bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Art. II.—An Essay on the Brāhūī Grammar, after the German of the late Dr. Trumpp, of Munich University
Authors: Duka Theodore
Published: March 2011

In the range of philological study and research there is nothing so attractive as the discovery of certain tribes who speak a language unconnected with the languages of the peoples which surround them. In Europe we have the striking example of the Basque language on the French and Spanish frontier, and, on a larger scale, we find the descendants of the ancient conquerors of the upper part of Pannonia — the Hungarians — surrounded by German, Sláv and Latin elements, speaking the Magyar language, a language wholly isolated, whose philological position has not as yet been determined to the satisfaction of all. Such isolated peoples appear like islets on the vast ocean of Languages. Another remarkable example is the language of the Bráhúi in the north of Sindh and on the east of Balúchistan, on the north-west of British India, which is the subject of the present essay. This language is spoken in a region to which much attention has been attracted of late; it is the territory formerly known as the Khánat of Khelat. The writing of the Bráhúi is the Arabic alphabet, and the letters l and t are pronounced from the roof of the mouth with a strong emission of the breath.
Art. IX.—The Tri-Ratna
Authors: Pincott Frederic
Published: March 2011

In the very valuable paper on “Early Buddhist Symbolism” contributed to the July issue of the Journal by Mr. Sewell, we have many interesting statements showing the possible influence of the West upon Indian symbolism. These, however, do not, to my mind, lead to the conclusion Mr. Sewell desires to establish; and, in fact, he contents himself with the assertion that the swastika is emblematic of sun-motion, that the chakra represents the sun, and that the triśula “is nothing more nor less than a conventionalized scarab—a sun-emblem.” The first two assertions seem to have been considered self-evident; but, in support of the last, several remarkable coincidences are brought together.
Art. IV.—Sachau's Albirúní
Authors: Goldsmid F. J.
Published: March 2011

In the Notes of the Quarter for October last it was stated that, owing to the exceptional character of two recent publications, a critical notice of them would be deferred to the January number of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal. These were Dr. Sachau's edition of Al Beruni's India in the Arabic original, and the Introduction and second fasciculus, Part I. of Howell's Arabic Grammar. Neither issue could be dismissed with a hasty line of approval, however unqualified, nor were the names of the authors, however distinguished, and abstract of title-pages, sufficient—in respect of the particular volumes under reference—to convey, to the world without, a clear notion of the long and continuous labour the result of which had been placed at the disposal of Orientalists in Europe. Further consideration led to the conclusion that a separate article might with propriety be devoted to the first of the two works named—both important additions to the library of Arabic scholars.
Art. VI.—Andamanese Music, with Notes on Oriental Music and Musical Instruments
Authors: Portman M. V.
Published: March 2011

The subject of Oriental Music is one which offers a large field for research, in which very little work has, as yet, been done.
Art. VII.—Tsieh-Yao-Tchuen de Tchou-hi (Extraits)
Authors: de Harlez C.
Published: March 2011

La sagesse des Saints est grande; les gens d'études en s'y appliquant approchent de sa nature. Mais le destin assigné à chacun diffère, le perfectionnement de la vertu n'est pas égal en tous. Les Saints des premièrs âges s'accordent avec ceux des temps ultérieurs, comme les deux parties d'un sceau. On ne doit donc pas s'écarter d'eux; car, si on le fainsait tant soit peu, on s'en irait errant à mille lis de la vérité.
Art. VIII.—Notes on the Early History of Northern India
Authors: Hewitt J. F.
Published: March 2011

The most noteworthy part of the history of India must always be that which tells how the people known as Hindoos, speaking languages derived from the Sanskrit, and living in the country between the Himalayas and the Vindhyan Mountains, and in the Valley of the Indus, were formed from originally heterogeneous elements into a nation, and which dfurther describes the origin and development of their system of government and their early religious history. The written materials available for these purposes are unusually abundant, but vary greatly in value.
Art.XI.—Further Notes on Early Buddhist Symbolism
Authors: Sewell R.
Published: March 2011

In an article on Early Buddist Symbolism, in Vol. XVIII. Part 3, of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal (1886), I expressed my belief that the three objects of worship and ornament so commonly seen on Buddhist scultpures in India, the Svastika, triśūla, were not indigenous Indian emblems, but symbols of Western Asian origin—whether Semitic or Aryan matters little—adopted of old by the Hindus, and accepted, originally by Buddists, not as being in themselves Buddist symbols, but as being symbols of religious signification in general use among the people.
Art.XII.—The Metallic Cowries of Ancient China (600 b.c.)
Authors: de Lacouperie Terrien
Published: March 2011

1. Several of the collections of coins made in their own country by intelligent and enthusiastic Chinese Numismatists contain specimens of a curiously-shaped scarab-like copper currency. They are various called Y-pi tsien or ‘Ant's nose metallic currency;’ kuei-tou or ‘Ghosts’ heads,' and finally Ho-pei tsien or ‘Cowries Metallic currency.’
Art. XIV.—A Jātaka-Tale from the Tibetan
Authors: Wenzel H.
Published: March 2011

In the History of Tibet called Rgyal-rabs-gsal-vai-me-lon (‘The mirror illustrating the lineage of the kings’) we find, as sixth chapter, the tale translated here, which corresponds to the Valāhassa Jātaka (Fausböll, ii. 127 ff., also in E. Müller's Pali Grammar, p. 128 ff.). As will be seen, the tale appears here in a richer, and quasi-dra-matic, garb, with the addition of some characteristic traits, as e.g. the marvellous food that makes men forget their bygone troubles (cp. Odyssey, ix. 94 f.), etc., etc.
Art. IV.—The Northern Frontagers of China. Part VIII. The Kirais and Prester John
Authors: Howorth H. H.
Published: March 2011

Before reporting the history of the Kirais in detail, so far as we can recover it, I will shortly dissect the story of Prester John. That a Christian king ruled over an Eastern people, remote from the centre of Christian life and isolated from the world, was a story that was very widely spread in early times; and inasmuch as more than one community answered to this description in distant parts of the world, it was natural that this king should be identified with the rulers of very different races. He was generally known as Presbyter Johannes or Prester John, and most travellers who went far afield in early times claimed to have discovered him.
Art. VI.—Was the Book of Wisdom written in Hebrew?
Authors: Margoliouth D. S.
Published: March 2011

That the Proverbs of Ben-Sira were written in some kind of Hebrew has never been seriously questioned, and the number of sources in which clues to the original have been preserved would be sufficient to silence any doubts that might be raised. It would be natural to suppose that the Book of Wisdom, which bears so close a relation to those Proverbs, which enlarges on so much that Ben-Sira suggests, and endeavours to be deep where he is shallow, appealed to the same public, and was composed in the same language. But although this theory would receive a primâ facie plausibility from the Hebraisms with which the pseudo-Solomon's style abounds, his affectation of Greek eloquence, noticed by very early critics, his allusions to Greek customs, and his reminiscences of Greek authors, have seemed to put it out of court; and the best editors of this century only mention this theory to reject it. In the last century, however, it was supported by some eminent names; and early in this found an advocate in Bretschneider, the author of three dissertations on the Book of Wisdom, who had an adherent in Engelbreth.
Wei Ts'ang t'u chih
Authors: Hua-ch'u Lu
Published: March 2011

A topography is a description of a country, and such a description comprises that of the land and its inhabitants; detailed and succinct descriptions are both, included in this category of works.
Art. XIII.—The Life and Works of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn
Authors: Corbet Eustace K.
Published: March 2011

The Mosque of Ibn ḥūlūn was the third congregational Mosque built in the Muslim capital of Egypt. The first, originally built by 'Amr, the conqueror of the country, in a.h. 21 (a.d. 642), was re-built and extended by many governors in succession, and still remains—a monument of great historical, if of slight artistic interest. The second, known as Gāmi' al 'Askar, or the Camp Mosque, was built in a.h. 169 (a.d. ), in the military suburb which had grown up since a.h. 133 to the N.E. of the original capital. This Mosque was increased in size in a.h. 211 (a.d. ) and is heard of as late as a.h. 517 (a.d. 112¾); but all traces of it have been lost for many centuries, nor have any details come down to us with regard to its plan and architecture.
Art. I.—Schools of Buddhist Belief
Authors: Rhys Davids T. W.
Published: March 2011

I have received several interesting communications on my article, published in our Journal for last July, on the Sects of the Buddhists. The Rev. J. E. Carpenter has given me additional figures in Yuan Thsang which had escaped my notice. These numbers bring up the totals given by the Chinese author of the adherents of the different schools, as summarized on p. 420, to 200,000 instead of 182,000. But they leave the conclusion, which was drawn from those numbers, as it stood.
Art. VIII.—Four Cuneiform Texts
Authors: Strong S. Arthur
Published: March 2011

Of Aššurbêlkala, son and successor of the first Tiglath pileser, we know little. The so-called synchronous history devotes a few lines to his reign, from which, however, we learn nothing more than that in his time the peoples of Assyria and Babylon were united in the bonds of friendship aud alliance, and that he took to wife a Babylonian lady, daughter of the upstart Rammanâpluiddinna, King of Babylon (W. A. I., ii. 65, 25). Two only of Aššurbêlkala's inscriptions seem to have come down to us. Of these the more important runs in seven partly defaced lines across the back of a nude female torso carved in stone a little under life-size. This monument—of the highest interest from an archaeological point of view—was found at Kouyunjik, and is now preserved (No. 849) in the British Museum.
Art. I.—The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van. Part IV
Authors: Sayce A. H.
Published: March 2011

Since the publication of the third part of my Memoir on the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Van in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (xx. 1.) for 1882, the number of new Vannic inscriptions which have come to my knowledge has been but small. During the winter of 1888–1889 Prof. H. Hyvernat and M. Müller-Simonis travelled in Armenia, and Prof. Hyvernat made every effort to discover fresh cuneiform inscriptions and re-copy those which were previously known. But unfortunately political intrigue and religious antipathies, aided by the severity of the winter, so seriously impeded his efforts as to oblige him to leave the country with few additions to our knowledge of its early epigraphy. That many more inscriptions, however, exist above ground besides those with which we are already acquainted has recently been ascertained by a German engineer, Dr. Belck, who has been settled in Armenia for some time past.
Art. II.—A MS. of the Nārada Smṛiti
Authors: Ridding C. Mary
Published: March 2011

The Nārada Smṛiti is said by Professor Jolly to be important, both as being the only Smṛiti completely preserved in MSS. which treats of law apart from penance and other religious subjects, and as reflecting the social and political state of India at the time of its compilation.
Art. II.—The Lî Sâo Poem and its Author
Authors: Legge
Published: March 2011

The Literature of China has been arranged by its scholars, as is well known, in four great divisions, bearing the names of Classical, Historical, Philosophical, and Belles-lettres or Polite Literature. Under each division there are various sub-divisions, but of the four the last is by far the most extensive. The Chinese name for it is Chî (), meaning “Collections,” and it is of this only that the Papers which I now propose to submit to the Society lead me to give a somewhat particular account.
Art. XXI.—Southern Chin Vocabulary (Minbu District)
Authors: Houghton Bernard
Published: March 2011

The accompanying words and phrases of Southern Chin, as spoken at the foot of the Arakan Yoma Mountains in the Minbu district, were taken down a few years since by Major B. A. N. Parrott, I.S.C., who later on presented to me the book in which they were, written, along with others on Oriental subjects. They are interesting as representing the most Northern dialect of this language, which reaches its most Southern point in the Sandoway district. (I pass by the dialect spoken in Bassein and the South of Henzada as being much corrupted by the extended intercourse which has there taken place between the Chins and the Burmans.) In publishing now this Vocabulary of Minbu Chin it has seemed advisable to compare it word by word with that of the Sandoway district, not merely in order to show more clearly the dialectic variations which exist, but also as an assistance towards the elucidation of the still obscure philological laws which obtain in this family of languages. In a speech which has suffered so extraordinarily from phonetic corruption and decay as this latter, all evidence which will in any way tend to join together the scattered links of verbal stems and endings must be considered as scientifically useful.
Art. XXII.—On the Mediӕval Castle and Sanctuary of Abrīḳ, the modern Arabkir; with some further Notes on Mesopotamia as described by Ibn Serapion
Authors: le Strange Guy
Published: March 2011

From two of my friends, Professor De Goeje and Mr. Hogarth, I have had the good fortune to receive many corrections for my recent paper on Ibn Serapion, and these I now hasten to publish, as throwing much new light on the subject of the geography of Mesopotamia in the time of the Caliphs.
Art. XXIV.—Some Notes on the Poetry of the Persian Dialects
Authors: Browne Edward G.
Published: March 2011

In this article I do not propose to attempt any general classification of the dialects spoken in different parts of Persia; for, in the present state of our knowledge, and with the materials yet available, such attempt would, perhaps, be premature; and, in any case, the task is one which I am not competent to undertake. Neither do I deem it necessary to enlarge upon the importance of the philological results which a fuller study of these dialects may be expected to yield. My present intention is merely to make known a collection of poems, of various dates and authorship, composed in different dialects of the Persian language, and contained in a small manuscript which came into my possession about four years ago.
Art. V.—Arabic Inscriptions in Egypt
Authors: Kay Henry C.
Published: March 2011

A public mosque and the tomb of the founder represent at the present day what was once a khanka, or, as it may be described, a conventual establishment for the use of Ṣũfis, erected at Cairo in the early years of the fourteenth century, by Sultan Baybars, second of the name. An earlier foundation of the same character, the first seen in Egypt, owed its existence to Saladin, who adapted to his purpose a house or mansion built in the days of the Fatimites, and known as the house of Sa'īd as-Su'ada, a designation which the existing mosque bears to the present day. Both foundations have for a long period ceased to serve the purposes for which they were erected, and, as has likewise happened to the numerous madāris or colleges founded by the Egyptian Sultans and nobles, their original destination is w ll-nigh forgotten. They are now simply classed among the public mosques of Cairo, a change from their original purpose largely due to their impoverishment, and not unlike that which has befallen many old abbey churches in England.
Art. VI.—The Sword of Moses. An ancient book of Magic, published for the first time, from an unique Manuscript (Cod. Heb., Gaster 178)
Authors: Gaster M.
Published: March 2011

Magic has exercised the deepest influence upon mankind from remote antiquity unto our own days. It either formed part of the religion of the country, as it was the case in ancient Egypt and Babylon and as it is now in some forms of Buddhism (Tibet), or lived an independent life side by side with the recognized religion. In some instances it was tolerated, or rendered less obnoxious, by a peculiar subdivision into white or beneficial and black or evil magic, or was downright persecuted. Wherever we go, however, and especially if we turn to the popular beliefs that rule the so-called civilized nations, we shall always and everywhere find a complete system of magical formulas and incantations. The belief in the witch and wizard, and their powerful filters and charms, holds still stronger sway upon human imagination than, appears at first sight.
Art. VII.—The Early Years of Shāh Isma'īl, Founder of the Ṣafavī Dynasty
Authors: Ross E. Denison
Published: March 2011

The most exhaustive, if not the best known, source for the history of Shāh Isma'īl the Ṣafavī, is undoubtedly the Ḥabib-us-Siyar of Khwāndamīr. Though this large and important work has been lithographed, both in Ṭihrān and in Bombay, it is but too little known in Europe, where it has generally been regarded as a mere epitome of the Rauzat-uṣ-Ṣafā; whereas, besides being an original source for much valuable biographical and geographical matter, it contains detailed accounts of many little-known dynasties. Khwāndamīr's work is thus in many respects more interesting than the ponderous universal history of his grandfather. Now, there is a work, of which the British Museum possesses one copy, and the Cambridge University Library a second, which is devoted entirely to the biography of Shāh Isma'īl. Neither MS. bears a title nor gives any author's name, and in no part of the work have I been able to find a clue to the author's identity. MS. L bears the title , which is taken from the Epilogue, and in the very last line after we read which, according to Dr. Rieu, is most probably meant for the transcriber and not the author. The work ends with a short account of the accession of Isma'īl's son Ṭahmāsp, and with prayers for the prosperity and long life of the young prince. This would lead one to fix the completion of the history soon after the accession of Ṭahmāsp Mīrzā in a.h. 930. On the other hand, on fol. 277a of MS. L, we are told, in a momentary digression from the main narrative, that Moḥammad Zamān Mīrzā was drowned in the Ganges in the year 947, on the occasion of Humāyūn's retreat from Bengal.
Art. XIV.—Note on Udyāna and Gandhāra
Authors: Deane H. A.
Published: March 2011

As the Swat valley, and neighbourhood, which constitute the principal portion of the old province of Udyāna, have hitherto been inaccessible for archæological research, the following rough notes (made during the little time at my disposal as Chief Political Officer with the Chitral Relief Force, and lately as Political Officer for Dir and Swat) may induce others better qualified to devote some attention to this interesting neighbourhood. They are principally connected with the travels of the Chinese pilgrim Huan Tsiang, as given in Beal's “Buddhist Records of the Western World.”
Art. XV.—The Liturgy of the Nile
Authors: Margoliouth G.
Published: March 2011

The MS. from which the text of the Nile Service is taken, is numbered Or. 4951, and is a recent acquisition of the British Museum. It consists of 69 paper leaves, measuring about 6£ ins. by 5 ins., with mostly 15 lines to a page. The quires, 7 in number, are of 10 leaves each (the last leaf being blank). The Syriac letters by which the quires are numbered are written in the middle of the lower margin, both on the last and the first page of each quire. Thus, on fol. 10b, the letter denotes the end of the first quire, and the same letter also stands on fol. 11a; the letters etc., are similarly written on foil. 20 b and 21 a, foil. 30b and 31a, etc. The only exception is the absence of the letter on fol. 61a. The style of writing, though smaller, approaches yery nearly to that of pi. xx (representing fol. 34 of Add. 14,664) in vol. iii of Wright's “Catalogue of the Syriac MSS. in the British Museum,” which has been assigned to the twelfth or thirteenth century. The letter “rlsh” is, with very few exceptions, written (with two dots instead of one), and the “daleth” is, as a rule, not distinguished by a dot below. There are no diacritic points below the letters, and points over the text (see the first facsimile, representing fol. 38b of the MS. chosen to exemplify some of the characteristics mentioned here)are mainly employed in the following cases:
Art. XX.—An Inscription of Madanapāladeva of Kananj
Authors: Bendall C.
Published: March 2011

A copper-plate, closely similar to one existing at Calcutta, and successively published by Dr. F. Hall (J.A.S.B., xxvii, 220) and Prof. Kielhorn (Ind. Ant., xviii, 9), has recently come under my notice. It measures 1′ 4″ high by 1′ 6″ broad, and has a hole for a ring at the top and the raised rim described by Dr. Kielhorn, l.c. The plate is at present at Messrs. Terry and Co.'s, of 29, Glasshouse Street, London, W. It is for sale, and I understand from them that it has previously been in the hands of a family in the South of England for about a century.
Art. III.—A Greek Embassy to Baghdād in 917 a.d.
Authors: le Strange Guy
Published: March 2011

In the early years of the tenth century a.d. the Emperor Leo VI, surnamed the Philosopher, gave much scandal to the ecclesiastics of Constantinople by his fourth marriage with the beautiful Zoe; a fourth being naturally a degree worse than a third marriage, and this the Eastern Church had lately “censured as a state of legal fornication,” for reasons which Gibbon discusses in chapter xlviii of the “Decline and Fall” However, “the Emperor required a female companion, and the Empire a legitimate heir,” and so, since he had found himself again a childless widower, Leo the Philosopher promptly celebrated his fourth nuptials, the patriarch Nicholas notwithstanding, who, having refused his blessing, was exiled. The fruit of this marriage was Constantine, surnamed Porphyrogenitus, that is, Born-in-the-Purple, from the porphyry chamber in the palace at Constantinople, where he had first seen the light; and in the year 911 a.d., when of the age of six, Constantine VII succeeded his father on the throne.
Art. V.—The Origin of the Phenician and Indian Alphabets
Authors: Cust Robert Needham
Published: March 2011

In the Calcutta Review of 1877, I published an Essay on the Phenician Alphabet, which was reprinted in Series I of my “Linguistic and Oriental Essays,” 1880. In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1884, I published an Essay on the Origin of the Indian Alphabet, which was reprinted in Series II of my “Linguistic and Oriental Essays,” 1887. As further light has been thrown upon the subject in the years, which have elapsed since 1877 and 1884, I return to this difficult, but interesting, subject, treating each branch of it separately.
Art. XX.—Notes on the Early Geography of Indo-China
Authors: Gerini G. E.
Published: March 2011

Having been for years past engaged in researches on the early history of Siātn and its border countries, I had, as a matter of course, to go into their ancient geography— a hitherto unexplored field—and this naturally led me to a study of the documents that the Western geographers of antiquity left us, more especially Ptolemy, who gives us the first collection of anything like authentic data on the countries in question. Thus it came to pass that I found myself hopelessly entangled in the “selva selvaggia, ed aspra e forte” of Ptolemy's geography of India extra-Gangem. I must confess that the results attending my first attempts at interpreting this portion of the work of the great Alexandrian were far from encouraging. This was, however, to be expected, seeing that even master hands like those of Klaproth, Cunningham, Yule, Lassen, and others, whilst meeting with fair success in identifying Ptolemy's names of places west of the meridian of the Ganges, had failed to evolve the slightest order out of the chaos of his trans-Gangetic geography, and to locate with certainty even a single one of the numerous cities he names beyond the outskirts of the Gulf of Bengal.
Art. XXII.—Buddha's Quotation of a Gāthā by Sanatkumāra
Authors: Bühler Georg
Published: March 2011

In the introduction to his edition and translation of the Madhura Sutta (J.R.A.S. 1894, p. 341 ff.) Mr. R. Chalmers calls attention to the Gāthā concerning the pre-eminence of the Kṣatriyas, which the Buddha quotes at the end of the Ambaṭṭha Sutta and elsewhere with great approval, and attributes to the Bramhā Sanaṃkumāra, the Sanatkumāra of the Brahmanical literature, who is described both as a teacher of the Yogaśāstra and as one of the mind-born sons of Brahmā, or as identical with Skanda. Mr. Chalmers thinks that the verse can hardly be a concoction of the Buddhists, as the exposure of such a forgery would have been inevitable. On the other hand, he believes that with the growing pretensions of the Brahmans such an utterance might have easily dropped out of the official recensions of the Brahmanical texts. But he expresses the hope that the verse may be discovered in Sanskrit, to the credit both of the Buddha and of the Brahmans.
Art. XXV.—Notes on the Mahābhārata, with special reference to Dahlmann's “Mahābhārata.”
Authors: Winternitz M.
Published: March 2011

In his important “Contributions to the History of the Mahābhārata,” Dr. Bühler has proved that in Kumārila's time, i.e. in the first half of the eighth century, there existed a Mahābhārata, attributed to the sage Vyāsa, which was not merely an epic poem, but was looked upon as a Smṛti, or sacred tradition; and that it contained not only the Çānti and Anuçāsana Parvans, but also many other portions found in our editions of the Mahābhārata, which have been repeatedly declared to be “late additions.” Dr. Bühler has further shown that inscriptions of about A.D. 500 quote the Mahābhārata as an authority on sacred law, and describe it as a bulky work, containing 100,000 verses. And as we must allow some time, say a century or two, for the gradual development of this sacred character, he concludes “that the Mahābhārata certainly was a Smṛti or Dharmaçāstra from A.D. 300, and that about A.D. 500 it certainly did not differ essentially in size and in character from the present text.” Dr. Bühler adds that further researches “will in all probability enable us to push back the lower limits, which have been thus established provisionally, by four to five centuries and perhaps even further.”
Art. XXVI.—Personal Reminiscences of the Bābī Insurrection at Zanjān in 1850
Authors: Ἁbdu'l-Aḥad-i-Zanjānī Āqā , Browne Edward G.
Published: March 2011

Besides Ṡubḥ-i-Ezel and his family, there reside at Famagusta, in Cyprus, three Ezelīs, all natives of Zanjān, who have settled there in order to be near their master. Two of these, Ustā Maḥmūd and Sheykh 'Alī Bakhsh, are brothers, sons of a certain Hājī Muḥammad Ḥuseyn, who was one of the Bābīs put to death in cold blood by Amīr Aslān Khān after the suppression of the Bābī rising at Zanjān in the winter of 1850. The third, named Āqā 'Abdu'1-Aḥad, who is the author of the following narrative, is the most interesting personality of the three. Living alone in a small, bare lodging, surrounded by unsympathetic and suspicious Turks, and admitted to the presence of Ṡubḥ-i-Ezel (for whose sake he has thus cut himself off from his friends, his relatives, and his native land) only, perhaps, once in ten days or a fortnight, he nevertheless exhibits a constant cheerfulness of demeanour, a scrupulous neatness of apparel, and an uncomplaining resignation and patience which command one's respect. I first made his acquaintance, and that of his two fellow-townsmen, during the fortnight which I spent at Famagusta in the spring of 1890; but it was not until the spring of last year (March 18–25, 1896) that I had an opportunity of seeing him again, and only then did I learn that a suggestion which I had formerly made to him, that he should set down in writing his recollections of the siege of Zanjān and of the calamities which subsequently befell the Bābīs there, had actually led him to compile the interesting narrative of which I here offer a translation.
Art. XXIX.—The Conquests of Samudra Gupta
Authors: Smith Vincent A.
Published: March 2011

The following dissertation is the second in my series of “Prolegomena to Ancient Indian History,” of which the first was the essay entitled “The Iron Pillar of Delhi (Mihraulī) and the Emperor Candra (Chandra)” published in this Journal in January, 1897. The article entitled “Samudra Gupta,” published, in the same number of the Journal, gives in narrative form the history of the Emperor Samudra Gupta. The present paper is devoted to the detailed technical discussion of the authorities for the statements of that narrative. I may perhaps be pardoned for inviting attention to the proposed identification of King Acyuta; the justification of the reading Mahendragiri as a king's name; the probable identification of the kings Viṣṇugōpa and Hastivarman; the certain identification of the kingdom of Pālakka; the suggested identifications of the kingdoms of Devarāṣṭra and Kustbalapura; the probable identification of King Candravarman; the location of the Ābhīra tribe; and the attempted identification and differentiation of the Ṣāhi, Ṣāhānuṣāhi, and Daivaputra kings.
Art. XXIII.—The Piprāhwā Stūpa, containing relics of Buddha
Authors: Peppé William Claxton , Smith Vincent A.
Published: March 2011

Since the discovery of the pillar at the Lumbinī Garden commemorating the birthplace of Gautama Buddha considerable curiosity has been aroused concerning the different mounds, or koṭs as they are locally called, which occur dotted over the tract extending from Kapilavastu on the north-west and the Lumbinī Garden on the north-east in Nepalese territory to a distance of several miles southwards inside the British frontier.
Art. II.—A Persian Manuscript attributed to Fakhru' ddīn Rāzī
Authors: Nicholson Reynold A.
Published: March 2011

This manuscript, which is now in my possession, has unfortunately lost anumber of pages at the beginning. Neither title nor author's name occurs in the text, but inside the cover an old Oriental penman has left the following inscription: , “The Preservation of Health, composed by Imām Fakhru' ddīn Rāzī — may God make bright his tomb! “The colophon is: Hājī Khalīfa (under ) ascribes to Hippocrates a work with this title, addressed to King Antiochus, but does not mention the translator nor the language into which itwas rendered.
Art. VII.—Some Early Babylonian Contract-Tablets or Legal Documents II
Authors: Pinches Theophilus G.
Published: March 2011

Nûr-îli-šu has built for his god the temple of Lugala and Šullat. One šar (is the measure of) the temple of his god—he has dedicated it for his life. Pî-ša-Šamaš is the priest of the temple. Nûr-îli-šu shall not make a claim against the priesthood (i.e., demand the restitution of the property he has given). The curse of the Sun-god and Suma-îla (shall be upon him) who brings an action.
Art. XIII.—Yet More Light on ‘Umar-i-Khayyām
Authors: Browne E. G.
Published: March 2011

As Mr. Beveridge has referred to my criticism (which is in reality not mine, but Professor A. Müller's, cited by Professor Houtsma in a footnote on pp. xiv–xv of his edition of al-Bundāri's History of the Seljūqs) on the now familiar story of ‘Umar's covenant with the Nidhāmu'l-Mulk and Ḥasan-i-Ṣabbāḥ, I should be glad to have an opportunity of stating that my recent reading has shown me that this tale at least reposes on more ancient and respectable authority than either the Rawḍatu-ṣ-Ṣafā or the Tārīkh-i-Alfī, namely, on that of the Jāmi'u't-Tawārīkh of Rashīdu'd-Dīn, who was put to death in a.h. 718. The passage, cited from f. 292b of the British Museum MS., Add. 7,628, runs as follows:—
Art. XV.—Notes on the Origin of the ‘Lunar’ and ‘Solar’ Aryan Tribes, and on the “Rājput” Clans
Authors: Baden-Powell B. H.
Published: March 2011

The whole of this subject is so difficult that I must submit the following remarks as purely tentative, and express a hope that others with more accurate knowledge will correct me. It will be well to begin with what appears to be at least tolerably certain facts. (1) The Ṛgveda shows nothing, directly, of any advance of Aryans to Ayodhya or the further kingdoms under the Naipāl Himalaya, nor does the Mahābhārata. But both specify an Aikshwāka settlement on the Indus; and we shall see some early indications, from other sources, of ‘Solar’ tribes beyond Ayodhya, Mithilā, and Vaiśāli, their chief centres. Our evidence for the ‘Solar’ dynasty of Ayodhya is the Rāmāyana, supplemented by the genealogies of the Purāṇas. The Buddhist writings throw some light on the subject also. (2) The kingdom of Ayodhya very early passed away; the more historic kingdoms in that region are connected with Buddhist times and with Śravasti, Kapilavastu, etc. (3) It is certainly the case that there were early sun-worshipping tribes in India, and not only in the Oudh region. We know of sun-worship and serpent-worship in Kāśmīr; we hear of it among the ancient Saurā of Saurāṣṭra and the Bāla (or originators of Valabhipura); the Kāthi (vassals of the Bāla) are still sun - worshippers.
Art. XXI.—Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate. A Topographical Summary, with a Notice of the Contemporary Arabic and Persian Authorities
Authors: Le Strange G.
Published: March 2011

Four years ago I submitted to the readers of this Journal “A Description, of Mesopotamia and Baghdad, written about the year 900 a.d. by Ibn Serapion,” in the course of which paper an attempt was made to sketch, in rough outline, the Plan of the mediaeval City of the Caliphs. This was derived from the accounts of the canals given by Ibn Serapion; and recognizing the imperfection of this Sketch Plan, I expressed my intention of returning again to the subject of Baghdad topography, and of completing, in a future article, the very cursory notes which were all that I had then been able to give with the translation of Ibn Serapion.
Art. I.—Śrāvastī
Authors: Smith Vincent A. , V. A. S.
Published: March 2011

In a recent paper Dr. Bloch has made a valuable contribution to knowledge by publishing an edition and translation of the inscription on the colossal statue found at Sāheṭ-Māheṭ by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1862–63. When Dr. Bloch published this paper he had not read my essay entitled “Kauśāmbī and Śrāvastī.” I have since sent him a copy of my paper, but he still adheres to the view expressed in his. I may therefore deal with Dr. Bloch's statement of opinion as if he had expressly considered my views and had rejected them. I propose in the following pages to defend my position.
Art. XXVIII.—Addenda to the Series of Pathán Coins. II
Authors: Wright H. Nelson
Published: March 2011

Since writing my last paper on the coins of the Pathán Sultáns of Dehli I have had the opportunity of examining with some minuteness the rich collections of the British Museum and Dr. L. White King, C.S.I. In the former are to be found the choicest specimens of General Cunningham's Muhammadan coins, of which many have already been brought to notice by Mr. Gibbs and Mr. C. J. Rodgers, but others are now, through the courtesy of the Museum authorities, described for the first time.
Art. XVII.—The Nāgas. A Contribution to the History of Serpent-Worship
Authors: Oldham C. F.
Published: March 2011

It is well known that between the Vedic period, and that described in the epic poems, great modifications occurred in the religion and social customs of the Indian people. Since the Epic period, further changes have taken place; so that the orthodox Hinduism, of the present day, differs much from that represented in the Mahābhārata. Religious vicissitudes have also occurred outside the Brahmanic pale. The Buddhist religion has become extinguished in India. Vast numbers of the people, too, have been converted—many of them forcibly—to the faith of Islām. Notwithstanding all this, however, many of the old deities still live. The Nāga rajas are worshipped as demigods; the sun, the cedar, and the serpent are held sacred; and Indra and his Devas have still their worshippers and their temples, as they had in the days described in the Mahābharāta.
Art. XX.—Three Years of Buwaihid Rule in Baghdad, a.h. 389–393
Authors: Amedroz H. F.
Published: March 2011

The history of which this MS. is all that is known to exist, covered in its entirety the period between A.H. 360 and 447. This fragment—which forms the larger portion of its eighth part—commences towards the close of the year 389, and concludes early in the year 393. It is interesting, not merely as the oldest Arabic authority for the period, but more especially as affording a specimen of Oriental history written at first-hand, the facts being either within the writer's own knowledge or told him by contemporaries. A history compiled by these means is almost certain to present a picture of a period truer and more vivid than one derived from abridgments, such as the Kāmil of Ibn al-Aīr, where, all that seemed capable of omission having been discarded, little beyond the dry bones of history remains. But of histories of this type few have survived.
Art. XXI.—Tagara; Tēr.
Authors: Fleet J. F.
Published: March 2011

For more than a century, Indian archæologists have been greatly puzzled about the identity of an ancient city named Tagara. The city is referred to in some of the Indian epigraphic records. Thus, a record of a.d. 997 describes the Śilāhāra prince Aparājita, of the Northern Koṅkaṇ, as Tagara-pura-paramēśvara, or “ supreme lord of the town of Tagara,” giving to him a hereditary title commemorative of the place which his family claimed as its original home. Another Śilāhāra record, of a.d. 1058, similarly applies to Mārasiṁha, of the Karhāḍ branch of the family, the title of Tagara-puravar-ādhīśvara, or “ supreme lord Tagara, a best of towns, an excellent town, a chief town;” and it further describes his grandfather Jatiga II. more specifically, but less accurately, as Tagara-nagara-bhūpālaka, or “ king of the city of Tagara.” And a Western Chalukya record of a.d. 612 specifies Tagara as the residence of the person to whom the grant of a village, registered in that charter, was made. The city is further mentioned, as Tagara, by the Greek geographer Ptolemy, who, writing about the middle of the second century a.d., assigned to it a certain latitude and longitude which have the effect of placing it about eighty-seven miles towards the north-east from another place, mentioned by him as Baithana, which his details would locate about 270 miles on the east-north-east of Barygaza.
Art. XXII.—Philo's δυνάμεις and the Amesha Spenta
Authors: Mills Lawrence
Published: March 2011

There is one well-known place in Philo (De profugis, 18, 1, 560) where the ‘powers’ seem for the moment to be limited to six. And this has naturally struck the attention of those who have been looking for coincident similarities between the philonian pieces and the documents which mention the Amesha Spenta of the Zend Avesta. For, as one commentator, Siegfried, has supposed, some of us might consider his treatment of these six cities to be equivalent to the citation of seven (as to which see below), this equalling the number of the ‘immortals’ of the Avesta.
Art. XXIII.—Archœological Discoveries in the Neighbourhood of the Niya River
Authors: Stein M. A.
Published: March 2011

Since effecting the exploration of ancient sites around Khotan and in the Taklamakan, of which a brief preliminary notice was given in the last number of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, I have moved eastward to Keriya and Niya. Certain indications had led me to look for archaeologically interesting remains in the desert north of the shrine of Imām Jafar Sadik, where the Niya River loses itself in the sands. The excavations I have been able to carry on there for the last three weeks have more than justified my expectations.
Art. XXVI.—Emotional Religion in Islām as affected by Music and Singing
Authors: Macdonald Duncan B.
Published: March 2011

Know that the first step in Hearing is understanding what is heard, and applying it to an idea which occurs to the hearer. Then this understanding has as fruit ecstasy, and ecstasy moving of the members. Let there be a consideration, then, of these three stages.
Art. XXIX.—Translation of an Arabic Manuscript in the Hunterian Collection, Glasgow University.
Authors: Weir T. H.
Published: March 2011

[In the Hunterian MS. the following tractate is ascribed to Ibnu'l ‘Arabī, d. 638 A.H. = 1240 A.D. In one of the Berlin MSS., however, it is called Risālatu'l Balbānīyah, by Muḥammad al Balbānī (Ahlwardt, 3, 250); in another Suyūṭī is given as the author (Ahlwardt, 1, 830). In the British Museum MSS. (Arabic Catalogue, No. DCCCLXXXI, ix, and Supplementary Catalogue, No. 245, x) the author is given as Auḥad al Dīn ‘Abdallah al Balyānī, d. 686 A.H. These MSS. have been used in the Translation. The Librarian of the Royal Library, Berlin, most kindly sent the two mentioned above (as well as a third imperfect one) to the care of the Glasgow University Librarian.]
Art. IX.—Description of Persia and Mesopotamia in the year 1340 A.D. from the Nuzhat-al-Ḳulūb of Ḥamd-Allah Mustawfi, with a summary of the contents of that work
Authors: Le Strange G.
Published: March 2011

What had of old been the province of Media the Arabs named Al-Jibāl—‘ the Mountains ’—a perfectly appropriate name, as will be seen by a glance at the map, for the great mountain region separating the plains of Mesopotamia from the highlands of Persia. In the time of the Saljūḳ princes, by some misnomer, this, their capital province, came to be called ‘Irāḳ ‘Ajamī, or Persian ‘Irāḳ, a name that was totally unknown to the earlier Arab geographers. Hence in after days Al-‘Irāḳayn, ‘The Two ‘Irāḳs,’ were taken to mean Media and Lower Mesopotamia, which last for distinction was thenceforth called Arabian ‘Irāḳ — ‘Ir¯ḳ ‘Arabī. Originally, it is to be observed, Al-‘Irāḳayn had been a term applied to the two great cities of (Arabian) ‘Irāḳ, namely, Kūfah and Baṣrah; but the Saljūḳs had affected the title of Sulṭān of the Two ‘Irāḳs, which in consequence, as explained above, came to be applied to the two provinces, but as Abu-l-Fidā (p. 408) writes “among the vulgar,” and wrongfully (see also Yāḳūt, ii, 15, and Lane, Dictionary, s.v. ‘Irāḳ). The name, however, has continued in use down to the present time.
Art. X.—Vaisāli
Authors: Smith Vincent A.
Published: March 2011

When discussing the position of Kuśinagara I was compelled by the necessity of avoiding undue prolixity to assume without proof the correctness of the current belief that the ancient and famous city of Vaisāli (Vesāli) is now represented by the ruins at Basāṛ and the neighbouring villages in the Muzaffarpur District of North Bihār.
Art. XI.—Abu‘l-'Alā al- Ma‘arrī's Correspondence on Vegetarianism
Authors: Margoliouth D. S.
Published: March 2011

It has already been mentioned that, according to Ṣafadi, a correspondence on Vegetarianism between Abu’l - ‘Alā and a certain Hibat Allah Ibn Mūsā, due to a line in the former's Luzūmiyyāt, was excerpted by Yāḳūt. The first volume of Yāḳūt's precious Dictionary of Littérateurs is in the Bodleian Library, soon, I hope, to be published with such other volumes of it as can be found. Yāḳūt, whose acquaintance with literary history was unique, tells us that a passage in the Falak al-Ma‘ānī of Ibn al-Habbāriyyah had roused in him the desire to get at this correspondence, which he reproduces in an abridged form. Abu’l-‘Alā's correspondent was a man of some importance, whose grave was still shown in Maḳrizi's time in Cairo, where he held the post of Chief Missionary. The fact that Abu’l-‘Alā addresses him with the titles ra’īs and ajall shows that he held this or some similar post at the time of the correspondence.
Art. XV.—Buddhist Gnosticism, the System of Basilides
Authors: Kennedy J.
Published: March 2011

Two questions, the early contact of Buddhism with Christianity, and the origins and character of Gnosticism, have attracted much attention of late Although these questions are independent of each other in the main, they happen to join hands in the case of the great Gnostic Basilides. I propose to show that the famous scheme of that arch-Gnostic was an attempt at fusing Buddhism with Christianity, and thus to throw some light upon the one question and the other.
Art. XXVIII.—The Author of the Life of

Sh

āh Isma'īl Ṣafavī
Authors: Beveridge H.
Published: March 2011

Since writing the letter on this subject which appears in the January number of the J.R.A.S. I have examined the British Museum MS. Or. 3,248 more carefully, and have obtained a clue to its authorship. Dr. Rieu and Professor Denison Ross considered the work to be anonymous, and regarded the name at the end—Muḥammad ‘Alī, son of Nūra—as being probably that of the owner or copyist. I am inclined to think that it is the name of the author, and that the work is more recent and less valuable than has hitherto been supposed. No doubt the writer has used some old records, and it would appear from a marginal note that a manuscript called the Qissa Ṣafavi, and which seems to have been lost, was the basis of the work. It is also likely that he used the TārīkhShāhī of Abdullah Marwārid, but I think that Or. 3,248 cannot have been put together earlier than the first half of the seventeenth century. We know from Mr. Denison Ross's paper in the J.R.A.S. for April, 1896, that the work must have been composed, in whole or in part, after 946 A.H. (or 1539), as it records the death of Muḥammad Zamān Mīrzā, which occurred in that year during the flight after Humāyūn's defeat at Causā by Sher Shāh. But there are two marginal notes in the manuscript which have hitherto escaped notice, and which show, I think, that the work must have been written at a still later period, and also that the author did not expect or intend that he should remain anonymous. These notes are not perfectly intelligible, for the margins have been clipped in binding (before the MS. came into the Museum), and consequently some important words are missing, but their general purport can be understood.
Art. XIX.—Setavyā, or To-wai
Authors: Vost W.
Published: March 2011

The Chinese pilgrims tell us that a stūpa was erected over the “relics of the entire body” of Kāśyapa Buddha at a place which Fa-hian names To-wai, and locates 50 li to the west, or according to Yuan Chwang, who does not name the town, at a distance of 16 li (the Life gives 60 li) to the north-west, of SravastI city. Both pilgrims, therefore, agree in placing the stūpa of Kāśyapa Buddha to the westward of Śrāvastī city.
Art. XXV.—Note on Nicolaò Manucci and his “Storia do Mogor.”
Authors: Irvine William
Published: March 2011

In 1705 there appeared at Paris a work entitled “Histoire générale de l'empire mogol depuis sa fondation, sur les Mémoires portugais de M. Manouchi, Venitien” (4to, pp. 272, also in 12mo, 2 vols.), by Father Fran¸is Catrou, of the Company of Jésus. The narrative breaks off at the end of the war of succession between Aurangzeb and his brothers (1658–9). In 1715 the same writer supplemented the above work by bringing out what he calls a Third Part (4to, pp. 107), inwhich he continues the story to the year 1707 and the battle near Agrah between two sons of Aurangzeb. Besides the Hague editions in 1708 of the French text of 1705, English translations of it appeared in 1708, 1722 (second edition), and 1826 (a new translation); and an Italian version was published at Venice in 1731. Neither in English nor Italian is there any edition of the continuation published by Catrou in 1715.