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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
A Few miles inland from Rapperswil on Lake Zürich, at Buhnhof, by Hombrechtikon in Canton Zürich, the charming country home of Herr Gottfried Schaerer, erected in 1945–6, there has been built into the interior wall of one of the public rooms an inscribed and decorated stone which is reproduced in Plate IV and which is here published by the kind permission of the owner.
Regarding the provenance of the stone Herr Schaerer has supplied the following information: “So long ago as 1911 I was resident as a twenty-year-old business man in Hodeida, which at that time belonged to Turkey. I had to leave that port in the same year, because the Italians on November 11th, 1911, on the outbreak of the war against Tripoli, bombarded Hodeida from warships and thereafter imposed a commercial blockade on the coast. In 1913 I went back there and, in addition to my business activities, I was U.S.A. Consular Agent. Under the capitulations which then prevailed in Turkey such an office afforded various privileges and prestige. Since I had a working knowledge of the Arabic vernacular I was attracted by the desire to visit Sanaa, which could be reached by mule in six days' journey, though permission was given but rarely. However, the sojourn in Hodeida of the Vali, whose headquarters were at Sanaa, enabled me to procure an invitation to go there. So on July 25th I set off with an escort for Sanaa. Arriving in Menakha on the fourth day I was hospitably received by my good friend the garrison commander of Menakha in his house. This gave me an opportunity to stroll about in this picturesque hill fort, and naturally I wandered through the bazaar and the caravan area.
page 23 note 1 It was in the late spring of 1950, when I was on my way home from South Arabia and broke my journey in Zürich that I was informed by Professor Ludwig Köhler of the existence of this carved plaque in private hands near Zürich. I was able to inspect the plaque at Hombrechtikon in the summer of 1953, and I wish here to express my thanks to Mr. Schaerer for his willingness to show the plaque and to supply photographs, to Professor Köhler for his helpfulness and for providing information, and to Professor Viktor Maag.
page 24 note 1 Letter of November 3rd, 1953 (translated by the present writer).
page 24 note 2 Ryckmans, : Les Noms Propres Sud-Sémitiques I (1934), 265Google Scholar. The possibility that some less familiar name is intended cannot be excluded, for the elements of the monogram can be read and arranged in different ways.
page 24 note 3 Höfner, : Altsüdarabische Grammatik (1943), 84Google Scholar.
page 24 note 4 Wissmann, H. von and Höfner, M.: Beiträge ņtr Historischen Geographie des Vorislamischen Südarabien= Akademie … in Mainz, Jahrgang 1952, Abh. 4 (1953), 40–45 = 258–263Google Scholar.
page 24 note 5 Cf. Grohmann, in Handbuch der Altarabischen Altertumskunde I, ed. Nielsen, D. (1927), 156Google Scholar.
page 25 note 1 In examining the style and significance of this group I have had the benefit of advice and suggestions from Professors Sidney Smith, Benjamin Rowland, H. J. Rose, C. Rathjens, M. E. L. Mallowan and W. F. Albright, M. Henri Seyrig and Miss Theresa Goell, to whom I acknowledge my indebtedness; but the responsibility for the views here advanced rests with myself.
page 25 note 2 Cf. B.M. 125341, in which the figure within the niche has been obliterated, and the gravestone reproduced by Nielsen, op. cit., Abb. 57, Grohmann, : Göttersymbole und Symboltiere auf Südarabischen Denkmälern = Denkschriften der Kais. Akad. der Wiss. in Wien LVIII, Abh. 1 (1914)Google Scholar, Abb. 112 and Bossert, : Altsyrien (1951)Google Scholar, no. 1306.
page 25 note 3 Reproduced by Rathjens in his study of ‘Kulturelle Einflüsse in Südwest-Arabien …’ in Jahrbuch für Kleinasiatische Forschung I (1950), 33Google Scholar, Abb. 11; cf. also the example from Shibam al-Kaukaban published by the same writer in his Sabaeica I Der Reisebericht = Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg XXIV (1953), 102Google Scholar, Fig. 110.
page 25 note 4 Grohmann, op. cit., Abb. 181.
page 25 note 5 For representations of lions from South Arabia cf. Grohmann, op. cit., Abb. 176 ff.
page 26 note 1 Schlobies in Forschungen und Fortschritte 1934. 242–3Google Scholar; Rathjens, in J.Kl.F. I (1950), 34Google Scholar and Abb. 14.
page 26 note 2 I am indebted to Mme. le Docteur Claudie Fayein of the 1951–2 Mission Médicale Française au Yémen for enabling me to see this piece, and to the Musée de l'Homme of Paris for permission to publish.
page 26 note 3 Vide Coomaraswamy, Ananda K.: Yakşas = Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, LXXX, no. 6 (1928)Google Scholar with 23 plates; Foucher, : The Beginnings of Buddhist Art I (1917), 89Google Scholar; Rowland: The Art and Architecture of India (1953), 54–5Google Scholar, etc. For representative examples see also Strzygowsky, : Asiens Bildende Kunst (1930), 472Google Scholar, figs. 477–8 and 591, fig. 541 and Rowland, op. cit., pls. 14, 17, 20B–24,48.
page 27 note 1 Cf. Smith, V. A.: Early History of India (3 1914), 438 sqq.Google Scholar; Rawlinson, H. G.: Intercourse between India and the Western World (2 1916), 101 sqq.Google Scholar; Warmington, E. H.: The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India (1928)Google Scholar, esp. Pt. I, chaps. II and III; Schoff, : The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (1912), 43 sqq., 201 sqqGoogle Scholar: Hourani, G. F.: Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean (1951), 33 et passimGoogle Scholar; Ḥasan, Hadi: History of Persian Navigation (1928), 52 sqq.Google Scholar; Lamotte, E. in La Nouvelle Clio V (1953), 107 sqqGoogle Scholar.
page 27 note 2 Ancient India II (1946), 17–124Google Scholar.
page 27 note 3 Coomaraswamy, op. cit., 32 sqq.
page 27 note 4 Thus the treatment of the lower edge of the skirt is the same as that found in a relief of three female figures of Parthian date from Hatra; cf. Illustrated London News for 11 17th, 1951, p. 807Google Scholar, fig. 3.
page 27 note 5 Cf. Grohmann, op. cit., 56 sqq.
page 27 note 6 Cf. Ryckmans, : Les Religions Arabes Préislamiques (2 1951), 40–41Google Scholar.
page 28 note 1 Cf. B. M. Cat. Gems no. 56255, cited by Bonner, Campbell: Studies in Magical Amulets (1950), 200Google Scholar, n. 78.
page 28 note 2 J.Kl.F. I (1950), 34Google Scholar.
page 28 note 3 Cf. Wellhausen, : Reste Arabischen Heidentums (2 1897), 195Google Scholar; Smith, W. Robertson: Religion of the Semites ed. Cook, S. A. (3 1927), 451, 687Google Scholar; see also Qur’an VII 26–7.