This, the second of our three articles on the role of the karguzar in the foreign relations of Iran, focuses on internal issues, and, in particular, the problems of security. Its main period of study is the years following the Constitutional Revolution during which Iran witnessed a gradual breakdown of social control resulting from severe government weakness. The Revolution, itself the product of financial fragility, led to the virtual bankruptcy of the country, despite the attempts of the Majlis at fiscal reform. Thus by 1910 the government did not have the means to enforce law and order. Problems of personal security placed considerable pressure on people at all levels of Iranian society. This article is, however, concerned with the experiences of the non-elite and the implications for them of financial crisis and weak government. These circumstances were also to have repercussions for Iran's relations with foreigners.

There is an aspect of the development of South Indian figure A sculpturebetween the seventh and tenth centuries a.d. that has received little attention, namely the stylistic relation of bronzework to stone sculpture, and in particular the reciprocal influences of the two different techniques, modelling and carving, on the formation of a single characteristic Coḷa style in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Mankind had probably no sooner taken to the use of oysters as food, than pearls were discovered, and at no period could they be so rude as not to prize the beautiful animal gem; hence, in the most ancient records which have come down to us, we find the pearl enumerated amongst precious articles. In China, so early as twentytwo and a half centuries before our era, pearls are enumerated as tribute or tax; and, at a later period, they are mentioned in the Rh-'ya (the most ancient of dictionaries, compiled more than ten centuries before our era) as precious products of the western part of the empire. They are also mentioned as ornaments, as amulets against fire, &c.

Those who chance to sojourn in the land of the Pharaohs longer than tha ordinary run of travellers, and roam about the streets and environs of its large towns, can hardly fail to notice the strange appearance of certain females, whose features at once distinguish them from the ordinary Fellah Arabs and Copts of the country. In dress they differ little from the common Fellah females, the dark blue cotton tob being common to both; but they seldom wear the shintiyan (drawers), and are remarkable for going abroad without the burka, or veil. With the skin of a gazelle, or that of a sheep, thrown over their shoulders, they frequent the bazars and principal thoroughfares of the great towns, with unveiled faces bronzed by exposure, or stroll from village to village, occasionally calling out, in Arabic, in piercing but not unpleasing tones: “Come, ye that desire to foresee your destiny! the past and the future shall be revealed unto you;” or in shorter phrases, such as “Come and see your fortunes!” (Taali, taali, shuft el bakkt), &c.

Among the various wonderful inventions, marking the astonishing advances which the Chinese had so early made towards civilization, is that of Paper-Money, which dates as far back as the year 119 before our era. The cause that led to its introduction was the low state of the finances of the Government, who, after various other experiments, issued at last regular paper assignats, which, from the ponderous nature of the rude coin then in use, and the security that the warranty of government afforded, soon obtained extensive circulation. The government who had thus introduced this new currency, made it an object of much legislation; and various were the schemes that were started and remoulded, in the hope of permanently establishing its use. But the numerous intestine wars, and the repeated subversion of dynasties that followed, tended seriously to detract from the credit of the government; and thus, owing to its bad faith, and the excessive issues, a complete failure of the system was the result, after a lapse of five centuries having been spent in unsuccessful attempts to establish it. Government paper-money seems to have disappeared in the early part of the late Ming dynasty; and the Manchus, on their accession, never attempted to revive its use. To Klaproth we are indebted for very elaborate researches on this interesting and oft-discussed subject.

On the 10th May, 1855, Brigadier C. Russell, Commanding at Rangoon, reported to Captain Thomson, the Assistant Adjutant-General of the Pegu Division, for the information of Major-General Sir S. W. Steel, K.C.B., Commanding the Division, that on the 13th April, 1855, some labourers employed at Rangoon in levelling a Buddhist temple for the future site of European barracks, had met with the gold relics enumerated in Brigadier Russell's letter. They, no doubt, had been placed under the floor of the temple, as was the practice in the Stupas, in the Punjab, in Afghanistan, at Sarnath, and elsewhere.

THE scientific world of England, which has taken the lead in so many other branches of palæographie study, has been content to leave the investigation of the Cuneiform Inscriptions almost entirely to Continental scholars; and, which is still more unusual in the history of Eastern archæology, the origin and progress of this investigation, and the results that have been obtained from it, appear to be but imperfectly known amongst us. Individuals doubtless of all countries, whether Englishmen or foreigners, engaged in the study of Oriental antiquities, have followed with a curious eye the successive discoveries that have been made; but general attention, or, at any rate, an attention commensurate with the value of the discoveries, has not been hitherto in England directed to the subject; and if I were to take up the inquiry, therefore, at the point where Professor Lassen has left it, interpretations which would satisfy the criticism of France or Germany might be received in London with extreme suspicion. This circumstance has suggested the propriety of adopting a more extended and elaborate form of introduction to a Memoir on the Cuneiform Inscriptions, than the present advanced stage of the inquiry can be considered rigidly to demand. In a study, indeed, of which the value depends entirely on the authenticity, and of which the authenticity can alone be verified by the constant and consentient results of a cautious and severe analysis, it is obviously better to err on the side of prolixity than of omission. A defective or imperfect link will destroy the integrity of the whole chain of evidence, while accumulative proofs, although they may encumber and perhaps disfigure the argument, will at the same time but contribute to its strength.

In this essay I will demonstrate the way in which the relationship between political authority and religious authority evolved throughout the history of Islam; and point out where religious rule gave way to the creation of nation states. I will map corresponding changes in Zakāt collections, among various nation states, to support my argument in favour of a continued separation of religious and political functions in contemporary nations with Muslim majority populations.

This paper studies how Brajbhāṣā Vaishnava narratives describe the role the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb played in the displacement of Krishna images from the Braj heartland in the 1660s and 1670s. While contemporary discourse frequently suggests that the emperor was a villain persecuting beloved Hindu deities, who in turn are victims forcibly moved from their original homeland, the early-modern vernacular narratives we consider here perceive these peregrinations in rather more complex ways. This article foregrounds the case of the best-known dispersed Krishna image: Śrī Nāthajī, a deity of the Vallabha-Sampradāya, now residing in the Mewar area of Rajasthan. It analyses mostly the discourse of the Śrī Nāthajī kī Prākaṭya-Vārtā, or ‘The story of the Appearance of Śrī Nāthajī’, attributed to Vallabha's descendant, Harirāy. The sectarian logic presents Aurangzeb as an ardent, if uncouth, devotee and Śrī Nāthajī as an autonomous agent, not a victim, but rather a victor.

During the reign of Patriarch Timothy I (780–823), the Church of the East continued to expand into Asia. Metropolitans were consecrated for various places to the east of the Patriarchal see in Baghdad. One of these was the enigmatic Metropolitan of the Turks, about whose location scholars have disagreed for decades. This article seeks to answer the question “Which Turks received the Metropolitan appointed by Timothy?” by systematically examining the different Turkic groups living in Central Asia at the time. Textual and archaeological evidence is considered in support of the conclusion and the various motives and external factors that may have played a role in the conversion are discussed.

The article examines the material relating to the early reception of the eighteenth century Hindi poet Ānandghan (Ghanānand). Ānandghan's poetic ideas were not far from those expressed in Persian literature, popular at that time in India. Apart from an abundance of idiomatic usage and paradoxes his approach to love reflects his taste for Persian poetry: the beloved can be either a woman or an undefined God, or even Krishna. Ānandghan's ‘openness’ towards Persian poetry earned him disrepute. In this article three early schools of criticism of his quatrains are distinguished: those of his opponents, of his fellow-devotees and of Brajnāth, the secular connoisseur. All three parties expressed their views on Ānandghan through poetry sometimes employing bitter or pungent language.

The fourteenth century saw the production of innumerable Islamic manuscripts, many of which were extensively and expertly illuminated. The period is well-studied, in particular, the products of the ateliers of Baghdad, Tabriz, Shiraz and Cairo. This article concerns a manuscript from a less well-known production centre, namely that of Erzincan. This manuscript is a copy of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī's Mas̲navī produced in 774/1373. Although discussed briefly in previous scholarship (and attributed to Erzincan), there is much more to say about this skilfully and extensively illuminated manuscript. This article examines the manuscript's text, codicology, illuminations, inscriptions and wider historical context. In doing so, it substantiates the manuscript's connection to Erzincan and adds to the growing body of literature concerning the arts of the book of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Rūm.

In Jumādā II 661/April 1263 the Mamlūk sultan al-Ẓāhir Baybars visited Jerusalem and undertook various pious works, including the erection of a public khān for lodging those visiting the Holy City. Unfortunately Baybars's khān has not survived and much speculation has been made regarding its location. The Arabic sources relating to Baybars's deeds provide a good deal of information relating to his khān, which, once combined with western sources and archaeological evidence, allows us to suggest its probable site, its architectural type, and even range of services.

The biography of the Nestorian patriarch Mār Yaḇalāhā III and of his teacher Rabban Ṣawmā is a well-known book, arguably the most interesting historical work in Syriac, and an important source for the history of the Ilkhanate and its relations with Western Europe.