Although Arnold J. Toynbee's reputation as a historian does not depend on his Turkic studies, yet they are an integral part of his work as a whole. Early in his career he devoted three books to the subject; and throughout A Study of History —the definitive statement of his historical philosophy—Toynbee gives considerable thought to the significance of the Turks in the Near and Middle East, according to his more general interpretation of history.

The Mingana Collection of Oriental MSS., in the Selly Oak Colleges Library, consists of some 2,700 items purchased and brought to Birmingham by the late Dr. Mingana.

A stone inscription was discovered in 1898 at Mewasa, a village in Cutch, by Diwan Bahadur Ranchodbhai Udayaram of Bombay. The epigraph was noticed by V. G. Trivedi and D. B. Diskalkar in the Annual Report of Watson Museum of Antiquities, Rajkot, 1923–24, pp. 4, 12–13. Diskalkar's reading and interpretations of the text were also published in the Proceedings of the Fifth Indian Oriental Conference, vol. i, p, 1928, pp. 565 ff. But his interpretations leave room for improvement, and as the record has so far failed to draw sufficient attention of scholars, I venture to make some observations based on Diskalkar's reading of the text.