One of the most interesting and valuable of all the objects-which were presented half a century ago by the late Sir Charles Nicholson to the University of Sydney, for the purpose of forming a nucleus of a “Museum of Antiquities”, is a stele inscribed in two kinds of writing, Egyptian and Karian.

It is very difficult to say how long the library attached to the shrine of Imam Riza at Meshed has been in existence. It is impossible to believe that it dates back to the beginning of the shrine itself. Those great calamities which befell Persia, such as the invasions of the Moghuls and Tamerlane, were accompanied by destruction everywhere, and this holy place did not escape. One can, however, reasonably believe that the library as it now stands has existed since the time of the first heirs of Timur, who bestowed many favours on the shrine. The blue dome of Gauhar-i-Shād, which from afar attracts the attention of a pilgrim approaching Meshed, was built at the beginning of the ninth century of Hijra by the wife of Shāhrokh Mirzā. It seems probable that the library was started at that time and has existed down to the present time without any further disasters. Indeed, it must have been greatly enriched after the triumph of the Shia religion under the Safawy kings. The invasions of Nadir Shah and the Uzbeks probably did not affect the library greatly. Nadir Shah was a generous donor to the shrine and the golden dome and minarets were rebuilt and embellished by him. Therefore it may be concluded that the period during which the library could develop must be close on five hundred years.

There are several ways of writing history. A conscientious historian does not invent details in the hope that their inaccuracy will remain undiscovered ; but there have been authors who seek to present to their readers a false appearance of accuracy by mentioning as facts minute details which have no existence except in their own brains. Merutunga, the author of the Prabandha Chintāmaṇi, an historical work of the early fourteenth century a.d., so far at least as regards the dates which he gives for the accession, etc., of the kings of Anhilvāḍa during a period of about 400 years, appears to belong to the latter class. We in Europe are quite content to know that one of our sovereigns 400 years or so ago began to reign in a certain year. We want nothing more. But Merutunga, to give an instance, tells us that in the Vikrama year 862 Yogarāja was crowned on “ Āshāḍha śukla 5, Thursday, the moon being in Aśvinī, when [the zodiacal sign] Siṁha was in the ascendant ”, the last detail giving us within two hours the exact time of day.

This fragment K. 2279 + S. 675 + S. 2152 (lower half of a large tablet) was copied by Dr. Pinches at the British Museum many years ago. When I saw him on a visit to London he was kind enough to hand me, for publication, his copy of the text, which he had neither transliterated nor translated.

The illustration shows a small amulet which is remarkable as being the first known example of a bilingual in Greek and Samaritan. On the obverse it bears, in Samaritan characters, ןורשי לאכ ןיא ēn ka'ēl Yeurûn, “ None like the God of Jeshurun” (Deut. xxxiii, 26). On the reverse, Εἷς θες: Βοθ[ε]ι Μαρκιανν “ One God. Help thou Marciane ! ” The female name, Marciane, recalls Marah הקרמ (a variant of the Latin Marcus), the first great Samaritan theologian. He has left a large literature, and is usually considered to have flourished about the fourth century of the Christian Era. His original name was Moses ben Amram ben Sered ; but from humility, or other consideration, he altered השמ Moeh. Instead of the ש, which has the numerical value of 300, he substituted ר = 200 and ק = 100 : thus preserving the original total, but replacing the revered name of Moses by the obscure Marah.

To many the name Amurrū will come as something new, but to Assyriologists mât Amurrē, “the land of Amurrū,” is a revelation dating from the time of the decipherment of the Tel al-Amarna tablets in 1887–8. It is true that the identity of the name did not dawn on them immediately, but it was not long before they became aware of it. When this took place they realized that the district which they had read as mât Aḫarrē, thought of as “the land behind”, and rendered “the west”, had, owing to the polyphony of the Assyro-Babylonian syllabary, been misread. It should have been mât Amurrē, and translated “the land of Amurrū”, i.e. “the Amorites”, who, because they dwelt west of Assyria and Babylonia, were thought of as “the westerners”, and their country became the designation of the western cardinal point.