Tangut is the dead Tibeto-Burman language of the Buddhist empire of Xīxià, which was destroyed in 1227 by the Golden Horde of the Mongol warlord Temuüjin, more commonly known as Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227). The Tangut empire was established in 1032 and comprised the modern Chinese provinces of Gānsù, Shānxī and Níngxià, extending from the Yellow River in the east to Kökö Nōr (Chinese: Qīnghăi Hù) in the west. The northern frontier of the Xīxià empire skirted the city of Qumul (Chinese: Hāmì), the river Edzin Gol (Chinese: Ruò Shuĭ), the Hèlán hills and the Yellow River. In the south, the empire extended down into the present-day province of Sichuān. The Xīxià capital was situated in what is now the city of Yinchuān (formerly Níngxiàfŭ) on the left bank of the Yellow River.

Māwardī said of zakāt that it was paid ṭahratan li-ahlihā ma'ūnatan li-ahl al-sahman, as a purification for the donor and a support for the recipient. It has thus a dual aspect. As a social tax it provides for the transfer of wealth from certain productive classes of society to certain poor or non-productīve classes. As a religious duty it is of essentially the same type as ṣalāt, ḥajj, etc., afarīḓa 'ala l-'ayn. Like these it is a ritual whose correct performance involves an attention to precise details of quantity (naṣāb), timing (al-ḥawl), and intention (niyya) which may be irrelevant or even inimical to the optimum fulfilment of the social aim.

In an earlier article (Sprigg, 1963b) I drew on Burmese, with only a few examples from certain Tibetan dialects (Lhasa, Sherpa), to advocate applying prosodic analysis, the name commonly given to the polysystemic type of phonological analysis devised by J. R. Firth, to the languages of the TibetoBurman group for purposes of comparison and reconstruction; since then I have had an opportunity of studying two typologically different Tibetan dialects, the non-tonal Golok and the slightly tonal Balti, both of them remarkable for syllable-initial consonant clusters; and the relations of tone in the tonal Tibetan dialects to syllable-initial consonant clusters in the non-tonal dialects much strengthens the case, to my mind, for basing comparison of Tibetan dialects, and. through them, Proto-Tibetan reconstruction, on polysystemic analysis. The two main characteristics of such an analysis would be: (i) separate phonological systems for different types of syllable feature and syllable-initial feature; (ii) the emphasis on the syntagmatic association of successive phonetic features of the utterance rather than on purely paradigmatic contrast.

Phonetic adjustment in conversational exchange between Arabs of different nationalities is a fundamental, subtle aspect of Educated Spoken Arabic in Egypt and the Levant (ESA). More often than not educated Arabs adjust to a ‘classical norm’ of a voiceless uvular plosive (q), usually corresponding to a voiced velar plosive (g) or a glottal plosive (ʢ) in most vernaculars of our region, in a conscious or unconscious attempt both to elevate and to ‘koineize’ their speech. What follows attempts, inter alia, to show something of the relationships between the variants of this diaphonemic entity and such extra-linguistic factors as the biographies of collocutors and speech function, and to illustrate the fact that items with [q] serve the purposes of modernization in the area.

It would be a happier occasion to be able to announce the completion of the publication of all the Sogdian manuscripts that Sir Aurel Stein and M. Paul Pelliot secured from the “Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” at Tun-huang, were not this consummation overshadowed by the death of P. Pelliot, who has now followed Sir Aurel Stein after so brief an interval. The Sogdian MSS., which he entrusted to the care of the Bibliothèque Nationale, were believed lost for a number of years, but rediscovered by M. Filliozat in 1936. We cannot but admire the speed with which M. Benveniste has made them available to the public. As early as the spring of 1940 photographic reproductions of superb quality were published by Ejnar Munksgaard in Copenhagen; a few copies of this facsimile edition reached this country before communications were interrupted. A few weeks later M. Benveniste's monumental edition, comprising the transliteration, an excellent translation, a commentary of greatest learning which abounds in veritable pearls of linguistic notes, and a very full glossary which will make the publication of a Sogdian dictionary nearly superfluous, appeared in Paris, too late, however, for us to obtain the book; we had to curb our impatience until at long last, in September, 1945, we received this immensely valuable volume, through the kindness of the author and the good offices of the British Council.

scripture has ritual uses aimed at giving religion meaning in daily life. in zoroastrianism, the niya¯yišns, ‘invocations of praise’, and the yašts, ‘devotional poems’ have played fundamental roles in connecting doctrine and theology to praxis and conviction whereby faith and rites have been transmitted and augmented across many generations. this article discusses some of the contents and traditions of each niya¯yišn and yašt plus the functions those religious texts have fulfilled and continue to serve for zoroastrians from ancient through modern times.

The Sāmānid-era drive to Islamize Central Asia led not only to increased Islamic influence within the steppes, but, concomitantly, to the transformation of internal Muslim political life. Developments within the Muslim oecumene that were shaped or influenced by this Drang nach Osten range from the legitimizing of the political fragmentation of the Persianate Dynastic period to changes in Muslim military culture and practice, the successful religious conversion of the Turkic steppe; and growing Turkic influence inside the Sāmānid realms, culminating not only in the downfall of the Sāmānids, but in the end of the era of Iranian political and military dominance and the beginning of a millennium of Turkic political hegemony.

It is widely believed that the Rbbl bn Hfʿm grave inscription found at Qaryat al-Fāw is the earliest example of Old Arabic. The ten-line inscription – written in the Sabaic script – attests the common Arabic definite article, ʾl, plus several other non-Sabaic linguistic features. I argue that the definite article is not a suitable diagnostic of genetic affiliation, and other features, such as mimation, the conjunction ʿdky, and more, should also be given consideration. Through a close linguistic examination based on the principle of shared morphological innovations, I demonstrate that none of the morphological innovations which characterize Arabic are attested in this inscription. As such, its language is probably not a descendant of proto-Arabic. Our results further suggest that the ʾl- article, which has previously been used as a marker of Arabic, was simply one of many definite article forms which spread to Arabic, and other Semitic languages of Arabia, through areal diffusion.

‘Thus Ḥājjī Khalīfa, the Ottoman bibliographer of the eleventh/seventeenth century, introduces his listing of books contained within the genre of exegetical literature connected to the Qur'ān entitled asbāb al-nuzūl. That account of the genre has barely been exceeded in more recent scholarship. Ignaz Goldziher in his Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung finds occasion only once to mention the ‘classic’ work of the type, that by al-Wāḥidī (d. 468/1075), and devotes no further space to consideration of the literature. Régis Blachère in his Introduction au Coran deals with the genre in a brief footnote while Bell/Watt's Introduction to the Qur'ān confines comment to a dozen or so lines. The standard tome of scholarship, Nöldeke/Schwally, Geschichte des Qorāns, II: Die Sammlung des Qorāns, gives the longest treatment known, extending for almost two pages of text. The introduction to the section is worthy of quotation:Die unter dem Namen Asbüb al-nuzūl gehenden Werke unterscheiden sich von den Kommentaren dadurch, dass sie nur das auf Veranlassung der Offenbarungen bezüigliche Material enthalten. Da dieses aber den religionsgeschichtlich wie literargeschichtlich wichtigsten Teil der Kommentare ausmacht und hier, alles stö:renden Beiwerkes entkleidet, besonders leicht zu übersehen ist, begreift es sich leicht, wie gross der Wert dieser Bücher für die Forschung ist. Die Muslime haben, wie es scheint, weniger Verständnis dafür gehabt, sonst würde die Zahl der einschlägigen Werke, von denen wir Kunde haben, nicht so gering sein.

It is scarcely an exaggeration to say, that of the various important contributions made by Sir William Jones to the initiation and development of Persian studies in Europe, none was more felicitous, or more far-reaching in its consequences, than his early labours with the lyrics of Ḥāfiẓ; and of these labours, none bore sweeter fruit than his making of the immortal “Shīrāzī Turk” into A Persian Song.

Dans la tradition religieuse de l'Iran mazdéen, la région dénommée airyanәm υaēǰõ en avestique, Ērān-υēž en pehlevi, jouit, au long des siècles, d'une notoriété consacrée par de nombreuses légendes. C'est la première des régions qu'Ahuxa Mazda a créées et destinées à l'établissement des Iraniens (Vd. i, 2); le dieu suprême y fait apparaître le premier couple animal (Bd. xiv, 3; Zāt-spr. ix, 8), et Yama y a établison paradis (Vd. ii, 21 sq.), après qu'Ahura Mazda lui a dicté les mesures qui assureront la subsistance des êtres devenus trop nombreux sur une terre trop étroite. Zarathuštra y est né (Bd. xx, 32); c'est de là qu'est parti son message (Bd. xxxii, 3); c'est là qu'il sacrifie aux dieux (Yt v, 104; ix, 14, 25; xvii, 45), et que la tentation l'a assailli (Vd. xix, 4, 11).

In the Bahman Yašt, ii, 49, there is an interesting list of geographical names. The readings of two MSS. of the Pahlavi Text as well as the Pāzand version (unhappily Pāzand far inferior to that of the Mēnōkē χrat) are available, the Pahlavi in the facsimile of K 20 (fol. 135 recto, 1. 4 et seq.) published by the University of Copenhagen, 1931, and the edition of Dastūr Nosherwān Kaikobād Ādarbād, The Pahlvi Zand i Vôhûman Yasht, 1899, a copy of a MS. dated 554 A.Y., and the Pāzand in Antia, Pazend Texts, p. 339 seq. Translations of ii, 49, have been attempted by West, SBE., v, p. 209, by Dastūr Nosherwān in his edition, and also by Markwart in Caucasica, vi, 1, 54, and in A Catalogue of the Provincial Capitals of Eranshahr, p. 69, an edition of the šahrīhā i Ērān. But as finality in the translation of Pahlavi texts is hard to attain, yet another attempt is here offered. The text is as follows:—

One of the less prominent episodes associated with the conquest of Mecca in the year 8 is an encounter between the Arabian Prophet and a Persian cheese. A tradition quoted by Bayhaqī (d. 458) from Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (d. 203) tells the story as follows: ‘When the Apostle of God conquered Mecca, he saw a cheese. He asked what it was; they told him that it was a foodstuff made in Persia (arḍ al-'Ajam). The Apostle of God responded: “Take a knife to it, invoke the name of God, and eat”.’ Similar encounters take place in Ṭā'if in the same year, in Tabūk in the following year, and at places and times unknown.

According to Muslim tradition, some time after the spring of Zamzam had been caused by God to gush forth for Hagar and Ishmael following their expulsion into the wilderness by Abraham, it disappeared. Because of the sins of the tribe of Jurhum, which until then had possessed Mecca and the control of its sanctuary (wilāyat al-bayt), Zamzam, the well of the sanctuary, dis-appeared or was hidden, and Jurhum was driven out of Mecca and lost the wilāyat al-bayt. The rediscovery of the well is associated with the grandfather of the Prophet, 'Abd al-Muttahb. At a much later, but unspecified date, we are told, he experienced a dream in which the place of Zamzam was revealed to him. From this time on the well, according to tradition, enjoyed a continuous existence, it being one of the features of the Meccan sanctuary which were taken over when Muhammad adopted the sanctuary for Islam. Zamzam, however, is not the only well associated with the Meccan sanctuary. Muslim tradition knows too of a dry pit inside the Ka'ba which is sometimes referred to as the ‘well of the Ka'ba’.

The problem of the transcription of Pahlavi, inherently difficult enough, has for so long been complicated by factors of personal taste and interest that it will probably see many more jubilees. Amid the welter of differing transcriptions to be found, however, one persistent thread is to be observed, namely that of archaism. Bartholomae's endeavour to reproduce the earliest Arsacid pronunciation of Pahlavi, that of the third century B.C., has more or less been followed by such leading scholars as Salemann, Pagliaro, Bailey, and Nyberg, and has had perhaps its most consistent exposition in the Pahlavi index of the last-named's recent Manual.

The first text of al-Bīrūnī (A.D. 973-C. 1050) published in Europe which contains a reference to his translation of Patañjali's Yogasūtra is his Risāla fī fihrist kutub Muḥammad ibn Zakarīya' al-Rāzī, the relevant part of which was published by E. Sachau, Leipzig, 1876ndash;8.1 In his list of his own works, which is included in this Risāla, al-Bīrūnī states that this list comprises the works he has written up to the end of 427/1037.2 Several years later Sachau published al-Bīrūnī's India (London, 1887), in which al-Bīrūnī not only refers to his having translated this work of Patañjali, 3 but also quotes from it copiously.4

Few phenomena in the modern history of Asia can have been so completely misunderstood by Westerners as the Vietnamese religious (and political) movement known in European languages as ‘Caodaism’. Based upon a syncretic approach to religion, in which a key role is played by spirit-séances, it has inevitably been regarded by Christian writers with the same suspicion (if not contempt) as occidental ‘spiritualism’; and this initial lack of sympathy is compounded by the fact that the spirits who have revealed themselves at Caodaist séances include such familiar figures as Victor Hugo and Jeanne d'Arc. Then there is the show-piece temple of the Caodaists at Tây-Ninh, which drew forth Mr. Graham Greene's description of ‘Christ and Buddha looking down from the roof of the Cathedral on a Walt Disney fantasia of the East, dragons and snakes in Technicolor’. This superficial notion of the religious element in Caodaism fitted in very well with the cynicism of political observers, notably Bernard Fall, who saw in Caodaism no more than a political movement anxious to preserve its private armies and local power, using its religious ideas merely to dupe a credulous peasantry. In these circumstances, it is perhaps not surprising that the real nature and origins of Caodaism have been lost from view, and even its history has never been adequately summarized in any Western language. The present article will attempt to fill the historical gap, by tracing the history of the religion from 1925 to 1936, and then looking at its origins and antecedents. A subsequent article (to appear in BSOAS, XXXIII, 3, 1970) will analyse the various beliefs which have been incorporated into this essentially syncretic cult.

It is now established practice in descriptive linguistics to treat the subject-matter at separate, and definably separate, levels of analysis. Indeed the traditional categories of Phonology and Grammar represent such an employment of two different levels. Present-day linguists in Great Britain and America recognize the setting up and denning of the various levels of analysis as a basic procedure in handling the utterances of the speakers whose language is being studied.

The relationship between the traditional biographical material on Muḥammad (maghāzī- or sīra-material) and the narrations of his words and deeds (ḥadīth-material) has long been debated in Islamic studies. While some scholars have argued that the biographical material is fundamentally ḥadīth material arranged chronologically, others have argued the opposite: that ḥadīth material originally consists of narrative reports about the life of Muḥammad which were later deprived of their historical context to produce normative texts. This article argues that both views are untenable and that maghāzī and ḥadīth emerged as separate fields; each influenced the other but they preserved their distinctive features. While traditions that originated and were shaped in one field were sometimes transferred to the other, the transfer of traditions from one field to the other apparently did not as a rule involve any deliberate changes to the text.

The ‘appendix’ to a mid- to late seventh-century East Syriac history includes a detailed account of the conquest of Khu¯zista¯n by Muslim armies between c. 635 and 642. This article translates this section of the ‘appendix’ (along with another dealing with the conquest of Egypt), subjects it to detailed analysis and criticism, and compares it with Arabic accounts of the conquest of Khu¯zista¯n that survive in the much later historical and legal traditions. The results of this exercise—using an early and local source to control the Islamic tradition—is in some measure mixed, but some striking agreement suggests that the transmission of conquest history in early Islam was not as discontinuous as has been previously argued.