of emendation is necessarily attended with countless pitfalls. The Cairo manuscript of the Kitāb Dawā' al-arwāḥ exhibits roughly ninety variants as compared with the Istanbul manuscript, in the space of rather less than 2½ folios. In by far the majority of places the Istanbul manuscript appears to be the more correct.
Assyrian Prescriptions for Diseases of the Feet
Authors: Thompson R. Campbell
Published: March 2011

The following are translations from the cuneiform texts of the seventh century b.c. (from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh) which deal with diseases of the feet and legs. The tablets are published in my Assyrian Medical Texts, and the translations are given here with various duplicates from elsewhere. Some have already been put before scholars by Ebeling (Archivf. Gesch. d. Medizin, xiii, xiv, and Keilschrifttexte Medidnischen Inhalts), but since his publication of them several “joins” have been made, so that, with the texthitherto untranslated and with the new knowledge subsequently acquired, a fresh edition will not be out of place. The connection of these medical texts dealing with diseases of the feet with those given in the series SA.GAL.LA (CT. xxiii, 1 ff.) will be obvious.
Punch-marked Silver Coins Their Standard of Weight, Age, and Minting
Authors: Walsh E. H. C.
Published: March 2011

In this Journal for January, 1937, Mr. A. F. Hemmy, from an exhaustive examination of the weights of silver punch-marked coins, “570 in the British Museum, 196 in Calcutta, and a single hoard of 108 coins (of which 103 are included) found near Patna, and now in the museum of that place; in all, 869 coins,” shows that (excluding a small number of the coins, 4 per cent only, which Mr. Hemmy considers have a different standard), the standard of weight of these coins is 52 grains, which multiplied by 4 is 208, and that the standard is therefore one-fourth of the revised principal unit of the Indus (Mohenjo-Daro) system of weights, viz. 13·625 gm. = 210·2 gr.