Armenian Manuscipt of the Pauline Letters with Euthalian material and the Apocraphal Letter of the Corinthians to St Paul and the 3rd Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, Akner (Cilicia) dated 1246.

The Royal Asiatic Society's manuscript of the Chronicle [«Գաւազանա գիրք»] of Georg Khubov: a unique source of Armenian political aspirations for independence in the 18 th and first half of the 19th century. (RAS. Arm. Ms. no.2)

In the medieval Arab world, gemstones were used as ornaments, set in jewellery, seals, and amulets, and also were investments and status symbols. As a result of the Arab conquests and their access to new regions, the distribution and use of gemstones underwent substantial changes. Our research pieces together information regarding the production, use, trade, tradition and cultural value of gemstones from early Arabic sources; this information is compared with material found in ancient Greek and Roman sources and also European sources from the medieval period.

The most valued stones were corundum, diamond, emerald and pearl. Other stones, such as turquoise, carnelian, garnet, onyx, lazurite and malachite, were less expensive and therefore more popular and common among the middle classes. Jasper, amethyst, and crystal were still cheaper and even more commonly-owned. In this article, we have chosen to present in detail the stories of two of the most exotic, expensive, and therefore most interesting gemstones: the diamond and the corundum.

The present study aims to contribute to the quest for the origins of belief in the eschatological figure of the Sufyānī, a matter of hot debate since the late nineteenth century. To this end, three different bodies of evidence are produced and analysed: reports indicating that the Sufyānī was, indeed, thought of as a redemptive personality in some Syrian quarters, traditions on him in the Muslim endtimes literature that contain an ex eventu pronouncement, and reports concerning the propaganda activities of the first Sufyānī claimant, Abū Muḥammad Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd “al-Sufyānī”, in the historical record. Making use of hitherto unavailable sources and looking afresh at the previously studied sources, it is argued that the myth of the Sufyānī emerged during the counterrevolutionary revolt of Abū Muḥammad al-Sufyānī in 132 ah, with vague residues of it traceable to his earlier military activities, against the Umayyad caliph Yazīd III, in 126 ah.

This essay examines the theme of inter-religious translation in the context of early modern India. More specifically, it considers the prominent 18th century Sufi master and scholar Mirzā Maẓhar Jān-i Jānān's (d.1781) translation of Hindu thought and practice as reflected in his Persian letters on this subject. Through a close reading of the content and context of his translation project, I show that while according the Hindu ‘other’ remarkable doctrinal hospitality, Jān-i Jānān's view of translation was firmly tethered to an imperial Muslim political theology committed to upholding the exceptionality of Muslim normative authority. Interrogating his negotiation of hospitality and exceptionality and the notions of time that undergirded that negotiation occupies much of this essay. I also explore ways in which Jān-i Jānān's translation of Hinduism might engage ongoing scholarly conversations regarding the rupture of colonial modernity in the discursive career of religion in South Asia. In the Euro-American study of religion, many scholars have shown the intimacy of modern secular power and the reconfiguration of religion as a universally translatable category. But what conceptual and historiographical gains might one derive by shifting the camera of analysis from the colonial reification of religion to the inter-religious translation efforts of a late 18th century thinker like Jān-i Jānān who wrote at the cusp of colonial modernity? This question hovers over the problem-space of this essay.

Despite the Pakistan-Afghan border's importance as the epicentre of regional insurgency, the mechanisms by which Friday sermons may be stimulating Islamic ideology have been understudied. From an analysis of 250 hours of sermons in the local Pashto language, interviews with mullahs and survey work, Robinson argues that sermons are a powerful means by which sectarian tensions and traditional ideologies are propagated. Their influence is derived from an irresistible synergy of both ancient and modern. They gain traction from using a highly credible ancient sermon form - rich in poetics and sparkling oratory - which is multiplied by the use of modern media. The religious ideology they traffic continues to grip the imagination of Pashtuns in ways which shape their society and provides a bulwark against secular intruders.

The Cāṇakyaṭīkā by Bhikṣu Prabhamati is a Sanskrit commentary on the Arthaśāstra (1st– 3rd century ce), the most celebrated Sanskrit text on governance. The Cāṇakyaṭīkā has not yet been fully studied nor translated into English. This paper presents the first English translation and analysis of the passages in which Prabhamati comments upon the activities of the “superintendent of the mint” (lakṣaṇādhyakṣa) and of the “examiner of coins” (rūpadarśaka). His exposition on Arthaśāstra 2.12.24–25 provides an interesting example of what can be defined as a “textual variation”; by means of commentarial techniques and literary devices the author stretches the structure of the root-text. On the basis of a broad analysis, this research demonstrates that the commentator quotes a passage on the coinage system from an unnamed source which, I shall argue, is the authoritative treatise on law Mānava Dharmaśāstra (2nd – 3rd century ce). This represents further evidence of the relationship between the Arthaśāstra and Manu's code. Finally, I shall suggest Bhikṣu Prabhamati's date and place of origin.

The present article undertakes a comprehensive study of ancient Chinese anecdotal and dialogic sources on Chunyu Kun, who is presented in a variety of roles such as trickster, sophist, envoy, jester, procurer of talent for his ruler, and erudite at the so-called Jixia academy which was allegedly established in the pre-imperial state of Qi. The article outlines how certain motifs and topics were reused and, in the process, reshaped by the narrative tradition and Chunyu Kun came to serve as a stock figure in different types of discourse.