This paper presents a unique bronze weight manufactured by the order of a little-known son of [ain]Abd al-Malik, who was governor of Jund Filastîn for a short period. The weight, of the Byzantine disc type, but bearing Arabic inscriptions, was found in the excavations carried out by the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1990. It is discussed here in the context of other metal weights of the period which bear Arabic inscriptions but are of Byzantine form, and which sometimes also bear Byzantine symbols and Greek inscriptions.

James Legge (1815–1897) is primarily remembered today as the heroic translator of the Chinese Classics (1861–1872, 1893–1895). Allowing for changes in stylistic taste, these massive translations are still considered the “standard” versions of works that “classically” and “scripturally” defined a so-called Confucian “great tradition” in China. Unfortunately a fixation on this singular scholarly accomplishment has tended to brand Legge as merely a great, though plodding, translator – someone primarily remarkable for his indefatigable habits of working. Certainly it was often felt that his contributions to the emergent Sinological Orientalism of the nineteenth century in no way matched the achievements of the great Parisian academicians (Abel Rémusat and Stanislas Julien); nor was he seen as a particularly significant figure in any other aspect of British tradition in the nineteenth century. Even worse, and seeming to make him a fit candidate for Lytton Strachey's debunking criticism of all insufferably righteous Victorian paragons of virtue, was that his identity as a sinologist and scholar was forever tainted by his original vocation as a Congregationalist missionary agent for the London Missionary Society.

Wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre; henceforth “wayang”) as practiced in Java (Indonesia) has been recognized by exegetes – European and Indonesian alike – for its centrality as both a performative vehicle for and a symbolic figuration of understandings of the human developmental cycle, the variety of character models available to individuals, the precarious balance of chaos and stability in society, and kinship dialectics of conflict and complementariness. It is Java's most complex art form, in terms of dramaturgy, music, and repertoire, and also one of its most highly mediated. The beginning of what I would like to discuss is located at the end of Ward Keeler's exemplary ethnography of Central Javanese wayang and the dialogical play of selves and others in relations of hierarchy. Keeler concludes his evocative account of Javanese selves and theatre (and here I paraphrase) with the statement that “the peculiar fascination” of the dhalang in Javanese culture stems from his ability to dissimulate his self in performance. The puppeteer's voice is splintered, his presence veiled by a screen and mediated by puppets and the constraints of tradition, and his authority derived from indirect relations to a ritual sponsor, the Javanese autarchy, the ancestors, and the unseen world. “He is at once a dissembled authority, one whose power is great, non-coercive, and unworldly, and a dissembled interpreter, one who mediates between an unreal but persuasive and distracting world, and our own”.

At the start of the millennium Council reviewed medals and prizes and decided to discontinue the Gold Medal (which had not in any case been awarded for some time) and establish in its place the Society's Award. This Award will be made every two or three years in recognition of outstanding scholarship in Asian studies. Having considered a number of tenders, Council commissioned Ms Danuta Solowiej-Wedderburn to design and cast a medal bearing versions of two of the original Daniell images: the elephant and howdah on one side and the banyan-tree on the other (see John Hansman, “The Emblems, Medals and Medallists of the Royal Asiatic Society”, JRAS [1984 Part 1], pp. 99–119. Council approved the nomination of Mr John M. Gullick, who was recommended by a search committee (chaired by the Director) to be the first recipient of the RAS Award. On 10 January 2002 the President presented the RAS Award for 2001 to Mr Gullick who replied with a lecture, “An Indian official in Singapore: Governor Cavanagh (1859–1867)”.