21. M.I., vii, 59 bis (wood, c. 18 × 2.5 cm., complete ; hole for string at r.; Il. 2 recto + 3 verso of cursive dbu-can script).

[A 1] | : | blon . Gtshug . bzanṅ . la | ya . lad . stod . | gsum ‖ blon . [A 2] Phya (Dgra ?). bzer . la . ya . lad . stod . gñis | stag . Gtshug . bzan . la [B 1] ya . lad . stod . gñis ‖ Gun . Rgya . legs . la | ya . lad . st[o]d . gñis | [B 2] blon . Stag . sgra .la . g−1ya . lad . stod . gchig ‖ stag . Stag . rtsan . la | ya . lad . stod . gchig | Dpal. bzer . la . ya . lad . stod . gchig ‖

If we describe as bankers persons whose profession it is to administer, procure, and supply money, then we are indeed entitled to count Joseph b. Phineas and Aaron b. Amram as bankers in a quite modern sense, and in view of their almost exclusive dealings with the Court and its officials, as Court Bankers in fact as well as in name.

The Pand-Nāmah or the “Counsel” of Subuktigīn to his son Maḥmūd is the earliest work of its kind in the Persian language. It not only formulates some important principles of administration, but also furnishes valuable information about an obscure period of history, viz. the early life of Subuktigīn and the origin of his family.

In the JRAS. of January, 1931, I offered some “Suggestions for the Use of Latin Character in the Writing of Kurdish”. A certain number of changes in these first proposals subsequently appeared desirable in the light of criticism and of further experiment and experience. In the meantime Tewfiq Wehbi Beg, on whose modified Arabic alphabet my suggestions had been based, finding that his new system made little appeal to his compatriots, decided to abandon it, for the purposes of his future work, in favour of Latin. European students of Iranian philology will welcome the appearance in Latin character of the work of an accomplished native Kurdish scholar ; how far the books now in the press and under preparation will appeal to other Kurds remains to be seen.

In the British Museum there is a gold coin issued by the Zanj rebels, hitherto inedited, and consequently of sufficient historical importance to warrant special publication. There is, so far as the present writer is aware, only one other coin (also in gold) surviving as a witness of that disastrous Slave Revolt which is estimated to have cost over 1,000,000 lives. This latter coin was published by Casanova in the Revue Numisrnatique (1893, pp. 510-516) and is now in the Paris Cabinet. By kind permission of the Conservateur I have been enabled to have it photographed. The mint, in both instances is the same, but the specimen in the British Museum is three years earlier in date, and preserves for us a more complete portion of the peculiar reverse marginal legend, that enables us to emend to a great extent the conjectural rendering suggested by Casanova in his article above mentioned.

The fact seems strange that thirty years elapsed between the known discovery of inscribed bones and tortoise shells near An-yang and the first systematic exploration of the site. Towards the end of 1928 digging was begun by an expedition sent by the National Research Institute of History and Philology, and partly financed by the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution. The work suffered from obstruction owing to the prevailing unrest; but several times it has been resumed, and three volumes have appeared under the title Preliminary Reports of Excavations at Anyang. These give interim accounts of the varied results which provide important contributions to history and archaeology.