Animals appear in different kinds of sources in medieval Islam, from the Quran to animal fables and works of belles-lettres. This article benefits from previous research on Islam’s attitude towards animals, specifically from the viewpoint of the ascetic-mystical stream of Islam during its classical stage. It examines animals in early Sufi narrative material from three perspectives. The first is the theological-ethical perspective that both questions Sufi morals in approaching animals and animality as well as the allegorical use of animals to portray the human psyche. The second perspective is the narrative angle that examines narrative tropes that use animals as a literary device to enhance human piety. The third perspective is ontological and it examines animals as active agents and practitioners of Sufi piety who share bonds and cosmic interconnectedness with human devotees. This cosmic interconnectedness implies an encompassing unity of the universe in which both human and non-human beings are able to obtain God’s love and intimacy.

After an introduction that places the topic within a broader framework of studying animals in Islamic culture, the article approaches stories as a substantially significant source for Sufi thought. It then discusses the three proposed perspectives using birds, lions and dogs as case studies.

The jamʿiyyāt (learned societies) are hallmarks of the Arab Nahḍa (“Renaissance”) in Beirut. This article focuses on the agency of Syrian members and studies the earliest three institutions in the context of social dynamics, economic linkages, political aspirations, and religious contestations. Centred around Syrians and Protestant missionaries, the Syrian Society of Arts and Sciences (1847) functioned as a site of growing American religious and cultural soft power. At the Oriental Society (1849), Syrian Catholic notables from the recently collapsed political regime assembled, alongside French Jesuit missionaries, to maintain their erstwhile power and prestige. Lastly, at the Orthodox Syrian Society (c. 1850), the traditional Orthodox elite attempted to preserve their flock and prove sociopolitical relevance in the face of Protestant and Catholic encroachments. Through the religious and political struggles that played out at the three jamʿiyyāt, this article demonstrates the politicization of confessional identities at the hands of Syrians and foreigners alike.

This article studies the origins of Jafr, an apocalyptic, eschatological and occult book attributed to the first Shiʿi imam, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 661). While it remains unclear whether Jafr was ever physically composed, it became associated with lettrism (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) in medieval Sunni and Shiʿi literature. Jafr gradually evolved into a crucial component of Islamic occult traditions and influenced various cosmological theories as well as the letter-magic practices of prominent Sunni and Shiʿi occultists. Despite its historical significance, confusion regarding Jafr’s roots, authorship and content in Shiʿi sources from the third to fifth centuries ah persists in scholarship. This article examines various aspects of Jafr in early Shiʿi tradition and sheds light on its status as a key text of messianism, prognostication and apocalypticism.

The dating of the qameṣ shift (*/aː/ > [ɔː]) in the Tiberian tradition of Biblical Hebrew has long been a scholarly puzzle. In this article I present possible evidence for this shift in the Greek transcriptions of Origen’s Hexapla, datable to the first half of the third century ce in Palestine. While the evidence is limited both in attested tokens and in grammatical scope, it is suggested that lexical diffusion may account for the gradual spread of this shift, as recorded in different stages of the transmission of Biblical Hebrew.

This article presents the first study of an oath-letter (sawgand-nāma) from medieval Anatolia. It is drawn from the recently rediscovered Qiṣṣa-yi Salāṭīn, an anonymous inshāʾ work from the mid-thirteenth century. This text exemplifies a typical bottom-up oath in which the oath-taker pledges loyalty to Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Kay-Khusraw II (d. 644/1246), while the oath also ensures a clear line of dynastic succession in favour of his son, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Kay-Qubād II (d. 655/1257). A comparison with similar texts from Iran reveals the extent to which Turkish states in Anatolia adhered to the norms established under the Great Saljuqs, although the Rum Saljuq version is noted to be more severe in ideological terms in cases of perjury, yet less demanding in practical aspects. This sawgand-nāma also highlights how the Qiṣṣa-yi Salāṭīn might have functioned as a sort of “para-archive”, potentially supporting the claims of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn, who was sidelined after his father’s death.

The Middle Persian Nāmagīhā ī Manuščihr “Epistles of Manuščihr”, the Zoroastrian high priest of Pārs and Kermān, written in 881 ce, are an important testimony of an inner-Zoroastrian dispute on orthopraxy in early Islamic Iran. They reflect Manuščihr’s efforts to preserve the extensive purification ritual Baršnūm against being substituted with a simplified ritual by his brother, the teacher-priest (Hērbed) Zādspram. Manuščihr wrote three letters to make his position clear. His second letter, addressed to Zādspram, is interesting not only for its theological debate but also for the personal relationship it reveals between two priest-brothers. Manuščihr argues on an elaborate scholarly level by quoting from the religious authoritative texts, and expresses his brotherly love and responsibility for leading his younger brother back to the correct path. This article focuses on his theological argumentation but also on the debate, how the family ties may have affected it and how he used linguistic expressions and style in this context.

This article examines the lexicon for “gift” in the Gāndhārī epigraphical corpus, focusing on three key word-forms: G. dana-, danamuha- and deyadhaṃma-. These terms, which denote the meaning of “gift”, appear 36, 111 and 14 times respectively (both as single words and as compound constituents) in Gāndhārī inscriptions currently recorded in the CKI. Despite their frequent appearance, existing scholarship has primarily restricted itself to identifying their synonymous functions or analysing their grammatical construction in the case of the two compounds. No comprehensive study has yet catalogued all occurrences of these word-forms, traced their semantic development or examined the reasons behind their changing usage over time. This article addresses this gap by providing a complete inventory of the occurrences of these word-forms in the Gāndhārī epigraphical corpus and examining their use in non-Gāndhārī sources. It also presents a semantic analysis, exploring their synchronic and diachronic relationships within Gāndhārī inscriptions.

Two new folios from the Old Khotanese epic Buddhist poem the Book of Zambasta have recently come to light. One folio contains the word dīñu which is thrice attested elsewhere in both Old (dīñi, dīña) and Late Khotanese (dīñä) and has been puzzling. The new attestation provides context which helps to establish the approximate meaning of the word. It also provides a new shape (-u) which establishes the morphology. Most shapes (-u, -i, -ä) attest a second singular imperative middle of dīñ- “to overthink”. This finding improves the translation of several passages. dīñ- appears to be a denominal verb from *dīnā- “thought”, cognate to Avestan daēnā- “view, vision” and related to Vedic dhī- “think, reflect”. The semantic development appears to be “see” → “think” → “overthink”.

As a language of religious and administrative importance in the early centuries of the common era, Gāndhārī came to be a donor into its neighbouring languages, such as Tocharian and Chinese. Consequently, advances in Gāndhārī historical phonology can help us discover new loanwords, refine our understanding of the historical phonology of its neighbouring languages, and eventually improve our understanding of the relationship between the communities that spoke those languages. One unresolved problem in the study of Gāndhārī phonology is the development of Sanskrit unaspirated velar stops: the relative paucity of data and variation in spelling have left previous researchers hesitant regarding the developments of those stops and their phonetic realization. In the present article, we take a bird’s eye view and analyse the development of these velars across the whole edited corpus; our main contribution is the discovery of the phonetic environment conditioning the development of /k/ and /g/, thereby fully explaining the seemingly chaotic spelling observed in previous publications.

This article contains editions of three new copperplate charters of the kings of Valkhā who, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries ce, ruled a territory situated to the north of the Vākāṭaka kingdom along the Narmadā river. Ramesh and Tewari, the editors of the famous Bagh hoard of plates discovered in 1982, furnished a straightforward chronology of five successive Valkhā rulers on the basis of 32 plates known to them. However, one of the plates edited here flatly contradicts the sequence they proposed. It turns out that the dating of several previously known Valkhā charters is also controversial. It has been suggested by other scholars that there were, in fact, two kings of Valkhā by the name of Rudradāsa as well as two by the name of Bhuluṇḍa. A reinvestigation of old data combined with the newly edited plates confirms the former and shows a high likelihood of the latter.

Stone-carved “wheels of Dhamma” (dhammacakkas) symbolizing the Buddha’s enduring teachings constitute an aesthetic corpus of objects once raised on columns set in ornate bases. These dhammacakkas were produced in central Thailand in the second half of the first millennium during the Dvāravatī period. Some carry Pali inscriptions which bear witness to the state of the Pali textual tradition in central Siam in the seventh to ninth centuries. Given that no Pali manuscripts from South or Southeast Asia from this early period survive, these epigraphic witnesses are extremely important. This research article presents inscriptions inscribed on a Dvāravatī-period dhammacakka and an octagonal pillar recovered in Thailand’s Chainat province. A closer examination of the epigraphs has allowed us to give improved readings of the available fragments. This has enabled us to present what may be described as the oldest extant recension of the core passages of the Pali Dhammacakkappavattana, Gotama the Buddha’s first teaching.

This article examines a set of important but unpublished shields from Malla, Nepal, discovered in the Patan Palace Complex, by combining philology with the study of material culture. The four shields, which display images of Hindu deities, are the only known instance of inscribed textiles in pre-modern Newar art history. The paper first deciphers the shields’ inscriptions to explain their overall importance for scholarship, and then seeks to uncover their iconographic scheme by studying the objects alongside unpublished liturgical texts in order to prove that they were commissioned for the worship of Ugracaṇḍā, a goddess key to Newar conceptions of kingship. I delve into the provenance and historical background of the shields and explore broader Indic ideas of the divinization of weapons to explain the ritual function and symbolic significance of these objects for royal celebrations. In doing so, we also posit the specific political context behind their creation.

This article provides a detailed description of an undocumented use of zaìshì 在勢 as a deontic adverb in Late Qing and Early Republican Chinese literature. This word commonly functions as a verb (“to hold power”) or a nominalized verb (“one who holds power”), but its use as a preposed deontic adverb, meaning “under these circumstances”, is not attested in earlier Chinese texts and has no cognates in other Sinitic languages. The author analyses the syntax and semantics of zaìshì in a large corpus of medieval Chinese texts and early Chinese translations of foreign literature. The article then suggests that the preposed deontic adverb zaìshì emerged as the result of the appropriation of linguistic elements present in classical literature but whose use had been restricted to classical forms of literary composition.

This article examines the distinction between dizi 弟子 and menren 門人 in early Chinese texts, with particular attention paid to the Lunyu 論語 (Analects of Confucius) and the broader Ru 儒 (“Confucian” or “Classicist”) tradition. Whether these terms designate identical or distinct groups of disciples has long been a matter of debate, beginning with early medieval commentaries and culminating in the interpretation that they refer to “first-” and “second-generation” followers. Advancing this discussion, the article offers a systematic analysis of menren across early Chinese sources and presents substantial, previously overlooked evidence supporting a meaningful distinction between the two designations. In doing so, it sheds new light on early conceptions of Confucius’s following and on the social organization of the Ru tradition more broadly. This article argues that menren are best understood not as “second-generation” disciples, but as “second-rank” students who, while occupying a formally subordinate position within an extended circle of adherents, nevertheless remained closely affiliated with their teacher.

Reduplication is a linguistic phenomenon whereby a segment, or a part thereof, is repeated to convey grammatical functions and as a means of lexical derivation. In Semitic, reduplication is widely attested and productive both in the nominal and the verbal systems. Modern South Arabian Languages (MSAL) are no exception, in that various reduplicated patterns are attested, among which the most common are C1C2C1C2, i.e. Soqotri ḥálḥal “gris” (Lonnet 2008: 130), Jibbali/Shehret xɔlxɔ́l “Brown-spotted grouper” (Castagna 2024: 9) from Proto-MSAL *√xl(xl) “brown/grey”, and C1C2C3C3, i.e. Mehri həźīrūr “to go pale, green, yellow” (Johnstone 1987: 163), Jibbali/Shehret šəṣ́rɔ́r “yellow” (Johnstone 1981: 265) from Proto-MSAL *√šṣ́r “(to be) yellow, green”. Another type, namely C1C2C3C2C3, has received little attention to date, despite its attestation in Modern South Arabian where it is more frequently, but not exclusively, found in the eastern branch (Jibbali/Shehret and Soqotri). This study primarily aims to provide an account of the morpho-phonological and semantic characteristics of this pattern.

This paper conducts a comprehensive exploration of methodology in historical linguistics, focusing on language subgrouping. Employing Tangut, a severely eroded medieval language, as a case study, it scrutinizes previous linguistic analyses that depart from the rigorous Neogrammarian method, specifically referencing Beaudouin (2023). These non-compliant analyses have impeded recent progress in understanding the genetic relationships within Burmo-Qiangic, a field marked by prolonged debates and with gradual advancement recently. In a subsequent step, adhering to Neogrammarian principles, namely, Ausnahmslosigkeit der Lautgesetze and positive shared innovations in language subgrouping, the paper discusses the plausibility of, as well as the good practice to argue for, a “Tangut-Horpa clade” within the Gyalrongic branch of Burmo-Qiangic. By advocating for the universality of these Neogrammarian principles, the paper aims to improve the accuracy and reliability of subgrouping languages characterized by significant typological diversity. This, in turn, contributes to a deeper comprehension of rigorous methodology within the context of the Sino-Tibetan language family.

This is an extended review of Jonathan Owens, Arabic and the Case against Linearity in Historical Linguistics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023) that addresses several important issues in the methodology of historical Arabic linguistics.

ʔAbbā Garimā I and III (AG I and III) are the oldest manuscripts written in Geez (Old Ethiopic). According to a recent radiocarbon analysis they are dated to the Aksumite period. The present paper confronts the orthography of these manuscripts with that of the epigraphic corpus of the Aksumite period (the comparison is restricted to the roots containing gutturals and/or sibilants, since the preservation of these consonants is the hallmark of pre-seventh-century Geez). The investigation demonstrates remarkable agreement in spelling roots with gutturals/sibilants – an additional argument in favour of dating of AG I, III to the Aksumite period. The paper also discusses the general problem of periodization of the Geez language, focusing on the early post-Aksumite period (eighth–thirteenth century) and providing a preliminary survey of direct and indirect Geez sources pertaining to this period.