In a paper published in the January issue of this Journal, under the title “ To the East of Samataṭa ”, Professor Padmanath Bhattacharya Vidyavinod has proposed a new interpretation of a well-known passage in Hiuantsang, concerning the countries situated in the east of Samataṭa (Eastern Bengal). These six kingdoms were not visited by the pilgrim, but known to him by hearsay. Here are their names, together with the identifications generally admitted: —

1. Shih-li-ch'a-ta-lo = Śrikṣetra (Prome);

2. Ka-mo-lang-ka (Tenasserim ?);

3. To-lo-po-ti = Dvāravatī (Lower Siam);

4. I-shang-na-pu-lo = Īśānapura (Cambodia);

5. Mo-ha-chan-p'o = Mahā-Campā (Annam);

6. Yen-mo-na-chou = Yavadvīpa (Java) [?].

In offering the following notes I would especially ask for consideration on the part of students of Sinitic languages. I in no way pretend to be familiar with these forms of speech, and I must explain that, while I shall be grateful for criticisms on their part, my remarks are not directly addressed to them, but rather to those students of philology who have not made a special study of Chinese, but who, for purposes of comparison, are compelled to acknowledge a bowing acquaintance with all, or nearly all, the tonic languages of Asia.

In cataloguing the Oriental MSS. of the John Rylands Library, I came across an unknown and semi-official defence of Islam. The MS, containing it is in some places in a bad state of preservation, but apart from about ten words which have completely faḍed away, the text has been read and translated, and it is hoped that the book, accompanied by a critical apparatus, will shortly be published by the Governors of the Library at the Manchester University Press.

The great Semitic digest of laws made by Hammurabi and inscribed at his orders on the magnificent diorite stele of Susa was probably promulgated soon after the 34th year of the reign of that famous king, or about 2088. His reign extended to 2081. The period of its composition and promulgation is therefore limited to the brief space of eight years at the end of his reign. This date is at any rate certain for the great stele deciphered by Père Scheil (1902). Fragments of the same code written on clay tablets of the period of Hammurabi were found at Susa, at Ellasar or Warka, and at Nippur. From Nippur two large tablets have been recovered, one of which has the colophon, “Fourth tablet of ‘ When the far-famed Anu ’.” Since the Code as written on the Paris Stele begins “ When the far-famed Anu ”, it is evident that the editions written on tablets are based upon the monumental copy and that they are later than it. For it is highly improbable that the original tablet edition began with a long historical prologue. The Nippur tablet has a colophon which says that it is the al-gub-ba of the king Hammurabi.

The personages described by the term Shahbandar, with such variations in orthography as Savendar, Sabinder, Xabendar, and the like, appear so frequently in the literature of the Eastern seas that it is desirable to arrive at a definite idea of the position which they occupied, and the functions which they discharged. The task is not, however, easy, for the ordinary Persian and Portuguese dictionaries are not very enlightening on this particular topic, while the discussion of the term in Hobson-Jobson is by no means exhaustive.

It is very difficult to say how long the library attached to the shrine of Imam Riza at Meshed has been in existence. It is impossible to believe that it dates back to the beginning of the shrine itself. Those great calamities which befell Persia, such as the invasions of the Moghuls and Tamerlane, were accompanied by destruction everywhere, and this holy place did not escape. One can, however, reasonably believe that the library as it now stands has existed since the time of the first heirs of Timur, who bestowed many favours on the shrine. The blue dome of Gauhar-i-Shād, which from afar attracts the attention of a pilgrim approaching Meshed, was built at the beginning of the ninth century of Hijra by the wife of Shāhrokh Mirzā. It seems probable that the library was started at that time and has existed down to the present time without any further disasters. Indeed, it must have been greatly enriched after the triumph of the Shia religion under the Safawy kings. The invasions of Nadir Shah and the Uzbeks probably did not affect the library greatly. Nadir Shah was a generous donor to the shrine and the golden dome and minarets were rebuilt and embellished by him. Therefore it may be concluded that the period during which the library could develop must be close on five hundred years.

This fragment K. 2279 + S. 675 + S. 2152 (lower half of a large tablet) was copied by Dr. Pinches at the British Museum many years ago. When I saw him on a visit to London he was kind enough to hand me, for publication, his copy of the text, which he had neither transliterated nor translated.

To many the name Amurrū will come as something new, but to Assyriologists mât Amurrē, “the land of Amurrū,” is a revelation dating from the time of the decipherment of the Tel al-Amarna tablets in 1887–8. It is true that the identity of the name did not dawn on them immediately, but it was not long before they became aware of it. When this took place they realized that the district which they had read as mât Aḫarrē, thought of as “the land behind”, and rendered “the west”, had, owing to the polyphony of the Assyro-Babylonian syllabary, been misread. It should have been mât Amurrē, and translated “the land of Amurrū”, i.e. “the Amorites”, who, because they dwelt west of Assyria and Babylonia, were thought of as “the westerners”, and their country became the designation of the western cardinal point.