Abū I-Walīd Jonah ibn Janāḥ is undoubtedly one of the greatest Hebrew grammarians. Born in Al-Andalus at the end of the tenth century he was active during the eleventh century, but his exact dates are not known. His best known works, a grammar, Kitāb al-Lumaՙ (The book of variegated flowerbeds) and a dictionary of biblical Hebrew, Kitāb al-'Uṣūl (The book of roots), represented the most important development in the knowledge of Hebrew of the Middle Ages. Other important works on grammar include Kitāb al-Taswi'a (The book of annexation), a short grammatical treatise which he composed as a response to critics of a previous work entitled Kitāb al-Mustalḥaq (The book of annexation).

The pepole distinguished by the name of Kade, because they speak a language differing form those of their neighbours, live mostly in the Katha district of Upper Burma, and inhabit a tract of country lying roughly between 95° E., and 24° and 24° 30′N.

Sěrat Cabolek is a problematical but very interesting work concerning the court of Kartasura in the reign of Pakubuwana II. It tells of a religious controversy which became the subject of debate at the court, involving some of the most important figures in the realm, including the young king himself.

A study of the dialects of Fula (the language of the Fulɓe or Fulani) can be of interest both to the linguist and to the sociolinguist: partly because of the sheer scale of the undertaking, with what is essentially the same language being spoken by Fulani from Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea on the Atlantic coast to Nigeria and Cameroon on the east; and partly because of the complexity of the movements that have taken place over the centuries, and of the resulting varied pattern of social, cultural, and economic relationships between different Fulani groups and between Fulani and other peoples. It could also be of interest, not simply as a dialect study as such, but also for the light it might throw on comparable phenomena in multilingual situations.

It has been generally accepted by modern scholars that al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān was in the beginning either a Mālikī or a Ḥanafī and that he subsequently became an Imāmī and finally adopted the Ismā'īlī faith. The Imāmī savants, from al-Qāḍī Nūr Allāh Shūshtarī to Āghā Buzurg-i Tihrānī, maintain that al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān was one of their co-religionists. Ismā'īlīs, on the other hand, regard him as one of the pillars of their da'wa. In the light of recently discovered sources and of the consequent revaluation and reinterpretation of earlier works, a re-examination of the question of al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān's madhhab becomes necessary. The present article attempts to do precisely that, and show how and when the theory of al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān's conversion originated.

Four fourth-century ad inscriptions of Ezana, first Christian king of Aksum (Ethiopia), are surveyed, with special attention to Ezana's only known post-conversion inscription, written in Greek. Greek syntax and terminology in Ezana's inscription point to an anti-Arian Christology which may be associated with Frumentius, first bishop of Aksum, and his connection with Athanasius of Alexandria. The inscription's trinitarian formula “the power of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit” is structured in such a way as to assert the identity of the three members of the Trinity. The phrase “in the power of God Christ” further equates Christ with God. This christological language stands in contrast to the Arian imperial policy of the time, and is historically significant in light of Constantius's attempt to force Frumentius's recall to Alexandria. This inscription serves as the first internal documentary evidence for an anti-Arian Christology in the earliest developments of Ethiopian Christianity.

The subject of the present paper is a prophetic tradition found in some compendia of eschatological aḥādīth which has received considerable scholarly attention since Wilferd Madelung dedicated an article to it in 1981. Whereas Madelung shares the opinion of earlier scholars that only some of the incidents “prophesied” by this tradition are historical, this study aims to show that it is a wholly ex post facto composition which, in its various strata, remarkably captures episodes from the Zubayrid war of propaganda against their rivals as well as their later attempts to redeem the memory of their lost cause as a just one. The discussion closes by producing a highly singular Syrian tradition most certainly put into circulation with the intent of countering these Zubayrid propaganda efforts.

Yunjusi has, over the past few decades, earned a worldwide reputation for the immense repository of Buddhist scriptures carved on the stone slabs that are stored there (the so-called Stone Canon of Fangshan [Fangshan shijing]). The heroic enterprise of carving the whole Buddhist canon into stone had already been initiated during the Daye era (604–617) thanks to the resolve of the monk Jingwan (?–639) and support from Empress Xiao (d. after 630) of Sui Yangdi (r. 604–617) and her brother Xiao Yu (574–647). However, it did not accelerate until 740 when Xuanzong, as urged by his sister Princess Jinxian (689–732), ordered two eminent monks from the capital monastery Great Chongfusi (one of them being the great Buddhist historian and cataloguer Zhisheng [fl. 740s]) to deliver over four-thousand fascicles of Buddhist translations, which constituted the main body of the newly compiled Kaiyuan Buddhist canon, to Yunjusi to serve as base texts for the stone scriptures. This event is remarkable and puzzling for at least three reasons. First, although Yunjusi, a local temple situated far from the capitals, was not a Kaiyuan monastery, it still had the honour of being chosen as a recipient of the Kaiyuan canon. Second, one cannot help but wonder why and how two Chongfusi monks, who were of obvious prestige, should have demonstrated such enthusiasm in escorting so many Buddhist texts to this apparently marginal temple. Finally, it is difficult to understand why Princess Jinxian, who was then an ordained Taoist nun, played such an active and decisive role in this project. Such a remarkable and important event inevitably invited considerable attention from scholars, who have noted, and attempted to explain, several aspects of the mystery surrounding Princess Jinxian's Yunjusi ties. This article attempts to address this old issue from a perspective that has never been explored. It broaches and elaborates on the possibility that the great AvatamD saka master Fazang's (643–712) possible ties with Yunjusi form a major missing piece in this complex puzzle.

Coomaraswamy and other art interpreters have read into Indian images metaphysical meanings extrapolated from scriptural sources. In this article it is argued that such meanings, with which image-making was doubtless invested, were intended for purposes of meditation and cannot be admitted as part of the objective representation of the images, except where they figure as iconographical features. The images were also not conceived as yantras, but as full-bodied representations conforming to objective norms. The metaphysical excursions are largely extraneous to the aesthetic assumptions of Indian art and detract from its rich mythical content.

Between the River Tigris at Mosul and the first Kurdish villages some 20 miles to the east there is a strip of territory, extending approximately 40 miles from north to south, inhabited by a variety of peoples professing many religions. The least known of these are three extreme Muslim sects. The first to study them was Father Anastase Marie, in an article concerning the Šabak, the Ṣārlī, and the . These , ‘ Kurds … calling themselves Allāhī’, he places in the villages of ‘Umarkān, Topraq-ziyāra, Tell Ya℈qūb, and Bašpīta. He names ‘Alī-raš, , Xazna, and Tallā;ra as Šabak villages but is clearly wrong in ascribing them to the district. They are, in fact, due east of Mosul, in the same nāḥiya of Ḥamdāanīya (= Bartallā) as Topraq-ziyāra and the other villages.

One of the most striking developments during the T'ang period is the gradual improvement of the position of merchants and artisans, traditionally held in low esteem, and the parallel change in the attitude of government and the ruling élite towards them. These changes, which I have described in some detail elsewhere, led in the last century of the T'ang and the following period to the gradual acceptance of the desirability, and indeed the necessity, of levying taxation from the merchants and from the urban population. Th is in turn implied the tacit abandonment of the long-established ‘physiocratic’ doctrine that the state revenue system should be based exclusively upon taxes and labour services levied upon the peasantry. The document which forms the subject of this paper is perhaps the fullest and most closely argued statement by a T'ang statesman of the traditional position on this matter.

Prominent among the authors of the ‘Silver Age’ or Renaissance of Georgian literature was Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani (1658–1726). A scion of one of the leading K‘art‘lian princely families, Sulkhan Orbeliani was related on his father's side to the Mukhranian reigning dynasty of Eastern Georgia; his mother, T‘amar, was the daughter of the feudal magnate Zaal, Erist‘avi or Duke of the Aragvi. On becoming a monk in later life Sulkhan replaced his Christian name by that of Saba, and is therefore usually known as Sulkhan-Saba.

The Türk ve Islam Müzesi in Istanbul possesses a hitherto unpublished ewer (Inv. No. 217) signed by a Mawṣilī artist (Pl. I). This is an unpretentious vessel, made of beaten brass and sparingly decorated with inlaid designs. It stands 37 cm. high without the lid (which is a later addition) and measures 20 cm. in its widest diameter.

Lilias E. Aemsteong in her article ‘The phonetic structure of Somali’ has shown that there is a correlation in this dialect of Somali between tone patterns and grammatical gender in certain types of Nouns. Moreover, at many points in her article she implies by her tone markings that there is also a correlation between other grammatical categories and tone patterns. She states, for example, that ‘plurals of both masculine and feminine nouns are pronounced with the mid-level tones in all syllables … exceptions are the feminine words … ending in in the singular …‘.

For over 2,000 years the Sun tzu has been considered the most authoritative work on the art of warfare, not only in China but also in the neighbouring countries to which Chinese cultural influence extended, particularly in Japan.In Europe the first translation appeared as far back as 1772, but this work by Father J. J. M. Amiot aroused little interest amongst professional sinologues and remained the only translation in the French language. In England, whilethere have been attempts to translate the work in more recent years, Lionel Giles's translation, though far from being satisfactory, has remained the most widely known since its publication in 1910. After half a century, a new attemptat translating this important work is naturally welcome. In the event, it isunfortunate that this new translation by General Samuel B. Griffith has turnedout to be so disappointing. The qualifications of the translator as an expert on the art of war may be taken for granted.

As the publication of the Manichæan fragments in the possession of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften will necessarily take some more years, it may be found useful at present to make the linguistic material contained in those texts available to students of Iranian languages. The following list of words which are not yet attested in the texts hitherto published, is offered as a contribution to this aim. Out of the materials made known up to now, a few words are included which have not yet been fully explained. I am greatly indebted to Geheimrat Lüders for kindly permitting me to make use of the fragments belonging to the Akademie of Berlin.

In this study of the population statistics of Ming China I have relied almost exclusively upon figures from contemporary sources: the Veritable Records (Shih-lu) of the dynasty, the Collected Statutes (Ta-Ming Hui-tien), the Imperial Topography (Ta-Ming Yi-t'ung-chih), the Huang-yü K'ao, and a number of provincial and local gazetteers.

The first question that arises in using such works is that of the reliability of their figures and indeed of Chinese statistics in general. A great deal of scepticism has been, and still is, expressed on this point. To take a single example only: everyone who has researched in this field has experienced over and over again that where a Chinese text gives both a global total and an itemized breakdown of that total, the sum of the separate items usually amounts to something more than (or less than) the global figure, and hardly ever agrees exactly with it. A natural reaction from this unsatisfactory state of affairs is to reject all the figures concerned as unreliable. To do this, however, is tantamount to denying the possibility of quantitative investigation in Chinese economic and institutional history. Before coming to such an extreme conclusion it is at least advisable to see whether the figures are capable of rational emendation, and whether figures so emended will show a higher degree of internal consistency.

In contrast to its description in available grammars and manuals, the converb -las in Old Tibetan is used primarily to mark off the following clause as surprising given the background of the preceding clause. The converb -las enters into two distinct syntactic constructions: after a reduplicated verb it indicates the interruption of a continuous event; and in a three-clause pattern with the converb -kyis, -las introduces a surprise or contrast in the second clause, but -kyis in the third clause returns the sentiment to that of the first clause. Although the examples which demonstrate the use of -las are drawn from Old Tibetan texts, this use continues in later texts.

It is generally agreed that the nominatives ov and oy are formations from the demonstrative stem u which appears in most of the modern Indo-Aryan languages, e.g. Nepali: direct u, oblique us.

In the oblique formsles, la and lenMiklosich {ber die Mundarten und Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europa's xi, p. 15) saw the stem of Skt. ta, which forms the oblique cases to the nominative s and s. Professor A. C. Woolner (Journ. Gypsy Lore Soc., New Series ix, p. 128) opposes this view for the very cogent reason that there seems to be no other instance in which an initial IndoAryan t has become lin European Romani: it becomes I regularly only in the intervocalic position. He derives it instead from a Prakrit pronominal stem na. This however presents nearly as great a phonetic difficulty, for the regular representation of initial n is by n : there are a few exceptions only in some cases of metathesis or dissimilation, such as len river (if from nodi), lilai and linai beside nilai summer (nid;ghh).