bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Weight Standards of Ancient Indian Coins
Authors: Hemmy A. S.
Published: March 2011

The indifference of the ancient Indian to the maintenance of definite chronicles even when a voluminous literature of a philosophical and religious kind existed, has left the historian, apart from meagre foreign accounts, with little written evidence of the course of Indian events other than fanciful epics and legends. Under such circumstances, he has had to utilize to the utmost such deductions as can be drawn from material sources, and among these one of the most important has been the ancient coinage. The aftermath of Alexander's invasion left various Græco-Bactrian kingdoms and principalities extending through Afghanistan and the Punjab as far as Muttra, of which many coins have been found, and these have often proved useful for dating purposes. In this paper, however, investigation is confined to the much more obscure early indigenous coins of the years previous or not long subsequent to the Christian era, with a view to discovering what weight standards are present, and what they imply.
Archaic Chinese Characters Being some intensive studies in them Part 1
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

The Chinese numeral 4 is a syllable pronounced ssŭ, and was originally written by four horizontal lines, , but by the time of the Han Dynasty (and perhaps before, for the formoccurs on the Stone Drums), and ever since, the scription as above was substituted. And the question with which this note is concerned is: What was the origin of this substituted form ? The author of the Shuo Wen makes the Lesser Seal Version , his 503rd Radical, and describes it thus, hsiang ssŭ fên chih hsing, depicts division into quarters. This is a poor explanation. If a quadrilateral was chosen as an adequate symbol of the numeral 4, that was surely enough, and the two interior strokes are supernous, irrelevant, and misleading.
Some Notes on the Feudal System of the Mamlūks
Authors: Poliak A. N.
Published: March 2011

The feudal system of the Mamlūks is of great interest not only because it existed for 267 years in the leading state of the Arab world and left some permanent marks on the subsequent social and economical development of Egypt, Syria and Palestine, but also from the sociological point of view, being the result of an intermixture of three various feudal systems which corresponded to peculiar cultural worlds: the Mongol, the Islamic, and the West European. The fundamental principles were borrowed from the Mongol Empire and consequently all the lawsuits relating to the fiefs were settled not by the qāḍīs and according to the Islamic Law, but by the military judges (ḥujjāb) and according to the laws based upon the rules of Chingiz Khān. The technical terms used in the official Arabic-written documents and in the Arabic literary sources were partly borrowed from the terminology of the Islamic Law, but their sense was considerably removed from their ancient meanings—which may signify that they were now used only as more or less faithful translations of the terms employed in the Turkish dialect of the Mamlūks. The Western feudalism, brought to Syria by the Crusaders, influenced the Mamluk system chiefly through the medium of the native tribal chieftains, who after having been vassals of the kingdom of Jerusalem were gradually becoming feudatories of the Sultan of Cairo, and sometimes received the feudal charters from both powers at the same time. In the charters granted by the Latin rulers of Sidon (in 1256) and Beirut (in 1280) to two chieftains of the Buḥturide family the term “fief” is translated by the word shahāra, which means “a land given in reward for a service”, but the word mulk is also used, as well as the verbs a'ṭā and wahaba which usually refer to the unconditional transfers of the right of possession.
Catalogue of the Tod Collection of Indian Manuscripts in the Possession of the Royal Asiatic Society
Authors: Barnett L. D.
Published: March 2011

During his eventful career in India, lasting from 1799 to 1823, Colonel James Tod collected a large number of manuscripts in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, and Gujarati. Of these the most valuable were the many historical writings— regular narratives in both prose and verse, panegyrical compositions, pedigrees, and other miscellanea—from which he derived most of the information embodied in his great work, the Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. Most of them are in Hindi; a very few are in Sanskrit. Another group, which is not much less important, consists of metrical tales in old Hindi and Gujarati dialects, chiefly illustrative of Jain doctrine, together with some prose stories. There are also other Jain writings, viz. a few scriptures in Prakrit, commentaries upon them in Sanskrit and vernaculars, hagiological poems in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and vernaculars, and various doctrinal works. Finally there are many works representing various phases of Indian culture, e.g. Sanskrit classics and books on grammar, lexicography, astronomy, and astrology, vernacular writings on divination and farriery, etc. These manuscripts passed into the possession of the Royal Asiatic Society as a legacy from Colonel Tod, who for several years acted as the Society's librarian, and form the basis of the collection described in the following Catalogue.
Note on the above
Authors: Johnston E. H.
Published: March 2011

I am grateful to the Society for letting me see the above paper before publication and giving me space for a few comments. Circumstances at the moment debar me from access to libraries; and, as it is also hard to answer briefly arguments depending on assumptions which appear to me unwarranted by the available evidence, this note may be found incomplete.
The Puranic Line of Heroes
Authors: Ruben W.
Published: March 2011

§ 9. Somavaṁśa II. The successor of King Yayāti was his son Pūru, whose line of descent follows in Mbh, i, 89; H, 31; and B, 12. Even in details the similarity of the narratives is great. But the end is very confused in Mbh (i, 89). Only H (Kirfel, 555), has carried on the line up to Janamejaya (cf. Mbh, i, 90, 85 sqq.; Vi, iv, 20, 12), and even further. The slokas of B (Kirfel, 555, 128, 1 sqq.) are to be found in H, too (184, 3–18; not noticed by Kirfel), and must belong therefore to the original H-B vaṁśa.
Witchcraft in the Old Testament
Authors: Driver G. R.
Published: March 2011

Dr. Guillaume, following Professor Mowinckel, has recently examined a number of passages in the Old Testament in which he suspects traces of magical practices, incidentally throwing light on several obscure Hebrew words and phrases which have hitherto defied interpretation, or rather satisfactory interpretation.
Nature in Malay Literature and Folk Verse
Authors: Winstedt R. O.
Published: March 2011

The earliest Malay literature extant belongs to a time five hundred years ago, when in spite of having embraced Islam the Malay still cared enough for the Mahabharata and the Ramayana to translate them into a vernacular already full of Arabic loanwords. In addition he borrowed from India folk romances tricked out with motifs and descriptive passages from the two great Hindu epics. For example, in one such romance, the Hikayat Parang Puting, when the fairy lover “burning as if he would set fairyland on fire” is rejected by his mistress, he tosses sleepless until “the cocks crow, the birds of paradise sing in the sky, the parrots chatter in the angsoka trees, parroquets on the boughs of the nagasari and mynahs on the chempaka trees, and a drizzle of rain makes all the flowers bloom”. The Indian genius, like our own, will readily sentimentalize landscape to accord with human moods. But turn to the Malay version of a scene in the garden at Hastinapura that “astonished the moon by its beauty”:—“about midnight was seen a portent of the city's imminent doom. It was utterly still and the moon looked like a lovely woman peeping from behind a door. Gentle rain fell and a light breeze stirred in the distance. There were banks of clouds of all shapes and the birds were restless, flying here and there like a man with two wives.” So far as I know that last simile is a gloss by the observant, cynical Malay. In modern jargon, the Indian is an introvert, the Malay an extravert.
Prāṇa-citi
Authors: Coomaraswamy A. K.
Published: March 2011

Av., x, 2, 8 c, d, and 26 c, d, taken together, read: Citvā cityaṁ hanvoḥ puruṣasya divaṁ ruroha hatamaḥ sa devaḥ? Atharvā … mastiṣkād ūrdhvaḥ prerayat pavamāno'dhi śīrṣatas, literally, “Who is that God who, having piled a piling in the Person's jaws, ascends to the sky? Atharvan … the Purifier, sent (them) forth upward from the brain, from the head.” What is “piled” and what “sent forth”?
Muḥammad b. Mūsā al-

Kh

wārizmī
Authors: Dunlop D. M.
Published: March 2011

In Baghdad of al-Ma'mūn's time there appears to have been a degree of intellectual enterprise, especially in the field of natural science, scarcely attained at any other period of Islam. The names of Muḥammad b. Mūsā al-Khwārizmī and Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Shākir are well known among those which made the Caliphate of al-Ma'mūn, from this point of view, so celebrated in later times. Recently, while investigating the history of the Khazars, I was interested to see that al-Khwārizmī is credited by al-Muqaddasī (ed. de Goeje, p. 362) with a visit to Khazaria, and following this up to find that Suter (“Mathematiker, Nachträge,” p. 159, in Abhandl. zur Gesch. der math. Wissensch., vol. 14, 1902) thought that Muḥammad b. Mūsā b. Shākir must be meant. Elsewhere also Suter found confusion between the two names. It occurred to me that both names stood for one person, and in what follows various considerations are raised and some new material cited bearing on this possibility. It is not claimed that the identification is made out, but that it is worth considering.
The Romance of the Indian Calendar
Authors: Kincaid C. A.
Published: March 2011

The romance of the calendar is the history of 3,000 years of human effort to fix definitely the equinoxes and to harness the solar year to the lunar months. Our European calendar has fixed the equinoxes, but has abandoned wholly the lunar months in the struggle. India, however, has lunar months and a solar cycle. She also has a fifteen-day fortnight as well as a seven-day week. Let us first examine India's week.
Masterpieces of Oriental Art. 2.
Authors: Gordine Dora
Published: March 2011

This painting, “Ladies Preparing Silk,” by the Emperor Hui Tsung, illustrates very clearly certain fundamental qualities of pure art. Whether in sculpture or in painting, the genuine artist seeks the balance and poise which give a static quality even to the most dynamic composition. In this picture one feels the strong persevering movement their work demands of these women. The artist caught one of the moments in this work, and interpreted the exquisite rhythm of the process. Each of the women is graceful, quiet, and dignified, and the movement of each is downwards. Nevertheless, one feels the strain involved in lifting up and down the heavy sticks with which they are pounding the silk.
Najran Inscriptions
Authors: Philby H. St. J. B. , Tritton A. S.
Published: March 2011

All the epigraphic material dealt with in this note was recorded in and about the oasis of Najran, situated in the Wadi of the same name at the point where it begins to leave the mountains and to splay out into the great south desert of Arabia. The oasis lies at an altitude of 4,500 feet above sea-level between rugged granite and basalt walls surmounted by a frieze of reddish, rather friable, sandstone averaging 300 feet in thickness with peaks rising out of it to a further height of about 200 feet. The highest points are about 2,000 feet above the valley or 6,500 feet above sea-level. This layer of sandstone overlies the igneous rock of the foundations over a considerable area—westward to near the summit of the main mountain range, northwards right up into Najd, and southwards far into the Yaman. It has obviously played an important part in human history by providing relatively easy trade and invasion routes through an otherwise forbidding tract of granite mountains.
Theology in the Making
Authors: Tritton A. S.
Published: March 2011

Muslim theology was helped in its growth by the disputes of Muslims with Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, philosophers, and with one another. There are many tales of these arguments and they reveal something of the atmosphere of early Islam. Most of them concern heretics.
Burton Memorial Lecture: From Cana (Husn Ghorab) to Sabbatha (Shabwa): The South Arabian Incense Road
Authors: Ingrams Harold
Published: March 2011

Sometime in 1921 I was sitting in the shade of a mango tree on the top of a bluff overlooking the mangrove-filled creek of Chake-Chake in Pemba, called by the Arabs the Green Island. I was the guest of the Sheikh of the Mauli tribe, Sheikh Salim bin Khalif, at his clove plantation of Kaole. There were a lot of Maulis, who came from the Wadi al Ma'awil in 'Uman, in positions of authority in Pemba, and with me sat Sheikh Abdulla Mbaruk al Mauli, the Mudir of Chake-Chake. We were watching the little ship Khalifa far out at her anchorage. Presently one of my boatboys climbed up the hill and handed me a large bag of mail brought from the ship. In it was a parcel. I opened it and took out the two fat volumes of Zanzibar, City, Island, and Coast. That was my introduction to the works of Sir Richard Burton.
Masterpieces of Oriental Art. 6
Authors: Gordine Dora
Published: March 2011

This small head is one of the world's supreme masterpieces, A exhibiting all the qualities of the greatest sculpture.

The face is wistful. A faint smile plays almost imperceptibly round the curves of the mouth, the nostrils, and the languid eyes. So sensitive is the modelling that the very flesh appears to vibrate under the skin, and the eyes seem liquid and alive. The technique is detailed enough to bring out the profound individuality of the Egyptian queen, but it does not mar the bland unity of the whole, planes flowing one into another with unbroken continuity.
Sanskrit jenya
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

This Ṛg-vedic word, for which Grassmann's Wörterbuch proffers the meanings—

1. “noble,” “of high origin (Abkunft)”;

2. (of goods, possessions) “fine”, “excellent”

recurs in the Sāma-veda and in the Kāṣhaka-saṃhitā and Maitrāyaṅī- s. of the Black Yajur-veda, but only in two passages taken verbatim from the Rv., viz. Vi.42.4 = Sv. II.6.3.2.4, and V, 1, 5 = Ks. XVI, 3, XIX, 4, Ms. II.7.3. In the other Vedic texts, in the Nirukta, in Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyi and its commentaries, in the Gaṇa-pāṭha, the Uṇādi lists and in the whole subsequent independent literature it seems to be uninstanced. The Ṛg-veda commentaries, which could not fail to interpret it, propound meanings for the most part different from those adopted by Grassmann.
The Letters of Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍl-Allāh
Authors: Levy Reuben
Published: March 2011

To examine a piece of literature bearing a great name and find that it has been wrongly ascribed may be profitable if the work is interesting. Unfortunately, the collection of letters described in Professor Browne's Literary History of Persia (vol. iii, pp. 80 ff.) and the Catalogue of Oriental MSS. belonging to E. G. Browne (pp. 146 f.) would only have had interest and significance if they had indeed been a transcript of the vizier Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍl-Allah's own correspondence or despatches.
Psalm VII, 12–13
Authors: Leveen J.
Published: March 2011

These verses have been a stumbling block to successive generations of editors. One of the latest of these, for example, Dr. W. 0. E. Oesterley, has courageously faced the difficulties but, for reasons which will be stated in the course of this note, got himself tied up rather badly. He saw clearly enough that must refer to God's attitude to the Psalmist's enemy. But the difficulties began for him when he took to refer to the wicked man. In the first place Oesterley did not sufficiently reahze that the possibility of the wicked man repenting of his evil ways rarely occupied the mind of the Psalmist. It is in the Prophets that we get constant appeals to the wicked to repent, not in the Psalms. By the time of the Psalmists society had largely become stratified. The cleavage between the and the was complete. To the or the was irretrievably lost. God's clemency was only sought on behalf of the straying from the path of righteousness. I would therefore suggest that referred to God, at the same time altering to . The rendering would then be: “God is wroth every day; yea, he will not turn back.”
On the Sogdian St. George Passion
Authors: Gershevitch Ilya
Published: March 2011

The Sogdian fragment of the Acts of St. George, published by O. Hansen in APAW., 1941, contains a number of words and passages mistranslated or left untranslated by the editor, which can be understood through careful examination of the text and its parallel versions. I have to thank Dr. Henning for lending me his reprint of Hansen's paper and allowing me to include in what follows his marginal notes on restoration and translation of numerous passages. The words zwby 273, and r'n' 278, which Hansen has not attempted to explain, will be treated first.
Masterpieces of Oriental Art, 8
Authors: Gordine Dora , Hare Richard
Published: March 2011

The composition of this Yaksin or woman-sprite under a flowering vine appears at a first glance to possess dynamic energy, but closer inspection reveals its absence. Stella Kramrisch remarks that, creamy and luxuriant though the modelling is, it is not shaped throughout by rhythmic energy. The right outline of the figure vacillates and the drawing of the leg is weak. The body is heavy and lifeless, and though carved in relief is so wanting in construction that it looks boneless and flaccid. The figure is squashed and flat instead of being rounded as the curves demand. The arms are too thin for the broad waist and the right arm appears dislocated from the body. The expression of the face and body is cold and reminds one of some of the worst European sculpture.
Portuguese and Spanish Rivalry in the Far East during the 17th Century
Authors: Boxer C. R.
Published: March 2011

This brings us to the point where we must consider in more detail the action of the celebrated Dominican Friar Domingo Fernandez Navarrete, and his long-standing feud with the Portuguese Jesuits of the China Mission. Navarrete was born at Peñafiel and entered the Dominican Order in 1635, going to the Philippines in 1648, whence he proceeded to China ten years later. Unlike many of his Order, he was a cultured man of great ability, and a competent Sinologue for his century. Arrested on the occasion of the persecution of 1665, he was deported to Canton with the Jesuits and Franciscans from Peking and the provinces. Here he took a leading part in the ecclesiastical Junta held to discuss the controversial question of the Confucian Rites and allied topics in 1667–68. He escaped from Canton in rather equivocal circumstances in December, 1669, and after a short stay at Macao sailed to Europe by way of India and the Cape of Good Hope. On reaching Rome he was made Procurator of the Philippine Mission, and returned to Spain in 1674, publishing the first volume of his highly controversial Tratados Historicos, Politicos, Ethnicos, y Rdigiosos de la Monarchia de China two years later at Madrid. The work created a sensation on account of its outspoken criticisms of the Jesuits in China, but nowadays it is read more for the author's vivacious description of his own eventful odyssey in the Far East. A second volume entitled Controversias Antiquas y Modernas de la Mission de la Gran China was printed at Madrid in 1679, but never published, since the Inquisition suppressed it after the first 668 pages had been printed off.
Ptolemy Bk. VII, Ch. 1, S. 83: Some Names and Some Comments
Authors: Palmer J. A. B.
Published: March 2011

M. Louis Renou, in his critical text of Ptolemy Bk. VII (Paris: Champion, 1925), gives the first name in ch. 1, s. 83, as Nαγαγοúρα (Nagagoura), with -γ-(-g-) as the third consonant. This is the reading of the MS. Vatic. 191 (X), which M. Renou and other authorities find superior to its competitors. The majority of the other MSS. utilized by M. Renou give the name as Nαϒαρονραρίςc (Nagarouraris), with -ρ- (-τ-) as the third consonant and an added final syllable which looks as if it had crept in from the margin or was some other kind of a corruption: this reading was followed by earlier editions such as that of Nobbe. The choice between -g- and -r- as the third consonant is thus a choice between “the best and the rest”, always embarrassing for a critical editor. One is, in such a case, fully entitled to prefer “the best”, as M. Renou has done. Moreover, it is only fair to mention two extraneous considerations, which could be argued as supporting -g-. First, there is another case where X reads -g- and the rest read -r-, and X is unquestionably right: this is in ch. 1, s. 50, Ȇragassa X, Ȇrarassa al., modern Eraj, ancient Erakaccha. Secondly, the termination -goura might claim some a priori probability if one considers the article by Przyluski in Bull. Soc. Ling., xxvii, p. 218 (not xx as wrongly given in footnote in JRAS., 1929, p. 273); but this point has very little weight, for as Przyluski shows and anyone can quickly see, the consonant which precedes the terminatio -oura in Ptolemy is very variable.
East and West in Sabæan Inscriptions
Authors: Beeston A. F. L.
Published: March 2011

Besides the common-Semitic forms mšrq and m'rb for east and west, we find in certain Sabæan inscriptions the terms “towards Yatîl” and “towards Qatabân” employed. Rhodokanakis followed by Höfner assumes the former of these terms to imply “eastwards” and the latter “westwards”. The argument leading to this seems to be roughly as follows: (1) in the Minæan inscription EES 2830, 1–2, ḍr' is opposed to mṣbḥ, and since the latter plainly means the east ḍr' must mean west and is to be compared with the Arabic expression “the sun was near setting”; (2) in the Minæan RES 2774, 5, bn śnn ḍr' is opposed to bn śnn ytl, which therefore must mean eastwards (3) in the Sabæan CIH 570, 5, “towards Yatîl” is a correlative of “towards Qatabân”, which therefore means westwards; (4) this is confirmed by Gl. 739, 3, where “towards Qatabân” is opposed to “towards the east” (mšrqn) in the parallel text RES 852.
A Small Ivory Head from Lucknow
Authors: le May Reginald
Published: March 2011

In February, 1923, I was staying in Lucknow as a member of an official mission from Siam studying Rural Co-operative Credit in Northern India. One morning I was taken by my host on a visit to the Lucknow market, and I brought away with me three “prizes”, the first, a very delicate picture of a Mohammedan Saint, with Koran and rosary, sitting outside a rocky cell, by that famous painter of Shah Jahan's time, Mansūr; the second, a miniature of Nur Jahan, which has since been set in an ivory frame surrounded by sapphires; and the third, a small ivory head, the subject of this note.
More about the Marsden Manuscripts in the British Museum
Authors: Boxer C. R.
Published: March 2011

A part from a few brief notes of a general nature, the Marsden manuscripts were first described in any detail as a collective whole, by Father H. Hosten, S.J., in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, August, 1910 (New Series, vol. vi, No. 8, pp. 437–461) from material supplied to him by Messrs. Philipps and Beveridge. With the transfer of the most valuable portion of William Marsden's magnificent Library from King's College to the School of Oriental Studies in 1918, the Marsden MSS., both those in the British Museum and those now in the School, formed the topic of two articles in the Bulletin of the S.O.S.—the first by Sir Denison Ross in vol. ii, pp. 513–538 (1923), and the second by Father Hosten, S.J., in vol. iii, pp. 129–150 (1925). A few years later Sir Edward Maclagan, who had already published some documents in extract in the JASB. for 1896, catalogued those dealing with Northern India and Bengal amongst the Letters and Reports which he listed on pp. 369–388 of his standard work, The Jesuits and the Great Mogul (London, 1932).
An Early Greek Pandore
Authors: Farmer Henry George
Published: March 2011

THE origin and history of the pandore and lute in the Near and Middle East is a perennial attraction to musicologists. Especially interesting is its emergence in Greece, where its Oriental origin is ackowledged. It has been surmised that the word πανδορα is derived from the Sumerian pandur or pantur (“little bow”), and it may be perfectly true that in primeval times the pandore would have evolved from a “musical bow”. Still, no such words have come down to us in Sumerian which actually indicate an instrument of music. On the other hand, a somewhat similar class of instrument is to be found to-day in the Ạrmenian pandir, the Georgian panturi, and the Ossetic fandur. Strange to say Nicomachus (a.d. second century) actually wrote ϕανδονρα The pandore itself is delineated in eastern art remains much earlier than in Greece. It occurs on a Nippur plaque (c. 1700), on Egyptian wall paintings (c. 1570), and in later Susian, Cappadocian, Hittite, and Assyrian Art remains. The earliest examples from Greece have been those of the fourth century b.c., as shown in the art remains from Mantineia and Tanagra, both possessing, seemingly, a narrow periform sound-chest and a long neck. A century later, the name πανδορα occurs in Euphorion, who spent most of his life in Syria.
The Rattle-drum and Marawe-Sistrum
Authors: Hickmann Hans
Published: March 2011

In Egypt there is a very curious popular instrument. The rattledrum (“Rasseltrommel” in German, “tambour aux boules fouettantes” in French) has been considered up till now to be an instrument of purely Asiatic origin. The works of C. Sachs, A. Schaeffner, and Cl. Marcel-Dubois, illustrate its distribution everywhere in Asia. It is widely spread in India, Mongolia, China, Japan, and Korea. There is also a special variety in Tibet, as mentioned by A. Schaeffner (see plate xv). Yet it has not been pointed out that the instrument also occurs in Africa. In Egypt it must be a relatively recent importation, since it was unknown to the ancient Egyptians.
Darwish Ashraf
Authors: Beeston A. F. L.
Published: March 2011

The fifteenth-century Persian poet Ashraf has received little attention from the tadhkirah-writers. His name occurs in Aḥmad ‘Alīkhān Hāshimī's vast Makhzan al-gharā'ib, but only with a few baits from a ghazal attached to it, and no details of his life. The only tadhkirah which contains a biographical notice of him is Taqī al-Dīn Kāshī's Khulāṣat al-ash'ār wa zubdat al-afkār. In the India Office manuscript of this work the notice occupies ff. 872 verso—875 verso.
A Muslim Tombstone from Paphos
Authors: Megaw A. H. S.
Published: March 2011

Mr. ST. H. STEPHAN began to study this monument but died before he had finished the work. He made the following acknowledgments:—

“I have to thank the Director of Antiquities, Cyprus, Mr. A. H. S. Megaw, and Mr. Loizos Philippou, Hon. Curator of the Paphos District Museum for information and kind permission to publish this article. My thanks are also due to Mr. P. Dikaios, Curator of the Cyprus Museum, to Miss A. Paschalidou, Keeper of the photographic records in the Department, and to the Librarian, Mr. D. Daniel.”
'Ātika: A Modern Poetess
Authors: Khulusi S. A.
Published: March 2011

Whatever one may say about Rabāb, Umm Nizār, Nāzik, and other poetesses, the laurel undoubtedly belongs to the uncrowned queen of modern verse, 'Ātika Wahbī al-Khazrajī.
Unidentified Caves at Purandhar
Authors: Goetz H.
Published: March 2011

Purandhar is a hill fort to the south-west of Poona, not far from Sāsvad. It has become famous in Indian history by the siege A.D. 1665 undertaken on behalf of the emperor Aurangzēb by mahārājā. Jai Singh I of Amber (Jaipur) which forced Śivājī to surrender to the Mughals. Its fortifications were constructed by the Bahmanīs and Nizāmshāhīs; but there are vestiges of earlier fortifications and sanctuaries, probably of the Hindu Middle Ages, in one case possibly of even earlier date.
Notes on the Divyāvadāna
Authors: Bailey D. R. Shackleton
Published: March 2011

It is well known that most of the tales which make up the Divyāvadāna collection are to be found here and there in the Tibetan and Chinese translations of the Sarvāstivādin Vinaya. Cowell and Neil noted in the introduction to their editio princeps of 1886 that “although these (Tibetan) versions are often faulty and corrupt, yet without continual reference to them it would be impossible to give a satisfactory English translation of the Divyāvadāna”. Students of the Vinaya will probably agree that these editors, whose acquaintance with the Ḥdul ba seems to have been based upon English renderings of selected passages supplied by Léon Feer, here did less than justice to the skill and fidelity of the Tibetan translators and to the reliability of the Sanskrit manuscripts from which they worked. The extensive fragments of the Sanskrit text of the Vinaya published in the Gilgit Manuscript Series show on the whole a very close correspondence with their Tibetan counterparts, and a detailed comparison of about 200 pages of Cowell and Neil's text with the corresponding portions of the Ḥdul ba has satisfied me that where they diverge significantly the fault generally lies with the former.
Masterpieces of Oriental Art. 16: Late Mauryan or Early Śuṅga Ring-stones
Authors: Irwin John
Published: March 2011

A carved ring-stone and fragment of a second similar stone, both probably of the late Mauryan or early Śuṅga period, are among minor antiquities of exceptional interest recently acquired by the Indian Section, Victoria and Albert Museum, from the collection of Colonel D. H. Gordon, D.S.O., O.B.E. Both pieces were bought some years ago by Colonel Gordon from a local dealer in the Taxila area. Their special interest derives not only from fineness of craftsmanship but also from the fact that their use has remained an archæological problem for more than seventy years. A full description follows:—

A. Ring-stone: greyish-buff sandstone, highly polished. Carved in low relief, the upper surface having two concentric cableedged bands filled with cross-and-reel motives (slightly pyramidal); the sides of the hole with four standing female nudes alternating with four flowering trees. The base and outer sides are left plain.

Outer diameter, 3·37 inches. Inner diameter, 1·06 inches. Depth, 1 inch. Weight, 8¾ ounces.

B. Fragment of ring-stone: pinkish-buff sandstone, highly polished. Carved in slightly deeper relief, the upper surface decoration being identical with A. A similar standing female nude appears on the side of the hole, but beside her, instead of a flowering tree, there is an Indian “honeysuckle” motive, partly visible. The base and outer side are left plain.

The following measurements are based on a reconstruction of the complete ring. Outer diameter, 3·37 inches. Inner diameter, 0·84 inches. Depth, 0·75 inches.
Notes on Early Chinese Voyages
Authors: Mills J. V.
Published: March 2011

[The writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Trustees of the British Museum for permitting the publication of the plate, and to the Librarian of the Library of Congress at Washington for supplying photostat copies of Chinese texts.]
Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyā on Penitence
Authors: Arberry A. J.
Published: March 2011

Brockelmann lists no fewer than forty-four surviving works of the celebrated litterateur Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyā, (d. 281/894), who was tutor to the caliphs al-Mu'tadid (d. 291/902) and al-Muktafī (d. 295/908), ten more than the catalogue of titles given by Ibn al-Nadīm. While no detailed study of this important and entertaining author has yet been undertaken and the contents of only one of his books are at all well known, it is evident from his titles that the great majority of these works discuss various ascetic themes; so that Ibn al-Nadīm is sufficiently justified in including him in his section on zuhhād, 'ubbād, and mutaṣauwifa. As a traḍitionist he was reckoned to be trustworthy (ṣadūq) by Ibn Abī Ḥātim (d. 327/939), quoting the opinion of his father, Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad b. Idrīs b. al-Mundhir al-Tamīmī al-Ḥanẓalī al-Rāzi (d. 277/890): this might, indeed, be considered a somewhat biased judgment, for Muḥammad b. Idrīs, as we shall show later, was one of Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyā's favourite sources of information. The same favourable estimate was reached by Abū. 'Ahī Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad b. 'Amr b. Ḥabīb al-Asadī (d. 293/906), who, however, added the demurrer that Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyā attended a certain Muḥammad b. Isḥāq, of Balkh, who was a liar, a forger, and a fabricator of isnād.
Dutch Travellers in Arabia in the Seventeenth Century
Authors: Beckingham C. F.
Published: March 2011

The attempt of the Dutch to develop trade with Arabia in the seventeenth century occasioned several journeys in the Yemen which are ignored in the histories of Arabian exploration. The earliest of the travellers, Pieter van den Broecke, wrote an account of his voyages, well known in his own century, which included a description of his visit to Ta'iz and San'a. For our knowledge of his successors we depend principally on the records of the Dutch East India Company and enough of these have now been published to show the nature and extent of Dutch enterprise.
Corrigendum
Authors: Drower E. S.
Published: March 2011

JRAS. Parts 3 and 4, 1950, page 193. In line 19 of my review of A History of the Jews in Baghdad, for “Arbour Day” read “in the spring, very soon after the Passover”. On Arbour Day there is a ceremony connected with commemoration of the dead, in which dried fruits are blessed.
Dutch Travellers in Arabia in the Seventeenth Century (Part II)
Authors: Beckingham C. F.
Published: March 2011

Van Den Broecke sailed to Surat and Calicut and thence to Bantam, where he landed on 18th November, to find that Reynst had died. Coen considered that the voyage had been successful. On 25th November he informed Hans de Hase on the Coromandel Coast that nearly all the merchandise had been sold at Mocha at very high prices and that the Nassau had brought to Java 23,000 rials in cash: this had been only a trial voyage, but a good cargo would be sent when there was an opportunity. On 10th December Coen reported to Holland that all the goods had been sold satisfactorily at Mocha except for some cloves, nutmegs, mace, and porcelain, which had been taken on to Surat. He described Van den Broecke as having been made very welcome by the “Viceroy of Leamen” at his capital, “Scena,” a “great, beautiful and populous” town, lying ten days’ journey inland from Mocha. He expressed surprise that the Turks should be able to keep their populous Arabian territories peaceful and obedient with such a small number of troops. Before Coen died in 1629 the Imam of San'a was to prove that the Turks were able to do nothing of the kind, even with considerably more troops; even in 1616 their power in the north was not always recognized, but it must be remembered that Van den Broecke had travelled only along one of the principal highways of the country. Of the commerce of the Yemen Coen gave his directors an account resembling that published by Van den Broeckem and discussed it in relation to the Company's interests elsewhere.
Old South Arabian Antiquities
Authors: Beeston A. F. L.
Published: March 2011

The first five objects described in this note are the property of Squadron-Leader M. Blaymires, R.A.F., and are at present on loan to the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. I am much indebted to Squadron-Leader Blaymires for permission to publish them, and to Mr. Oswald, Keeper of Archaeology and Local History in the Museum, for the facilities which he has afforded me of examining them.
The Egyptian 'Uffāṭah Flute
Authors: Hickmann Hans
Published: March 2011

The long flute of ancient and modern Egypt is the well-known nāy(Fig. I), so frequently represented since prehistoric times. A short flute which has a wide diameter, is the popular (Fig. 2), which has not hitherto been dealt with. The word 'uffāṭa is used in the Sharqīya province, as far, approximately, as Mīt Grhamr (west side), and means generally a short flute, but wide in diameter. The smallest 'uffāṭa is not longer than 20 cm. The instruments reproduced in Fig. 2 measure 42·3 cm., and the diameter varies between 18 and 20 mm. The longest nāy in Fig. 1 is 74·2 cm. long and 11 to 13 mm. in diameter.
The Laud Rāgmālā Album and Early Rājput Painting
Authors: Goetz H.
Published: March 2011

Though the Pahārī schools of Rājput painting are fairly well known since A. K. Coomaraswamy's monumental Rajput Painting (1916), the schools of Rājasthān, the principal Rājput area, have long remained a terra incognita and even to-day pose numerous unsolved problems.
An Old Ethiopic Inscription from the Berenice Road
Authors: Littmann Enno , Meredith David
Published: March 2011

The late Dr. H. A. Winkler explored parts of the Eastern Desert of Egypt in 1936 and 1937. In his Rock Drawings of Southern Upper Egypt (vol. i, 1938), at his Site 24b, he reported a natural cave shelter in Wādi Menīḥ, in the west rock face (thus ensuring all-day shade). The cave is in the Berenice road, at lat. 25° 37′ N. The cave shelter contains numerous inscriptions of all periods, from primitive rock drawings to hieroglyphic, Graeco-Roman, Nabataean, Christian Greek, and early Arabic. These are all copied in facsimile in Winkler's MS. field notes, reference to which in this study is by courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society.
A Parthian Title in the Hymn of the Soul
Authors: Gershevitch Ilya
Published: March 2011

The recognition that the setting of the story related in the Syriac Hymn of the Soul is Iranian is primarily based on the statement in the poem that its chief character, the Prince who “from the far Hyrcanian mountains” was sent down to Egypt to fetch the unique Pearl, was the son of the king of Parthia. Less obvious Iranian reminiscences are also to be found in the Hymn, some of which have lately been discussed by G. Widengren in Zeitschrift für Religions-und Geistesgeschichte, iv (1952), Heft 2,1 sqq., where, however, one misses a reference to the relationship of srbwg with the Sogdian word for “tower”, v. W. B. Henning, JRAS. 1944, 139 sq. It is proposed in the present note to explain the Iranian origin of a hitherto obscure title in the Hymn, which from the context appears to designate one of the highest officials of the Arsacid court. This is the title of the Prince's elder brother in verse 48, where the MS. has p'rybn “our p.”.
Ujjhān—Ujjihāna—Ozoana
Authors: Vogel J. Ph.
Published: March 2011

In 1930 Pandit Kameshwar Dayal, then Deputy Collector at Cawnpore, published a note on a mound situated on a bend of the river Rind about two miles to the east of Bhikdeo, an important village in the Derapur tahsil of the Cawnpore district. The mound covers an area of about 35 bighas and rises to a height of 35 feet. It contained large bricks measuring 30 in. by 20 in. by 4½ in., evidently used for building purposes, and had yielded beads, coins, and other objects. Among the coins recovered from the site were copper coins of the Mathura Satrap Hagamasha. From these finds Pt. Dayal concluded that the mound of Ujjhān was a site of archæological interest which would repay excavation and ought to be declared protected under the Ancient Monuments Act. These recommendations however do not appear to have been acted upon.
False Prophets and Others
Authors: Tritton A. S.
Published: March 2011

In spite of Muḥammad's boast that he was the last of the prophets, many of his followers claimed to be prophets. As a rule little is known about these claimants but there are exceptions.
The Dating of the Qur'ān: A Review of Richard Bell's Theories
Authors: Watt W. Montgomery
Published: March 2011

The appearance of Richard Bell's Introduction to the Qur'ān is a suitable occasion for considering the general principles underlying the detailed dating of the Qur'ān in his translation. This leads on to the question of the extent to which even approximate dates can be assigned to the various sections, and also to an estimate of advances to be expected in this branch of Qur'ānic studies. Bell's work further raises questions of interpretation, but these are not discussed here except in so far as they bear on the dating.
A Tibetan Inscription from Rgyal Lha-Khaṅ; and a note on Tibetan Chronology from A.D. 841 to A.D. 1042
Authors: Richardson H. E.
Published: March 2011

According to the Deb-ther Sṅon-po of ẖgos Lo-tsa-ba the lha-hhaṅ of Rgyal Lug-lhas in Hphan-po was founded by Sna-nam Rdo-rjedbaṅ-phyug in a.d. 1012 during the early years of the restoration of Buddhism after its suppression by Glaṅ-dar-ma. The outline of that revival, known in Tibetan as- Bstan-pa phyi-dar—the Later Spreading of the Doctrine—is vague and the details scanty and uncertain. From the Deb-sṅon (Deb-ther Sṅon-po) it can be gathered that, although in Central Tibet the religion could be practised only in secret, in parts of the kingdom remote from the capital—such as Mṅa-ris in the west and Khams in the east—there remained communities of Buddhist teachers untouched by the persecution.
Ideas in agrarian history: some observations on the British and nineteenth-century Bihar
Authors: Robb Peter
Published: March 2011

With the death of Professor Eric Stokes we lost above all a delightful man, unassuming and helpful, intellectually vital and original. He helped inspire a new emphasis upon social and economic history among a whole generation of historians of South Asia. There are many people more appropriate than I to reflect this legacy in a memorial lecture. My only claim to speak may seem to be my continuing admiration for and dependence upon Stokes's work. If I have a wider claim, it must be in the emphasis which I place in my own research upon an empirical study of ideas and their impact; there is some justification for identifying members of the School of Oriental and African Studies with this approach, and it may be associated with us even more in future. If so, our starting-point must be Stokes's great pioneering effort, inThe English Utilitarians and India, to identify the intellectual basis of Indian policy-making in the first half of the nineteenth century. Yet in South Asian studies generally Stokes has had relatively few followers along that path. Among Cambridge historians this first love (if ever they felt its charms) has tended to be supplanted by a positive distaste for flirtations with the impact of ideas. If Stokes is their model, it is in his role as an analyst of agrarian society, as may be enjoyed in his contribution to theCambridge Economic Historyor inThe Peasant Armed, and in parts of that arguably transitional collection,The Peasant and the Raj.
Manūchihrī's Māzandarān ode: an English version
Authors: Bivar A. D. H.
Published: March 2011

The Persian province of Māzandarān has characteristics unique in the land of Iran, even among its Caspian neighbours. The landscape of mountain, forest, ricefield and sea has its special freshness and charm, worlds away from the rocky plateau and searing desert further to the south. Its beauty was appreciated among others by the Safavid Shāh 'Abbās, who built an engineered highroad hidden to-day by the forest above Gālūgāh, and maintained favoured residences at Behshahr and Faraḥābād. For the visiting stranger, the most obvious impression is that created by the perennial Māzandarān cloud, a sea of cotton tufts, as it is often described, rising steadily up the hillsides with the growing heat of the day, to sink back into the valleys with the chill of evening, or fall as soft drizzle through the hours of darkness. When the traveller ascending the mountainside reaches the level of condensation, suddenly he is in a world of total humidity, with streaming perspiration, and water running from the trees and undergrowth. Twenty minutes later he has passed through the cloudbase, and entered the bone-dry world of “Iraq”. Dry sand replaces the treacherous “yellow clay” (zarde gil) beneath his feet, and the cool breeze in an instant evaporates the moisture from his shirt.
A recent study of Babylonian grammar
Authors: Black J. A.
Published: March 2011

Brigitte Groneberg's book is a thoughtful and discursive essay on a number of problems in the grammar, understood in the broadest sense, of a Babylonian dialect. With one comprehensive dictionary complete and another, even more comprehensive, moving in that direction, with a basic general grammar of Akkadian and several survey-grammars of the various historical stages and geographical dialects in existence, it is entirely appropriate that we should have a close study of a chronologically limited and genre-bound corpus of texts which nevertheless broaches wider questions not dealt with by the more general grammars, and approaches them from a viewpoint which is not blind to contemporary developments in general linguistics and literary studies. If this book proposes new answers to questions about the character of the Akkadian language, and suggests new ways of looking at the analysis of forms, syntax and style, then it may be accounted a success, even if not all readers will agree with all the positions taken. In a way,Syntax, Morphologie und Stil… is a successor to Erica Reiner'sA Linguistic Analysis of Akkadian, which also brought modern linguistic work – in this case the theory of generative grammar – to bear on its subject, with brilliant results, but concentrated more on a systematic survey of the entire grammar. Groneberg's book is more selective in its aim.
C. A. Storey's Persian Literature: an interim report
Authors: de Blois François
Published: March 2011

C. A. Storey's Persian Literature, A Bio-bibliographical Survey is the lifework of a meticulous and dedicated scholar and its hitherto published sections have proved an indispensable reference work for Persian studies. Its first volume, covering Qur'anic Literature, History and Biography, was published in five fascicules between 1927 and 1953 and was followed in 1958 by the first fascicule of Volume II, devoted to Mathematics, Weights and Measures, Astronomy and Astrology and Geography.
Fārābī's funny flora: al-Nawābit as “opposition”
Authors: Alon Ilai
Published: March 2011

In his description of the excellent city (Kitāb al-siyāsat al-madaniyahand 'Ārā ahl al-madīnah al-fāḍilah), al-Fārābī mentions those citizens who are not philosophers, but rather the opponents of the principles of their community. To these groups, of which several are enumerated al-Fārābī refers either as “the rest” (al-Bāqūn), or, “al-Nawābit”. It is this group, and in particular this name, that is intriguing, for although on the face of it it carries no politico-religious significance at all, some conclusions that touch upon these fields may be drawn by scrutinizing it. I would like to show that al-Fārābī abstracted the private name of theNawābitand gave it the meaning of “opposition”. In order to do this I will analyze his use of the name along the following lines: first a short survey of the lexical usage of the rootnbt; then I will show that theNawābitwere regarded by al-Fārābī as oppositional; then that they belong to the excellent cities; that their description entails all areas of political activity; that al-Fārābī was aware of the meaning of the name; that he used it in an abstract manner and the reasons for his choosing this particular name for “opposition”. Secondly I will show the earlier use of the name by a real historical group, and finally its later use by Ibn Bājjah