In a previous article I quoted two or three sayings of the ỌkọŊkọ society of the Igbo people of south-eastern Nigeria and very briefly outlined some of the main features of the cultural setting of Igbo unwritten literature. I also suggested that we needed not so much odd specimens of this literature as considerable collections of the various genres in their social environment.

The first publication of an inscription in the alphabet by a European scholar was made about 120 years ago by H. C. von der Gabelentz in the Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes (Halle), n, 1, 1839. Books and articles relating to the subject have been appearing intermittently ever since, but finality has not yet been reached on the exact shape and phonetic value of some letters in the alphabet.

In 1925 P. Pelliot drew a very interesting comparison between the Mongol and the Tungus names for the four cardinal points. This comparison was followed by S. M. ShirokogorofFs detailed study of the Northern Tungus terms of orientation, to which W. Kotwicz added a short note on the Mongol terms. Later in 1928 the latter scholar touched on the same subject in nis article entitled “Sur les modes d'orientation en Asie Centrale”, in which the Turkish names for the four cardinal points are discussed. These noteworthy studies show clearly how in the above-mentioned languages the four cardinal points are expressed by various words signifying “right” and “left” and “front” and “back”, as well as “upward” and “downward”.

The year in which 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr, Mamlūk ruler of Egypt (1760–72), first came to power as shaykh al-balad, the most important office in Egypt from the middle of the eighteenth century to Bonaparte's expedition, has been a matter of some disagreement. The Western contemporary accounts of Lusignan, Savary, and Volney give 1763, or the Muslim equivalent 1177. Later historians, Marcel, Cattaui, Combe, Heyworth-Dunne, Rossi, Mahmūd al-Sharqāwī, Wiet, and Shaw accept this date—though in another article Shaw changed his earlier date of 1177/1763 to 1171/1758 for the rise of 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr to the office of shaykh al-balad. Ahmad Haydar al-Shihābī and Masson also chose 1758. Other dates for this event have been given: 1757 by Dehérain, 1766 by 'Alī Pasha Mubārak and François Charles-Roux, and finally 1760 by the contemporary chronicler 'Abd al-Rahmān al-Jabartī. Muhammad Ramadān and P. M. Holt accept al-Jabartī's date. The object of this article is to show that al-Jabartī's dating and account of 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr's rise to power are accurate, and in so doing, to explain the sources of confusion in so many of the studies that have treated 'Alī Bey al-Kabīr's early history.

This century is cut in two by the fateful rebellion of An Lu-shan. The first half was a period of halcyon peace and prosperity, hardly affected by the Palace intrigues and massacres that followed the abdication of the Empress Wu. The long reign of the Emperor Ming Huang has some claim to be regarded as the Golden Age of China; for the magnificence of the Court was solidly based on the well-being of the people, and while trade and commerce nourished, the arts of poetry and painting reached a height which has never since been equalled. Buddhism, however, suffered a partial eclipse after its great patroness had passed away; and even in the remote region of Tunhuang a gradual decrease in its influence is clearly observable.

The problem whether or not West Malaysia passed through a distinctive Bronze Age has been the subject of a good deal of discussion since the second World War, and is again raised by the remarkable discoveries in 1964 of four bronze ‘Dông-so'n’ (Heger Type I) drums, two at Kampong Sungai Lang in the Kuala Langat District of Selangor, and two at Batu Burok near Kuala Trengganu on Malaya's east coast. With these and the remains of two other Heger Type I drums found in 1926 at Batu Pasir Garam on the Tembeling River, Pahang, and at Bukit Kuda, north-east of Klang, Selangor, in 1944, West Malaysia can now boast more ‘Dông-so'n’ drums than Sumatra, but not so many as Java where more than a dozen drums or fragments of drums have been found.

The Girnar Inscription of Skanda Gupta,1 read in conjunction with the Bhitari Inscription of the same king,2 shows that Skanda Gupta came to the throne while the Gupta Empire was in great difficulties as a result of the invasion of the Hunas and the mysterious Pusyamitras. On pacifying the country Skanda gave much thought to the choice of governors for the outlying provinces, and decided to appoint one Parnadatta as governor of Surastra.

It is hardly possible to praise the work which is the subject of this article too highly. It follows quite rapidly in the wake of a quartet of volumes devoted to the study of the languages of the Horn (Lamberti 1986, 1988a, 1988b; Haberland and Lamberti, 1988), and together with the more recently published Materialien zum Yemsa, (Lamberti, 1993b) constitutes a deeply impressive contribution to this area of scholarship. It is the present writer's long-held opinion that within this field the most pressing need continues to be good synchronic descriptions and dictionaries of the lesser-known languages and dialects. The work in hand meets just that need. As it happens, Shinassha has not been altogether neglected by previous research (cf. Grottanelli, 1941; Plazikowsky Brauner, 1950; Rottland, 1990), but every reader of this book will agree with me when I say that we now have a treatment of the language far beyond anything we have had previously. Indeed, as far as ‘Westkuschitik’ (alias ‘North Omotic’) languages are concerned, this bids well to be the most thoroughgoing description yet. Of course, it goes without saying that, short of reduplicating the researcher's fieldwork, it is impossible for any reader of such a book to vouch for the forms presented; but such is the scrupulous attention to detail in transcription, the accuracy in cross-referencing, and the general internal consistency in this particular work that little doubt could be entertained as to its being anything but authoritative.