In the early fourteenth century, decades before the Ottomans became the sole rulers of Anatolia, the Germiyanid beylik stood as a dominant force among the principalities that had emerged in western Anatolia following the demise of the Seljuks (1307). Nonetheless, to date, the exact origins and ethno-cultural background of the Germiyanids remain unclear. This article re-evaluates previous theories and posits that the embryo of what eventually became the Germiyanids formed between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries in the lowlands between Malatya and Lake Van, and that the name “Germiyan” was of Kurdish origin. It also suggests that an intense proto-Yedizi proselytism took place in eastern Anatolia before the Germiyanids migrated to western Anatolia. Beyond its significance to the history of the Seljuks, the Ottomans, the Mongols, and Byzantium, this paper challenges the prevailing narrative that views the emergence of the beyliks as an exclusively Turkic phenomenon and sheds light on the role played by non-Turkic people, including Kurds and Arabs, in their formation.

This paper presents linguistic and philological analyses of glossed medieval Georgian transcriptions of the Middle Mongol zodiac terms in the fourteenth-century anonymous ასწლოვანი მატიანე Asc'lovani Mat'iane (Chronicle of One Hundred Years), revealing unique details on Middle Mongol as attested in medieval Georgia. This is the first instalment of the authors’ joint research on this vastly important, largely untapped contemporaneous Georgian source on medieval Mongol language, culture and history.

The present study explores the progressive constructions in different Balochi dialects from a diachronic and an areal linguistic point of view. Previous studies on different Balochi dialects (Buddruss 1988; Baranzehi 2003; Farrell 2003; Axenov 2006; Ahangar 2007; Jahani and Korn 2009; Nourzaei et al. 2015; Korn and Nourzaei 2019; Korn 2020, 2017a and 2017b) have described progressive constructions, but discussion from a diachronic and an areal linguistic point of view is largely lacking. I will argue that the diversity of progressive constructions in Balochi dialects is a result of language contact and diffusion rather than an internal historical development that can be explained in terms of grammaticalization. In addition, there is no trace of a morphological progressive construction in written samples of Balochi. The general imperfective marker =a= (verbal clitic) covers ongoing meaning. To the extent that this marker has lost its ongoing meaning and become a general indicative marker in the present domain, the language has filled the progressive gap with new constructions which are basically a result of language and dialect contact. The new progressive constructions are mainly periphrastic constructions that represent either direct or indirect code copying from dominant languages and other Balochi dialects.

A seven-line Ṭākarī inscription on the doorjamb of the Hiḍimbā Devī temple at Manali has as yet remained undeciphered. However, the last line of the inscription was misread by J.Ph. Vogel in 1903–04, and Hirananda (1907–08) simply followed the date earlier suggested by Vogel. Neither has this historic document been translated in extenso by Vogel or Hirananda, or any other scholar. This article offers a complete translation of the inscription, its historical significance, and re-establishes the date of the temple from ad 1553 to ad 1551. This was during the reign of Bahādur Singh, the ruler of Kulu, who completed the present structure of the temple, and performed a yajña at the temple of the goddess Hiḍimbā during its consecration.

The Seventh Dalai Lama's residence at Gartar Monastery, which began in 1730, greatly affected the relationship between the Kham region and the Tibetan government as well as the Qing court's control over Kham. The Dalai Lama's interactions with various indigenous leaders, local monasteries, monks and lay people increased the influence of the Geluk school in Kham, and also inspired their support for the Dalai Lama. Measures adopted by the Qing court to protect the Dalai Lama, such as stationing troops and inspecting checkpoints, also strengthened Qing control of Kham. After the Dalai Lama left for Tibet in 1735, Gartar Monastery continued to serve as a religious and cultural centre of northern Kham, with the purpose of “civilizing” and “enlightening” the neighbouring regions that were far away from the political centre. Successive abbots of Gartar Monastery – right up to 1920 – came from Drepung Monastery in Lhasa; they and the Gartar monks influenced, interfered with and controlled the local affairs of Gartar and other regions in Kham. In particular, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Gartar Monastery, together with the Tibetan commissioner in Nyarong, was able to assist in the Tibetan government's efforts to extend its sphere of influence in Kham.

In examining wares discovered from the cultures of Sanxingdui and Jinsha and from the former site of the ancient kingdom of Dian in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, this article highlights a number of shared features and trends that suggest a continued artistic, technological and cultural transmission through time and space. The article aims to supplement established theories on the rich material culture of this region. It will look in particular at the development of its striking bronze metallurgy, largely deriving from the established traditions of the Yellow River valley in China’s Bronze Age. It highlights the function of a dense network of trading routes, referred to in modern scholarship as the “Southwest Silk Road”, as an important facilitator of cultural and artistic exchange and reciprocation from ancient times.

Two kinds of grain, “millet, 粟米 sùmǐ” and “husked rice, 稻 dào”, frequently appear in the Liye Qin Slips. Aside from these grains, another character seen in the Liye Qin Slips, nǎo, is thought to represent grain. It also represents the words for “brain, 腦 nǎo” in other excavated documents. Since the archaeological data show that rice cultivation was practised around the middle and lower Yangtze Valley, the homeland of Proto-Hmong Mien (formerly the state of Chu 楚地), the word for “rice plant, 稻 dào” seems to be a loanword from Proto-Hmong Mien *mbləu. The character nǎo is reconstructed as *nˤuʔ, which bears the same onset as the sound for “rice plant (or husked rice)” in North and East Hmongic languages nɯ (< *mbləu). Hence, we propose that the assimilation (*mbl- > *n-) in these languages could have occurred at the latest just before or after the Qin dynasty.

This paper examines the state-of-the-art for the historical study of the Rma (Qiang) language (< Trans-Himalayan/Sino-Tibetan) and points out some methodological issues in earlier work. The paper discusses how vowel correspondences have been obfuscated by loanwords, onomatopoeic forms, and analogical levelling. It also discusses the analysis of compound forms and points out how certain compound forms have been incorrectly etymologized. It deals with broader, more fundamental issues in prior work such as top-down rather than bottom-up reconstructions, and problematic conceptualizations of what constitutes reconstructions. The article offers potential solutions to the issues discussed and points out where future work would be most profitable.