‘Thus Ḥājjī Khalīfa, the Ottoman bibliographer of the eleventh/seventeenth century, introduces his listing of books contained within the genre of exegetical literature connected to the Qur'ān entitled asbāb al-nuzūl. That account of the genre has barely been exceeded in more recent scholarship. Ignaz Goldziher in his Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung finds occasion only once to mention the ‘classic’ work of the type, that by al-Wāḥidī (d. 468/1075), and devotes no further space to consideration of the literature. Régis Blachère in his Introduction au Coran deals with the genre in a brief footnote while Bell/Watt's Introduction to the Qur'ān confines comment to a dozen or so lines. The standard tome of scholarship, Nöldeke/Schwally, Geschichte des Qorāns, II: Die Sammlung des Qorāns, gives the longest treatment known, extending for almost two pages of text. The introduction to the section is worthy of quotation:Die unter dem Namen Asbüb al-nuzūl gehenden Werke unterscheiden sich von den Kommentaren dadurch, dass sie nur das auf Veranlassung der Offenbarungen bezüigliche Material enthalten. Da dieses aber den religionsgeschichtlich wie literargeschichtlich wichtigsten Teil der Kommentare ausmacht und hier, alles stö:renden Beiwerkes entkleidet, besonders leicht zu übersehen ist, begreift es sich leicht, wie gross der Wert dieser Bücher für die Forschung ist. Die Muslime haben, wie es scheint, weniger Verständnis dafür gehabt, sonst würde die Zahl der einschlägigen Werke, von denen wir Kunde haben, nicht so gering sein.

In an article published un Vol. XLIII (1980) of BSOAS I reported the identification of the Ethiopic version of the Lives of Ezekiel and Daniel, and I there presented the text and an annotated translation of these two short pieces, which belong in the pseudepigraphic work known as the Lives of the Prophets. A substantial further portion of the Ethiopic version of this work was subsequently identified by MR. Roger Cowley in a manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and he very kindly drew this to my attention. My purpose in this article is to publish the text and a translation of this new material. Mr. Cowley has also identified a fragmentary Ethiopic text containing a Life of Job and the beginning of a Life of Moses. I hope to consider this text on a future occasion and would merely obserce here that its contents are different in character from those of the work that is conventionally known as the Lives of the Prophets. I would like to record here my very grateful thanks to Mr. Cowley for his kindness in informing me of the existence of both these texts.

The Sabaic rock inscription published by A. Jamme under the siglum Ja 1028, from a Location at Bi'r Ḥimā, 85 km. north-east of Najrān, is among the most important documents that we have for the history of Yemen in the period beford Islam. Attention has hitherto been mainly centred on exploiting its historical data; less notice has been accorded to the detailed linguistic (and specially syntactic) features, which are my topic here.

Islamic metalwork has in recent years been the subject of several important new publications. James W. Allan has written a lavishly illustrated guide to a recently acquired private collection whose pieces attest to the high quality of objects available to the discriminating collector. The 27 pieces span the variety of wares produced in the medieval Islamic world: bowls, ewers, candlesticks, inkwells, incense burners, and other objects produced in Egypt, Syria, the Jazira, Iran, and India from the tenth to the seventeenth century. Multiple photographs in both colour and black and white accompany a lengthy discussion of each piece. In the introduction the author offers a brief summary of the Islamic metalware tradition (its origins, expansion, and decline) and discusses the symbolism inherent in its decoration, particularly the imagery of light and darkness and the sun.

In his Dictionary of Khotan Saka (p. 377), Bailey has the following entry: ‘vara- “door?”’ with the following comment: ‘possibly vara- “door” from var- “to close, shut”; or a dialectal v- < dv- would permit connexion with dvar-, Av dvar∂m, dvar∂ “gate” (…) Note Tumshuq Saka vitana “a second time” with vi- < dvi-.' Bailey's suggestion that this vara- means door, is certainly correct. The Passage in question (KT, III, 124) is quoted below.

The text-historical problems surrounding the medical works attributed to Vāgbhaṭa are well known and have been excellently outlined by Vogel (1965: introduction) and again briefly by Meulenbeld (1974: 423–5). From the published colophons of both the Aṣṭāṅgasaṅgraha (As.) and the Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā (Ah.) we learn that Vāgbhaṭa was the son of Siṃhagupta. This is stated again in the text of the As. (VI.50, end) where it is further stated that the author's grandfather was also called Vāgbhaṭa, and was also a doctor. We are in addition told that the author was born in the Sindhu region and that his teachers were Avalokita and, to a greater extent, his father Siṃhagupta. Thus we have the following family tree.

Navarātri (Tam. Navarāttiri) is one of the most popular and important annual festivals in the south Indian city of Madurai. The same is true elsewhere in the state and, in somewhat different forms, the festival is also popular in many other regions of India, notably Bengal (where it is known as Durgā Pūjā) and Karnataka (where it is called Dasarā). Navarātri means ‘nine nights’ and throughout India the festival is celebrated on the first nine lunar days (tithi) of the bright fortnight (i.e. the fortnight ending on full moon) of the lunar month of āśvina. In the Tamil calendar, however, the year is divided into twelve solar months and Navarātri is said to occupy the nine lunar days beginning with the day after new moon in the solar month of puraṭṭāci (September-October). Very occasionally, the Tamil formula may supply the wrong date. In many years, the festival only lasts eight weekdays, as two lunar days may fall within one weekday. (In some parts of India, a Navarātri festival is celebrated in the spring, but that is not discussed here.)

The most ancient examples of divination using the Yi-ching are found in the Tso-chuan and the Kuo-yü (both texts probady date from the end of the fourth cenury B.C.E). In each divination, a hexagram is determined which, in most cases, changes into another hexagram. In a few cases the first hexagram does not change. In this brief essay, I will remark on the terminology for the change and not change of the hexagrams, and will propose an explanation for the term that designates not change.

A central Problem of Bactrian Phonology, to which Georg Morgenstierne devoted the greater part of one of his last articles, is the origin of Postvocalic t, which is found in a small number of words of disputed etymology. Since OIr. postvocalic t generally gives Bactrian d, as in G[raeeo-Bactrian] οδο, M[anichean Bactrian] 'wd, 'wṭ[ud] ‘and’ <*uta or G κiρδo, M qyrd ‘made’ <*kṛta-,it seems that some oter orgin must be sought for Bactrian t—unless, indeed, G δ and τ may be regarded merely as alternative notations of [d], as has been Proposed. Such a Possibility was first suggested by G oτo ‘and’, which accoriding to W. B. Henning is ‘not differne from οδο ’, and which I. Gershevitch has explained either as a historical spelling or as a generalized sandhivariant of οδο. However, a crucial objection to the identifieation of οδο and οτο lies in the fact, the implications of which have not yet been fully appreciated, that they differ not only in form but also in function.

There has to be something deeply unsatisfactory, disturbing and provocative about a linguistic family which is ‘isolated’, particulary when the family is as large as the Dravidian group of languages (spoken by almost 150 million in India), or when the language is so politically, economically and culturally interesting and important as Japanese.

As Dr. Y. Yoshida, Kyoto, kindly points out to me, the Buddhist Sogdian Ýδ('k)h in P 3, 14, 87 which, following Benveniste, I took as ‘limb, member’ (BSOAS, XLVI, 3, 1983, 535) can as well, even more likely, also be translated ‘wound’, as in P 7, 64. This leaves SCE 119, 121 wxwšw Ýδ'kh as the only support for a Ýδ- ‘*limb’. There it translates indriya in , otherwise 'nδ"y. But, given the fact that the six senses are also described as ‘six great thieves’ wxwšw mz'yx t'yt, it seems all too likely that Ýδ'kh in SCE also means ‘thief’ (in the numerative), however poorly this pejorative term fits the context. This spoils my suggested pun and, until other evidence emerges, removes Ýαδ-δ ‘*limb’ from the Sogdian vocabulary, leaving only B Ýαδ- m. ‘thief’and B, Chr. Ýαδ- f. ‘wound’ (cf. Khwarezmian 'Ýδ f. idem).