Li Wenyu and Ma Xiangbo were two influential Catholic intellectuals in modern China who each undertook a translation of the Bible into Chinese. This article surveys their participation in contemporary ideological debates and investigates their thoughts on the inculturation of Catholicism, including ‘evangelisation by writing’ and ‘scholastic mission’, as well as their beliefs and practices regarding Bible translation. An in-depth comparison of their translations is also provided, illuminating the different approaches taken by Li and Ma in dealing with terminology, sentence structure, linguistic style, and theological implications. Li conformed to Chinese biblical terminology established by the Catholic missionaries who preceded him and adhered to the syntax of Classical Chinese; in contrast, Ma's linguistic style is approximate to Easy Wenli, and he adopted words and phrases from traditional Chinese culture to transmit the Catholic faith. The two translators demonstrated two choices of indigenising Catholicism and the Bible in China: ‘mirror-type’ and ‘bridge-type’.

Since the manuscript of The Caliphs and their non-Muslim Subjects was given to the printer further material has accumulated. Most of it, though interesting or amusing, only confirms what was said in the book. The Ecclesiastical History of Bar Hebraeus, however, gives a clearer idea of the relations between the state and the church.

The year 1937 saw the establishment of Congress Ministries in eight of the eleven provinces in which the provincial elections had been held, Bihar being one of them. The resounding victory of the Congress which secured a clear majority in the province of Bihar and the dismal performance of the Muslim League seemed at the time to depict the mood of the people in general. It was taken as a clear rejection of the politics of communalism and separatism and as an expression of faith in the secular credentials of the Indian National Congress. However, less than a decade later, the province was gripped by severe communal tensions and had become one of the most prominent parts of India from where the movement for Pakistan drew support. This article thus explores the nature of the communal violence that occurred in Bihar in 1946 against the backdrop of the ‘escalating’ communal tensions during the late 1930s and early 1940s. It seeks to problematise the dichotomy that exists in literature on communal violence between moments of what have been called ‘extraordinary’ violence (such as riots) and the everyday structures of (what Gyanendra Pandey has called) ‘routine violence’. Through its analysis of contemporary material produced by the Muslim League, the Congress Ministry and the provincial British administration to explain the causes of the 1946 riots in Bihar, it argues that it is in the moments of rupture presented by riots that everyday structures of violence are trivialised or normalised through processes of ‘dichotomisation’, ‘dehumanisation’ and ‘denial’.

I offer some reflections here on the set of articles gathered in this special issue on divine sovereignty and further develop some thoughts first adumbrated in a piece published in JRAS 25/3 (2015).

This paper is named and given in memory of Mark Zebrowski, friend and respected colleague, who contributed much to life, art history and the culture of India, including his pioneering Gold, silver and bronze from Mughal India. I will focus on the brass vessels inlaid with silver and gold which were produced for one Mamluk sultan, al-Nāṣir Muhammad (1293–4, 1299–1309, 1310–41), whose name and titles are inscribed on more than forty-six objects (see Appendix).

The extensive documentary evidence collected and analysed in the previous studies in this issue suggest a preliminary conclusion that can be summarised as follows: from the collapse of the Han dynasty to the glorious days of the Tang dynasty, the peoples living in the Western Regions along the Silk Road used multiple co-existing forms of money – grain, cloth and coins – with one of these three items becoming predominant according to changes in political and/or economic circumstances. However, this multicurrency system did not outlive the political, economic and fiscal upheavals that shook the Tang empire from the mid-eighth century onwards. As far as the materials from Turfan and Dunhuang are concerned, the latest evidence for this monetary system is provided by a manuscript found at Dunhuang (P 3348 V°), already quoted in Arakawa Masaharu's article, which permits us to see how such a complex monetary system worked in real life once the silk shipped by the Tang government arrived in the Western Regions. In particular, a subsidiary account (P 3348 V°2 B) inscribed in this accounting report reveals how a local official called Li Jingyu 李景玉, who was vice-commissioner in the army stationed in that region, received his salary for the first semester of the year 745 ce.

This article begins by surveying the commercial structure of nineteenth-century Yazd, centring on the economic activities of its Zoroastrian inhabitants. Next, we examine the house of Mehrabān, arguing that they were intermediate figures in Persia's transition from a pre-capitalist to an inchoate capitalist mode of production. Throughout the mid- to late nineteenth century, the Mehrabāns were significant socio-economic players and precursors for later generations of prosperous, worldly Iranian Zoroastrians. Ardeshir in particular epitomised the gradual emergence of an Iranian bourgeoisie in the urban centres of Persia, specifically Yazd. Concurrently, the rise of prominent members of the Mehrabān family was intimately related to their education, ‘cultural capital’, socio-economic connections, and business ventures in Bombay as well as their constantly developing political clout in Persia and India.

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661)—a revered figure in Islamic history as both the first Shiʿi imam and the fourth caliph—serves as a significant image of sacral power in the Persianate world and beyond. ʿAlī's authority underwent a profound reimagining in the early modern era as he emerged as a captivating imperial emblem from the Timurid renaissance to the Safavid revolution, rivalling other prominent figures of political authority such as Chinggis Khan (d. 1227), and becoming a symbol of human perfection for both Sunni and Shiʿi intellectuals alike. ʿAlī transcended his role as a Shiʿi imam to assume the status of a cosmic figure, gradually becoming an ideal symbol for imperial branding. However, there is little scholarly knowledge and appreciation of his changing role in this period. This article examines how al-Ḥāfiẓ Rajab al-Bursī's (d. circa 814/1411) Mashāriq al-anwār, which has remained highly popular throughout the Persianate and Shiʿi world, contributed to the reshaping of ʿAlī's image, portraying him as the quintessential archetype of sacral power and unmatched authoritative feats.

In an unprecedented show of efficiency, workers of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation worked overnight on September 3, 2015 to change signposts of Aurangzeb Road to A. B. J. Abdul Kalam Road. This renaming had been decided on roughly a week earlier, prompted by a proposal from Members of Parliament from the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). The move proved popular, but was followed by a degree of soul-searching in the Indian press about whether Aurangzeb's image as a villain is justified. Discussion of the figure of Aurangzeb in South Asian history has not abated since then, with scholars intervening in the debate. The popular reaction to such interventions has been equally contentious, with vituperative web-based responses too numerous to cite.

This article examines gender representation in early Chinese histories with a focus on Shiji 史記 (Records of the Historian). Presenting beautiful and evil women, rather than male rulers, as responsible for political crises is a long-standing practice of Chinese historiography. Previous scholarship contends that this practice began with such depictions in Shiji and thus stems from its model impact upon subsequent histories. By scrutinising the interplay between the two genders within royal houses, this article extends the scope of previous scholarly examination from women to their husbands, i.e. the male rulers. Comparison of the causation chains of political disasters as built in Zuozhuan 左傳 (Zuo Commentary), Guoyu 國語 (Discourses of the States), and Shiji shows that Shiji diminishes women's agency, describing them as neither the original cause of political crises nor a tool to shield rulers from criticism. Unlike its predecessors, Shiji presents political catastrophes as ruler-dominant consequences resulting from their own unrestricted desires and cross-boundary misbehaviour, explaining the rise and decay in history.