bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Masterpieces of Oriental Art. 14: Portrait of Shāh Daulat by Bichitr
Authors: Wilkinson J. V. S.
Published: March 2011

This painting is a dignified example of Mughal Court art towards the middle of the seventeenth century, when portraiture was at its zenith, and, under Court influence, very much in fashion. Bichitr (a Hindu) was one of several accomplished painters of Shah Jahan's reign. He signs himself here “Servant of the Royal Court”, and his portrait of his master, done in 1632, is at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Several other works by him were included in the celebrated Imperial Album to which “Shah Daulat” belonged. This artist, whose works generally emphasized drawing and eschewed brilliant colour, sometimes painted genre subjects and liked to fill the backgrounds of his portraits with realistic detail. Here, however, he has concentrated on a single figure, and mainly on the face, which is drawn with rare feeling and expressive skill. The Saint, who was a revered Muhammedan religious leader under three Emperors, is an impressive figure, with his white robe and brown scarf set against an almost black background. His enormous hands hold a globe inscribed in Persian, “The Key of the Victory over the two Worlds is entrusted to thy hand”; this may typify the devotion of a not unworldly ecclesiastic to the Emperor.
A Provisional Handlist of the late E. W. West's Papers Preserved in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society
Authors: de Menasce P. J.
Published: March 2011

E. W. West (born 1824, died 1905) received the Gold Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1900. In his answer to a letter of congratulations sent to him by a fellow worker in the field of Iranian studies, L. C. Casartelli, later Bishop of Salford, he describes how he became attracted to the study of Zoroastrianism and this curriculum vitae was published in part in a French translation in Casartelli's obituary notice of West (Le Musèon, 1905). West's translations of the main works of later Zoroastrianism make difficult reading for those unacquainted with the language of the original texts, but never fail to elicit admiration on the part of modern scholars who cannot but acknowledge that West, for all his selftraining, possessed an unparalleled grasp of Pahlavi long before the reading of the script acquired some measure of certainty through the discovery of the Manichsean texts from Turfan. Still more valuable than his translations were his numerous notes on Pahlavi MSS., scattered throughout his introductions to his Pahlavi Texts and rather summarily collected in his article in the Grundriss.
Did Sir Richard Burton Translate Sadi's Gulistan ?
Authors: Yohannan J. D.
Published: March 2011

In 1928 the publishing firm of Philip Allan and Co., of London, brought out a volume called Tales from the Gulistan or Rose Garden of the Sheikh Sadi of Shiraz, translated by Sir Eichard Burton. The identity of the editor was not apparent, the Introduction carrying only initials R. F. B. and the date 1888. When two years ago I sought to discover who the editor was, a letter from Mr. Eric Finlayson, receiver for the firm of Philip Allan and Co., defunct since 1937, explained that because of dispersal of company records during the war it was impossible to establish his identity. The information is important in determining the grounds upon which the translation was attributed to Burton.
The Makara in Early Chinese Buddhist Sculpture
Authors: Lindsay J. H.
Published: March 2011

In the early Buddhist cave temples made in the latter half of the fifth century a.d., during the Northern Wei dynasty, at Yim-kang, in the Shansi Province of North China, can be found several carvings of a curious creature connected with the arches over a seated Buddha figure. It occurs at either end of the arch, the end merging into the hinder part of the creature, which is left with two legs, a long neck, and head. The body is turned away from the arch so that the two creatures are back to back, one at each end of the arch. Examples can be seen in Dr. Sirén's Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, plates 51, 55, 57, 59, 60, and 61, in Tokiwa Daijo and Sikeno Tadaishi's Buddhist Monuments in China, vol. ii, plates 22 (2), 27, 30 (2), and 40, and in Chavannes' Mission archèologique dans la Chine septentrionale, plates 255, 256, 262–8, 272, and 277. Its representation was thus of common occurrence but nobody seems to have ventured to identify the creature. It is true that Dr. Sirén, with reference to plate 60 mentioned above, described the two arches being supported by two hydras and again wrote of the hydra and phœnix-like birds which support the foils of the arches, but he goes no further than this vague description.
Some Kara-Śāsanas of Ancient Orissa
Authors: Sircar Dines Chandra
Published: March 2011

The word śāsana means “a royal charter” and tāmra-śāsana “a royal charter engraved on a plate or plates of copper”. Revenue-free gifts, granted by ancient Indian rulers in favour of persons, deities, or religious establishments were usually endowed with a deed engraved on durable tāmra-paṭṭa, i.e. “a plate or plates of copper”. By lakṣaṇā, a tāmra-śāsana was sometimes called tāmra-paṭṭa. Often again the word indicating the deed or charter was applied, by lakṣaṇā, to indicate the land granted. But the expression tāmra-śāsana, in this modified sense of a gift of revenue-free land, was often indicated either by tāmra or by śāsana. The word śāsana in this sense is used not only in the medieval records of Orissa but even in modern Oriya. Numerous villages in Orissa still bear names ending with the word śāsana, indicating that originally they were gift villages. Besides the word tāmra-śāsana, early Orissan epigraphy knows of two other types of śāsanas. These are the deeds called kraya-śāsana and kara-śāsana.
The Poetry of Abān al-Lāḥiqī
Authors: Fariq K. A.
Published: March 2011

Abān is one of the least known poets of the second century a.h. References to him and his poetry are in the Kitāb al-Aghānī and a few allusions to him in the Fihrist, the History of Baghdad, by al-Khaṭīb, the Kitāb al-Ḥayawān, and the Kitāb al-Bayān of al-Jāḥiẓ. But these are so inadequate and sporadic that it is impossible to form a coherent picture either of his personality or his work.
Lord William Bentinck and the Reform of Education
Authors: Seed Geoffrey
Published: March 2011

From about the year 1823 the education of the people had been a matter of increasing concern to those responsible for the administration of the East India Company's territories in India. The authorities both in London and in India began to recognize that it was closely connected with the carrying out of the plans and policies of the Government. In London it was beginning to be realized that efficient government was altogether beyond the capacity of the East India Company unless Indians were employed on a scale greater than hitherto had been considered expedient. In India the increased importance attached to education led, in 1823, to the creation of the Committee of Public Instruction, and during the next few years there developed within the Committee a group which sought primarily to increase facilities in India for education along Western lines through the medium of the English language.
Notes on ‘The Scythian Period’
Authors: Thomas F. W.
Published: March 2011

These notes, supplementary to the necessarily brief review of Mevrouw van Lohuizen-De-Leeuw's meritorious work, do not at all seek to revive the exhaustive discussions of 1913 or to scrutinize any subsequent contributions of fact or opinion. The aim is simply to signalize the authoress's main propositions and to record a few such provisional comments as seem relevant. In view of some tendency towards a “general opinion” a new objectively elaborated interpretation has a claim to careful consideration: and it seemed permissible to include, on a reviewer's part, one or two partly novel observations. While awaiting some new evidence of a “knock-out” kind, scholars may give attention to any serious reasonings.
Analecta Indoscythica II
Authors: Bailey H. W.
Published: March 2011

It has been a frequent experience in Khotanese texts to find that two words spelled identically are widely different in meaning. The many different words comprised, for example, in bara- were quoted in Asia Major, n.s. 2. 40. It has been the same with vara. Beside the vara, varata “there” and vara “to”, varālsto “towards”, it has been possible to trace two other words written in the same way.
Qapqan
Authors: Sinor D.
Published: March 2011

Words gain suddenly in importance when used to sustain otherwise fragile historical theories. Since historians of Central Asia are all too often apt to ignore the most elementary rules of linguistics, an erroneous treatment of a word has more than once been made the basis for a not less erroneous historical hypothesis which, in its turn, is taken for granted by other historians, reluctant if not unable to ascertain the validity of the initial statement. To give some substance to this assertion, and also to check the spread, before it is too late, of a new false etymology, I should like to study a hitherto harmless word that has suddenly assumed undue importance through some of F. Altheim's works.
Captain João Ribeiro and his History of Ceylon, 1622–1693
Authors: Boxer C. R.
Published: March 2011

The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. x, nr: 36, pp. 263–309 (Colombo, 1890), contains an article by Donald Ferguson entitled “Captain João Eibeiro: his work on Ceylon and the French translation thereof by the Abbé Le Grand”. The present article summarizes what has been discovered about Ribeiro and his work since that date, and makes a brief comparison of his Fatalidade Historica da ilha de Ceilão with the more celebrated Historical Relation of the island of Ceylon by Captain Robert Knox.
Buddhist Sanskrit
Authors: Bailey H. W.
Published: March 2011

Professor Edgerton has offered us in his recent work on Buddhist Sanskrit (a monument to almost twenty years' labour) a material of delightful richness. It required both courage to undertake such a work and great persistence to carry it through. No doubt each reader will at first look eagerly to see how the cruces which have long baffled him have been resolved here; then to see how much new matter is offered in the elucidation of texts where he has himself after long searching been able to gather up some small amount of the widely scattered evidence. He may even venture to estimate how much of the harvest has been garnered and how much still remains to be brought in.
The Kano Chronicle
Authors: Hiskett M.
Published: March 2011

The contents of the Kano Chronicle have long been known to scholars from the translation by Sir Richmond Palmer. The several Arabic MSS. of the work had, for years, been lost sight of, though it was thought that there must still be copies in Kano. In 1939 an American scholar, Professor J. H. Greenberg, made a microfilm copy of a MS. which he found there. This copy can apparently no longer be traced.
Khotanese birre
Authors: Emmerick R. E.
Published: March 2011

In the Khotanese Sudhana story it is related that Sudhana will come upon a rākṣasī and must slay her with his sword. The Khotanese text reads at this point kāḍara jse vara ṣṭau raysga vīra jsanauña (Ch 00266.178–9 KBT 28) = kāḍąrinai vara ṣṭāṃ raysgi vī jsanñä (P 2957.118 KBT 37), which Sir Harold Bailey rendered “There he must promptly slay her with his sword” (BSOAS XXIX, no. 3, 1966, 512). MS. P. 4089a presents a variant reading for this line: kāḍara-birre raysaga vīra jsanauña (P 4089a.2–3 KBT 20). In his Dict. p. 287 Bailey renders it “with cut of sword, she must swiftly be slain”. In birre he sees a word attested only here and meaning “with cut”.
Three Digoron notes
Authors: Butler Anna
Published: March 2011

In 1961 an extensive collection of Ossetic folklore was published in two volumes in Ordzhonikidze under the title ИронАдæмьι Сфæлдьιстад. The collection includes both Iron and Digoron material and a large section of volume one is devoted to texts from the Ossetic Nart Epos. Among the Digoron Nart texts there is a large number of words and phrases which are difficult to interpret. Three such cases are discussed below.
The importance of Macaulay
Authors: Ballhatchet Kenneth
Published: March 2011

InJ.R.A.S.1988/2 Robert E. Frykenberg assails what he calls the “myth” that Macaulay's minute on education in British India was the occasion for a radical change in policy which imposed English education on an unwilling people. He puts forward three main arguments. First, there was no radical change in policy, for the government continued to support “Oriental” education and scholarship as well as English education. Secondly, Macaulay's advocacy of English education was a recognition of the views of “forward-looking gentry in India”. Thirdly, his minute was “one more salvo in a long and running set of encounters in which the positions of some protagonists were often much more blurred than has been properly realised by later generations of historians”. What is new in all this?
Qum: the evolution of a medieval city
Authors: Lambton A. K. S.
Published: March 2011

The history of Qum exhibits a number of features common to urban and rural life in central Persia over the centuries. It also contains features which differentiate it from other towns. Today it is known as a shrine town, but this has not always been its exclusive character. It has had a complex and varied history. In medieval times it was not distinguished from the countryside around it by the existence of a civic identity, any more than were other cities. It bore the same name as the surrounding region. Qum designated both the city and the province of which it was the centre and from which it was not administratively distinct.
Restorations of Assyrian Rituals
Authors: Mullo-weir Cecil J.
Published: March 2011

The text published by Lutz in PBS. i, 2, No. 129, is partially restored by K. 9830 + 11768, published in Gray, The Šamaš Religious Texts, pl. iii. This latter tablet is of great interest as belonging to the series bît rimki (House of Washing). The object of the prayer is to free the suppliant from witchcraft (cf. II. 8 ff.), and the principal act of the ceremony appears to be washing with water (cf. II. 5, 17, and 19) of purification. The prayer has some affinities with maḳlû and šurpu texts and is followed, after a short ritual, by a Sumerian prayer apparently identical with V R. 50, 1 ff. Hence, and for other reasons, it is not improbable that V R. 50–1 contains the text of the ensuing portion of bîtrimki. It is worthy of notice that the catchline of V R. 50–1 is the first line of šurpu, Tablet IX. The Sumerian prayer above referred to is also quoted, along with other bît rimki prayers, in the ritual published by Myhrman, PBS. i, 1, No. 15.
Islam and the Protected Religions
Authors: Tritton A. S.
Published: March 2011

Since the manuscript of The Caliphs and their non-Muslim Subjects was given to the printer further material has accumulated. Most of it, though interesting or amusing, only confirms what was said in the book. The Ecclesiastical History of Bar Hebraeus, however, gives a clearer idea of the relations between the state and the church.
Where the Rainbow ends (AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DRAGON TERRESTRIAL AND THE DRAGON CELESTIAL)
Authors: Hopkins L. C.
Published: March 2011

1. Among the less common Chinese decorative or symbolic themes is one whose norm may reasonably be regarded as a semi-circle terminating at each end in an animal's head. But arcs of the circle both less and more than the half are perhaps more frequent, and the curvature is likewise bent, as the applicational needs demand, into other modes of arch or loop. Instances of penannular bracelets and torques in other lands are perhaps also derivatives when their terminals are thus enriched.
The Gāhaḍavālas of Kanauj From about V.S. 1125 (A.D. 1068) to about V.S. 1280 (A.D. 1223)
Authors: Reu Sāhityāchārya Pt. Bisheshwar Nath
Published: March 2011

Colonel James Tod has stated in his Annals of Rājasthāna that in V.S. 526 (A.D. 470) Rāṭhōra Nayapāla acquired the kingdom of Kanauj after killing king Ajayapāla. This assertion does not seem to be correct, for, though the Rāshṭrakūṭas had had their sway over Kanauj ere this, yet about this particular period king Skandagupta or his son Kumāragupta of the Imperial Gupta dynasty ruled over Kanauj. After this the Maukharīs occupied it, and their power was set aside, for some time, by the Baisas, who took possession of Kanauj. But after the death of Harsha the Maukharīs again made it their capital. About V.S. 798 (A.D. 741) king Lalitāditya (Muktāpīḍa) of Kāshmīr had invaded Kanauj, then, too, it was the capital of Yashōvarman, the Maukhari ruler. Further it appears from the copper grant of V.S. 1084 (A.D. 1027) of Pratihāra king Trilōchanapāla and from the inscription of V.S. 1093 (A.D. 1036) of Yashahpāla that the Pratihāras ruled over Kanauj about that time.
Asia Minor and the introduction of the Worship of Kybele, Mā, and Mithra- into Rome
Authors: von Wesendonk O. G.
Published: March 2011

In 205 B.C., while Hannibal was still standing on Italian soil, the Great Goddess from Pessinus in Phrygia, a town then situated in the land of the Celtic Galatians, was brought to Rome in the shape of a black stone. The Sibylline books are said to have advised this transplantation of Kybele to the banks of the Tiber. These Sibylline books were copies of oracles given by the Sibyl of Cumæ in Campania, where she acted as priestess of Apollo. Now it has been shown that the Sibyl, who is mentioned by Herakleitos, is originally probably identical with the Sipylene, i.e. the Goddess from Mount Sipylos. This is one of the designations of the Great Phrygian Goddess called in RomeMater deum Magna Idaea, the Great Mother of the Gods from Mount Ida. The origin of the Sibyl is placed in Phrygia by Herakleides of Pontos, and Pausanias mentions Erythrai, near Smyrna, situated not far from the Sipylos range, as well as Marpessos on Mount Ida as birthplaces of the Sibyl. The Sibyl of Cumæ therefore counselled the introduction into Rome of the worship of a goddess with whom she must have been connected since ancient times; Apollo himself comes from Asia Minor.
An Assyrian Royal Inscription from a Series of Poems
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

K. 4874 is the right half of a square tablet, originally about 5 inches wide and 4½ inches long. Translation by Sayce, but the text has not been published. Owing to its fragmentary condition, the document has value almost exclusively for Sumerian and Semitic philology. It must belong to a series, for part of the Sumerian catch-line is preserved. The only similar tablet, known to me, is the Assyrian copy of a Babylonian bilingual account of the return of the statue of Marduk from Elam to Babylon, K. 3444, with duplicate, K. 3317, published in IV Kaw. 20, No. 1. K. 4874 is not entirely bilingual. Of the 62 lines on this tablet, Obv. 11–12, 17, 22, 25–26–27, 36, have no Sumerian equivalents, unless it be supposed that these lines contained Sumerian translations on the left side of the tablet. Obverse 23 proves that it is a royal inscription and semi-historical.
Etruscan Affinities in a Ras Shamra Tablet
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

Among the tablets found by the French excavators at Ras Shamra, south of Antioch, written in the alphabetic cuneiform script and published by M. Virolleaud (Syria, x, 1929), there is one (No. 4) which has been omitted by Père Dhorme in his brilliant article on the transliteration and translation of the texts in the Revue Biblique, xiv, 1 (Jan., 1931). The reason for the omission is that the language of the text is not Phœnician, but an unknown form of speech. The text itself is a fairly long one, and is divided into short paragraphs, the separate words being also divided from one another as in the Phœnician texts.
Another Indus Valley Seal
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

The button-shaped seal communicated in this paper was kindly shown to me by Professor A. B. Cook, of Cambridge, who purchased it from a London dealer. The object was seen by the Cambridge professor among a lot of “Assyrian cone seals, etc.”, but the dealer had no recollection of its provenance. Babylonian press seals of the small coneshaped variety are constantly appearing in the hands of dealers in antiquities, and seals of the Indus Valley type, actually found in Mesopotamia, have been acquired through dealers in Paris. There is no evidence that any of the seals found in the hands of dealers have come from India, and the additional circumstance that the London dealer had it among Babylonian seals leads one to believe that this object was found in lower Mesopotamia. The photograph is made from a cast. There is the usual pierced boss on the reverse. The inscription reads:—

Reading right to left, the first sign seems to be intended for the ordinary sign , which does occur in some texts as the first sign. See No. 266 of my Sign List, Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization, p. 451. The second sign is apparently a variant of No. 113, but I have never seen any variant like it. No. 113 does follow 266 on two seals. To No. 113 I assigned the value ta. The third sign is No. 154, with accent A ('). The fourth sign is the common fish sign, No. 175.
The Aramaic Papyri from Egypt: Notes on Obscure Passages
Authors: Driver G. R.
Published: March 2011

THE following notes, which are the result of a fresh study of the Aramaic documents from Egypt in Cowley's admirable edition, are here published in the hope that they may do something towards resolving some of the difficulties Which still await a solution in these important texts.
The Second Oldest Islamic Monument Known Dated A.H. 71 (A.D. 691) From the time of the Omayyad Calif 'Abd-el-Malik ibn Marwān
Authors: El-Hawary Hassan Mohammed
Published: March 2011

In an article published in this Journal dated April, 1930, I discussed a tombstone which I considered as the most ancient Islamic monument. This was dated A.H. 31 (A.D. 652).
Assyriological Notes
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

The Gudea cylinder A, col. iii, 12, contains a crux interpretationis which editors have failed to overcome. Thureau-Dangin's new copy, Les Cylindres de Gudéa, TC. viii, has NE-gi-BAR a-gal-la dū-a-me. That this is the true division of the signs is proved by iv Raw. 29**, 9 = my SBP. 268; á-ma-al dū-a-bi-e-ne = li'at kalama “wise (goddess) in all things”, and by v Raw. 44, B 14, N.Pr. d.Nannar-á-gal-dūa-bi = Sin-li'i-kullati. The passage occurs in an address of Gudea to Gatumdug. The passage was left untranslated by Thureau-Dangin, SAK. p. 93, but P. Maurus Witzel, Keilschriftliche Studien, Heft 3, p. 2, rendered the line, “Thou art she who causes wheat to thrive by the overflow of waters,” without any note on the text. It is obvious that agalla dū-a me means “thou art wise in all things”. For gal var. of gaĺ, see VAT. 10216 in Meissner's Beiträge zum Assyrischen Wörterbuch, p. 81, 40, note 56, and a for á in a-ma-al = le'u, Ebeling, KAR. 44, Rev. 18. á-gal = rabiš, CT. 21, 48, 6 = VS. i, 33; ii, 4; ug-e a-gal, powerful panther, Genouillac, La Trouvaille de Dréhem, No. 1, 3. NE-gi-BAR cannot possibly be a word for wheat, fruit, or some grain in this passage.
Philological Note: Maḫḫû, not Magus
Authors: Langdon S.
Published: March 2011

The title maḫḫû has been entered in the lexicons as “prophet”, and the Persian-Greek μγος has been derived from it, a derivation now generally abandoned. In the first place maḫḫû = galu-gub-ba, is placed after kalû, psalmist, galamaḫḫu, chief psalmist, munambû = i-lu-di, wailer, lallaru, wailer, CT. 19, 41, K. 4328 A 14–20 = Meissner, Suppl. 21, Rm. 338 Rev. ii, 1–5 = VAT. 10216, iv, 1–5, Meissner, Beiträge 83, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Assyr. Studies, i, 1. VAT. 9558, ii, 32 ff. has three ideograms for maḫḫu (all broken away), and maḫḫûtu, Meissner, ibid., 86 n. 123.
The Combat of 'Aleyân-Ba'al and Mōt a Proto-Hebrew Epic from Ras-Shamra
Authors: Gaster Theodor Herzl
Published: March 2011

The present study continues that published by the writer in JRAS., October, 1932. It comprises the transliteration, provisional translation, and commentary of the Second Tablet of the Ras-Shamra Epic as published by Virolleaud in Syria, October, 1932.
Averroes' Paraphrase on Plato's “Politeia”
Authors: Rosenthal Erwin
Published: March 2011

Although Averroes is well known as a commentator on Aristotle—the scholastics called him The Commentator—very few scholars have so far taken any notice of his commentary on Plato's famous treatise. This paraphrase, however, deserves a thorough critical study, for a variety of reasons. First, it belongs to the Corpus of Averroes’ philosophical writings, even though—as Averroes states himself in his preface—it be only as a substitute for Aristotle's “Politics” which were not known to Averroes and which were not accessible to the scholastics until 1260. Secondly, it is an interesting example of the treatment of Platonism by Islamic scholars. Then: are the changes and deviations due to Islamictheory and thought, or to Averroes’ own way of adapting the “Politeia” to the Islamic “Empire” ? Was there any Platonic influence on Islam in its political theory and when, how, and where can we trace it ? Is it Plato himself or Plato in the light of Neo-Platonism that Averroes’ more or less inadequate paraphrase gives us ? These questions show that the linguistic task is only a preliminary towards the more importantand interesting question of the position and meaning of this treatise within the history of medieval political theory and of the interrelations between Eastern and Western conception of Man and State.
On the Prefixes and Consonantal Finals of Si-Hia as evidenced by their Chinese and Tibetan Transcriptions
Authors: Wolfenden Stuart N.
Published: March 2011

In view of the fact that the study of Si-Hia is now attracting fresh interest, and that the problems it presents are fraught with some difficulty, it seems not untimely to review certain aspects of the matter upon which the status of the language and its position within the Tibeto-Burman family ultimately depend, viz. the problems of prefixes and consonantal finals.
The Ethiopic Inscription from Egypt
Authors: Ullendorff E.
Published: March 2011

In the JRAS., 1954, pp. 119 ff., Professor Enno Littmann, the Nestor of Ethiopic epigraphists, published a Gə'əz inscription from Egypt together with two photographs, a vocalized version and a translation. His decipherment covers seven lines of widely varying legibility, but it appears from scratches visible in fig. 1 that the original inscription contained at least two further lines of which nothing can be recognized to-day. Littmann acknowledges (ibid., p. 121) that most of the restorations, especially those following upon line 3, are “mere conjectures”. This view is, indeed, borne out by study of the inscription and by its very bad state of preservation. In other words: of an inscription of probably nine lines barely a third is in a condition offering a reasonable basis for decipherment. When one remembers that most Ethiopic inscriptions (as, indeed, Oriental epigraphic documents in general) are provided with a generous portion of a preliminary and introductory character, one soon realizes that hopes of a substantial enrichment of Gə'əz epigraphy are bound to be disappointed. This does not mean that the remaining three lines are of no value; any contribution to the not over-abundant inscriptional material of early Ethiopic deserves attention. Professor Littmann and Mr. Meredith have placed Semitists in their debt by making this still unvocalized Gə'əz inscription available for general discussion.
Field Notes on the Arabic Literature of the Western Sudan: Shehu Usumanu ḍan Fodio
Authors: Kensdale W. E. N.
Published: March 2011

In January and February of 1954 the writer travelled some 4,000 miles through the Northern Eegion of Nigeria in search of Arabic manuscripts for the Library of the University College of Ibadan, and also to make a survey of the indigenous Arabic literature of the peoples of the Western Sudan. There was no means beforehand of determining whether any manuscripts would be found at all, or whether, if they still existed, their possessors would part with them. The tour proved profitable in both respects, however; over 150 works were obtained, most of which are unknown outside Nigeria and very few of which have ever been printed. Some were generously donated, but most were purchased at the “market price”, for the scribes are still busy in the more remote districts, although the popularity of the printed texts from Egypt is an increasing threat to their livelihood. In Kano, the largest town of the Northern Region, it was impossible to find a scribe at work and there Arabic manuscripts were, in consequence, rare and expensive. Some local bibliophiles, understandably reluctant to give or sell volumes which they could not replace, nevertheless lent them for microfilming. There was, generally, considerable interest shown towards this work and, since returning to Ibadan, manuscripts have been received by post from self-appointed agents, which is most encouraging.
Tun-sun ()
Authors: Wheatley Paul
Published: March 2011

Writers on the early history of South-East Asia have frequently referred to a country known to the Chinese as (Tun-sun), but so far no one has collated all the available texts to furnish the fullest possible description of this shadowy state. The following notes are an attempt to show that their assembly provides one of the earliest extant accounts of the Malay Peninsula.
The Newly Discovered Alphabet of the Caucasian Albanians
Authors: Kurdian H.
Published: March 2011

In 1953 I was able to purchase an interesting late sixteenth-century Armenian manuscript written extensively on paper and beautifully illuminated and adorned with fine miniatures in colour and gold. This manuscript, now incorporated in my collection of Armenian manuscripts, contains a rare Armenian glossary with a wealth of linguistic and grammatical information and the most complete extant text of the arithmetical tables prepared originally by the great seventh-century Armenian scientist, Anania of Shirak. The part that interests us here, however, is that which depicts a number of different alphabets with the name of each letter transliterated into Armenian script. This part contains among others the alphabet of the Ałuank', the Caucasian Albanians, which, according to Koriwn, was invented by St. Mesrop, the inventor of the present Armenian and Georgian alphabets. For fifteen hundred years the information given by Koriwn remained totally uncorroborated, for not a single character was found on stone, metal, vellum, or paper that could be recognized for sure as Caucasian Albanian.
Rustum Jung (Chevalier de Lalée)
Authors: Lehuraux Alfred
Published: March 2011

The identity of the Chevalier de Lalée, known to Indians as Rustum Jung, has given rise to much speculation. Owing to its fancied similarity with that of Count Lally, he had been called “the younger Lally” till the late Sir Evan Cotton pointed out that he had no connection with that ill-fated general, though a nephew of the General, Michel de Lally, Brigadier des armées du Roi, came to India in the “Regiment de Lally”, but he never made any figure in the history of the French in India.
Notes on the Declension of Feminine Nouns in Middle Indo-Aryan
Authors: Schwarzschild L. A.
Published: March 2011

“The tendencies of Apabhraṃśa in phonetics and grammar help to bridge the gap between typical Prakrit and the modern languages.” A. Woolner expressed this view in 1928 when comparatively few Apabhraṃśa texts had been published and the remarkable continuity of the Indo-Aryan languages was accepted as a fact. Since then their general pattern of development, which appeared with simple clarity to Woolner, has often been obscured by the wealth of linguistic material of the Middle Indo-Aryan period that has come to light.
A First Description of a Collection of Mongol Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge
Authors: Bawden C. R.
Published: March 2011

One of the immediate tasks in the field of Mongol studies is to take stock of the prints and manuscripts scattered in many different libraries. As a small contribution to this task there follows a list of the contents of a collection of Mongol manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge. There are thirty-four texts (plus one in Tibetan written in an ornamental Tibetan script), the majority of them ritualistic in content. There is no general title to the collection, and it gives the impression of being a detached fragment from a private library. There are 389 folios of slightly varying dimensions, the approximate measurements being 28 by 6·5 cm. Eleven of the texts, (Nos. 1–11), totalling 213 folios, are written on paper of uniform quality, and some of the remaining texts can also be sorted into groups on the basis of similarity in the quality of the paper. The folios are contained as two pothis between brocade-covered boards. When first inspected the folios were found to be rather muddled, but it was possible to re-sort them into their correct order within the individual texts, and to establish the probable completeness of the latter.
The Panākaḍuva Copper-plate of Vijayabāhu I
Authors: Paranavitana S.
Published: March 2011

In a review of the Epigraphia Zeylanica, Volume V, Part I, which appeared in the JRAS., Parts 3 and 4, 1956, pp. 237–240, an attempt was made to prove the Panākaḍuva Copper-plate a forgery.
Early Signed Islamic Glass
Authors: Rice D. S.
Published: March 2011

The not inconsiderable quantity of fine Islamic glass surviving to-day includes very few signed pieces. A list of those bearing the names of their makers has recently been published by Prof. L. A. Mayer, who called for additional information, his researches having produced only eight master-signatures. The last two of these do not concern us here; (i) 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ar-Ramakī (or Zamakī) signed two lamps for a Mamlūk mosque founded in 730/1330, and (ii) Serkhosh Ibrāhīm was responsible for the glass windows in a mosque of Sulaiman the Magnificent (1557). The material reviewed in the present paper is limited to the period ending with the Fatimid dynasty.
Theology and Philosophy of the Isma'ilis
Authors: Tritton A. S.
Published: March 2011

The Twelver Shi'a says that the imam Ja'far al-Sadiq disinherited his son Isma'il for drunkenness and gave the succession to another, Musa al-Kazim. Others argued that once an imam always an imam and continued to recognize Isma'il. Prof. Bernard Lewis has pointed out that there are hints at something worse than drunkenness, perhaps heresy. Sunni writers represent the Isma'ilis as godless with seven stages of initiation leading up to a repudiation of all religion but this is due to a misunderstanding and to the belief that every secret doctrine must be evil. Till recently, the Isma'ilis kept their books hidden from the profane and this secrecy still persists but some of their books have now been published though the texts are usually corrupt and need the oral tradition of interpretation to explain them fully.
The Turkish Numerals
Authors: Clauson Gerard
Published: March 2011

The Turkish Languages are unusually rich in numerical series, and there are pecularities in their numerical system which are, I believe, unparallelled elsewhere. The main facts are well known, and it might be thought that there was nothing more to be said about them; but several interesting points have never been properly discussed. The purpose of this paper is to call attention to them.
Notes on al-Kindī's Treatise on Definitions
Authors: Stern S. M.
Published: March 2011

Al-Kindī's Treatise On the Definitions and Descriptions of Things (Fī Ḥudūd al-Ashyā' wa-Rusūmihā) has come down to us in the great Istanbul manuscript of his collected writings (Aya Sofiya 4832), and has been published on the basis of that unique manuscript by M. A. Abū Rīdā (Rasā'il al-Kindī al-Falsafiyya, vol. i, Cairo, 1950, pp. 163 ff.). In a manuscript of the British Museum which contains a great number of important philosophical texts, Add. 7473 (Cureton's Catalogue, no. 426), written about the year 640/1242, there are some extracts from it. They are preceded (fols. 175r–178r) by al-Kindī's well-known treatise on the astrological calculation of the Islamic empire, published from this very manuscript by O. Loth. The colophon of that text reads as follows: “The treatise is finished, with the praise of God and His help and assistance. I have transcribed it from a copy dated the middle of Rabī' I, 531 [Nov.–Dec., 1136]. This colophon is followed by the extracts, which are headed by a note reading as follows: “The following paragraphs were found in the copy which I used as my model, and so I transcribe them.” What follows are definitions from al-Kindī's treatise. As it is superfluous to reproduce that part of the extracts which exists also in the Istanbul manuscript, I propose to employ a simplified method of comparison: I give the headings of the British Museum extracts, without adding anything where the British Museum version corresponds exactly to the text of the Istanbul manuscript; but I note all divergences. Readers interested in the details will peruse these pages with the printed edition before them.
The Legend of Devāpi
Authors: Spellman John W.
Published: March 2011

The legend of Devāpi, which occurs in several early Indian sources, raises numerous issues relating to Devāpi's character, his right to the throne, his reasons for not exercising that prerogative, the unfortunate consequences of his brother Śantanu's accession, and the rectification of those consequences.
The Cosmological aspect of Indonesian Religion
Authors: Quaritch Wales H. G.
Published: March 2011

The cosmological aspect of religion, and the application of cosmic symbolism to religious architecture and social organization, were discovered relatively late, so that the attention rightly directed to the subject in recent years has engendered a tendency to overestimate its importance in Asian thought. Fortunately this has not escaped the notice of critics. The cosmological aspect of the ziggurat is now recognized to have been secondary. Further, with regard to Indian culture, Prof. A. L. Basham has uttered this timely warning: “It is hardly likely that the complex cosmic symbolism of the Vedic sacrifices was elaborated until long after the sacrifices themselves came into being. Similarly the cosmic symbolism of the Hindu temple seems to us to be a comparatively late and artificial growth, of far less significance than some authorities are inclined to attribute to it. The symbolism seems to have been somewhat esoteric, the preserve of schools of learned men who specialized in trying to explain every aspect of life by this means. We believe that for the early Indian man in the street it was of far less significance than might be believed from the emphasis which some modern students place upon it.” In the present article I shall try to redress the balance in the case of certain non-Islamized peoples of Indonesia, an undertaking which in view of some recent publications seems to be needed.
Toynbee on the Turks in the Near and Middle East
Authors: Gold Milton
Published: March 2011

Although Arnold J. Toynbee's reputation as a historian does not depend on his Turkic studies, yet they are an integral part of his work as a whole. Early in his career he devoted three books to the subject; and throughout A Study of History —the definitive statement of his historical philosophy—Toynbee gives considerable thought to the significance of the Turks in the Near and Middle East, according to his more general interpretation of history.
The Name Uyğur
Authors: Clauson Gerard
Published: March 2011

For nearly nine hundred years Uyğur, the name of a Turkish tribe which played an important part in the history of Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan from the 8th until perhaps the 13th century, and spoke at any rate one of the Turkish dialects which have at one time or another been called Uyğur, has exercised a fatal fascination for those who like to find meanings for Turkish tribal and proper names.
Some Notes on Old South Arabian Monetary Terminology
Authors: Irvine A. K.
Published: March 2011

In the pre-islamic inscriptions from South Arabia there has survived a small number of words which on contextual grounds may be seen to have reference to a monetary system, either as designating actual coins or as indicating characteristics of these coins. Likewise several different coin types are represented in the collections of Europe and there is evidence, amongst the silver, at least, for a series of denominations based on fractions of a half, a quarter, and occasionally an eighth. Since many of these types and denominations exhibit numbers of sub-classes and die varieties, there is some justification for the assumption that coined money probably played an important part in the local economy, though equally there is nothing to suggest that it was fundamental to it. By making comparisons with the styles and standards of other ancient monetary systems it has been possible to assign tentative dates to the extant South Arabian coinages, which may thus be reckoned to cover the period from approximately 250b.c.till arounda.d.300. Unfortunately the chronological and, above all, geographical distribution of these coins is very uneven and it is no easy task to reconcile their evidence with the results of present-day studies of South Arabian history and chronology carried out on the basis of the inscriptions, so that in virtually no case is one justified in making a positive identification of a given term in any text with a particular coin.
Relations between the Government of India and the Sharif of Mecca during the French Invasion of Egypt, 1798–1801
Authors: Abir M.
Published: March 2011

The Hijaz, being only a little less sterile than most of the Arabian peninsula, could in the 18th century support its nomadic inhabitants and urban communities owing to two important assets, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the Ḥajj, and the transit trade from the south of Arabia to the north.
The Career of Htilaing min (Kyanzittha)
Authors: Luce G. H.
Published: March 2011

The Burmese king popularly known today as “Kyanzittha”, reigned at Pagán from a.d. 1084 to 1112 or 1113. But his active career started much earlier than that: say from about 1050. The career divides itself sharply into REIGN and PRE-REIGN. He has left a dozen original stone inscriptions in Old Mon, some of great length; and these (thanks to the labours of my teacher, the late Dr. C. O. Blagden) are excellently edited and available in Epigraphia Birmanica. They cover merely the Reign. In them he hardly ever alludes to the Pre-Reign; and never once to the great predecessor whom he served so long, King Aniruddha.—In the late Chronicles, however, e.g. the Glass Palace Chronicle translation, six pages suffice to cover the reign—mostly fables, with slight resemblance to the original inscriptions. As for the Pre-Reign, there are 40 pages, also fabulous, full of mistakes and contradictions, but still of value.
Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg's Verzeichnis der Malabarischen Bücher
Authors: Gaur Albertine
Published: March 2011

The Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum has among its collection a small manuscript (no. Sloane 3014; size 19 × 23 cm; foil. 23) entitled Verzeichnis der Malabarischen Bücher. It is written in German in a thin ornate hand on watermarked paper, and is obviously a catalogue of Tamil books, some of them well-known classics. The term Malabarisch (Malabari in English), which the author uses for people and language alike, is the name by which Tamil was generally known among the Portuguese and the Europeans who reached India soon afterwards. At one place (book no. 47) the author calls the language Tamul which, according to Caldwell, was the term employed by the French. The name of the author is not mentioned in the manuscript. There is a note in the Department's Catalogue of Sloane, Birch and Additional Manuscripts dated 1782 which reads: “Verzeichnis der Malabarischen Bücher: i.e. Catalogus linguâ Germanicâ, a Missionariis Evangelicis in urbe Tranquebar, an. 1709 compositus, quo recensentur 112 librorum Malabaricorum, inscriptiones breviores eorumque contenta indicate.” To this the List of Oriental Manuscripts, Vol. I, in the Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts adds: “see Bibliotheca Rostgardiana … vendenda Hafniae, Anno 1726 … pars altera, no. 852.”
Indians and the Indian Civil Service, 1853–1879: A Study in National Agitation and Imperial Embarrassment
Authors: Compton J. M.
Published: March 2011

The question of the admission of Indians to the Covenanted Civil Service was perhaps the most important single issue connected with the British empire in India during the 19th century. The administration and the political security of the raj both depended very largely on this civil service. It was for this reason that, in 1793, important administrative positions were restricted to Europeans. Natives were thought to lack political reliability and personal morality; an additional disqualification was their lack of familiarity with Western principles of judicial administration. The objectionable legal statement of discrimination was later replaced by an admirable series of pronouncements of equality. Nevertheless, the Indian Civil Service was still, in the middle of the 19th century, a European elite body both in composition and function. There thus existed a conflict between professed intentions and practical reality. This antithesis underlay the development of the issue from the committee-room cliché that it was in 1853 to the crucial political problem that it had become by 1879.
Logical and Scientific Method in Early Buddhist Texts
Authors: Misra G. S. P.
Published: March 2011

By rejecting animism and ritualism and emphasizing a rational outlook which treats reality as a causally and functionally determined system of plural synergies (saṁskāras), the emergence of Buddhism marks an important event in the history of Indian thought. The most distinctive feature of Buddhist ethics is its freedom from theism, which leaves room for rationalism and rules out submission to some superhuman power controlling the world-process. Prior to the advent of Buddhism even theUpaniṣadswere not completely free from theistic influence in their speculations. It is proposed here to point to the Buddhist contribution to the growth of scientific outlook and methodology in India.
Keshtebān: A Persian Loan-Word in Arabic
Authors: Latham J. D.
Published: March 2011

In the new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam part of the article “ ‘Arabiyya” is devoted to a study of the Arabic vernaculars. In his treatment of the Eastern dialects H. Fleisch raises the following problem: “Certain loan-words pose questions: how did the Persian keshtebān ‘thimble’, which is not known in literary Arabic or in Turkish reach S-L [Syrian and Lebanese]? How did the Pahlawī randa ‘plane’, an early loan-word, of which there is no evidence in literary Arabic or Turkish (Persian randa), reach Aleppo, and by what route? The comparative study of vocabulary has not yet been pursued sufficiently to enable us to dwell further on this subject here.” To the problem of keshtebān the solution probably lies in an unexpected sphere, namely, that of the toxophilite, and is suggested by the evidence to be outlined below. It is not unlikely that the answer to the question posed by randaj should be sought in the same general field, though on this point I can only surmise.
Some Khotanese Inscriptions on Objets D'art
Authors: Emmerick R. E.
Published: March 2011

It was a pleasant surprise during the Christmas vacation of 1966 to receive a letter from a Mrs. C. T. Williams, who described herself as “a graduate student in oriental art history at Harvard University” working on Khotanese painting, and enclosed the four photographs which are now published here. They provide four previously unpublished Khotanese inscriptions, which, though difficult to read and providing little information, are of interest because of their occurrence on objets d'art. Three are written in the late cursive script and one (Kha. i C 0096) in the old square script.