Ibrāhīm b. Ḥasan al-Kurānī al-Shahrazūrī al-Shahrānī belonged to the Shāfi‘ī madhhab and was a ṣūfī in the Naqshabandī order. Muḥammad Khalīl al-Murādī in his Silk al-Durarft a‘yān al-Qarn al-thānī ‘ashar (Bulaq 1301/1883, I, 5 f.), states that he was born in 1025/1616 and died in 1101/1697 in Medina. He studied under the best scholars of his day in Damascus, Cairo, and Medina where he finally settled down. His fame spread and pupils came to him from distant lands to attend his lectures in the prophet's mosque. He was the author of more than 100 books and treatises. The Garrett Collection of the Library of Princeton University contains manuscripts of several of them, one being an autograph. The names of many of these will be found in the Silk loc. cit., Brockelmann, GAL, G. n, 505 and S. II, 520, and Ismā‘īl Pasha al- Baghdādī's Dhayl to Ḥājjī Khalīfa, Istanbul, 1951, I, 35 f.

The term aṣ̌a- stands in the centre of ancient Iranian thought. It is a pivotal concept in Zoroastrian religious lore, but is not, in its significance, coeval with Zoroastrianism. As an object of eschatological longing, aṣ̌a- has Indo-Iranian roots. It is, in Old and Middle Persian texts, primarily understood as a synecdoche for the divine sphere where the religiously dutiful expect to lead a blessed mental existence after death. Aṣ̌a- is also a deity of the Old Avestan pantheon, thus a deified concept. Finally, the term is regularly used in the Gāthās as both the authoritative instance of measuring human (religious) conduct, and the normative goal of therapeutic (eschatological) activity. In this latter usage, too, and in agreement with its form and etymology, aṣ̌a- signifies a concrete phenomenon. There are good reasons to think that this phenomenon is the world as it was “put together” by Ahura Mazdā, and only subsequently sickened by the forces of deception. Translations to date, such as “truth” and “order”, are examined, all of which are shown to have serious problems. In conclusion I propose to translate aṣ̌a- as “cosmos”.

Traditionally, in both East and West, laughter, and in particular its causes, have been studied under the category of humour. However, ideas on and practices of laughter itself have been largely ignored. This paper intends to lead readers beyond the topic of humour and focus on the act of laughter in the Zhuangzi as a starting point for the study of laughter in early China. It examines frequently ignored areas, such as how laughter draws readers into the text; how it functions to exclude people with different social value judgements; how it is used as a tool to challenge political power; how it serves rhetorical functions as a means to construct a conversation among people of different social or political status; and how it is used as an important signal and marker for a change of perspective. By examining questions such as: “What are the types of laughter?”, “What are the functions of laughter?”, and “How does laughter operate in different situations, and between different persons?” we can see a new idea of laughter in the Zhuangzi with multi-layered philosophical significance. Using the Zhuangzi as a case study, we can envision a series of well-crafted, intentional practices of laughter for various purposes throughout early Chinese texts.

In this article I offer two versions of the Kurdistani folk-tale ‘Khajo and Syabando’ in Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic, one of the rarest and most highly endangered modern Aramaic languages, spoken in Israel by no more than twenty elderly Jews from the regions of Barzan and ʕAqra in Iraqi Kurdistan. Three dialects of this language were discovered during the years 1996–2000: Barzan, Shahe and B[ecy ]jil. The latter dialect is already extinct. The narratives that served for the texts were furnished by two speakers of the Barzan dialect. The texts are accompanied by observations related to etymology, comparative dialectology, vocabulary and various aspects of grammar.

This article examines Buddhist and Jaina attitudes towards the salvation of the Magadhan king Ajātaśatru (alias Kūṇika), a narrative character found in both Buddhist and Jaina traditions. A number of Buddhist texts prophesy that Ajātaśatru, despite his next birth in hell, will attain liberation in his final birth. Jaina sources also speak of Kūṇika's descent into hell, but give no prophecy of his ultimate liberation. While the Buddhists offered various solutions to Ajātaśatru's sinful condition, the Jainas proposed no remedy to mitigate the consequences of Kūṇika's sins. The Buddhist prophecies of Ajātaśatru's eventual liberation indicate that some Buddhists in ancient India were particularly concerned with the salvation of an archetypal villain such as Ajātaśatru. The Jaina silence on Kūṇika's destiny suggests that the Jainas in general had little interest in bringing this violent figure to liberation, and deemed him incapable of overcoming his “false view of reality” (mithyātva) due to his strong passions.

Through the courtesy of the authorities of the Preussische Staatsbibliothek I have had the opportunity of reading in the India Office Library the apparently unique copy of Abū Sa'd 'Abd al-Malik b. Muhammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Wā'iz al-Khargūshī's manual of Sūfism entitled Tahdhīb al-asrār. Khargūshī, who is otherwise known for his voluminous biography of the Prophet and a treatise on the interpretation of dreams, died at Nīshāpūr in 406/1015 or 4Q7/1016. He is therefore an earlier authority than Sulamī (d. 412/1021), Abu Nu'aim al-Isfahānī (d. 430/1039), and Qushairī (d. 465/1072), but is junior to Sarrāj (d. 378/988), Kalābādhī (d. 385/995), and Abū Tālib al-Makkī (d. 386/996). These comparisons are important, for they show Khargūshī as being a sufficiently early writer in the genre of systematic Sūfism. His name is not included in Nicholson's list of eight authorities for the history of early Sufism, and he does not appear to have received the attention which he deserves; though it is true that he has been utilized by Massignon in his study of Hallaj. The purpose of the present note is to supplement the somewhat exiguous account of the work given by Ahlwardt, and also to estimate the true value of Khargūshī's manual as a primary source.

In Itō Sei's (1905–69) “Yūki no machi” (Streets of ghosts, 1937), a narrator returns to his native town of Otaru, Hokkaido, where he experiences a hellish and hallucinatory encounter with people from his past. He is forced to confront shameful aspects of his youthful life that he had tried to repress. In this paper, I propose that a close examination of the story sheds useful light on the real fears, tensions and expectations surrounding colonialism that had become an integral part of Japanese culture and society during the late 1930s. Structures of colonialism, which speak of uneven power relationships between a dominant centre and a distant weaker locality, are spelt out, for example, through the railway network and racist ideology that appear in the story. I also explore the story's depiction of a colonial relationship between mainland Japanese culture centred round Tokyo and the peripheral outpost of Hokkaido. More generally, I suggest that the story illuminates a global power configuration between Japan and its colonies that was entering an increasingly aggressive and bellicose phase during the late 1930s.

A total of 32 poems, including some of doubtful authenticity, are ascribed to Hassān b. Thābit in his Dīwān or elsewhere, which can be wholly or partly classified as elegies. It is remarkable, however, that in this total there is not a single poem on an Ansārī while no less than eight are on 'Uthmān b. 'Affān, as compared with only four on the death of the Prophet. Equally remarkable is the fact that there is a wide variety of style and method of treatment not only among the poems as a whole but among poems on the same subject.

Research to date on the Yuan Dynasty painter Wu Zhen (1280–1354) has concentrated on his paintings, but his poetic inscriptions on paintings have been relatively neglected, even though they are of a high standard. This article seeks to redress the balance by focusing on Wu Zhen's poetic inscriptions on paintings by his own hand and those of past masters, and argues that inscriptions and colophons are an essential key to understanding Chinese literati art. It examines the literary functions of Wu Zhen's poetic inscriptions, and includes an exploration of the depiction of objects, the narrative, discursive and symbolic aspects, the lyrical qualities, and the expansion of time, space and vision of the paintings, as well as the relationship between the two media, in order to appreciate their wholeness.

The Grand Council (Chün-chi ch'u ) of the Ch'ing dynasty was an efficient, autocratic institution. It operated under direct imperial supervision, outside the regular administrative channels, performing its function in swift and confidential ways. Its operations enabled the Ch'ing rulers to expand their powers, strengthen their control and, most important, perpetuate their autocratic rules. Because of its versatile performance, the Grand Council enjoyed the monarch's trust, and a long existance.

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.