The beginnings of history writing in Islam were cultivated in two centres—Medina, representing Islamic interests and primarily concerned with the Sīra (Life of the Prophet) and the early history of Islam, and Irāq—more specifically Kūfa and Basra—representing tribal interests and lines of historical studies. These beginnings were collective pursuits, individual activity being a part of a school and adding further to its development.

In BSOAS, XVIII, 1, 1956, 35, I had occasion to postulate a word *mišapati- to explain what seemed a likely survival of it in the word mṡapantin-, mṡapantn- (written also with -mt- for -nt-, and without the -in- in the abstract mṡapantune) in texts from the Agni-visaya. Only in the final proofs was it possible to insert a reference to the corresponding word in an Iranian text of Buddhist Sogdian. This supplementary note is needed in justification.

My article written some twenty years ago had a twofold purpose: to insist on the importance of a systematic study of the toponymy of Persia and, by way of example, to examine the Mongolian stratum of placenames in the southernmost area of the Persian province of Azarbayjan.

Much of what I said in the first part of the original draft has happily become superfluous in view of the appearance of a very welcome series of volumes which, in the years 1328–32/1949–53, was published by the Persian Army Survey, under the title of Farhang-i joghrāfiyāyi-yī Irān. The production of this series is chiefly due to the enlightened endeavours of the former chief of the Survey, General Hosayn ‘Ali Razmārā (brother of the assassinated premier).

In 1955, the appearance in the Patrologia Orientalis of the Old Georgian version of St. Luke's Gospel brought to a successful conclusion the project initiated some thirty years ago by the late Professor Robert P. Blake of Harvard University, namely the critical editing of the famous Adysh (or Adishi) Gospel manuscript, copied at Shatberd in Tao-Klarjet'i in A.D. 897, and later removed thence to be preserved in a remote village in highland Svanet'i.1 After Blake's death in May 1950, his work was brought to completion by Canon M. Brière, who had already collaborated on the edition of St. John.2 Now that their pioneer work has made this important Biblical text fully accessible to Western scholars, the time seems ripe to attempt a brief survey in the most general terms of recent work published or in progress in Georgian New Testament studies.

This study is concerned with the interpretation of number and gender concord as abstracted from sentences of different types whose common feature is the inclusion of a participial form. This term is used here, rather than the more usual ‘participle’, as the forms being considered here do not exactly correspond with what are described in the traditional grammars as ‘present (or imperfect) participle’ and ‘past (or imperfect) participle’; the term is applied here to those members of a verbal paradigm which can be colligated with huaa, huii, or hue.

The particle , yu is (with hu and , ye) one of the three main interrogative particles in classical Chinese. It has been claimed by some Chinese scholars that in certain cases yu is not interrogative and is equivalent to yee, a particle with a bewildering variety of functions. One example is given by Wang Yiinjy (1766-1834).1

Twi in this paper means Akuapem, Akyem, and Asante. For these three dialects V(owel) H(armony) can be stated in almost identical terms. It is in fact so stated by Christaller in the grammar1 but only briefly under ‘Euphony’. We give below some additional notes, approaching the problem somewhat differently.

This paper is a study of the verbal forms of Bilin,1 which is spoken in and around the town of Keren in Eritrea. Bilin is usually regarded as one of the dialects of the Cushitic language of Agau,2 but it differs considerably from the Agau dialects of Ethiopia proper, and, while undoubtedly to be classified as Cushitic, has much phonological, and a little morphological affinity with the neighbouring Semitic languages of Tigre and Tigrinya. Research was undertaken in the field in 1952–3; several informants were employed, but much of the material was provided from the speech of one man, Teclamaryam Tecruray, and all the material presented here was verified as valid for his speech.

Wilhehn Spitta in the body of his Zur Geschichte Abu'l-Hasan al-Aś‘ari's (Leipzig, 1876) published the text (pp. 138–40) and translation (pp. 101–4) of a brief but important tract by al-Ash‘arī on the uncreatedness of faith: Mas'ala fi 'l-īmān. (This treatise is recorded in C. Brockelmann, GAL, I, 195, as Risālat al-īmān; presumably it is the same as the Kitāb al-īmān mentioned in Suppl., I, 346.) Spitta's edition, which is in general excellent, was based on a Cairo manuscript, believed until now to be unique.