American Oriental Society

Abstracts of Communications Presented

at the 207th Annual Meeting

23-26 March, 1997

Miami

J-P

Sherman A. Jackson
Ibn al-Labbâd's Refutation of al-Shâfi`î
One of the more striking features of Ibn Farhûn's al-Dîbâj al-Mudhahhab is the number of Mâlikî jurists he cites who wrote works falling under the general title " al-Radd `alâ al-Shâfi`î". Few of these works have been edited and ever fewer, to my knowledge, have been subjected to scholarly examination. Among these works is one authored by a 3rd/9th-4th/10th century Mâlikî jurist from Qayrawân, Abû Bakr Muhammad Ibn al-Labbâd (d. 333/944), edited and published by `Abd al-Hamîd b. Hamdah in 1986. This paper will examine Ibn al-Labbâd's work and discuss its implications for our knowledge of the early development of Islamic law.
Stephanie W. Jamison
"First catch your rhinoceros...": On some dharmic dietary prescriptions
A widespread provision in the dharma texts (MDs V.18, BDS 17.27, BDS I.5.12.5, ApDS I.5.17.37, VDS XIV.39, 47, ViSmr 51.6, Yajñ. I.177) forbids the eating of the flesh of 'five-nailed' (pañcanakha) animals, save for a restricted group, usually including porcupines, hedgehogs, lizards, hares, tortoises---and rhinoceroses (khadga / khanga). The presence of this last animal on the list is surprising, both because it is of a vastly different physical scale from the others and because it actually has three toes, not five.

Starting from this very specific dharmic provision, this paper will consider the structure, logic, and sources of some of the prescriptions concerning forbidden and permitted foods found in the dharma sutras and dharma sastras. In particular, it will investigate the relations between these prescriptions and the elaborate lists (in the Black Yajur Veda Samhitas) of victims and their divine recipients in the Asvamedha ritual. It will also explore rhinoceros lore in early Sanskrit and MI texts.

Mislav Jezic
Sunrta: What or Who?
There is a word sunrta in the Rksamhita that is usually explained as an abstract noun and rendered in dictionaries as gladness, joy, exultation, song, kindness, kind and true speech, truth (personified as a goddess), etc. (Monier-Williams). In specific Rksamhita dictionaries, translations or studies other renderings may be found, but they usually take the word as an abstract noun with meanings close to those mentioned. However, if we examine all the passages in the text of the Rksamhita containing the word and its cognates like sunrta (adj.), sunrtavat, sunrtavari, sunara (adj.), etc., we shall come to a different conclusion about its derivation and meaning. It will prove to be a bahuvrihi compound, with a special use in the feminine gender condensing a Vedic myth of Indo-European origin into a short formula, and indicating some important cycles of time in the ritual calendar.
Stephen A. Kaufman
The Phoenician Text of the Incirli Trilingual
At the 1996 meeting of the society, Elizabeth Carter, Bruce Zuckerman, and I reported on the discovery, initial photography, and preliminary decipherment of the extremely significant 8th century BCE commemorative stela and royal inscription found in the vicinity of the boundary between the Neo-Hittite states of Que (Adana/Cilicia) and Gurgum (Marash). In September, 1996, Zuckerman, Marilyn Lundberg-Melzian, and I spent a week in Gaziantep, Turkey, studying the stela and making a complete set of high resolution, detailed photographs from various lighting angles preparatory to the publication of both a preliminary report and an editio princeps. The highly eroded stela almost certainly contains a trilingual inscription of Awarikku, king of Que, in Luwian hieroglyphs, Assyrian cuneiform, and Phoenician. Through computer techniques we have been able to read much of the important Phoenician inscription. Here I will present the current reading of the text as well as a demonstration of some of the techniques used to reveal it and discuss the significance of both.
Alan S. Kaye
Afroasiatic Linguistics: A Review of Two Recent Dictionaries
This paper is highly critical of 2 (1995) comparative Afroasiatic dictionaries by Orel and Stolbova (E. J. Brill) and Ehret (UCPL, University of California Press). Some of the major problems discussed include: (1) setting up cognates on look-alike bases; (2) false cognates; (3) overlooking genuine cognates. Ehret's root determinant theory is examined following remarks by Andrzej Zaborski. Thus it is unlikely that Arabic brd `cold' derives from *br `moisten'.

Further data from both of these works will be examined. My conclusion is disappointing concerning the relative merits of each contribution.

Anne Marie Kitz
Kbo 18.151: A Hittite KIN-oracle Reconsidered
The KIN-oracles represent one of the most difficult genres of the Hittite corpus. Although A. Goetze initially identified the Hittite KIN texts as lot oracles, a satisfactory interpretation of the procedure is still lacking. In 1974 A. Archi interpreted these texts by distinguishing between "passive symbols" and "active symbols." Then, drawing upon the methodology suggested by the MUs, or snake, oracles, he proposed that the KIN texts recorded the movements of an animal across a field in which the symbols had been place. The texts record those "symbols" which the animal touched.

A re-analysis of the earliest KIN text, KBo 18.151, suggests that {\bf two} sets of lots were used. Comparison with lot casting terminology and methods from Akkadian, Greek and Hebrew sources indicate that the procedure may have involved shaking a set of lots in a receptacle. As the vigor of the shaking increased, one lot would leap up and fall onto the casting field. The procedure would then be repeated with a second set of lots. The cleromancer (\super{SAL}sU.GI, "Old Woman"), however, would shake these lots in a way that allowed several to leap out at once. If this is the method behind the KIN-oracles, then the texts record the movements of these lots as they scatter across the casting field, including collisions, ricochets and their final position.

Horst Klengel
Problems of Hittite History, Solved and Unsolved.
During the first decade of our century, when Hittitology began to develop as a new branch of cuneiform studies, there also started the research into Hittite history; many texts excavated at Bogazköy where written in the already well-known Akkadian language. The discovery of Hittite as an Indo-European language and the subsequent rapid progress in editing texts, in lexicography and grammar enlarged considerably the basis also for historical studies. A first view of Hittite history was elaborated, foreign relations of the Hittites became more clear by textual material discovered outside Anatolia, synchronisms and palaeography established a more secure relative chronology, and the interpretation of "historical" sources according to their political and religious intentions put forward better insight into the respective actual situation. Nevertheless, many gaps in our knowledge are only provisionally bridged by suppositions. The absolute chronology, depending also from the chronologies other than Hittite, is problematical, and the succession of the Hittite great kings is still in discussion. The unsecure relation of texts to certain periods complicates the description of events according to their historical sequence. Historical geography of the Hittite empire is a special field, waiting to be promoted by more evidence coming from the provincial centres. The study of social and economic history of Hittite Anatolia is still hampered by the fact that relevant information was partly written on perishable material or was beyond the interest of the royal chancery. The handbook of Hittite history, which is now in preparation by the author, is mainly intended to summarize what we are knowing and to indicate what we are still missing. But asking questions could be a first step to answer them.
Paul W. Kroll
Hsu Hui, First Poetess of the T'ang
Hsu Hui (627-50) was "Worthy Consort" (Hsien-fei) to emperor T'ai Tsung of T'ang. She was also the first woman of the dynasty to be known for her ability as a poet. A few examples of her verse remain and will here be examined, as well as one extant prose composition a rather astute petition to the emperor regarding T'ang military policy.
Priyawath Kuanpoonpol
The Scope of the Text: Comparison of Abhinavagupta and Todorov on Defining and Demarcating Textual Boundaries
In this paper I will compare and contrast the ways that Abhinavagupta and Tzvetan Todorov treat relationships between the author and his audience in defining the nature and extent of a text. Evidence for this presentation comes from close analyses of Abhinavagupta's Abhinavabharati and Todorov's Introduction to Poetics and other works by the authors on aesthetics and poetics.

While comparative treatments often end as fruitless attempts at comparing apples and oranges, this paper may be instructive in furthering an outlook of universality of ways of thinking, thus taking them out of narrow confines of historical and cultural imperatives. Or, on the other hand, it may suggest that where historical and cultural paths are parallel, or similar, comparable conclusions occur.

Baruch A. Levine
Some Linguistic Features of the Nabatean Legal Papyri from Nahal hever
The archive of Nahal hever on the Dead Sea, first uncovered by Yigael Yadin, includes six legal papyri written in Nabatean Aramaic, and dating from 94-120 C.E. Apart from Greek texts, almost all of which have since been published, the overall Nahal hever archive also contained texts written in Hebrew and Aramaic of the contemporary Jewish settlements. After Yadin's death, Jonas C. Greenfield, joined by Ada Yardeni, and assisted by other collaborators, undertook the publication of the Semitic language texts. After Jonas' untimely passing in the spring of 1995, I accepted the assignment of continuing this project in collaboration with Ada Yardeni.

In salient respects, the Nabatean texts are unprecedented in their scope and composition, and in their usage of legal idiom and terminology. As such, they contribute greatly to our knowledge of contemporary Aramaic dialectology, and in particular, attest to the currency of Arabic terms and formulas within Aramaic documents of an early period. At the same time, these Nabatean texts exhibit the common vocabulary of the overarching Aramaic legal tradition, shared at the time by Jews and Nabatean Arabs alike, and by other contemporaries. Greenfield and Yardeni, in Eretz-Israel 25, 1996, have shown that one of the major Aramaic legal documents evidences many of the Aramaic, and some of the Arabic terms and formulas attested in the Nabatean documents. The present paper will show how such interaction contributes to our understanding of the Nabatean documents, themselves.

Carlos Lopez
Food and Truth in the Veda
Some scholars have endeavored to uncover the structure of the mythology of the Veda. It is possible to uncover a similar structure for the complex of interrelated abstract concepts in the Veda. How are such concepts as rta, sraddha, vac, annam, odana, ucchista and others interrelated? How do they fit in into a coherent system which attempts to explain being in Vedic society and culture. In the spirit of this year's general topic, food, this paper will begin to explore one such relationship which is well known from Taittiriya Upanishad 3.10: aham annam ... aham asmi prathamaja rtasya, "I am food ... I am the first born of rta." What is the relationship of annam (food) to rta (active truth). This investigation will also explore other 'food stuffs' in the Veda (odana, ucchista, etc) and their relationship within the complex structure of abstract concepts in the Veda.
Stephen Lumsden
Gavurkalesi: Investigations at a Hittite Sacred Place
Gavurkalesi is located in rough terrain 60 kilometers southwest of Ankara. It is well known for its Hittite reliefs depicting three deities, and for an associated cyclopean structure with a corbeled chamber. The reliefs are carved on a cliff face on the crest of a natural hill that rises 60 meters above the floor of a narrow valley. The cyclopean structure is constructed directly above the reliefs, on the summit of the hill. The combination of these two features of the Hittite imperial culture at a single site is unique outside the capital at Bogazkale. Interpretations of the function of Gavurkalesi in the Hittite Period have been based on the very brief investigations conducted at the site by H. H. von der Osten in 1930. He proposed that the reliefs and cyclopean structure formed an isolated hilltop monument approached by a processional way and ramp. Since then it has also been described as a possible royal funerary monument. In 1993 new investigations were initiated at Gavurkalesi and within its surrounding valley. On the basis of surface survey and a more detailed study of the architecure still visible on the summit and slopes of Gavurkalesi, earlier assessments of the site must be reevaluated. It seems likely that the site was architecturally much more complex than the simple enclosure postulated by von der Osten. In addition, surface scatters of Hittite ceramics on the slope below the reliefs and on a single terrace opposite them indicate that the monument was not an isolated one, but was, in fact, accompanied by some type of settlement. This new data may bolster the notion that Gavurkalesi served as an "Eternal Peak" cultic or royal funerary institution in the Hittite Period.
John Maier
Territorial and Imperial Figures in Sumerian Literature
While Jacques Derrida's concepts of language and literature écritures, grammatology, deconstructive practices) have influenced literary studies but have relatively little effect on the study of pre-Homeric literature, his contemporary, philosopher Gilles Deleuze, is beginning to gain an international reputation, and his theories offer more for the student of ancient Near Eastern literature than Derrida's theories. A comparison and contrast of their different strategies will illustrate the usefulness of Deleuze for the study of very early literature. Probably because Derrida is read in an anhistoric (if not antihistoric) way, he is invoked by those who want to deconstruct the claims of historians especially historians of literature---to have found truths, essences, and the nature of things. Deleuze, to the contrary, grounds his theories in the very historical evidence that ancient Near Eastern scholars have painstakingly constructed over the last century and a half. The very odd language Deleuze uses reflects his thinking about Mesopotamia, especially in the process of state formation. This paper will introduce several important distinctions Deleuze makes, mainly in the third part of the work he wrote with Félix Guattari, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, and will comment on one well-known Sumerian text, "Inanna and Enki The Transfer of the Arts of Civilization from Eridu to Erech." This paper returns to an analysis of "Inanna and Enki" made a decade ago in my theory of Archaic Literature, and to the text Samuel Noah Kramer and I translated in Myths of Enki, The Crafty God (1989). The paper reflects recent work by H. J. L. Vanstiphout on cuneiform éecritures on early writing and the representation of the EN, especially in the work of M. W. Green, Krystyna Szarzynska and D. Schmandt-Bessarat.
Michel M. Mazzaoui
Communication: The Safavid Phenomenon: A Turning Point in Persian History
For more than two centuries (from 1501 to 1722), Persian history was dominated by the Safavid dynasty. This period may best be described as the link between the late Middle Ages and early modern times. Several modern scholars consider the rise of this dynasty as a manifestation of the awakening of the Iranian national consciousness. Other writers prefer to deal with Iranian nationalism as an aspect of the recent Pahlavi regime of Reza Shah and his son.

Contemporary Persian Safavid historians give different views on this subject. Three of them (Khunji, Rumlu, and Munshi) will be dealt with in this paper.

Fazlallah ibn Ruzbihan Khunji, a contemporary of Shah Isma'il (the founder of the dynasty) stresses the ghazi backgrounds of the Safavids and sees the rise of the dynasty in protracted warfare against Christian elements in the region of the Caucasus. Hasan Rumlu, a contemporary of Shah Tahmasb (the second ruler of the dynasty) describes the religious fervor of the people when Shi'i Islam was adopted as the "official" religion, slowly but surely transforming Iran into the bastion of Shi'ism in the Middle East. And finally, Iskandar Beg Munshi, the court historian of Shah Abbas (the greatest of the Safavid rulers) shows pride in the Safavid ruler who "is revered like Jamshid" sitting "on the throne of Khosrow and Kay-Qobad", thus conjuring images of pre-Islamic Persia and coming close to reviving the Iranian national ethos.

The three positions will be briefly discussed, and a few concluding remarks will be made on Persian Safavid historiography.

H. Craig Melchert
Tarhuntassa in the SÜDBURG Hieroglyphic Inscription
Two recently discovered documents from Boghazköy have renewed discussion of the status of Tarhuntassa during the late Hittite Empire: (1) the Bronze Tablet with a treaty between Tuthaliya IV and Kurunta; (2) the SÜDBURG Hieroglyphic Luvian inscription of Suppiluliuma II. In his excellent first edition of the latter, David Hawkins has interpreted the text as describing military campaigns and building activities of Suppiluliuma in the south and west, including the conquest of Tarhuntassa.

I will argue that this analysis is based on a false interpretation of two crucial verbs, which cannot refer to military action as Hawkins claims: PUGNUS.PUGNUS is intransitive, with a meaning 'live, abide', while the alleged verb INFRA á-ka 'subjected' (?) is unlikely to be a verb at all. What the SÜDBURG text does relate is the punishment of Tarhuntassa by Suppiluliuma II, by deportation of the population and dedication of the capital to the gods. The pretext for this action is a serious delict of Tarhuntassa involving the `grandfathers and grandmothers', who I will tentatively suggest may include the manes of the Hittite royal family, who had been moved to Tarhuntassa by Muwatalli and were not explicitly returned to Hattusa by Hattusili III.

While much in the SÜDBURG text remains quite unclear, there is certainly no reference to the military conflict between Hatti and Tarhuntassa assumed by Hawkins. Hittite control of Tarhuntassa is taken for granted in the text. Like other Hittite kings, Suppiluliuma II seeks to justify on moral grounds an action he surely took for political and military reasons: the "liquidation" of Tarhuntassa following the revolt of Kurunta against Tuthaliya IV and the former's (attempted?) usurpation of the Hittite throne.

Ruth I. Meserve
On Blood
Recorded in stone, the Orkhon Inscriptions (8th century A.D.) told the military history of the second Türk empire (c. 680-740). Here the early Türk were castigated for their unruliness, for betraying their ruler, their free and independent realm. It was not surprising that in so doing their blood ran like water (... qanïn subça yügürtï ...), like a river (... qanïn ögüzçe yügürtï ...). Here, too, the great commander-in-chief Tonyukuk, in serving the first two rulers of the empire, shed his own red blood (... qïzïl qanïm töküti ...) for victory and empire. Such notions of blood were common in the exploits of Inner Asian history. Also prevalent in various Inner Asian cultures were concepts of blood in a biological or medical sense as one of life's forces, as well as the use of blood in a variety of cultural contexts drawn from religious, legal and linguistic evidence.
Christopher Z. Minkowski
An Unknown Manuscript of the Samudrasangama
The Bhandarkar Institute manuscript of the Samudrasangama preserves a Sanskrit version of the Majma'-ul-Bahrain, a Persian work that attempts to compare the religious categories of Islam with those of Hinduism. The Majma'-ul-Bahrain was written, or at least commissioned, by Dara Shukoh, best known for his Persian translation of the Upanisads. As demonstrated by P. K. Gode, the BORI MS. was copied in 1708 (A.D.), some 53 years after the composition of the text in 1655. Both editions of the Samudrasangama, one of 1954, the other of 1995, are based solely on the BORI MS.

Deccan College MS 7756 is a copy of the Samudrasangama that was not known to Gode or either of the text's editors. The DC MS is more handsomely copied and preserves in places better readings. Using this undated MS it is possible to restore the beginning of the text, which is missing in the BORI MS.

Jan Nattier
Interpolations in Mahayana Buddhist Texts: Old Ideas, New Ideas, or No Ideas at All?
It is a commonplace in Buddhist Studies that Indian Buddhist texts were often subjected to a prolonged process of accretion, during which new layers were added to an original "core" whose outlines are often difficult to discern. Using several Mahayana Buddhist texts for which we have exemplars (including Chinese and Tibetan translations) of widely varying dates, we will compare older versions with their newer counterparts in an attempt to determine what kinds of materials were interpolated over the lifetime of these texts. In particular, we will attempt to identify several distinctive types of interpolations: (1) wholesale additions of new material, (2) elaborations on (including repetitions of) existing wording, (3) the filling out of traditional lists, and finally (4) insertions elicited by the presence of what I will refer to as "trigger words."

By dividing documented cases of interpolations into these distinct (though occasionally overlapping) categories, we will be able to sharpen our perception of the literary and imaginative processes by which Indian Buddhist texts acquired their present forms. Conversely, by working backwards from the newest versions to the oldest ones, we will come to a new appreciation of the value of the earliest Chinese translations as witnesses to the content of the now-lost Indian originals.

We will conclude by observing that a substantial number of the interpolations in the texts we will examine do not contain material that is doctrinally or conceptually new, but were rather elicited by other literary forces. Thus the widespread assumption that interpolations are added in order to accommodate new doctrines and practices will be shown to be in need of revision.

Wen-chin Ouyang
Al-Mutanabbi in Exile: Poetry in Tenth Century Arab Islamic Culture
Abu Tayyib Ahmad b. Husayn (915-965), known as al-Mutanabbi, remains enigmatic today, the mystery of his personality and poetic talent continues to impress, inspire and provoke his readers. During his lifetime his poetry attracted much attention; despite criticism it received, it availed him the opportunities of becoming close to the elite of the various centers of power in the tenth century "Islamdom." However, al-Mutanabbi always saw himself as the "stranger," much like the Prophet Salih living among the people of Thamud, his call to obey God rejected by his own people. His nickname, al-Mutanabbi, was bestowed upon him, according to some reports, because he likened himself to the Prophet Salih in a line of his poetry. According to some other reports, he earned his nickname because in his youth he led some insurrection in the south of what is known as Iraq today, near his hometown al-Kufa, claiming to be a prophet. However one may choose to explain the raison d'etre of his nickname, al-Mutanabbi had political aspirations; he was hoping that one of his patrons would give him governorship of a province where he could rule as some kind of "head of state," if I may borrow a modern term. His wishes, however, were never granted, and for the entirety of his life, al-Mutanabbi traveled from one court to another, from Iraq to Syria and Egypt, then back to Iraq and from there to Iran, in search for the patron who would recognize his talents. The problem was that all his patrons recognized his talents as a poet, but none saw in him qualifications suitable for a statesman. Exile, according to one definition, is displacement from power: to be exiled is to be removed from the center to the margin. Al-Mutanabbi's acute awareness of his own alienation, poignantly expressed throughout his poetic output, may be viewed as a part of his experience of exile. His exile, however, was not limited to his disappointments in obtaining political office, but encompasses the loss of influence of the poet on the culture and society of his period. Between the seventh and tenth centuries, the role of the poet as the spokesman for his community and poetry as embodiment of collective history and wisdom was gradually taken over by other genres of writing and other members of society. While poetry was viewed as knowledge having a central role in the preservation of collective values and mores during pre-Islamic times, it was no treated as craft the primary function of which was propaganda and entertainment. Poetry, therefore poets, were now relegated to the margin of Arab-Islamic culture. Al-Mutanabbi, covetous of power, lamented the potential but unrealizable role he could have played had he been born in another time; his poetry evokes the heroic age of the pre-Islamic period during which the poet could be a hero, a sage, and perhaps even a prophet of some sort. In fact, the third explanation of his nickname states that he "prophesied with poetry ( tanabba'a bi al-shi`r)," which perhaps alludes to his impersonation of the pre-Islamic poet. In this paper, I will examine how al-Mutanabbi expresses the double notion of exile, political and cultural, in his poetry with special focus on his appropriation and reworking of themes, images and tropes found in pre-Islamic poetry, especially the Mu`allaqat, and on how they work to convey his sense of alienation and marginalization, and more importantly, the literary culture of tenth century Islamdom. By reading al-Mutanabbi's poetry, I will examine the paradox of poetry, and poetic enterprise, in medieval Arab-Islamic culture: while poetry and poets were desired and supported by various courts, they were in reality marginal to society and culture.
Yihong Pan
Marriage Alliance in China's Foreign Politics: from Han to Tang
Hegin, or "harmonious kinship" as a policy was often used in Chinese diplomatic relations. Han and Sui-Tang dynasties are known for their formation of marriage alliance in foreign conduct. The subject has fascinated many Chinese and Japanese historians, but not much has been written in English.

In this paper the heqin policy is examined exclusively as a policy of marriage alliance. The paper examines the policy not only in the Han and Sui-Tang China, but also those marriages concluded during the Period of Division (220-589) among the different independent powers in China, the marriages among the different non-Chinese regimes which had affected their relations with China, and the failed efforts to push for marriages in interactions among different powers. The paper shows that marriage alliance was commonly used in international politics, not just between China and foreign states but also among other states, that a primary goal was to maintain a balance of power, and that there were different characteristics in the marriages at different times. Several times China refused the requests of non-Chinese rulers for marriage when it would not benefit China, or when the refusal would weaken the foreign powers. From the paper we see that women in marriage alliance devoted their lives as peace-makers. Often they were in dangerous situations faced with power struggles within and complex international politics without. These women were expected to maintain peace while protecting the interest of their natal countries. Such complicated missions provided opportunities for their active participation in politics.

Steve Peter
utá va in the Rigveda
This paper examines the construction utá va `or' in the Rigveda. Consideration is given to the external comparative syntactic connections, such as Greek (including a consideration of the proposed etymological cognate [GREEK] ηυτε and Avestan.
Geoffrey D. Porter
Reorienting Motives of the Qiblah
We know from several early Islamic texts that the qiblah (the Islamic orientation of prayer) was once other than the Ka`ba in Mecca.1 These texts indicate a three-tiered development: for a period there is no qiblah, this ended with the institution of the Jerusalem qiblah, and this was ultimately replaced by the Meccan qiblah. This study examines the establishment of Jerusalem as the qiblah, and when, how, and why the orientation of prayer was realigned with the Ka'ba in Mecca.

The adoption of the Ka`ba as the qiblah was of twofold importance. Firstly, it allowed the Muslim orientation of prayer to supersede the Jewish one both historically and spiritually, which also buttressed the belief that the source of Muhammad's revelation was none other than the God of the Jews. Secondly, it connected what was to be the monotheism of the Arabs with a solely Arabian shrine. In the pre-Islamic period, the Ka`ba held polytheistic, religious significance yet Muhammad, through the legend of the Station of Abraham ( maqâm Ibrâhîm), recreated the symbolism associated with it in order to adopt it as a monotheistic place of worship.

1Al-`Aynî, Sadr al-Dîn, `Amûdat al-Qârî, Beirut (1970). Al-Bukhârî, Sahîh al-Bukhârî, trans. by Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Chicago (1979). Al-Kindî, Al-Musannaf, Oman, (1975). Al-Nasâ'î, Ahmad b. Shu`ayb, Sunan al-Nasâî, Beirut (1411/1991), Vol. I, p. 262 ff. Al-Tabarî The History of al-Tabarî trans. \& annot. by W. M. Watt, Albany (1987). Jâmi`a al-bayân, Cairo (1373/1954). Al-Tirmidhî, Sunan al-Tirmidhî, Cairo (1385/1966). Bâjî, Abû al-Walîd Sulaymân b. Khalaf, Al-Muntaqâ (N.D.). Ibn Taymîyah, Majmû`a Fatâwî, Riyadh (1382/1950). Malik Ibn Anas, al-Muwatta' trans., Aisha Abdurahman Bewley, London \& New York (1989). Zakarîyah b. Yahyâ b. Ismâ`îl, Awjâz al-Masâlik, Cairo, (1350/1904).

James H. Powell
Mountains of the Jinn: Allusions to Geographically Identifiable Mountains and Ranges in Alf Layla wa Layla
Mountains abound in the Alf Layla wa Layla. Most are imaginary, but there are at least 70 allusions to 17 different peaks or ranges that can be reasonably identified with geographical reality. This communication is a textual analysis of the Nights in terms of these allusions. Topics covered will be: a) the mountains alluded to; b) the number of allusions to each mountain or range; c) the locations of these allusions in the Nights. Also considered will be two problems posed by this analysis: a) the extent to which Kaf, which alone accounts for 26 of the allusions, may be identified with ranges other than its traditional and etymological identification with the Caucasus; and b) the question of whether Adam's Peak (Jabal ar-Ramun) in Ceylon, which figures so prominently in the Sixth Voyage of Sindibad, was considered by medieval Arab geographers to be the highest mountain in the world. To my knowledge, no such textual analysis of the Nights in terms of its mountains has been done before, although many of Sir Richard Burton's notes to his translation comment on a number of the allusions, and the problem of Kaf is discussed in the Encyclopaedia of Islam. Conclusions, aside from the empirical cataloging of allusions, are that a number of Asiatic mountains may be identified with the prototypic Kaf, and that there is evidence, from early manuscripts of the Nights and accounts of early European travellers to Ceylon, that 7,360-foot Adam's Peak was considered to be, next to Kaf, the loftiest mountain in the world of medieval Islam.
Theodore Proferes
Aspects of Formulaic Language in the Apri hymns of the Rgveda
The verse-by-verse correspondence of `key-words' in the ten Apri hymns of the Rgveda, together with their nearly identical over-all structure, renders this class of hymns extremely useful for identifying certain conventions of rgvedic poetic composition. This paper explores three aspects of this question. It begins with an analysis of the initial verses of the ten hymns, demonstrating the formulaic principles at work on the phonological, lexical, synactic, and semantic levels. Levels of variation are also distinguished, the primary distinction being between variations on the formulaic level and those operating within the larger architecture of the verse. Next, the paper examines the influence of metre on morphology by defining the conditions in which the various verbal stems of the root sud/svad are deployed within the Apri hymns, and in the Rgveda as a whole. The paper concludes with an interpretation of the vanaspati stanzas of the Apri hymns that supports the view that these hymns were composed as liturgical accompaniements to an animal sacrifice.