Conventionally, the history of early and medieval India is viewed against a framework of a large number of dynasties, some local, others ‘imperial’, some ephemeral, others extending over several centuries.3 In this paper I argue that such a conceptualization is to some extent illusory, at least if a dynasty is defined as a series of genetically related rulers succeeding to a given office over time. The purpose of the paper is not to deny that many of these dynasties could have existed, or even that they did exist, but only to argue that the nature and extent of our evidence is not sufficient to permit many of the hypothesized reconstructions of them. In other words, the impression of a dynastic Indian past often has resulted from a maximum of inference based on a minimum of satisfactory data.

Examination of the verb paradigms of Omotic can easily engender a sense of bewilderment; there is such a variation from language to language, even when, in other respects, the languages concerned appear to be quite closely related. Coming to Omotic from a language group such as Eaśt Cushitic, the contrast is especially striking. For example, when investigating any little known East Cushitic language (and there are a few left!), one starts out with a strong expectation of finding in the verbal system certain morphological elements and patterns (e.g., t ‘2nd person, 3rd feminine singular’; n ‘1st person plural’ a palatal vowel signalling ‘perfect’; a guttural verb signalling ‘imperfect’; a rounded vowel signalling a ‘subordinate function’ or ‘non-indicative mood’; etc.), and one is never entirely disappointed; the well known formatives, along with the anticipated patterns of distribution, crop up with an almost monotonous regularity. Similar predictabilities are not obviously the case when we look at Omotic. With virtually every new language investigated, new and unfamiliar features emerge. I have remarked on this before (Hayward, 1984: 324), but I am not alone in having done so; Andrzej Zaborski has also emphasized the high degree of innovation seen in the Omotic verb (Zaborski, 1986: 528). But I think the essence of the problem is not that there are no identifiable cognate formatives so much as that we have been unable to understand their historical significance, andso supply them with meaningful labels.

IT is well known that Tamil in contradistinction to other Dravidian languages does not admit of the voiced stops g, j, d, b at the beginning of a word ; whereas in the middle of a word the unvoiced sounds are represented by the voiced, though the writing takes no notice of this distinction. Caldwell (3rd ed., p. 138), formulating this state of affairs as the“ Convertibility of Surds and Sonants ”, assumes it to have been characteristic of the primitive Dravidian tongue. In this most people have tended to follow him. More recently, however, contrary opinions have been expressed, notably by M. Jules Bloch.

The Musabba'āt played an important part in the history of the Kordofan/Dār Fūr region in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This article attempts to define who they were and to examine the careers of three generations of Musabba'āt sultans, in particular that of the grandson, their most famous sultan, Hashim b. ‘Isāwī al-Musabba'āwī.

Of the various appellations by which ‘Alī b. Abī Ṭālib is known, none has evoked more interest and controversy than that of ‘Abū (al-)Turāb’. This by-name is attested in early sources, both Muslim and non-Muslim; an example for the latter is the letter allegedly sent by the Byzantine Emperor Leo III (717–40) to ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-’Azīz (99–101/717–20), in which ‘Abū Turāb’ appears twice.

As early as 1821 Rasmus Rask identified Sinhalese as a speech belonging to the same class as Sanskrit, and added that Tamil belonged to quite a different class. Since then the subject has been studied and discussed by various scholars, and it is established beyond doubt that Sinhalese is an Indo-Aryan language. Dravidian languages have, however, had their influence on Sinhalese, chiefly through contact, and Tamil, being the language spoken by a large population in the neighbouring part of India, asserted a wide influence on the vocabulary, grammar, and literature of Sinhalese. Before examining the Dravidian loan-words in Sinhalese and the influence of Dravidian languages on its structure, the amount of the indebtedness of Sinhalese writers to Tamil authors for their subject matter will be examined here.

Cairo is probably one of the noisiest towns in the world but it is amusing, if not interesting, to endeavour to sort out some ofthe sounds so familiar in Cairo's streets. The main thoroughfaresare crowded with hawkers of every description; as one sits in acafe, one is offered articles of the most extraordinary variety by them, hair-pins and oranges, daffodils and bananas, sand-paper and flywhisks, sausages and sadlery, the latest editions of French and Arabic novels, copies of works on Quranic Exegesis and the Traditions, motor car tyres and flea-powder.

The Arabs in Central Asia occupied in the past, as is well known, considerable territory, especially in the lower parts of the basins of the Zarafshān and Qashqa-daryā rivers, and also in Khojend and the south-eastern regions of Tajikistan.

In the course of centuries the majority of the Central Asian Arabs have lost their language and only small groups of them continue to speak Arabic up to the present time in the villages of Jōgarḹ, Čardaḹ (Ġijduwān district) and ‘Arab-Xōna (Wobkend district) of the Bukhārā region and in the village of Jeinau in the Qashqa-daryā region.

Soon after the rise of the T'ang dynasty, the Parinirvāna Sūtra seems to have lost its popularity, and in the second half of the seventh century its place is definitely taken by the Lotus Sūtra. Out of a total of fifty-six dated texts, no fewer than twenty-nine are sections of this work.

IN the second half of the nineteenth century, the general upsurge of nationalism in Europe exerted an influence on the Jewish population as well. This influence was particularly strong in Eastern Europe, where there occurred a formidable Jewish nationalistic renaissance, some features of which were: the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language; the widespread use of Jewish folk-lore in the works of Jewish writers, painters, and musicians; and the rebuilding and resettling of Palestine by small groups of Jewish pioneers. The new settlers in Palestine soon adapted Hebrew (which had indeed remained very much alive through the centuries as a literary tongue) to the requirements of daily existence, and it became the language of instruction in most of their schools. At present, practically the entire Israeli population (about two million) speaks Hebrew.

It has seemed desirable to make known at once certain information of interest to Central Asian studies contained in Khotan texts of the British Museum and India Office. This information may here be conveniently grouped under the heads (1) the animal cycle of twelve years, (2) the names of the months and seasons in Khotan, (3) dates androyal names.

Of the several commentaries on the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra, the Abhisamayālaṅkāra-ālokā of Haribhadra (ninth century) and the Sāratamā of Ratnākaraśānti (eleventh century) are the only two works that have survived in the original Sanskrit. The Ālokā is well known through the editions of Tucci and Wogihara, and critical works in this field by Obermiller and Conze. The Sanskrit text of the Sāratamā is now awaiting publication in the Tibetan Sanskrit Works Series, Patna. It is based on two incomplete MSS photographed by the late Rāhula Sāṃkṛtyāyana in the year 1937 and preserved in the library of the Bihar Research Society, Patna.

The story of Yạhyā b. Zayd (in full, Yahyā b. Zayd b. 'Alī b. al-Husayn b. 'Alī b. Abī Ṭalīb) forms a well-known episode in the history of the closing years of the Umayyad Caliphate. The insurrection of Yaḥyā was in many respects a forerunner of the final rising under the 'Abbāsid emissary Abū Muslim, by which Umayyad government in Khurāsān was overthrown. The fullest early description of this episode is that given by the historian al-Ṭabarī in his account of the events of the year 125/742-3. After the rebellion and death of his father Zayd at Kūfa in 122/739–40, the young Yaḥyā had fled from Iraq with a few companions to Khurāsān. At Balkh he lived concealed under the protection of a man named al-ḥuraysh b. 'Amr. Eventually 'Uqayl b. Ma'qil, the prefect of the town for the Umayyad government, received instructions to track down the fugitive.