The Genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat preserved dozens of petitions addressed to the Fatimid and Ayyubid chanceries in Cairo and decrees that they issued in response. This article provides an edition, translation, and discussion of a petition housed among the Genizah documents of the Bodleian Library directed to Sitt al-Mulk, half-sister of the caliph al-Ḥākim (386–411/996–1021) and head of the Fatimid state between his death and her own in 414/1023. Geoffrey Khan had previously identified two petitions to a Fatimid princess housed in Cambridge and New York; it is likely that they, too, were addressed to Sitt al-Mulk. Such documents elucidate Sitt al-Mulk's role in government after her brother's death and provide evidence for the chronicler al-Musabbiḥī's claim that she received and responded to petitions from subjects. The article offers possible explanations as to why petitions such as this one, which concerns an Ismaili mosque, should have found their way to the Jewish community of Fustat whose members reused and preserved them. It also suggests some broader conclusions about the dispersal, survival, or disappearance of pre-Ottoman Middle Eastern archives and documents.

This article presents a new edition and translation of the account in the Tārīkhnāma of the campaigns against al-Muqannaʿ, which has hitherto been available only in editions based on poor manuscripts. A detailed commentary and an analysis will follow in the next issue. Though the early manuscripts give us better texts than have so far been available, all are too defective to allow us to reconstitute the original wording or to correct all passages that are obviously wrong. For passages which seem wrong or confusing, the reader should consult the commentary.

The present paper is an attempt to throw preliminary light on heretical Sufi groups in the Arabic-Islamic world in the early-modern period (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). Previous scholarship on antinomian Sufism has tended to focus on earlier centuries and on Persian- and Turkish-speaking groups. Evidence suggests that there is also a history to be written of antinomian mystical groups in the Arabic-speaking world in later centuries. On the eve of modernity in the Arabic-speaking Middle East, groups and individuals existed who rejected or ignored the prevalent scholarly interpretation of Islam and challenged the authority of the class of religious scholars (ʿulamā'). A number of sources from the period, usually hostile and/or satirical, attest to the existence of such groups and allow us to reconstruct the overall contours of their outlook.

Khargushi (d. Nishapur, 407/1016?), Tahdhīb al-asrār, is a fairly large collection of sayings in the renunciant/Sufi tradition, comprising over twice as many items as Sarrāj, al-Lumaʿ and Sulamī, Ṭabaqāt al-sufiyya. A first printed edition appeared in 1999. Examination of the Tahdhīb confirms that Khargūshī was Shāfiʿi in law, Ashʿari in theology, but mainly a preacher devoted to piety. It also tends to confirm current common wisdom about the history of Sufism: that it developed out of the earlier renunciant tradition, that Malāmatism was a distinctive Nishapuran school of mystical piety with such affinities to Baghdadi Sufism as make it easily assimilable to it, and that Khargūshī's time was still that of the teaching master, the training master not appearing till half a century later. Its similarities to Sarrāj, al-Lumaʿ and Abū Nuʿaym, Ḥilyat al-awliyā’ make both of those appear more mainstream than has sometimes been feared.

In the previous issue of BSOAS we published an edition and translation of an account of the war against al-Muqannaʿ (BSOAS 73/2, 155–77). Here we offer a detailed commentary and an analysis of what we can learn from it, mostly relating to the beginning of al-Muqannaʿ's revolt and his conquests of Samarqand. The value of the account lies mainly in the fact that its first half is focused on Samarqand rather than Bukhārā. We also offer some thoughts on how the narrative may have originated and how it relates to the Tārīkh-i Bukhārā and other sources.

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 argues that the opposition between Old Iranian *č and *ǰ was preserved in Manichaean Parthian not only word-initially, but also in postvocalic position, at least at the time of the introduction of the Manichaean script. The approach is phonological, and attempts to show that Pth. /č/ (< OIr. *č), written <c> and <>, and Pth. /ž/ (< OIr. *ǰ and *ž), written <j>, are consistently distinguished in the Manichaean script. Pth. /č/ may have developed a postvocalic allophone [ǰ] (not affecting the phonematic opposition), which might have been a motivation for the use of the letter <>. Transcriptions into Sogdian script and the cantillations suggest a coalescence of the Pth. phonemes, but it is not clear whether this is a later development of the Pth. language itself or a peculiarity of the liturgical pronunciation of Parthian as practised by Manichaeans in Central Asia.1

With few exceptions, scholarly presentations of the Ibāḍī “stages of religion” (masālik al-dīn) and their corresponding Imāms (i.e. imām al-ẓuhūr, imām al-difāʿ, imām al-shirā', and imām al-kitmān) propose a simplified overview of the institution that is based on post-Ibāḍī renaissance thought on the Imāmate. This paper investigates the pre-renaissance usages of the masālik al-dīn by comparing sixth/twelfth-century Arabian and North African Ibāḍī texts on the subject. It demonstrates that Eastern and Western Ibāḍīs manipulated the concepts central to the later masālik al-dīn ideal to reflect the particular needs of each respective community. While the articulations of the masālik al-dīn differed according to region, they simultaneously utilized a similar vocabulary. This convergence implies an earlier and inherited conceptual system (most likely from the earliest Basran Ibāḍī umma) that was adapted in the medieval period to fulfil the unique needs of each community.

The role of language and linguistic-philological studies in the nationalist movements of the nineteenth century received much attention. The aim of this article is to focus on the language factor in Zionism and the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language in the Yishuv between 1904 and 1914. Founded in 1904, the Hebrew Language Council was expected to enhance the process of revival and, from the very beginning, an unmistakably nationalist attitude to its subject matter marked the Council's agenda. However, the authority of the Council to make binding decisions on linguistic matters was contested by a number of other Zionist institutions, a development which ruined the prestige and effectiveness of the Council. The controversy resulted less from a turf war or quarrels over scarce resources than a deeper question of which institution represented the “true” Hebraic spirit. The World Zionist Organization's decision to de-align from cultural matters, including the revival of Hebrew, worsened the conditions under which the Council operated. From a comparative perspective, thus, the Hebrew case provides an unusual case of linguistic nationalism, which should be of interest to students of both nationalism and sociolinguistics.

It is generally assumed that, throughout the Qing dynasty, there was only translated literature in the Manchu language and that, by the nineteenth century, the Manchu literati had become too “sinicized” to unleash literary creativity in their native language. Nevertheless the discovery of a mid-nineteenth-century manuscript of Manchu literary verse, penned by the well-known prose translator Jakdan, points to the fact that Manchu belles-lettres existed even at a time when the role of Manchu in practical arenas was much in decline within the Qing empire in China. In addition to a preliminary account of the poetic forms found in Jakdan's Manju gisun i yobo maktara sarkiyan (“Transcript of bantering in Manchu language”), a supplementary volume to the Jabduha ucuri amtanggai baita (“Leisurely delights”), two intricate poems from the collection of Manchu verse are here presented (in transcription), translated and annotated for the first time.

The Pratyabhijñā system, elaborated in the tenth and eleventh centuries by the Kashmiri philosophers Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta, presents a rational justification of the metaphysical principles contained in the Śaiva nondualistic scriptures. However, contrary to what one might expect, many arguments to which Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta resort when defending their idealism belong to Buddhist rather than Śaiva sources. This article examines the profound influence, in this respect, of the Buddhist “logico-epistemological school” on the Pratyabhijñā system. But it also shows that Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta are not unknowingly or unwittingly influenced by their Buddhist opponents: they systematically emphasize this influence, thus taking full responsibility for appropriating their rivals' concepts. Moreover, they highlight their fundamental divergence regarding the way consciousness manifests a seemingly external and diverse universe, most notably by replacing the Vijñānavādins' traditional analogy: according to the Śaivas, perceived objects should not be compared to dreamt objects, but to yogins' creations.

This article is the first publication of the Bogra copperplate, the eighth known land-grant inscription issued by Śrīcandra (r. c. 925–975 ce), one of the kings of the Candra dynasty of Bengal. A diplomatic transcription is included, together with an annotated English translation and a critically edited text in Devanāgarī. The inscription describes a gift of land to a Brahmin named Śrīkaradatta Śarman, who probably hails from North Bengal (“Hastipada [in the region of] Śrāvasti”). While the praśasti (praise) portions largely parallel the king's other known inscriptions, the inscription contributes new information about place names and regions associated with the Candra dynasty, as well as attesting the movements of Brahmins associated with the Parāśara Gotra and Chandoga Caraṇa. The article also provides an overview and assessment of research on the inscriptions and history of the Candra dynasty, particularly in light of the discovery and identification of this new inscription.

At the time of its decipherment by Griffith (1911), the Meroitic writing system was considered an alphabet. This alphabet was found to have a rather limited vowel notation. It was not until 1970 that the system was understood to have a more complex vowel notation. This system of vowel notation is comparable to what is found in an alpha-syllabary, a term used to describe the scripts of the Indian sub-continent, such as Brahmi and Devanagari. Since alpha-syllabaries were rare when the Meroitic writing system was in use (c. 200 bce–c. 500 ad), it is tempting to suggest a possible historical connection between the Meroitic kingdom in Sudan and the then existent scripts in India. A systematic analysis, as opposed to a description of alpha-syllabic writing, indicates that the structure of this type of script is less regionally confined. Rather, it places Meroitic writing among scripts that were created in the presence of alphabetic writing both in modern and in ancient times.

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 a common supposition that to understand a philosophical writing, knowledge of the philosophical sources on which it draws suffices. Yet, abstract subtleties are often suitably dressed in poetic comparisons, whose threads are spun from a different source. While the body of logical argument appeals to the intellect, the dress of literary tropes allures the emotions. Philosophy is not simply mathematics, for it involves a sentiment, which in Mahāyāna Buddhism means susceptibility to its religious ethos embodied in its path, bodhicitta, and bodhisattvas. Through Candrakīrti's comparison of buddhas and bodhisattvas to the king of geese, I shall here examine the use of similes and metaphors in Indian Buddhist philosophical writing. The analysis illustrates the subtle influence that popular narratives eulogizing the deeds of saints had on such texts, and proposes to revisit philosophical texts as literary works.

In this article I provide a complete translation and analysis of the recently unearthed bamboo manuscript, Rong Cheng shi, from the Shanghai Museum collection. This manuscript presents a previously unknown version of China's early history from the time of legendary rulers Yao, Shun, Yu and their predecessors to the establishment of the Zhou dynasty. The narrative is critical of both the dynastic principle of rule and “righteous rebellion”, and advocates instead the ruler's abdication in favour of a worthier candidate as the best mode of rule; in addition, it hints at the unusually active role of “the people” in establishing the supreme ruler. Moreover, despite being associated with the southern state of Chu, the Rong Cheng shi presents a unitary view of the past, which rejects the multi-state world and promulgates the notion of the unified “All-under-Heaven” as singularly legitimate. The text has far-reaching significance in terms of both history of Chinese political thought and of early Chinese historiography.

In the Sino-Tibetan family, reflexivity is either not expressed in the verb, as in Chinese or Tibetan, or expressed by means of a “middle” marker, as in Dulong or Kiranti languages. Among the morphologically rich languages of this family, only Rgyalrong languages have distinct and unambiguous reflexive and reciprocal markers on the verb. This paper shows that the reflexive prefix in Rgyalrong languages has two possible origins. It could come from a fusion of the third person singular marker and the root meaning “self” or, alternatively, come from the free third person pronoun. Both hypotheses are compatible with our understanding of Rgyalrong historical phonology.

This article introduces an English version (translator unknown) of a Burmese law report: Judge Hpo Hlaing's ruling in Ma Hla v. Ma Wa, delivered in Mandalay in 1877. The judgement contains a paragraph dealing with the sources of Buddhist Law which appears to be a riposte to work published earlier that year in Lower Burma. That the judge was Burma's leading political philosopher gives special resonance to his views on law. His list of five law reports from the Pali canon and related texts is of interest. A reading is advanced in which the five cases link to Burmese ideas about legal pluralism.