Arrajān.—This city was first founded by King Qubād, the father of Chosroes Anūshirwān. It was a great city, with many dependencies, but during the troublous times when the Assassins held sway in the land it fell to ruin. It has a warm climate, and the city lies adjacent to the Thakān Bridge, where it spans the great river called the Nahr Ṭāb, which flows down from the neighbourhood of Sumayram. Further, many other streams flow past near here, with much water, whereby the land in this neighbourhood is most productive, growing all kinds of fruit. Groves of date-palms and of pomegranates abound, especially of the kind called mīlasī, which is most excellent. There are also many aromatic plants. The districts round and about Arrajīn are very numerous, and a mosque for the Friday prayers stands in the city.

The short sketch of the Sulaimania dialect of Kurdish here presented is part of the result of a study during residence of several months in and about that town.

Many changes have taken place in the delta since the middle ages, and the former geographical conditions require to be understood in order that the mediaeval history of Egypt may be followed. Besides, the mediaeval geography is of obvious importance as a means of arriving at the state of Egypt in ancient times. An adequate historical map of the mediaeval period is much wanted, and this paper is intended as a contribution towards a map of this kind.

We have considered Kanishka, so far, only as an Indian king, whose existence is revealed to us through the incidental mention of him in inscriptions and the accounts of the Yue-che (Tokhāri) given by the Chinese. And we have found that his permanent achievements were twofold. A barbarian prince, he became a convert to an alien faith, and set an example which was followed by his tribe; he also instituted an era which, although essentially Buddhist, was accepted by the Brāhmans and the Jains, and has endured to the present day. So far we might regard him merely as a prototype of many a barbarian chief of the West in the early centuries of the Middle Ages. We have now to consider him as an important figure on a much larger stage, a connecting link in the history of the earliest commerce between China and Europe. I have already brought forward direct evidence to prove that he flourished in the latter half of the first century B.C. I shall now show by two independent lines of research that he cannot be assigned to any other period. The basis of our study is the coinage of Kanishka and his successors, more particularly of Huvishka. This coinage is quite striking in its novelty.

The inscribed bone-fragment illustrated in the accompanying plates forms part of my collection, and was discovered among the large find of similar objects unearthed in 1899 in the province of Honan, North China. It is one of the larger pieces, measuring in its greatest length 10 inches by 7¼ at its broadest. The bone is part of the shoulder-blade of some domesticated animal apparently, and among the peculiarities it presents is the fact that at its extreme upper edge it has been pierced by a neatly bored round hole to admit a bone pin 3 inches long, shown detached in the plates. The shaft of this pin is inscribed on one side with six characters, while the fiat and rather elaborate head has archaic decoration on both sides. The purpose of the pin is not easy to determine, but I suggest that it may have been to fasten together the present bone and a second fragment similarly pierced, forming “page” 2 of this osseous document, which may have contained a further instalment of the text. If so, this second page is not now forthcoming.

Among the fragmentary tablets from Boghaz Keui which are in my possession is one with a docket attached to it in Hittite hieroglyphs (No. I). It is the first evidence yet discovered of the contemporaneity of the hieroglyphs and cuneiform, and I therefore give a facsimile of it in spite of its very fragmentary nature. The cuneiform characters were, as usual, impressed upon the clay prior to its being baked in the kiln; the docket was cut after the clay had been baked. As will be seen, the tablet is dated in the reign of Arnuwandas, the last king of the Hittite empire.