A carved ring-stone and fragment of a second similar stone, both probably of the late Mauryan or early Śuṅga period, are among minor antiquities of exceptional interest recently acquired by the Indian Section, Victoria and Albert Museum, from the collection of Colonel D. H. Gordon, D.S.O., O.B.E. Both pieces were bought some years ago by Colonel Gordon from a local dealer in the Taxila area. Their special interest derives not only from fineness of craftsmanship but also from the fact that their use has remained an archæological problem for more than seventy years. A full description follows:—

A. Ring-stone: greyish-buff sandstone, highly polished. Carved in low relief, the upper surface having two concentric cableedged bands filled with cross-and-reel motives (slightly pyramidal); the sides of the hole with four standing female nudes alternating with four flowering trees. The base and outer sides are left plain.

Outer diameter, 3·37 inches. Inner diameter, 1·06 inches. Depth, 1 inch. Weight, 8¾ ounces.

B. Fragment of ring-stone: pinkish-buff sandstone, highly polished. Carved in slightly deeper relief, the upper surface decoration being identical with A. A similar standing female nude appears on the side of the hole, but beside her, instead of a flowering tree, there is an Indian “honeysuckle” motive, partly visible. The base and outer side are left plain.

The following measurements are based on a reconstruction of the complete ring. Outer diameter, 3·37 inches. Inner diameter, 0·84 inches. Depth, 0·75 inches.

In the Exhibition of Indian Art held in London at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1947–48, was a Gandhāra sculpture No. 106, lent by Major-General H. L. Haughton, C.B., C.I.E., C.B.E. It is now in the possession of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Its official Museum number is I.S. 51–1948. It measures 35 cm. in length and 32 cm. in height (PI. IV, fig. 1).

[The writer desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Trustees of the British Museum for permitting the publication of the plate, and to the Librarian of the Library of Congress at Washington for supplying photostat copies of Chinese texts.]

In the early Buddhist cave temples made in the latter half of the fifth century a.d., during the Northern Wei dynasty, at Yim-kang, in the Shansi Province of North China, can be found several carvings of a curious creature connected with the arches over a seated Buddha figure. It occurs at either end of the arch, the end merging into the hinder part of the creature, which is left with two legs, a long neck, and head. The body is turned away from the arch so that the two creatures are back to back, one at each end of the arch. Examples can be seen in Dr. Sirén's Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, plates 51, 55, 57, 59, 60, and 61, in Tokiwa Daijo and Sikeno Tadaishi's Buddhist Monuments in China, vol. ii, plates 22 (2), 27, 30 (2), and 40, and in Chavannes' Mission archèologique dans la Chine septentrionale, plates 255, 256, 262–8, 272, and 277. Its representation was thus of common occurrence but nobody seems to have ventured to identify the creature. It is true that Dr. Sirén, with reference to plate 60 mentioned above, described the two arches being supported by two hydras and again wrote of the hydra and phœnix-like birds which support the foils of the arches, but he goes no further than this vague description.

One of the classical difficulties of the student of the history of the Islamic Middle East, as contrasted with his colleagues in the European field, is the lack of archive material. While the western medievalist, for example, has at his disposal a mass of records, central and local, public and private, political, administrative, judicial, and ecclesiastical, the orientalist has to rely for the most part on literary and archæological sources. In many fields of history his findings are in consequence often vague and general; they are in the main limited to the public and external life of the communities and individuals he studies. Only the events and personalities important enough to achieve literary mention are known to him, and then only through the reflecting medium of literary sources. Even the great figures, with few exceptions, remain dim and formalized outlines, while for the life of the people he has to rely mainly on occasional hints and scraps of evidence. Large numbers of individual documents survive in isolation—some in the form of inscriptions, others quoted in the texts of the chronicles; but only for one period after the rise of Islam is any important body of original documents available—and the light they have shed on the period from which they derive has deepened the surrounding darkness. The Egyptian papyri of the early Islamic period have imposed a rewriting of much of the history of the early Caliphate, as recorded by the chroniclers and jurists. Yet even the papyri are not archives in the true sense of the word.

The obelisk of Maṭara has long been known to bear the oldest Ethiopic inscription extant. Maṭara is a small village near Senafe, in the province of Akkele Guzay, on the frontier between Eritrea and Ethiopia, and the obelisk stands on one of the most majestic sites of the Abyssinian highlands. When Littmann visited Maṭara at the beginning of this century he found the obelisk, broken into two parts, lying on the ground. The Italian Administration later had the broken monument repaired by means of two iron bars (see Photograph I) and set upright again in what was (wrongly !) believed to be its original position.

The general procedure in this case is very similar to that of the aforegoing, but here we have the decision of the tribal muḳaddam (pi. maḳādimah) or headman. Bin ‘Awzar's solution of the problem is, of course, very different from a legal decision in a European court to-day, but our methods would probably fail where decisions such as this are effective in obtaining justice. The two parties are constrained to produce other individuals to give evidence to clear or convict them, on an oath which, if false, they firmly believe will swiftly bring upon them the direst consequences. Bin ‘Awzar, however, envisages a possibility that neither party will be able to produce suitable evidence, and should this happen, he has instructed them to refer back the case to him.

During a year in Ḥaḍramawt I was able to collect a number of legal documents which contain valuable material for a study of the social structure of the country. Amongst these are two groups of deeds relating to the Ḥawṭahs of al-Ḥāwī and Thibī, typical examples of the sacred enclaves of this part of Arabia. Another set of documents defines the rights of the townsmen of the Sūḳ quarter of Tarim, with some references to the ceremonies connected with hunting the ibex, and I have various other documents relating to tribal cases, a house-sale deed, etc.

Brockelmann lists no fewer than forty-four surviving works of the celebrated litterateur Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyā, (d. 281/894), who was tutor to the caliphs al-Mu'tadid (d. 291/902) and al-Muktafī (d. 295/908), ten more than the catalogue of titles given by Ibn al-Nadīm. While no detailed study of this important and entertaining author has yet been undertaken and the contents of only one of his books are at all well known, it is evident from his titles that the great majority of these works discuss various ascetic themes; so that Ibn al-Nadīm is sufficiently justified in including him in his section on zuhhād, 'ubbād, and mutaṣauwifa. As a traḍitionist he was reckoned to be trustworthy (ṣadūq) by Ibn Abī Ḥātim (d. 327/939), quoting the opinion of his father, Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad b. Idrīs b. al-Mundhir al-Tamīmī al-Ḥanẓalī al-Rāzi (d. 277/890): this might, indeed, be considered a somewhat biased judgment, for Muḥammad b. Idrīs, as we shall show later, was one of Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyā's favourite sources of information. The same favourable estimate was reached by Abū. 'Ahī Ṣāliḥ b. Muḥammad b. 'Amr b. Ḥabīb al-Asadī (d. 293/906), who, however, added the demurrer that Ibn Abi 'l-Dunyā attended a certain Muḥammad b. Isḥāq, of Balkh, who was a liar, a forger, and a fabricator of isnād.

Van Den Broecke sailed to Surat and Calicut and thence to Bantam, where he landed on 18th November, to find that Reynst had died. Coen considered that the voyage had been successful. On 25th November he informed Hans de Hase on the Coromandel Coast that nearly all the merchandise had been sold at Mocha at very high prices and that the Nassau had brought to Java 23,000 rials in cash: this had been only a trial voyage, but a good cargo would be sent when there was an opportunity. On 10th December Coen reported to Holland that all the goods had been sold satisfactorily at Mocha except for some cloves, nutmegs, mace, and porcelain, which had been taken on to Surat. He described Van den Broecke as having been made very welcome by the “Viceroy of Leamen” at his capital, “Scena,” a “great, beautiful and populous” town, lying ten days’ journey inland from Mocha. He expressed surprise that the Turks should be able to keep their populous Arabian territories peaceful and obedient with such a small number of troops. Before Coen died in 1629 the Imam of San'a was to prove that the Turks were able to do nothing of the kind, even with considerably more troops; even in 1616 their power in the north was not always recognized, but it must be remembered that Van den Broecke had travelled only along one of the principal highways of the country. Of the commerce of the Yemen Coen gave his directors an account resembling that published by Van den Broeckem and discussed it in relation to the Company's interests elsewhere.

The attempt of the Dutch to develop trade with Arabia in the seventeenth century occasioned several journeys in the Yemen which are ignored in the histories of Arabian exploration. The earliest of the travellers, Pieter van den Broecke, wrote an account of his voyages, well known in his own century, which included a description of his visit to Ta'iz and San'a. For our knowledge of his successors we depend principally on the records of the Dutch East India Company and enough of these have now been published to show the nature and extent of Dutch enterprise.

I recently purchased a Persian manuscript, dated a.h. 981 (= a.d. 1573), containing the Dīvān of a poet named Ḍiyā-yi Fārsī. The manuscript, which is in good condition, contains 149 folios, each of fifteen lines, amounting in all to about 4,400 couplets: my knowledge of its contents is due to the kindness of Professor R,. Levy and Professor V. Minorsky, who have both examined its text.