Drawing on the large corpus of Chola period Tamil inscriptions, this paper attempts to clarify the meaning of the apparently obscure and neglected term in Tamil epigraphy, known as veḷam. The paper argues that the term in Chola period sources should best be understood as a “palace establishment” composed mostly of women (and sometimes men) of servile status. A relatively comprehensive review of the term in inscriptions and literature sheds significant light on the organization of the lower echelons of labour in the Chola royal household and the conditions under which men and women of this status were incorporated into such service. The paper argues for a reconsideration of the importance of the veḷam as an institution in Chola times, as well as the lives of its members, concluding with reflections on how the institution changed over time.

Classical Arabic Ḥadīth literature is largely composed of micro-narratives recording the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muḥammad. This study seeks to examine their literary form by focusing on selected examples listed in the canonical Ḥadīth compendia under the heading of adab, a term which may be rendered here as “practical ethics” but which is also commonly used to designate classical Arabic belles-lettres. While the latter is a type of literature quite distinct from the literature of Ḥadīth the texts here studied point to a certain interface between them. The ethical dimension of adab as it appears in Ḥadīth is examined further in the light of Haydon White's theory on the relation between narrativity and law. Contrasting the micro-narrative of Ḥadīth with the “macro-narrative” of the epic provides further insight into its approach to adab and serves to highlight its distinct literary and religious aesthetic.

In 1958 an Arabic inscription written in monumental angular script was found in the woods next to Aqua Bella-‘Ayn Hemed, on the road between Jerusalem and the coast. The inscription was misfiled in the archives of the Israel Antiquities Authority, remaining unknown to the public for almost fifty years. Following a thorough search of the archives during doctoral research, the author found the original documentation relating to the long-forgotten inscription. The fragmentary inscription is incised into a marble slab, of which only the end of the last three lines remains. The surviving words are in line with the formula found on other milestones dated to the Umayyad period, allowing a reconstruction of the last sentence, and even of the missing upper parts of the inscription. The lines read: “From Jerusalem to this milestone, five miles”.

Following on from Part 1 of this article (BSOAS 70/2, 305–372), Part 2 continues to examine the use of colour in different diviner groups, but focuses on the groups belonging to the non-kings' school. It also includes the newly discovered inscriptions from the eastern section of Huayuanzhuang in Yinxu. The exercise of colour preference in the non-kings' school is similar to that seen in the kings' school, but reveals an even broader interest. By looking at the context in which each colour was used, we can detect the process of a colour system working in Shang rituals. The final section of the paper provides a cross-cultural comparison of Shang colour symbolism which had a profound influence on the late wuxing theory.

In his Ta’rīkh al-Mawṣil, al-Azdī (d. 945) records the safe-conduct (amān) said to have been written for the surrender of the Abbasid ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Alī (d. 764) to his nephew, the caliph al-Manṣūr. This text has been overlooked in discussions of early Abbasid history and in studies of the work of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘ (d. c. 756), who is widely credited with its production. This article presents an annotated translation of the amān and considers its transmission, authenticity, attribution and significance. Parallels with epigraphic, documentary and literary sources suggest that it was indeed originally composed in the early Abbasid period and that it conforms to developing conventions for amāns. Thus, it is important evidence for political theory and practice in the mid-eighth-century caliphate. Furthermore, it probably substantially reflects the agreement between the caliph and his uncle and may indeed be the work of Ibn al-Muqaffa‘.

The asbāb mentioned in five passages of the Quran have been interpreted by medieval Muslims and modern scholars as referring generally to various “ways”, “means”, and “connections”. However, the word meant something more specific as part of a biblical-quranic “cosmology of the domicile”. The asbāb are heavenly ropes running along or leading up to the top of the sky-roof. This notion of sky-cords is not as unusual as it may seem at first, for various kinds of heavenly cords were part of Western Asian cosmologies in the sixth and seventh centuries ce. According to the Quran, a righteous individual may ascend by means of these cords to heaven, above the dome of the sky, where God resides, only with God's authorization. The heavenly cords are a feature of quranic cosmology and part of a complex of beliefs by which true prophets ascend to heaven and return bearing signs.