The introduction to the edition of the fárs-námeh of “Ibn al-Balkhí” by Mr. Le Strange and Professor Nicholson contains a long passage dealing with the end of the Buwayhid or Búyid dynasty. This passage, and particularly its footnotes, show that there are points in this section of history that it would be interesting to clear up. I have attempted to clear them up in what follows. For the purpose I have used a number of Arabic and Persian works, indicated respectively in the footnotes to my account by the letters or words preceding each name in the following list.

In Assam, near Gauhāṭī, on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra, there is one of the most famous places of pilgrimage in India, I mean the temple of Kāmākhyā. Kāmākhyā is one of the names for the Indian devī, Kālī, or Durgā; in fact, Kāmākhyā is the devī herself in one of her most jolly aspects, as may be gathered from the Paurānic and the Tāntric literature connected with her cult, as for instance the Kālikā-purāṇa, the Yoginī-tantra, the Kāmakhyā-tantra, the Kāmarūpa-tantra, etc. The temple and all its neighbourhood for twelve krośas is considered one of the pīṭhas, or holy and consecrated places: the hills and rivers near it have been identified with some of the most renowned tīrtha-sthānas of India, with the purpose of associating with that revered spot some of the most sacred religious traditions of India.

Akbar Shāh, son of the Mughal emperor Shāh 'Ālam II, was elevated to the throne of Delhi as pretender eighteen years previous to his accession as Akbar II, and money was struck in his name. The addition of another claimant to the dynastic list was communicated in a joint paper by Mr. S. H. Hodivala and myself, which appeared in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for the year 1922, and to which I invite reference. I had found a copper coin of Aḥmadābād mint bearing the name of Akbar Shāh and date A.H. 1203, which made me conjecture whether Ghulām Qādir Khān, the “unspeakable Rohilla”, raised another prince to the Mughal throne after the puppet Bedār Bakht (A.H. 1202–3), who might or might not be identical with the Akbar Shāh, eldest surviving son of Shāh 'Ālam II, who succeeded his father in the regular way as Akbar II in the year A.H.. 1221 (A.D. 1806). I put the matter to Mr. Hodivala, a leading authority on Mughal history, and his reply was that “it has not yet been possible to find an absolutely complete and satisfactory solution of the problem connected with the Akbar Shāh coins of A.H. 1203, but there would seem to be fairly good grounds for answering the question in the affirmative”. The fullest account of the transactions which led to the deposition and blinding of Shāh 'Ālam II is in the 'Ibratnāmah (Book of Warning) of Faqīr Khairu-d-dīn Muḥammad, but this work closes soon after recounting the terrible cruelties practised on the Emperor Shāh 'Ālam and his family by the infamous Ghulām Qādir, whose atrocities the author describes at length.

Quand on cherche à décomposer les noms des villes indiennes énuméréés dans les Tables de Ptolémée, on constate que plusieurs d'entre eux sont formés d'un nom grec et d'un mot indien signifiant “ville”. Hippokoura (Ptolémée, vii, 1, 83) est un bon exemple de ce type de composés. Ce nom, formé du grec hippos “cheval” et de l'indien kura “ville”, signifie “ville du cheval”. Mais de quel cheval s'agit-il ? Et pourquoi servait-il à désigner la cité?

The text here published occupies part of the Reverse of British Museum tablet Rm. 2,160 and includes part of two prayers, with the accompanying ritual. The first prayer is addressed to some goddess, the second is to the stone ŝadanu. Of the Obverse, only a few signs remain. My thanks are due to the Trustees of the British Museum for their kind permission to publish this text, and I have to acknowledge gratefully the help accorded to me by Professor Langdon in interpreting and restoring it, and by Mr. C. J. Gadd in collating for me some of the lines.

The fragment K. 2784, published by Langdon in his OECT. vi, pi. xxii, belongs to the same tablet as K. 7593, which was edited by King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, No. 62. We now have, therefore, an almost complete text of the earlier part of a hymn to Ea, Shamash, and Marduk. I have to thank Dr. H. R. Hall and Mr. C. J. Gadd, of the British Museum, for permission to collate the reunited tablet, and Professor Langdon for his kindness in helping me with the interpretation of the text.

The Turkish shrine to be described below lies in Greek Macedonia, where there are now no Turks. But the paper will describe the shrine as it was in 1923, a year before the Turks were removed from Greece to Asia Minor under the terms of the Lausanne Convention for the Exchange of Populations between Greece and Turkey.

One of the most important Vannic inscriptions—or rather series of inscriptions—yet found in Armenia was discovered and excavated in 1916 by Professor Marr and Mr. Orbeli immediately under the walls of the citadel of Van. Here they found steps and niches cut in the rock, at the back of one of which was the monument in question. Under its vaulted roof was a rectangular stone stela standing on a pedestal. The sides of the stela were inscribed, as also was the pedestal; while two other inscriptions were engraved on either side of the stela on the wall of the rock behind it. Exceptionally good photographs were taken of the inscriptions, which have been edited by Professor Marr with transliteration and translation as well as an elaborate commentary. The volume containing them, Archæological Discoveries at Van in the year 1916 (Petersburg, 1922), is a very sumptuous one and more than equal in matter and appearance to any of the previous volumes of the Archæological Society of Russia.