Transactions Of The Philological Society 1942

The evolution of Oriental Studies in Britain over the last century is traced in thirteen essays on key figures (twelve of them Fellows of the British Academy). They exemplify the outstanding contribution of British scholars to Oriental scholarship, within the general trend in the West to understand and interpret the civilisations of the East sympathetically. Through the careers and achievements of these influential scholars these essays shed light on studies ranging from Ancient Egyptian and Hebrew, through Arabic, Persian and Turkish, to Indology, Chinese and Japanese. With important changes of methodology and approach to the cultures and religions of Asia, the twentieth century has been an exciting and fruitful period for Oriental Studies in Britain.

A masterpiece of Persian Classical epic, the Shahnama or Book of Kings was composed by Abu'l-Qasem Ferdowsi at the beginning of the eleventh century. Because the Shahnama presents itself as a chronicle of the reigns of the shahs from the primordial founders to the Sasanian dynasty which ended in 651, scholarly attention has centered on the question of its historical accuracy. Addressing the literary as well as the historical and mythological aspects of the Shahnama, Olga M. Davidson makes this centerpiece of Iranian culture accessible to Western readers. Drawing on recent work in epic studies and oral poetics, Davidson considers analogies with Classical and medieval European narratives as she investigates the poem's social contexts. Her interpretation of the Shahnama focuses on both the figure of the poet himself and on his protagonists-the superhuman hero Rostam and the historical or historicized shahs. Exploring the Shahnama as an example of court poetry designed to glorify the idea of empire, Davidson identifies as a driving force of Ferdowsi's narrative a strong current of antagonism between king and hero. Ironically, she shows, it is the epic hero himself who poses the greatest threat to the concept of kingship that he is sworn to defend. Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings will be welcomed by readers working in such fields as comparative literature, Middle Eastern Studies, folklore, literary theory, and comparative religion.

This famous work from the Royal Asiatic Society is an indispensable tool for all serious students of Persian literature, history and culture, and a welcome companion to Persian literature in its most glorious period. This volume is the second, revised edition of three parts published in 1992 and 1994.

From the table of contents:C.G. Cereti, Some Notes on the ?kand Guman'g WizarI. Colditz, Zur Adaption zoroastrischer Terminologie in Manis ?abuhraganA. Degener, The significance of the date palmPh. Gignoux, A propos de l'anthroponymie religieuse d'epoque sassanideGh. Gnoli, Further notes on Avestand geographyPh. Huyse, Ein erneuter Datierungsversuch fur den Ubergang vom Schluss-y der mittelpersischen Inschriften zum Endstrich im Buchpahlavi (6.-7. Jh.)Ph. Kreyenbroek, Yezidism and its Sacred Literature: Eastern and Western PerceptionsG. Lazard, Structures d'actances dans les langues irano-aryennes modernesM. Macuch, Language and Law: Linguistic Peculiarities in Sasanian JurisprudenceB. Meisterernst, D. Meisterernst-Durkin, Some remarks on the Chinese and Sogdian SCEA. Panaino, The "Rook" and the "Queen": Some Lexicographic Remarks about the Sasanian Chess PiecesL. Paul, The language of the ?ahname in historical and dialectical perspectiveCh. Reck, Reste einer soghdischen Version von Huyadagman I in der Form eines Responsoriums zwischen Erwahltem und HorerM. Schwartz, On Khwarezmian Loss of -R-Sh. Shaked, Iranian words retrieved from AramaicD. Shapira, Pahlavi FlowersN. Sims-Williams, Fr. de Blois, The Bactrian calendar: new material and new suggestions

This volume contains a collection of studies describing and analyzing stereotypes of women in the religions of Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia, and in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Medieval Christianity, Islam, Indian Sufism, the Vīraśaiva movement in Hinduism, early Buddhism, Tibetan religions, and modern Neopaganism.

Some justification seems to be necessary for the addition of yet another History of Iranian Literature to the number of those already in existence. Such a work must obviously contain as many novel features as possible, so that a short explanation of what my collaborators and I had in mind when planning the book is perhaps not superfluous. In the first place our object was to present a short summary of the material in all its aspects, and secondly to review the subject from the chronological, geo graphical and substantial standpoints - all within the compass of a single volume. Such a scheme precludes a formal and complete enumeration of names and phenom ena, and renders all the greater the obligation to accord most prominence to matters deemed to be of greatest importance, supplementing these with such figures and forms as will enable an impression to be gained of the period in question - all this is far as possible in the light of the most recent discoveries. A glance at the table of contents will suffice to give an idea of the multifarious approach that has been our aim. We begin at the very first traces of evidence bearing on our subject and continue the narrative up to the present day. Geographically the book embraces Iran and its neighbouring countries, while it should be remarked that Iranian literature in its fullest sense also includes Indo-Persian and Judeo-Persian works.

Patricia Crone's book is about the Iranian response to the Muslim penetration of the Iranian countryside, the revolts subsequently triggered there and the religious communities that these revolts revealed. The book also describes a complex of religious ideas that, however varied in space and unstable over time, has demonstrated a remarkable persistence in Iran across a period of two millennia. The central thesis is that this complex of ideas has been endemic to the mountain population of Iran and occasionally become epidemic with major consequences for the country, most strikingly in the revolts examined here and in the rise of the Safavids who imposed Shi'ism on Iran. This learned and engaging book by one of the most influential scholars of early Islamic history casts entirely new light on the nature of religion in pre-Islamic Iran and on the persistence of Iranian religious beliefs both outside and inside Islam after the Arab conquest.

This is the first major study devoted to the early Arabic reception and adaption of the figure of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Egyptian sage to whom were ascribed numerous works on astrology, alchemy, talismans, medicine, and philosophy. Before the more famous Renaissance European reception of the ancient Greek Hermetica, the Arabic tradition about Hermes and the works under his name had been developing and flourishing for seven hundred years. The legendary Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus was renowned in Roman antiquity as an ancient sage whose teachings were represented in books of philosophy and occult science. The works in his name, written in Greek by Egyptians living under Roman rule, subsequently circulated in many languages and regions of the Roman and Sasanian Persian empires. After the rise of Arabic as a prestigious language of scholarship in the eighth century, accounts of Hermes identity and Hermetic texts were translated into Arabic along with the hundreds of other works translated from Greek, Middle Persian, and other literary languages of antiquity. Hermetica were in fact among the earliest translations into Arabic, appearing already in the eighth century. This book explains the origins of the Arabic myth of Hermes Trismegistus, its sources, the reasons for its peculiar character, and its varied significance for the traditions of Hermetica in Asia and northern Africa as well as Europe. It shows who pre-modern Arabic scholars thought Hermes was and how they came to that view.

List of members included in most vols.