bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Khandesh Survey Riots of 1852: Government policy and rural society in Western India
Authors: Jhirad J. F. M.
Published: March 2011

The traditional forms of landholding and the government's land policy are two problems in the study of the nature of social change in 19th-century Western India; as the necessary aetiology of agrarian movements they are also linked with the organization and idiom of popular protest on the one hand, and the structure and temper of official institutions on the other. The Khandesh Survey riots are a microcosm of these problems as they existed in a raīyatwārī (peasant-proprietary) area of the Bombay Presidency, five years before the Mutiny. An analysis of the agrarian relations—partly as seen articulated in the movement of the riots—seems to have an undiminished relevance for later periods, and may perhaps qualify an impression of the Bombay raīyatwārī system as one where the government as landlord had a uniformly direct relationship with a standard cultivatortenant.
‘Abd Al-Malik's Inscription in the Dome of the Rock: A Reconsideration
Authors: Kessler Christel
Published: March 2011

The famous Kūfic inscription in the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock, which provides the building with a direct dating and an explicit message and which has been discussed for more than a century, once more claims our attention: a recent review of the mosaic decoration maintains that it has lost its original character during the latest restoration; that it has been “entirely redone” and has suffered corrections such as “adding alifs and diacritical points and signs wherever they appear to be missing”. No evidence is given for this disquieting news beyond the statement of a certain (or, as it seems, a rather uncertain) person; this inevitably provokes demand for further information, the more so as it is included in a book renowned for its reliable documentation.
Mamlūk sultanic heraldry and the numismatic evidence: A reinterpretation
Authors: Allan J. W.
Published: March 2011

A few years ago Professor Balog, in the introduction to his book Coinage of the Mamlūk sultans of Egypt and Syria, suggested, on the basis of the numismatic evidence, a number of modifications to the principles of Mamlūk heraldry proposed earlier by Mayer in his book Saracenic heraldry, particularly with regard to the use of composite blazons by the sultans, and their design. Balog's main conclusions may be briefly summarized as follows:

(a) The Mamlūk sultans engraved their coats-of-arms on many of their coins. (b) Besides simple charges true composite blazons occur on fulūs, showing that not only the nobility but the sultans also had composite blazons. (c) All simple charges occurring on issues of one and the same sultan are parts of his composite blazon. (d) Coins sometimes confirm the evidence for a sultan's blazon provided by other objects, and sometimes contradict it; in the latter case, the coin evidence should prevail, (e) Coins, in that they can be definitely attributed and the ownership of the blazons they carry can be proved without question, confirm Mayer's theory that the Mamlūk blazon was hereditary.
Appendix: The Sasanian coin from Qūmis
Authors: Bivar A. D. H.
Published: March 2011

The coin is a drachma of the Sasanian king Hormizd IV (a.d. 579–590), and is dated the tenth regnal year, equivalent to a.d. 587/8. Its formal description may be given as follows:

Obverse. Bust of Hormizd IV to right. To left, from 11 o'clock, Pahlavī inscription: ’pzwr “increase”. To right, from 1 o'clock (reading from the outside): ’wḥlmzdy “Hormizd”.
An early Indian hero-stone and a possible Western source
Authors: Harle J. C.
Published: March 2011

In the Archaeological Museum, Gwalior, stands a square stone pillar (No. 1/48; 1/21 ?) (Pl. I(a)) surmounted by the remains of the head and bust of a male figure supported by a throne-back. The stone is a light ochre sandstone, very worn and badly flaked; and the whole front portion of the pillar and bust has, in fact, split off and been replaced, with the exception of the bust and head portion which has been lost. The front and both sides of the pillar are divided into panels with bas-relief scenes while at the back there is an inscription. The museum label reads simply “Hasalpur Inscription of Nagvarman (c.a.d. 550) records the death of a warrior”. Hasalpur, in the district Sheopur (Shivapuri) is a village about 70 miles west of Gwalior. It is four miles from the Chambal River which forms the boundary with Rājasthān.
An early Mesopotamian link with India
Authors: Mallowan Max
Published: March 2011

This year on the eve of his 80th birthday, which we now celebrate, Sir Mortimer Wheeler has been responsible for drafting the report on the UNESCO Mission to Mohenjo Daro. No honour could be better deserved, or give him greater satisfaction, than the implementation of the important and judicious recommendations on which he and his colleagues have agreed for the conservation of this world-famous site and, complementary to this, for its excavation down to the deeply waterlogged levels. For all who are aware of the massive remains of superimposed architecture which still adorns Mohenjo Daro it is staggering to learn that even below the present average flood-plain level “recent borings have shown at more than one spot that brickwork in fact goes down as much as 60 feet (18 m.)”. A combination of international skills, engineering, hydrological, and archaeological, are available to encompass that great task, which is one that deserves the large funds required. Moreover the lessons which would be learned from the application of the practical techniques would be directly relevant to the opening and exploration of world-famous ancient sites in the great alluvial valleys of Western Asia—Nile and Tigris, Euphrates and Ganges as well as the Indus.
Some remarks on the miniatures in the Society's Jāmi‘ al-tawārīkh
Authors: Meredith-Owens G. M.
Published: March 2011

This copy (dated 714/1314), which is now on indefinite loan to the British Museum, is perhaps the best known of our illustrated manuscripts. It is one of the few surviving remnants of the vast historical project set in motion by the Ilkhānid wazīr Rashīd al-Dīn Faẓl Allāh (d. 718/1318), and in its present form consists of fragments of the second volume of the Jāmi‘ al-tawārīkh in the Arabic version, amounting to 60 folios, viz.:—

(1) Fragments of the History of the Prophet and his Companions (fol. 2a–9a).
R.A.S. MS 178: an unrecorded Persian painter
Authors: Robinson B. W.
Published: March 2011

The student of Persian painting normally approaches manuscripts of Qazwīnī's “Marvels of Creation” (‘Ajā’ib al-Makhlūqāt) with a certain wary apprehension. Copies of the work generally contain a very large number of miniatures, and thus tend to suffer, like some manuscripts of the Shāhnāma, from “painter's fatigue”—in other words the standard of painting deteriorates as the manuscript proceeds, as if the artist, who may have started off with a fine flourish, found himself, after the first hundred or so miniatures, physically wilting and mentally inert. This is, of course, only human, considering that he was required to produce small and stereotyped illustrations of an interminable series of angels, constellations, beasts, birds, insects, trees, and plants. But it means that copies of the “Marvels of Creation” of first-rate quality are exceedingly rare. The present manuscript, though not in the top flight, may be assigned a very respectable place in the second rank, and has in addition one or two other characteristics that make it a more interesting subject of study than the majority of Qazwīnī manuscripts.
King Narasiṁha I Before his Spiritual Preceptor
Authors: Starza-Majewski O. M.
Published: March 2011

The collection of Indian sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum includes a fine relief from Koṇārka. It is about 2 feet 6¾ inches (78·1 cm.) in height and depicts King Narasiṁha I (a.d. 1238–64), the founder of the celebrated Sun temple at Koṇārka in Orissa, sitting at the feet of his spiritual preceptor (Plate I). Acquired in the 19th century, this relief, which is carved in carboniferous shale, was long believed to be Nepalese. Havell, writing in 1911, notes that this sculpture is “said to have come from Nepal. Its date is uncertain. It appears to represent a Vaishnava adaptation of some old Buddhist jātaka story.” Some years later it was realized that the style of this sculpture belonged to that of the Eastern Ganga of the 13th century a.d., and that it represented the conversion of a kṣatriya noble to the worship of Viṣṇu by a Vaiṣṇava priest. The figure of the warrior sitting at the feet of the priest was identified as that of Narasimha I receiving spiritual instruction from his guru. This relief is one of a number showing scenes from the life of Narasimha which come from the great Koṇārka temple dedicated by him to the sun-god Sūrya. Of these, the panel already mentioned and another in New Delhi throw an interesting light on Narasiṃha's religious beliefs.
Three Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) Marriage Prayers: Lahu Texts and Ethnographic Notes
Authors: Walker Anthony R.
Published: March 2011

During the course of my anthropological fieldwork among the Lahu people in the hills of north Thailand, I devoted much time to the recording and translation of ritual prayers and chants. Analysis of these texts was of fundamental importance in my studies of Lahu religious ideas, for often the ritual word made clear what remained nebulous in the ritual act or in everyday language. But apart from their usefulness in explanation, the ritual texts are intrinsically valuable as a contemporary expression of the cultural heritage of this preliterate mountain folk. It is for this reason that I record here, both in translation and in the original language, the texts of marriage prayers given to me by three elders of my study village. A brief description of the ceremony suggests the setting for these recitations. The Lahu text is given for language scholars and for future generations of Lahu, who for the most part are still unable to record their own cultural heritage. I hope my translations will give some idea of the beauty of Lahu oral poetry.
Der Stand Der Erforschung Des Proto-Elamischen
Authors: Meriggi Von Piero
Published: March 2011

Die proto-elamische Schrift bietet sich uns in zwei Abarten dar: A, die Schrift der Rechnungstäfelchen; B, die monumentale oder lapidäre, auf Stein und einigen anderen Gegenständen. Der Aufbau der Rechnungen in der Schrift A kann durch zwei Beispiele einfacher, wohl primitiver Art gezeigt werden. Damit kann man als ganz ähnlich zwei Beispiele aus den sumerischen “Archaischen Texten aus Uruk” vergleichen. Sehr weitgehend ist die Ähnlichkeit der beiden Zahlsysteme, besonders was die komplizierten Bruchzahlzeichen angeht. Aber im übrigen weichen beide Schriften vollständig voneinander ab, sodass vom Sumerischen keine Hilfe fürs Proto-elamische zu erwarten ist.
The Linguistic Situation of the 2nd Millennium B.C. in Ancient Anatolia
Authors: Kammenhuber Annelies
Published: March 2011

In detail, the following is the situation regarding the languages of ancient Asia Minor and Mesopotamia:

Non-Indo-European language

Apart from the Semitic languages and Egyptian, at least five isolated languages are ascribable to that period in which the Sumerians and Egyptians had already invented their script. All five languages are recorded in the so-called Akkadian cuneiform, a syllabic script which the Sumerians had developed from their picture-writing.
Présence Éventuelle de la Langue Hourrite sur les Tablettes Chypro-Minoennes D'Enkomi
Authors: Masson Par Emilia
Published: March 2011

C'est au cours du IIe millénaire avant notre ére, plus exactement vers la fin du XVIe siècle, que l'île de Chypre a connu sa première écriture. L'aspect et la nature des plus anciens documents indiquent que cette écriture est très probablement issue du “linéaire A” crétois, et pour cette raison, Arthur Evans l'avait dénommée “chypro-minoenne”. Cette branche la plus orientale des écritures linéaires égéennes va connaître assez rapidement un développement autonome et donner naissance à des répertoires nouveaux, soit à Chypre même, sur le site d'Enkomi, soit, hors de l'île, à Ras Shamra-Ougarit, sur la côte syrienne. En effet, si la documentation encore insuffisante ne permet pas de retracer toutes les étapes de son développement, il est possible de déceler les phases essentielles. II y a tout d'abord une période archaïque, représentée par de rares témoignages datant du XVIe et du XVe siècle, lesquels, aussi bien par leur présentation matérielle que par le dessin précis des signes, apparaissent encore comme des reflets fidèles de ceux des documents crétois. Ensuite, vers le XIVe siècle, on voit apparaître un répertoire chypro-minoen bien établi, qui a pris son caractère propre et ne montre plus qu'une ressemblance lointaine avec l'écriture “mère” de la Crète.
Spice Prices in the Near East in the 15th Century
Authors: Ashtor E.
Published: March 2011

It is a well-known fact that the discovery of the sea route to India and the ensuing scarcity of spices and other Indian products on the markets of Alexandria and Damascus resulted in their prices rising steeply. Judging from Venetian sources, the change in the condition of the Levantine trade was considered catastrophic. On the other hand, some scholars have already drawn attention to the fact that pepper prices fell considerably on European markets in the period preceding the expedition of Vasco da Gama, and especially in the second quarter of the 15th century. It is probable, a priori, that this was caused by a downward trend of prices in the Near East. But other factors, such as the level of demand in European countries and the conditions of trade (communications with the Near East, direct or indirect trade), could also have influenced the course of spice prices in Europe. In order to explain the tremendous impact of the rise of spice prices at the beginning of the 16th century, I have suggested, in my Histoire des prix et des salaires, the probability of a fall of prices in the Near Eastern emporia in the pre-Vasco period. In a paper published a few years later I tried to substantiate this conjecture by additional materials and, further, by the supposition that it was accompanied by a great increase in the volume of the Levantine trade, and also a general price-decline in the Near East at the end of the Middle Ages.
Indeterminism Versus Determinism: The Seventh Prapāṭhaka of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad
Authors: Kunst Arnold
Published: March 2011

Much has been written and said about determinism in Indian philosophy and religion, but not enough heed seems to have been paid to many statements and theories advanced by the Indian literati in their attempt to offset the enthralment of man by the automaticism involved in such deterministic doctrines as those of karman and the ensuing saṁsāra.
Regional Independence and Élite Change in the Politics of 14th-Century Sri Lanka
Authors: Kulasuriya Ananda S.
Published: March 2011

Dynastic changes are not an uncommon feature in history. In the history of Sri Lanka they have been especially common and have sometimes taken place in such a rapid succession that one might form the impression of their being a recurrent feature. One observes the succession of the Moriyas by the Lambakaṇṇas, followed by the Pāṇḍyas and the Kāliṅgas. Usually such changes have been the result of the weakness of the central political authority, internal discord, factional disputes, and other such decisive forces which provided excellent conditions and ideal opportunities for ambitious kings, particularly from the sub-continent, to invade the island. Sometimes they have been caused by less hostile circumstances, at least in their initial stages, such as appeals for intervention by rulers to outside powers. There seem to have been certain special forces and features that marked the changes that occurred in the late medieval period. We shall be concerned here with a discussion of those forces with a view to understanding the special features of the process of change, the manner in which a comparatively insignificant clan of foreign descent acquired power and rose to the highest ranks of the governing élite, and also the forces that brought about its downfall. The question, “Why were the new élite unable to gain sovereign power when it was just within their grasp?” will engage our special attention.
Notes on the text of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā
Authors: Conze Edward
Published: March 2011

Rajendralal Mitra was the first to edit the Sanskrit text of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā in 1888 in the Bibliotheca Indica No. 110, on the basis of six manuscripts, some of them going back to the llth century, In 1932–5 Unrai Wogihara reprinted the text in his edition of Haribhadra's Abhisamayālarikārālokā. On many occasions he, often tacitly, corrected the text from the manuscript readings, especially from ga, or from the commentary. Rather curiously, after chapter xx, p. 370, Wogihara has, for no apparent reason, omitted to indicate the variant readings of Mitra's manuscripts in his footnotes. When inserting them into my own copy of Wogihara, I was struck by Mitra's essential soundness, and by his fine instinct for Buddhist Sanskrit.
Mughal retreat from coastal Andhra
Authors: Richards J. F.
Published: March 2011

The aim of this article is to describe and assess those political changes occurring in the Godavari region of coastal Andhra (i.e. the districts of Srīkākūlam, Rajamundry, and Elluru) as a result of Mughal conquest in the later 17th century. Previous to that event, the Muslim kingdom of Golconda with its capital at Hyderabad had ruled this predominantly Telugu-speaking region. But imperial occupation did not carry with it increased political and administrative consolidation. On the contrary, extension of the boundaries of the empire brought about a perceptible decline in Muslim state power as exercised from Hyderabad. At the same time Telugu warriors who had served the king of Golconda as troop commanders and local administrative intermediaries became self-sufficient rājas.
The Sino-Tibetan treaty inscription of A.D. 821/823 at Lhasa
Authors: Richardson H. E.
Published: March 2011

The inscriptions on four faces of the stone pillar outside the Jo-khang at Lhasa concerning the treaty of A.D. 821/823 between the Tibetan king, Khri gTsug-lde-brtsan Ral-pa-can, and the Chinese emperor Mu-tsung, have been edited in whole or in part several times during the past century. Particulars of those publications can be seen in the excellent edition by Professor Fang-kuei Li in T'oung Pao, XLIV, 1956, which is the only one in English to contain the four inscriptions in Tibetan and also the Chinese versions of three of them which give the document its unique linguistic importance.
The worship of Kārtavīrya-Arjuna: On the deification of a royal personage in India
Authors: Tripathi Gaya-Charan
Published: March 2011

Of the ten incarnations of Viṣṇu which he is believed in classical Hinduism to have undergone for the welfare of the human beings on earth, the sixth is that of Paraśurāma, a Brahmanic hero whose characteristic feature was the axe (paraśu) with which he is reported to have slain innumerable Kṣatriya warriors in 21 combats. We may perhaps recall here the most important events of the legend as it occurs in the Mahābhārata (III.116, XII.49.27–60, cf. also XIII.153) and in the Purāṇas: Harivaṃśa (I.33), Vāyu (Adhy.94), Matsya (Adhy.43), Viṣṇu (IV.11.9–20), Bhāgavata (IX.15, 16), Mārkaṇḍeya (Adhy.17), Brahmāḍḍa (III.26–47, very extensive!), and Viṣṇudharmottara (I.Adhy.25–7 ff.):
Ziyārāt of Syria in a riḥla of ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (1050/1641–1143/1731)
Authors: Sirriya Elizabeth
Published: March 2011

As a leading Ṣūfī shaykh of his age al-Nābulusī's prime purpose in all his travels was to seek mystical experience and gain baraka by contact with the righteous, both living and dead. Consequently, his riḥlas emphasize encounters with spiritual dignitaries and ecstatics and his many ziyārāt to holy tombs and other shrines. These works thus provide a valuable source of information on religious personalities of his day and on Muslim sanctuaries.
Alexander and the Mongols
Authors: Boyle John Andrew
Published: March 2011

The association of Alexander the Great with the Mongols begins with the identification of the latter with the peoples of Gog and Magog. The evolution of this legend, which has its origin in the Book of Genesis, is curious in the extreme. In Genesis Magog is mentioned as one of the sons of Japhet, his name occurring between those of Gomer and Madai. Since Madai is clearly intended as the eponym of the Medes and Gomer has been located in Cappadocia and Phrygia it has been plausibly suggested that Magog at this stage corresponded to the territory in between, i.e. the region immediately south of the Caucasus in Eastern and Northern Armenia. In Ezekiel we hear for the first time of Gog “of the land of Magog”, who will come from his place out of the uttermost parts of the north, he and many peoples with him, “all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.” It will be seen that the “land of Magog” can no longer be located south of the Caucasus, and indeed Ezekiel's prophecy of the invasion of Gog has been interpreted as an echo of the invasions of the Cimmerians, who came southwards from the steppes through the Darial pass towards the end of the eighth century B.C.; or more probably of the invasion of the Scythians which took place in the following century by way of Darband. Finally we are told in Revelation that “when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea”.
Agni in Ṛgveda-Saṃhitā 9, 66 and 67
Authors: Gonda J.
Published: March 2011

There are two passages in the Soma hymns of maṇḍala IX which deserve special attention. Both of them are concerned with Agni, who in this book is a rare and insignificant occurrence: in 9,5,11 he is, in a final line, said to witness, together with Vāyu, Bṛhaspati, Sūrya and Indra, a Soma ceremony; in 22, 2 and 88, 5 he figures in similes; in 96, 5 Soma is described as the father of Heaven, Earth, Agni, Sūrya, Indra and Viṣṇu. The more interesting are the two Agni passages in the last sūktas of the first part of this maṇḍala, viz. the triplet 9, 66, 19–21 and the six stanzas 9, 67, 22–27.
Hunter's Indian Musalmans: a re-examination of its background
Authors: Ali M. Mohar
Published: March 2011

Hunter's Indian Musalmans was completed in mid-June and published in mid-August of 1871. It consists of four chapters of which the first three are devoted to the so-called Indian Wahhābī movement and its aftermath, with particular reference to Bengal. The last chapter analyzes the Muslims' grievances and suggests some modification in the state system of education in order to attract them to it and make them more suitable for official employment, thereby weaning them away from the path of disloyalty. It is principally because of this last chapter that the book has been invested with a new significance in the context of later political developments in British India. Hunter has been regarded as the progenitor of Muslim separatism and has even been linked with a deliberate official policy of divide and rule.
King Anaṅgabhīma III, the veritable founder of the Gajapati kingship and of the Jagannātha trinity at Puri
Authors: Kulke Hermann
Published: March 2011

The year A.D. 1230 is one of the most decisive dates in the religious and political history of Eastern India. King Anaṅgabhīma of the Imperial Gaṅgas ritually dedicated his kingdom to the god Puruṣottamma-Jagannātha of Puri and acknowledged the divinity of Puri both as the sole state deity of Orissa and as his divine overlord. Henceforward Anaṅgabhīma and his successors claimed to rule under divine order (ādeśa) and as son (putra) and vassal (rāuta) of the Lord of Puri. It was most probably during the same year that Anaṅgabhīma introduced the deity Balabhadra into the present Jagannātha trinity of Puri. Thus the year 1230 marks both the establishment of the ideology of the Gajapati kingship of Orissa, and the final formation of the Jagannatha cult of Puri.
Lord William Bentinck's resolution of 1835 on Indian education: a rejected draft
Authors: Hilliker J. F.
Published: March 2011

In January 1835, the General Committee of Public Instruction, the semiofficial body responsible for administering the Government of India's education funds, reported deep internal division over matters of principle. One group within the Committee, the orientalists, wanted to continue the existing policy of supporting traditional Indian learning, with the prospect of gradually engrafting European subject-matter upon it. Their opponents, the Anglicists, urged the substitution of Western for Eastern studies (with some safeguards for the latter) and the use of English as the principal language of instruction. Because the dispute was hampering all but the most routine activity, the Committee requested the government to settle the question.
Ṣan ‘ā’, an Arabian Islamic city
Authors: Beckingham C. F.
Published: March 2011

Anyone glancing casually at this book, weighing as it does nearly 3 kg., with a very attractive dust-jacket, 48 pages of illustrations in colour, and a vast number in black-and-white, besides various maps, might be forgiven for assuming that it was yet another of the many coffee-table productions purporting to display the arts and architecture of Islam. In fact the text is of great interest to scholars in many branches of oriental research and it is one of the most important books about Arabia ever to have been published. Until recently most contributions to our knowledge of the country were made either by untravelled scholars in the West, or by travellers who, even if they spoke the language well, could not, or did not, read the chronicles and other writings, legal, descriptive and poetical, which contain relevant information. Indeed, many of the works to which we can now refer have been published, or even become known, only in the last few decades. The older travellers could not command the literary evidence in the way that Serjeant does. Hugh Scott, for example, wrote an excellent book about the Yemen. He was a meticulous observer with varied accomplishments and wide interests, but he spoke only a few words of Arabic and could not read it at all.
The Evolution of Historical Linguistics: Sir Ralph Turner Memorial Lecture 9th May, 1985
Authors: Robins R. H.
Published: March 2011

It would, of course, be possible in the case of a man such as Sir Ralph Turner to devote an entire lecture to an extended obituary. Several full obituaries have already been published, but a brief notice of some salient features of his life and career are still, perhaps, in place in a Memorial Lecture in his honour. Ralph Lilley Turner was born in 1888 and educated at The Perse School, Cambridge, and at Christ's College, Cambridge. He entered the Indian Education Service and during the First World War he served with the Gurkha Rifles. After the war he was Professor of Indian Linguistics at Benares University, until he was appointed to the Chair of Sanskrit in London. In 1937 he became Director of the School of Oriental Studies, soon to become the School of Oriental and African Studies, until 1957. He was knighted in 1950, and from 1957 he spent an active retirement working almost until his death in 1983 on the final stages of the supplements to his life's work, theComparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages.
Vīs and Rāmīn: an anomaly among Iranian courtly romances
Authors: Southgate Minoo S.
Published: March 2011

Composed somewhere between 1040 and 1054, Fakhr al-Dīn As'ad Gurgānī's metrical romance ofVīs and Rāmīncelebrates the adulterous love of Queen Vīs and the King's younger brother, Rāmīn. In his introduction the poet informs us that the tale of Vīs and Rāmīn enjoyed great popularity in his time although it was not widely understood in its Pahlavi version or satisfactorily rendered into New Persian. Based on a lost Pahlavi original, Gurgānī's version takes place in ancient Zoroastrian Iran. Scholars have variously identified its setting as Sasanian (A.D. 226–651) and Arsacid Iran (247 B.C.–A.D. 224). Perhaps our scant knowledge of the Arsacid nobility prevents us from deciding between an Arsacid and a Sasanian setting; moreover, even if the story is of Arsacid origin, its subsequent adaptations and interpretations must have altered its original characteristics.
Export porcelain fit for the Chinese emperor. Early Chinese blue-and-white in the Topkapĭ Saray Museum, Istanbul
Authors: Krahl Regina
Published: March 2011

The Topkapĭ Saray holds one of the world's largest collections of Chinese ceramics, but at the same time one of the least well known. It consists of over ten thousand pieces, of which roughly fifteen percent are on permanent display; only a few hundred items have ever been published, and not more than twenty-five objects have been on exhibition outside Turkey. To compare this collection with the even larger one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is quite instructive: the pieces are completely different and have almost no item in common in spite of the fact that they cover largely the same period. What is housed in the National Palace Museum is a substantial part of the former Imperial collection or, at any rate, had once belonged to the holdings of the Imperial palace in Beijing (Peking). It had then been packed up in 1931 when the Japanese invaded Manchuria, and after a sixteen-year trip through China from one supposedly safe place to another, had finally been transported from the mainland to Taiwan when Chiang Kaishek established his government there. It represents a superb cross-section of those ceramics that were produced for the Chinese home market, in particular for the Imperial court and the scholar-official elite with its high standards of artistic perfection.
The place of Gordon Luce in research and education in Burma during the last decades of British rule
Authors: Tinker Hugh
Published: March 2011

There is a good deal that is tantalizing and rather sad about the life and work of G. H. Luce who has a claim to be considered the most distinguished British scholar to explore Burma's past, with only Sir Arthur Phayre as his peer. Both were pioneers. Both explored Burma's history with deep sympathy and insight. Phayre left as his monument a complete history from the earliest times to the British occupation. In certain respects, for example in his scheme of periodization, this remains the model for his successors. Luce produced a corpus of specialized studies which greatly extended knowledge of the sources of Burma's early medieval history and the details of its infrastructure - far beyond the range of Phayre's researches. Yet he did not nurture his work to full fruition.
Two Amharic letters by the Falasha leader Tamrat Emanuel
Authors: Ullendorff Edward
Published: March 2011

The two letters which form the subject of this short paper have come into my possession as part of the Amharic documents left by the noted Orientalist Eugen Mittwoch (1876–1942) and generously passed on to me by his widow (since deceased) and his daughters (who now occupy senior academic posts at University College, London, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, respectively).
Mongol raids into Palestine (A.D. 1260 and 1300)
Authors: Amitai Reuven
Published: March 2011

The year 1260 marks the beginning of a sixty year conflict between the Mongols of Persia and the Mamlūks of Egypt and Syria. Over this period several large-scale battles were fought in north and central Syria in the course of Mongol invasions of that country. In addition, throughout most of this period, a more or less continuous border war raged on both sides of the Euphrates River, in north Syria and south-west Anatolia. Twice the Mongols were successful in occupying most of Syria: in 658/1260 and 699/1299–1300. In both cases the Mongol conquest lasted for only a few months, but in each instance this was more than enough time to launch raids into what was then south-west Syria, also variously known as the Holy Land, Palestine and the Land of Israel. In the absence of any other central authority over the ma jority of this territory, it can be said that in a sense Palestine twice also enjoyed the “benefits,” again temporary, of Mongol occupation.
Clio with one eye: a new book on the Armenians in Ottoman Turkey
Authors: Gandy Christopher
Published: March 2011

In a magisterial article in Middle Eastern Studies of January 1976 Dr Gwynne Dyer wrote “The majority of Turkish and Armenian historians remain frozen on this issue (the events of 1915–16) in the attitudes their predecessors had already adopted by 1916 … The barrage of accusation and counter-accusation rolls on … Most of the historiography on this subject is biased and unreliable”. Eleven years have passed since that was published but matters have hardly improved. The continued production of works of advocacy rather than history is the more disappointing because the broad pattern of Turkish-Armenian relations is hardly in doubt.
Balinese manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and other collections in the Netherlands: a review article
Authors: Marrison G. E.
Published: March 2011

These two volumes are the first of a major series of catalogues planned to cover the Balinese manuscripts in the Leiden University Library and other Dutch collections. They run on from the four volumes of Th.G.Th. Pigeaud's Literature of Java, (1967–1980), but in view of the very distinctive character of the materials described here by Dr. Hinzler, the presentation is quite different. Part 1 contains full-page illustrations of each of the 483 Balinese drawings in the Van der Tuuk Collection, together with a gallery of 50 photographs, mostly of temples and dancers for comparison with certain of the items in the collection. Part 2 begins with an historical, critical and technical introduction, followed by a detailed, self-contained description of each drawing, and where required, its literary background and reference, each entry running to one, two or more pages. The Collection is numbered Cod. Or. 3390.1–307 and 17994.1–3.
Art. II.—Letters to the Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society
Authors: Morley W. , Forbes Duncan
Published: March 2011

Whilst I was engaged last year in making a catalogue of the Oriental MSS. comprised in the libraries of the Society and the Oriental Translation Committee, I met with the historical MS. which is the subject of the following letter. I, at that time, applied to the Council of the Society for permission to forward a description of the MS. to M. Quatremere, who is employed in editing the only portion of the work hitherto known, in the hope that he would represent the matter to the French Government, and cause our MS. to be published in the “Collection Orientale,” as a sequel to his “Histoire des Mongols.” The council acceded to my request, and I accordingly wrote to M. Quatremère on the subject, but whether on account of my letter not having reached its destination or from the press of business, he has not as yet returned any answer to my communication. In the mean time, I think it desirable that the existence of this important volume should be made known to the public, and I have accordingly drawn up the following account of the MS. for insertion in the Journal of the Society.
Article V. Extract from the work entitled or, Fountains of Information respecting the classes of Physicians, by Muuaffik-uddín Abú-'labbás Ahmad Ibn Abú Usaibiâh
Authors: Cureton W. , Wilson H. H.
Published: March 2011

The following extract was originally made with the view of forming a collection of such passages relative to India as may occur in Arabic writers. The further prosecution of this design appears to be rendered unnecessary by the publication of a work by Mr. Gildemeister, of Bonn, of which the first fasciculus has appeared, entitled Scriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis loci et opuscula inedita, 8vo. Bonn, 1838. At page 94, he has spoken at some length of the names of Indian authors and books, which occur in this chapter of Ibn Abu Usaibiâh; and Dietz in his Analecta Medica, Lips. 1833, p. 117, has given a great part of the chapter. The whole of it is now supplied, as, independently of the information which it affords relative to the scientific intercourse between India and Bagdad, it contains some interesting aneedotes of the time of Harún Alrashíd.
Art. VIII.—Copy of an Arabic Inscription in Cufic or Karmatic characters, on a Tombstone at Malta
Authors: Shakespear John
Published: March 2011

A fac-simile in plaster, from which the accompanying lithograph is copied on a reduced scale, having been presented by Sir Grenville Temple, Bart., to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, it has been submitted to the inspection of the members of the Society as well as of visitants: and, attempts have subsequently been made, in this country, at deeiphering and translating it.
Art. I.—On the Geographical Limits, History, and Chronology of the Chera Kingdom of Ancient India
Authors: Dowson J. , Bland N.
Published: March 2011

Tradition and native records represent the southern portion of the Indian peninsula as being anciently divided into three contemporary kingdoms. 1. The Pándya. 2. Chola or Sora. 3. Chera, Sera or Konga. Of the first, a valuable account has been supplied by Professor Wilson, in Vol. III. of the Society's Journal; and of the other two, slight sketches have been given by the same learned writer, in the Introduction to his Catalogue of the M'Kenzie Collection: a more detailed notice of the last is the object of this paper.
Art. XIV.—Narrative of an Excursion from Pesháwer to Sháh-Báz Ghari
Authors: Masson C.
Published: March 2011

M. Court, of Mahárájá Banjit Sing's service, in a Memoir on Taxila and Peucelaotis, a notice of which appeared in the Journal of the Asiatic Society in Bengal for August 1836, first communicated to the world the fact of the existence of a Bactro-Pali Inscription near Kapúr-dí-Giri in the vicinity of Pesháwer; of which, indeed, he gave a few letters copied by himself.
Art. XXII.—The Cinnamon Trade of Ceylon
Authors: Capper John
Published: March 2011

It is impossible to say at what particular period this spice first became known to the world, though there is but little doubt that the aromatic properties of the bark were no secret at a very early date.
Art. XXIII.—Reports on the Manchur Lake, and Aral and Narra Rivers
Authors: Captain Postans  , Knight R. C.
Published: March 2011

At a period when every geographical feature of the river Indus and its outlets or tributaries may be considered of interest, the following reports on that peculiar branch called the Narra, which, leaving the main stream on the western bank, a little below Sukkur, debouches at Sehwan, are offered for consideration. The first of these reports was drawn up by the author, in consequence of his being one of the first Europeans who had pursued this route; and the second by the assistant-surgeon attached to the steamer, which was sent experimentally to test its value in avoiding the delays and strong currents of the main stream during certain portions of the year; the result was so far satisfactory, that with a well adapted boat it is evident the voyage over this distance might be made in about sixty hours, or one-third of the time consumed on the river itself. The great feature and natural curiosity of this portion of the Indus, however, is the great lake Manchur, an expanse of waste water of the mighty Indus, which is formed by the main streams rushing into it from north and east, and which is probably 200 square miles in extent. The greater portion of the surface of this lake is covered with the lotus plant, in all its beauty and luxuriance, and it is perhaps impossible to imagine a more delightful voyage than across this magnificent expanse of water, the scene being much enlivened by the great number of fishing boats; a considerable portion of the poorer Sindhian population finding their homes and subsistence in this locality.
Art. II.—Summary of the Geology of Southern India
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

Much difficulty will always exist in determining the age of granite, since no petrographical distinction, sufficiently decisive to warrant us dividing it into classes, exists. The opinion of some geologists that the ordinary syenite, or, indeed, any other variety of syenite hitherto discovered in Southern India, is more modern than the usual ternary granite of felspar, quartz, and mica, is unsupported by any of the usual proofs required by geologists to establish a fact of this nature; viz., superposition; included fragments of rocks of a determined age; intrusion into other rocks, with or without alteration.
Art. III.—Illustration of the Route from Seleucia to Apobatana, as given by Isidorus of Charax
Authors: Masson C.
Published: March 2011

Amongst the many works of antiquity whose loss we have to deplore, are those of the historian of Charax. Some of them, if our good fortune had permitted their preservation, would have diffused a strong light upon the study of Oriental subjects, which owing to the progress of research and discovery at home and abroad, is prosecuted with increased ardour by the learned throughout Europe. His Parthic history, for example, was a work which to us would have been invaluable. Amongst the fragments of his composition remaining, is, however, an Itinerary of a route through the principal parts of Asia, an ancient relic of exceediug worth, and which, from its perfect accuracy, cannot be sufficiently commended.
Art. IV.—Report on the Progress of the Culture of the China Tea Plant in the Himalayas, from 1835 to 1847
Authors: Royle J. Forbes
Published: March 2011

Among the several experiments now in progress for the improvement of the Resources of India, there is not one which, in its ultimate effects, will probably be of such great importance, as the cultivation of the genuine Tea-plant of China in the valleys and slopes of the Himalayan Mountains. Having some further recommendations to make, respecting a culture which I believe I was the first to recommend to the Indian Government in the present localities, I think it advisable to give an account of the reasons which led to the suggestion, as welL as of the results which have been obtained.
Art. VII.—On the Mountainous Country, the portion of Asher, between the Coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and the Jordan
Authors: Newbold
Published: March 2011

The mountainous country lying between the coasts of Tyre and Sidon and the valley of the Jordan presents almost a complete blank, even in our latest maps of Palestine. Nau (a.d. 1674) went from the mouth of the Kasimíyeh river to Safed; Buckingham (a.d. 1816), from Banias to Sidon; Ven Monro (a.d. 1833) went from Safed to Tyre; and my friend Mr. Thomson, the American missionary of Beyrút, took a somewhat similar route in 1837. In 1835, Mr. Smith passed from the Húleh, through Merj Ayún, to Jezzin, and subsequently (1838), in company with Professor Robinson, from Safed to Tyre.
Art. VIII.—Route from Kashmír, viâ Ladakh, to Yarkand, by Ahmed Shah Nakshahbandi
Authors: Dowson J.
Published: March 2011

The following Itinerary, or account of the route from Kashmír, viâ Leh, to Yarkand, is translated from a little Persian MS., written by Ahmed Shah Nakshahbandí, at the request of Lord Elphinstone, and presented to that nobleman at Kashmír, in July, 1846. The author, Ahmed Shah, was the son of Khájah Sháh Niyáz of Kashmīr, a man of high reputation and sanctity, who was held in great esteem by the Mohamedans of Yarkand and the surrounding countries, where he had numerous disciples. Ahmed Shah had himself visited the countries he describes, and spent some time in the chief places, his religious character and reputation giving him peculiar advantages for travelling and observing in these countries.
Art. XIV.—Notes on the Early History of Northern India. Part VI On the Historical Value, Origin, and Growth of Early Methods of Record anterior to Alphabets, including Ideographic Signs, Sacred Numbers, and Myths
Authors: Hewitt J. F.
Published: March 2011

As botanists and zoologists trace the successive stages of existence traversed by living plants and animals through species and genera to families, so the historian of human progress finds himself obliged to extend his generalizations through tribes and nations to races. Research proves that it is these larger units who, through the combined work of the several component parts of the race, are the authors of the underlying ideas which are acted out in its achievements. It also seems to show that there are two races who have most materially aided in the development of civilization— one, quiet, silent, hard-working and practical, whose members have always looked on the public benefit of the tribe or nation to which they belonged as their best incentive to action: the other, impulsive, sensitive, generous, and eloquent, who have looked on personal glory and the aggrandizement of their families and personal adherents as the object of their ambition.
Art. XV.—The History of the Mosque of Amr at Old Cairo
Authors: Corbett Eustace K.
Published: March 2011

The traveller in Egypt who wishes to visit the Mosque of Amr may now leave Cairo either by train or carriage, and step out in the immediate neighbourhood. But he who prefers the most picturesque and interesting route will either ride or walk, and taking the street which runs parallel to the Khalīg, or Canal of Cairo, will pass out of the town by the gate of Sayyida Zeinab. Following the road past the picturesque little Mosque of Zein al Ābidin, he will pass under the Aqueduct, and proceed along the track which leads him through a country of mounds and dust-heaps past the Mosque of Abu-s-Suūd to the N. front of the building which he seeks (see Plan I.). Here let him ascend the mound which lies outside the huts by which the facade of the Mosque is shut in, and, facing towards them, take a general view of the scene. To his left he looks over a dusty space of comparatively low-lying ground, to the Aqueduct under which he passed twenty minutes ago; on his left front the citadel of Cairo stands out in the distance beyond a large expanse of high dust-mounds. Straight before him is the Mosque, but he can see little of it excepting the higher part of the two minarets, the mass of huts shutting out the view of the low walls; but behind the Mosque, at some two miles' distance, the limestone cliffs of Mukattam gleam in the sunshine: while further to the right the eye rests on a dusty height crowned by disused windmills.
Art. X.—Mythological Studies in the Rigveda
Authors: Macdonell A. A.
Published: March 2011

The name of Trita occurs forty times in twenty-nine hymns of the Rigveda; no single hymn, however, is addressed to him, nor is he mentioned among the Vedic deities in the ancient list of Vedic words explained by Yāska, the earliest Vedic commentator.
Art. II.—Two Legends from the Brhaddevatā in an old MS. of Sadguruçisya
Authors: Macdonell A. A.
Published: March 2011

The following two passages of the Brhaddevatā occur in afourteenth century Poona MS. of Sadguruçisya, which I collated for my edition of the Sarvānukramanī and its commentary. The MS. is described in pages xii. and xiii. cf the introduction to that edition. It is there termed P I, but below referred to simply as P. These two extracts were not printed in my edition, because they occurred in none of the other MSS. of Sadguruçisya, and were at the same time too long to incorporate in the notes. I now edit these old Vedic myths both as containing matter of some interest and as likely to be of use to a future editor of the Brhadde-vatā.