During a journey in the Near East I spent some days in Urfa, the ancient Edessa, in the south-east of Turkey, and from there I visited Sumatar Harabesi in the Tektek mountains on 27 and 29 January 1971. The object was to study all known Syriac inscriptions in Urfa and its surroundings, which date from the first three centuries of our era, in situ for their republication in a small corpus. In Sumatar Harabesi my attention was primarily directed upon the inscriptions published by Segal, all situated upon the so-called Central Mount, clearly an ancient cult site. I also visited the cave with bas-reliefs and inscriptions discovered by Pognon. It is now inhabited by a Bedouin family, but in spite of the inconveniences caused by this circumstance, it was possible to read the inscriptions, blackened as they were, by the light of a pocket torch and an oil-lamp, and it was impressive to observe once more how able an epigrapher this French consul was.

The Emperor Tewodros II (1855–68), although remembered to-day mainly as an energetic modernizer, was also involved to a significant degree in the history of traditional Ethiopian libraries.

Tewodros had intended to build a great church dedicated to Mädhane Aläm ‘Saviour of the World’, on Christian ground near the natural fortress of Mäqdäla which had served him as state prison, granary, and family sanctuary no less than as a storehouse for his accumulated treasures.

Some years ago while living in Khūzistān in southern Iran, the present writer carried out a number of historical-geographical studies in that province. These investigations included searching for the sites of numerous vanished towns and for other local features now known only from the historical sources. A rapid examination of the principal medieval geographical texts showed that there were three interesting problems of this type relating to the area of Izeh or Mālamīr in northern Khūzistān. The sites in question are the following:

the mausoleum of the Atabegs of the Great Lurs

the whirlpool of Fam al-Bawwāb

the extraordinary bridge called Qanṭāra Khurra Zād.

The aim of this article is to give an account of the considerations which led Amīr ‘Abd al-Rahmān Khān (1880–1901) to encourage Pashtūn migration to northern Afghanistan, the difficulties met in the execution of this policy, and the reasons for its final success. It is hoped that this case study will throw light on some of the domestic problems which faced the Iron Amīr and demonstrate a new aspect of his role in the ‘Great Game’ between Russia and Britain.

In the history of Indian art some areas are in very much better order than others. For those whose interests are concentrated in the Mughal period (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries), the study of the history of painting has been vastly advanced in the last 20 or 30 years. Every year increases the great number of paintings known to exist in public or private collections, or passing through the sale-rooms and the stocks of dealers in three continents, and almost every year there are significant discoveries and publications. In the field of Mughal architecture, perhaps, the same rapid progress is not visible. Some attractive coffee-table books figuring it have recently been published but there is a disappointing lack of analytical examination.

In his recent translation for the Hakluyt Society of Ma Huan's Ying-yai sheng-lan, Mr. J. V. G. Mills has published illustrations of four Chinese stellar diagrams and made some comments on them. He has, however, stated that ‘having no astronomy or higher mathematics, he is not competent to express a considered opinion on astronomical difficulties, or to check the consistency of the data of the diagrams’. He hopes ‘that an astronomer will find time to examine these interesting diagrams’.

Closer examination of photographs suggests that the stroke above the first word of inscription 1 is a variation of the three dots usually placed over the letters YH, the abbreviation of the Hebraic tetragrammaton, at the beginning of ecclesiastical documents

Al-Qādī al-nu'mān (d. 363/974) holds a unique position in the history of Ismā'īlī/Fāṭimid literature. He was a voluminous author and headed a family of distinguished judges; his sons and grandsons held the office of chief judge in the Fāṭimid empire in Cairo for approximately half a century, except for brief intermissions.

A few years ago the author's attention was drawn to a signed and dated quadrant which is in a private collection in California. Since the writer cannot claim to know much (let alone to understand the working) of astronomical instruments, it seemed logical to look around and offer its publication to an expert. Unfortunately, no one has so far expressed any enthusiasm or interest. But the quadrant bears the signature of a well-known astrolabist and is dated; its publication, therefore, seems desirable.

Relations between the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Royal Asiatic Society have always, as is naturally right and proper, been both close and cordial. A note on what for the present generation of members is an occasion of great moment in the life of the Society may therefore not be without interest to readers of the Bulletin.