I. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Two accounts of trade conditions in the 6th century show that there had been a great change since the ' Periplus Maris Erythaei' was written, about A.D. 50. The writer of that manual for merchant skippers was precise as to the location of the incense-bearing lands.

After Kanē, as the land continues on, there opens out another, very broad, gulf, stretching a considerable distance in depth. It is called Sakhalitēs, and the ‘ libanos-bearing land ’. It is mountainous and bad for landing. The air is thick, dust-laden with the libanos blown down from the trees. These trees that bear libanos are of no great diameter, and are not tall. They produce the libanos in a solid form on the bark, just as some of our trees in Egypt weep gum. The libanos is handled by the royal slaves and by those sent for punishment. These places are dreadfully infectious and plague-ridden, even for those just sailing along the coast, but for those working there death is in the air, and they are downright destructive because of the insufficiency of food.1

The following studies are all based on the registers of land, population, and revenue contained in the Ottoman archives in Istanbul. They will be limited to the Arabic-speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and to the first century of Ottoman rule. It is not my purpose to attempt a general study of the history of these areas in this period, nor to correlate the information derived from the archives with that obtained from other sources in a comprehensive historical monograph. My aim is rather to offer a series of studies in detail in a certain class of documents and on a few special topics; that is, to make a number of soundings in depth at selected points, rather than a surface survey of this material. The topics have, as far as possible, been chosen so as to give a wide range of variety, dealing with town and country, inland and coastal areas, mountain and plain. The first two studies deal with Palestine, which of all the countries under consideration has by far the richest documentation in outside.sources, and therefore offered the most promising field for a first experimental study. This study presents in outline the picture of Palestine in the early Ottoman period that emerges from the registers, and is intended as an introduction to the material as a whole. It will be followed by a documentary study of the quarters, population, and taxation of the towns of Palestine, and then by further studies on selected rural and urban areas in Syria and Iraq.1

Although the ratio between Egyptian gold coins (dinars) and those of silver (dirhams) is known to have fluctuated throughout the history of Islamic Egypt, no attempt has been made to explain the principles underlying the rate of exchange. Any such research is handicapped from the start by a deplorable failure on the part of numismatists to provide their fellow-historians with details concerning the alloys of various Egyptian coins. This drawback deprives us of any means of counterchecking the textual evidence. Nevertheless, it is the belief of the present writer that the material contained in written sources relating to the period of the Ayyūbids (A.H. 569–648/A.D. 1174–1250), allows us to ascertain certain facts concerning the contemporary exchange pattern. The analysis of the nature of that pattern shows clearly that the exchange rate of the gold and silver issues of the BaḥrI Mamlūks (A.H. 648–784/A.D. 1250– 1390), which remained fixed at 1: 20, 1: 25, and 1: 28 1/2, had its roots in the system of the Ayyūbids.

Through the kindness of Professor F. W. Cleaves I am in possession of an offprint of his important article ‘ The Mongolian documents in the Musée de Téhéran ’.

The first two documents are only insignificant fragments, but Document III, which consists of eight pieces and two endorsements, is nearly complete and full of personal and geographical names. It is a decree issued in the name of the last ilkhan of Persia, Abū-Said (716–36/1316–35), and bearing the date 720/1320 (according to Pelliot: September 1320).

Here is Professor Cleaves's summary of its contents:

‘ It had been reported by the šiγ Badaradin Abul Maqmad Maqmud that, although, by virtue of an edict, he had, in the place of his father the šiγ ǁamaladin, sat on the sujada of the šiγ šaqid Ibrayim and had been appointed over the qaγas-a-yin waγb-ud, his elder brother, Šamsadin Maqmad, not letting him approach, took his edicts and writs and let the foundation go to wrack and ruin.

It is not yet generally accepted in European works that a distinction of grammatical gender exists in Kurdish. In the Northern group of Kurdish J dialects the Izafe appears in a number of forms, e.g. a, ā, ē, ī, and the nominal 5 oblique case ending as -ē and -ī. An analysis of these forms into a clear system, with two declensions according to grammatical gender, has been made by members of the princely family of Bedir Xan. A comparison of all the available texts in the light of their analysis serves to confirm the general validity of the paradigms and therefore of a distinction of grammatical gender, disguised to a varying extent by the generalization of certain forms. The history of a number of words of known gender suggests that the distinction is inherited.

A hitherto unexplained phenomenon is the appearance in the Central Kurdish Mukrī dialect of two forms of the nominal oblique case ending, -ē and -ī. The similarity of these forms to the corresponding Northern dialect forms is obvious. A comparison of related words in the two groups of dialects shows that in the Mukrī dialect also the difference of the forms marks a distinction of grammatical gender.

Before proceeding to examine the poetry of the Baḵẖtiāri people, it is desirable to say something about their manner of life and the physical environment which to a large extent has determined it, and which presents those aspects and objects of nature which are familiar to all of them.

The system of mountains which extends from N.W. to S.E. across the south-. western part of Persia is occupied by a series of tribes, all of whom pursue a more or less nomadic form of life. On the west, south of Karmanshah, are the Feili Lurs of what may be called the Kingdom of Pusht i Kūh, with its practically independent ruler, the Wāli. Next, to the east come the large autonomous

In an earlier article it was suggested that the allotment of certain phonic data of Sanskrit to prosodic categories would make it possible to eliminate the antiquated and improper process-metaphor of ‘ assimilation ’ by stating such data as exponents of properties of appropriate structures. It was not then intended to go beyond a purely descriptive statement; but it has since appeared that a fuller exploitation of prosodic techniques may result in descriptions which enjoy a more or less extensive relevance to comparative statement. Certain points have therefore been re-examined in the light of such a possibility; and the expectation seems to be justified by the results of the final statement below (item 5); the other statements (items 1–4) are presented as illustrating various phonological principles involved in the re-examination.

1. It is not to be assumed that phonemic statements can be translated into prosodic statements: for the selection and allotment of data are governed by different theories in the two cases.5

There is one important respect in which әW differs from yW and wW. For these last it was sufficient to state exponents of ‘ y ’ and ‘ w ’; the exponents of ‘ ә ’ however can be stated only by introducing a further prosodic system, of the initial syllable, y/w, i.e. ‘ y neutral words ’ (yәW) and ‘ w neutral words ’ (wәW). The prosodic and phonematic systems of yәW resemble those stated above for the initial syllable of yW, and those of wәW resemble the systems stated for the initial syllable of wW, i.e.

The two-term y/w system (yә/wә) is stated for the initial syllable of the (ә) word, and is not to be confused with the two-term prosodic system of the syllable initial (y/wl). The exponents of y and w in the initial syllable (CVC) of әW comprise:—

The extremely interesting Safaitic rock-drawing recently published by G. Lankester Harding (Annals of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, ii, pp. 29–30) as no. 73 of the inscriptions from the cairn of Hāni’, shows two scenes. One represents goats being herded into a catttle-pen, the other a hunting scene. In the latter three largish animals are being htmted by a man with bow and arrow, a man with upraised arms, and a third man who holds three hunting-dogs by a leash (this, rather than Harding's ‘ whip or long rope ’, is surely the correct interpretation of the line which extends from the man's hand round the heads of the dogs). Harding confesses himself unable to identify the animals being hunted. Two at least of these, however, are very clearly characterized in the drawing by long straight horns and a long tail with a tuft at the end. The combination of these characteristics indicates pretty clearly, I suggest, that the animals are intended to represent the oryx (see the Encyclopedia Britannica description of this animal).

In a recently published historical work, Nepālko aitihāsih rūp-rekhā (Historical Outline of Nepal) by Bālcandra Śarmā, Banāras 2008 V.S. (═ A.D. 1951/52) the author devotes some space to the meaning of the name Nepal; as he has no faith in the ‘ traditional ’ explanation, and as the alternative which finds favour with him is open to grave misgivings, a re-examination of this problem might not be out of place now.

The first occurrence of the name to which any near date can be assigned is undoubtedly in the posthumous panegyric of Samudragupta, presumed to have been inscribed at the order of his son Candragupta II in the middle of the 4th century A.D., on the rock-pillar of Allāhābād, which cites, among others, the sovereign of Nepāla as a tributary prince:—