The three publishing houses of Wen-wu in Peking, Shanghai shu-tien, and Ku-chi in Tientsin joined forces to produce a new edition of the Taoist Canon. The Tao-tsang they published in 1988 is meant to be an improvement on the so-called Cheng-t'ung Tao-tsang printed in 1921–23 by the Han-fen lou branch of Shanghai Commercial Press. The latter takes as its foundation the copy of the Ming Canon from the archives of the Pai-yün Kuan (White Cloud Abbey) in Peking. The woodcut edition of the Ming Canon contains two components. The core collection appeared under the title Ta Ming Tao-tsang ching in the years 1444–45 of the Cheng-t'ung reign period. A small supplement entitled Hsü Tao-tsang ching was issued in 1607.

The land of the Ahiank‘ or Caucasian Albania, whose geography and customs already attracted the attention of Strabo and Pliny, represents the easternmost part of the Armenian sphere of influence. The historical events which took place in this region were described by the ancient Armenian historians P'awstos Biwzandai, Lazar P'arpei, Elišē Vardapet, Movsēs Xorenai, etc., and their works were subsequently drawn upon by Movsēs Kalankatuai or Dasxuranci for the compilation called the History of the Aluank' which remains our principal source of information on the country down to the tenth century.

The first part of this article seeks to discuss the development of Islamic architectural calligraphy in Sultanate Bengal in the context of its cultural history. Most early Islamic monuments of the region had some kind of calligraphic embellishment since in Islamic culture inscriptions are considered a powerful medium for conveying visual, cultural and spiritual messages. These inscriptions were rendered in various styles: Ku¯fi¯, thulth, naskh, riqa¯‘, rayha¯ni¯, muhaqqaq, tughra¯‘ and Biha¯ri¯. The second part focuses on some hitherto unpublished inscriptions discovered by the author in Gaur and Pandua, two early capitals of the Sultans of Bengal. Special attention is paid to deciphering and editing these new epigraphic texts, and to the analysis of information derived from them in their historical context, such as the names of the contemporary rulers, local administrative officers, religious figures, military commanders and their titles. These findings help us understand the contemporary political, administrative, social, religious and cultural implications for the region.

Epistles of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, the founder of the Wahhābī movement in eighteenth-century Najd, are preserved in profusion in Wahhābī sources. One of them is a short epistle, clearly intended for a lay audience, that sets out basic Wahhābī dogma in terms of four principles (qawāʿid). This epistle is preserved by Wahhābī sources in several different versions; none of them are dated, making it hard to establish how the text evolved over time. The present study is based on two dated external witnesses to the text of the epistle. One is taken from an unpublished Baṣran refutation of 1745, and is translated here. The other is found in a Yemeni chronicle under the events of the year 1212/1797f. Thanks to these two fixed points, it is possible to construct a plausible account of the evolution of the text over the intervening decades. From this it is clear that while written transmission played a significant part in the evolution of the text, some of the more dramatic changes are the result of oral intervention. Moreover the role of orality is confirmed by evidence suggesting the extensive use of the epistle in oral settings, an illustration of the strong concern of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb to spread his message among the laity.

All extant Pahlavi-Vīdēvdād (PV) manuscripts derive from a single copy. The binding of this copy was damaged early on, and some folios were lost and others displaced. A detailed analysis of the extant manuscripts allows us to reconstruct the original order and to discover where some folios are lost, but in previous editions (especially of the Pahlavi translation), this fact was not always noted appropriately and numerous errors occurred. Moreover, other typical transmission errors in this common source have slipped into all extant PV manuscripts and caused omissions of several fragments of the Avestan text and its Pahlavi translation, hence the importance of the Sādes for the edition of the Avestan text of the Vīdēvdād. Geldner was, unfortunately, too confident in the quality of the PV manuscripts and omitted from his edition Avestan texts that should have been included. But not every difference between the Avestan text of the Sāde and Pahlavi manuscripts can be attributed to the transmission. One of the most important differences is the omission of fragard 12 in the Pahlavi-Vīdēvdād manuscripts. Since its omission cannot be attributed to transmission, an alternative explanation for this important difference is proposed.

This article is a comprehensive evaluation of the first learned society of the Nahḍa (Renaissance) in Beirut. I argue that Majmaʿ al-Tahdhīb (the Refinement Council, est. 1846) was not a learned society but an ad hoc seminary formed to train converts for itinerant preaching and to build camaraderie among the nascent Protestant confession. In order to unearth the mission of Majmaʿ al-Tahdhīb and amplify the voices of its members – twelve Syrians and two Americans – this essay reconstructs their biographies and the condition of the Protestant community until 1846. This case study explicates the personal and professional entanglements of these fourteen men in terms of social connections, educational opportunities, economic needs, and religious convictions. It contextualizes the early years of several prominent Nahḍa figures by highlighting the material and spiritual aspects of their lives in 1840s Beirut.