Night ganz unähnlich der allgemeinen Achtung vor der Vereinigung der drei Veden (trayī vidyā) geniesst auf medizinischem Gebiet ein hohes Ansehen die alte Trias (vāddha-trayī), welche aus den Ärzten Caraka, Suśruta und Vāgbhaṭa zusammengesetzt ist. Nach der Überlieferung und in dem Gesichtswinkel der Inder erscheinen diese Medizinlehrer der Vorzeit durchaus als gesehichtliche Persönlichkeiten, wie manche ihrer Vorläufer. Einer jener letzten, Hārāta, bezeichnet Caraka, Suśruta und schliesslich Vāgbhaṭa in ihren Sammellehren als Vertreter der drei Welt-Zeitalter (carakaḥ suśrutas caiva vāgbhaṭaś ca tathā 'paraḥ | mukhyās ca saṃhitā vācyās tisra eva yuge yuge). Die Sachlage, welche die apokryphe Hārtā-Saṃhitā in ihrem Anhang (praśiṣṭa) schildert, lässt sich kritisch unschwer überblicken. Das Zitat beleuchtet aber anderseits auch allgemein den Boden, welchem noch heut die gesehichtliche Einstellung der Inder entspringt, in Bindungen zu ihren überkonimenen Weltanschauungen und Religionen, und nicht so selten unter Anerkennung solcher Richtlinien seitens Beobachter eines westlichen Kulturkreises. In derartigen Materialien erscheint die Grenze zwischen Sage und Geschichte sachlich und zeitlich verwaschen und eine kritische Betrachtung bald in mittelalterliche, bald in neuzeitliche Verhältnisse verworfen. Bei der fast sprichwörtlichen Unsicherheit des Zeitmasses indischer Belange wurde daher folgerichtig der entsprechende Schwerpunkt geschichtlicher Forschung der kritischen Beurteilung des Text-Inhaltes eingereiht. In dieser Richtung laufen die bahnbrechenden und grundlegenden Untersuchungen eines Cordier, Hoernle und Jolly. Die stehengebliebenen Unstimmigkeiten weisen aber auch auf die verschiedenen Möglichkeiten in der Auswertung des Textmaterials und des wenig übersichtlichen Geflechtes seiner Kommentare hin. Bei einem Versuch zur Einebnung des sachlichen Zwiespaltes drängt sich aber immer wieder der Mangel zeitlicher Bestimmungen wie eine Sperre auf für einen Fortschritt und zwingt oft zu einem Verzicht, der für einen Erfolg keiner Erwähnung bedarf.

In Arabic literature there is hardly any separation between works on political history and historical biography. This is due to the two sources from which historical traditions are derived: the sīra-literature dealing with the life of the prophet Muḥammad and the rather legendary traditions on the tribal warfare of the jāhiliyya known as ayyām al-'arab. It was on this double basis that Arabic historiography had gradually been built up. On the one hand, parallel to the sīra-literature, there developed the so-called ṭabaqāt-literature containing biographies first on the companions of Muḥammad ('ilm ar-rijāl), then on all sorts of illustrious men arranged into classes (ṭabaqāt) according to the year of their death. The Kitāb aṭ-ṭabaqāt al-kabīr of Ibn Sa'd az-Zuhrī (died in 230/845) was the first standard work of this kind of literature, which flourished especially in the post-classical period of Arabic literature in the increasing quantity of ṭabaqāt-works on rulers, theologians, jurisconsults, and poets.

The text which is here presented is part of a long mythological poem inscribed in alphabetical cuneiform upon clay tablets found at Ras-Samra. This portion of the text was published by Virolleaud in Syria, October, 1931, together with a transliteration into Latin characters, a French translation, and brief notes. It is here transliterated into square Hebrew characters, translated into English, and furnished with a commentary. Needless to say, this fresh edition owes more than can be adequately expressed to the pioneer work of Virolleaud, whose philological interpretations have been largely adopted. It appeared, however, that there was still room for further interpretation of the text along purely mythological lines, and that several allusions could still be explained. Moreover, there were quite a few passages where philological treatment from a different angle would seem to throw light upon obscurity. In none of these matters can finality be claimed; one can but suggest. And it should especially be remembered that at the moment only one portion of a large text is to hand. One may hope that the great French scholar may see his way to letting us have the remainder without undue delay.

Since my article on the above appeared, additional information has come to hand which appears to be of sufficient merit to be recorded, more especially because this old music of the Moors is gradually disappearing. At the invitation of the Egyptian Government, I attended a Congress of Arabian Music which was held in Cairo during March and April, 1932, where I had the honour to preside over the Commission of History and Manuscripts. During this congress I had the opportunity of studying, at first hand, the practical as well as the theoretical art. The best native orchestras from Arabic speaking lands were in attendance, and among them were three from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. These latter included in their répertoires the old Maghriban melodies from the ṭubū', naubāt, or ṣan'āt. At these auditions, and from conversations with the musicians, but more especially through information obtained from Sīdī Ḥasan 'Abd al-Wahhāb the Governor of Mahdia, and Sīdī Muḥammad al-Manūbī al-Sanūsī of Tūnis, I had confirmation by eye and ear of that which hitherto had only been known to me by script.

Within the last few years, a period which may well be said to have been initiated by the publication of the late Professor Browne's Arabian Medicine in 1921, there has sprung up a new interest in the scientific accomplishments of Islamic Persia. The foundations of this study were laid in the last century by the German publication of certain Arabic texts and historical works and by Leclerc's Histoire de la Médecine arabe. In this first period must be included a short note by Professor Nicholson on the Ḥifẓ-ul-Ṣiḥḥat (or Ḥifẓ-ul-Badan) of Fakhr-ul-Dīn Rāzī, which was published in the Society's Journal for January, 1899.

Last season M. Watelin discovered a number of Sumerian tablets at Hursagkalamma in the spur of the great mound north of the temple of Ninlil. These were found in trench C 15, 1 metre below the surface, 3 metres above plain level, and in the Hammurabi stratum. Several fragments have been joined at Oxford, so that the lower half of a large two-column tablet has been completed. The tablet is 5 inches wide (125 mm.) and 5 inches long, originally 10 inches long. This tablet contains that part of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamish which relates to the Humbaba episode. Now it is clear that the lower half of a large tablet published by Zimmern, Sumerische Kultlieder (all from the same period as the Kish tablet) belongs to the same series. This tablet, No. 196, VAT. 6281, has also two columns, and is obviously the first tablet of the series. Zimmern wrote that a dealer sold VAT. 6281, claiming that it came from Dilbat. That tablet is only 105 mm. wide, or ¾ in. narrower than the Kish tablet. The two tablets, therefore, represent local peculiarities observable in local editions of other series.

Sir John Marshall'S excavations have again brought important results. A new Kharoṣṭhī inscription has been found, which throws new light on the difficult question of the eras used in a series of Indian Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions belonging to the Pahlava and Kuṣāṇa periods. In May last Sir John was good enough to let me have excellent photographs of the new epigraph, for the purpose of editing it in the Epigraphia Indica. In consideration of its great importance, he has, moreover, kindly allowed me to publish a preliminary account in this Journal.

During the past ten winter seasons the Field Museum – Oxford University Joint Expedition has been conducting archæological excavations on the site of the ancient city of Kish, which according to the texts, was “the first city founded after the Flood”.