Saturday, March 22nd

2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Meeting, Editorial Board, JAOS

Sunday, March 23rd

9:30 a.m.-12:00 noon. Meeting, Board of Directors

1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Registration

2:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Book Exhibit

2:00 p.m.-5:30 pm. Sunday Afternoon Sectional Meetings

A. Ancient Near East I: AOS-NACAL: Linguistics. Alan S. Kaye, Chair

Benjamin Hary, Emory University

Linguistic Notes on an Egyptian Judeo-Arabic Translation of Genesis

Baruch A. Levine, New York University

Some Linguistic Features of the Nabatean Legal Papyri from Nahal Hever

David F. Graf, University of Miami

The Relationship of Safaitic and Thamudic "E" in Pre-Islamic Arabic Epigraphy

(break)

Peter Daniels, University of Chicago

Byblos Matrix and Ras Shamra Chimera

Alan S. Kaye, California State University, Fullerton

Comparative Afroasiatic Linguistics: A Review of Two Recent Dictionaries

Gábor Takács, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

Ancient Semito-Hamitic Substrate in Proto-Indo-European

Gary Holland, University of California, Berkeley

Relativization in the Masat Texts

Michael Zwettler, Ohio State University

On the Identity of 'L'SDYN and NZRW in the Namara Inscription

B. East Asia I: Literature and Religion. Stephen H. West, Chair (2:00 p.m.--3:45 p.m.)

Paul W. Kroll, University of Colorado

Hsü Hui, First Poetess of the T'ang

Robert M. Gimello, University of Arizona

The Cult of "Mañjusri of the Thousand Arms and the Thousand Bowls" in T'ang Buddhism

Madeline K. Spring, University of Colorado

Portals to the Dark Side in Soushen ji

J. Michael Farmer, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Crossings: Three Poems at Jingmen

C. East Asia II: History. Paul W. Kroll, Chair (4:00 p.m.--5:30 p.m.)

Robert Joe Cutter, University of Wisconsin-Madison

So Many Women, So Little Time: the Deposal Cao Fang (r. 239-254)

Yihong Pan, Miami University, Ohio

Marriage Alliance in China's Foreign Politics: From Han to Tang

Ping Yao, University of Illinois

The Changing Power Structure and the Rise of Courtesan Culture in Mid-Tang China: A Study of Bo Juyi's Writings

Zhu Tian-shu, Seoul, Korea

T'ang Culture in the Gold and Silver of the Liao Dynasty

D. Islamic Near East I: Law. Bernard Weiss, Chair

Muhammad Amanullah, University of Utah

Controversy over the Implementation of Just Retribution against a Muslim Who Kills a Non-Muslim Dhimmi or Mu`ahid

Devin J. Stewart, Emory University

Specialization in the Islamic Doctorate of Law

Wolfhart Heinrichs, Harvard University

Remarks on the Furuq Literature

(break)

Sherman A. Jackson, Wayne State University

Ibn al-Labbad's Refutation of al-Shafi`i

R. Kevin Reinhart, Dartmouth College

Guilding the Madhhab: The `Schools' of Islamic Law and Their Significance

E. South and Southeast Asia I: Buddhist and Tibetan Studies. George Cardona, Chair

Richard Salomon, University of Washington

A Buddhist Genizeh: Reconstructing the Library of a Gandhran Monastery of About the First Century A.D.

Daniel Boucher, Franklin and Marshall College

Gandhari and the Early Chinese Buddhist Translations: An Old Hypothesis Reconsidered

Jan Nattier, Indiana University

Interpolations in Mahayana Buddhist Texts: Old Ideas, New Ideas, or No Ideas at All?

(Break)

Kurtis P. Schaeffer, Harvard University

The Attainment of Immortality (Amrtasiddhi /'Chi med grub pa) -- A Bilingual Tibetan and Sanskrit Manuscript

Leonard van der Kuijp, Harvard University

A Thirteenth Century Tibetan History of Indian Buddhist Logic and Epistemology

Alex Wayman, Columbia University

Re the Meaning of the Term svabhava in Buddhist Logic

8:00 p.m.--10:00 p.m. Sunday Evening Sectional Meeting

A. Ancient Near East II: Panel on Goddesses. Julia Asher-Greve, Basil, Switzerland, Chair

Piotr Steinkeller, Harvard University

The Role of the Goddesses in the Early Sumerian Pantheon

Brigitte Groneberg, Hamburg University

Ishtar's Ritual: A Single Transvestite Ritual?

Wolfgang Heimpel, University of California, Berkeley

The Lady of Girsu

(break)

Piotr Michalowski, University of Michigan

Against the Grain: Gender, Nisaba, and Writing

Julia Asher-Greve, Basil, Switzerland

Frontality and Goddesses

Jerrold Cooper, Johns Hopkins University

Ascendant Patriarchy, Goddesses in Decline: The Relative Importance of Female Deities in Diachronic Perspective

Monday, March 24

8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Registration.

8:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Book Exhibit.

9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday Morning Sectional Meetings

A. Ancient Near East III: Recent Developments in Hittite Archaeology and History I. Harry Hoffner, Chair

Harry Hoffner, University of Chicago

Welcome

Alfonso Archi, University of Rome, Italy

The Function of the West Hurrian Pantheon

Andreas Müller-Karpe, University of Regensburg, Germany

Kusakli-Sarissa, A Hittite Town in the "Upper Land"

Gary Beckman, University of Michigan

'Babyloniaca Hethitica': The 'pabilili Ritual' from Boghazkoy (CTH 718).

Aygül Süel, Ankara University, Turkey

New Finds at Ortaköy-Sapinuwa

(break)

Theo van den Hout, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Hittite Royal Funerary Ritual and Recent Developments in Archaeology

Suzanne Herbordt, German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Berlin

Hittite Seals and Sealings from the Nisantepe Archive, Bogazköy

H. Craig Melchert, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Tarhuntassa in the Südburg Hieroglyphic Inscription

Jeanny Vorys Canby, University Museum, Philadelphia

Hittite Art: A Revised View

Calvert Watkins, Harvard University

Homer and Hittite Revisited: 1. The Four Quadrants of Social Appurtenance; 2. ^KUSkursas and aigis

B. Inner Asia I: History and Archaeology. Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp, Chair

Denis Sinor, Indiana University

Migrations in Inner Asia: Facts and Fancy

Rahim Shayegan, Harvard University

The Avesta and the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex

Michael R. Drompp, Rhodes College

Hsieh-li Qaghan and the Collapse of the First Türk Empire

P. Oktor Skjaervo, Harvard University

Historical Documents from Eighth-Century Khotan

C. Islamic Near East II: History. Chair to be announced.

Mark R. Cohen, Princeton University

What Was the Pact of `Umar? A Literary-Historical Study

Jacob Lassner, Northwestern University

Reflections on the Foundation Lore of Samarra: A Tale of Two Cities

Maya Shatzmiller, University of Western Ontario

Obstetrics and Pediatrics in Islamic Medicine and Law: A Chapter in the Social History of Women and Medicine

(break)

Norman Cigar, Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting

Religion and Power in Pre-Colonial Morocco: The `Agagiza Movement

Michel M. Mazzaoui, University of Utah

The Safavid Phenomenon: A Turning Point in Persian History

Michael Robert Hickok, Air War College

Homicide Investigations in the Eighteenth-Century Balkans

D. South and Southeast Asia II: Philosophy and extra-Indian History. Ashok Aklujkar, Chair

Kalyan Kumar Sarkar, University of Windsor

Siva in the Art of Early Java (Indonesia)

Christopher Z. Minkowski, Cornell University

An Unknown Manuscript of the Samudrasangama

B. J. Terwiel, Hamburg University

Mendez Pinto and Thai History

(break)

Rahul Peter Das, Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg

On agneya- and saumya- in Classical Indian Medical Texts

Signe Jansen Cohen, University of Pennsylvania

The Svetasvatara Upanisad Reconsidered

John A. Taber, University of New Mexico

Kumarila on Perception

2:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday Afternoon Sectional Meetings

A. Ancient Near East IV: Recent Developments in Hittite Archaeology and History II. Aslihan Yener, Chair

Peter Kuniholm, Cornell University

New Dendrochronology Dates for the Late Bronze Age

Horst Klengel, Berlin, Germany

Problems in Hittite History, Solved and Unsolved

Stephen Lumsden, The Carsten Neibuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Gavurkalesi: Investigations at a Hittite Sacred Place

Gregory McMahan, University of New Hampshire

Observations on Hittite Rituals

(break)

Robert Alexander, University of Iowa

The Storm God at `Ain Dara

Fiorella Imparati, University of Florence, Italy

Palaces and Local Communities in Some Hittite Provincial Seats

Paul Zimansky, Boston University

Anatolian Influence at `Ain Dara, Syria

Sachihiro Omura, Middle Eastern Culture Center, Tokyo, Japan

Kaman-Kalehöyuk and Late Bronze Age Finds in Central Anatolia

Aslihan Yener, University of Chicago

Concluding Remarks

B. Inner Asia II: Cultural Studies. P. Oktor Skjaervo, Chair

Ruth Meserve, Indiana University

On Blood

Jensine Andresen, Harvard University

Khotanese Tantric Texts

Hamid Sardar-Afkhami, Harvard University

Self-fulfilling Prophecies in Tibetan "Texts from Buried Treasure": Tibetan Historical Consciousness in the Age of Decline

Elling Eide, T'ang Studies Society

Going GAGA over the Fire in the Sky

C. Islamic Near East III: Literature. Everett K. Rowson, Chair

Ruqayya Khan, University of Pennsylvania

Marriage and Sacrifice in the Love Story of al-Muraqqash al-Akbar

Wen-Chin Ouyang, University of Virginia

Al-Mutanabbi in Exile: Poetry in Tenth-Century Arab-Islamic Culture

Sawkat M. Toorawa, University of Mauritius

Waqwaq Revisited and Resituated

James H. Powell, Jr., The Explorers Club

Mountains of the Jinn: Allusions to Geographically Identifiable Mountains and Ranges in Alf Layla wa Layla

D. South and Southeast Asia III: Vedic Studies. Richard Salomon, Chair

Michael Witzel, Harvard University

The Home of the Aryans

Mislav Jezic', University of Zagreb / Harvard University

Sunrta: What or Who?

Theodore Proferes, Harvard University

Aspects of Formulaic Language in the Apri Hymns of the Rgveda

(break)

Stanley Insler, Yale University

On the Trica Collection of the Atharvan Tradition

Joel P. Brereton, University of Missouri, Columbia

The Race of Mudgala and Mudgalani

8:00 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Monday Evening Sectional Meeting

Ancient Near East V: Literature. Peter Machinist, Chair

John Maier, State University of New York College at Brockport

Territorial and Imperial Figures in Sumerian Literature

Steve Tinney, University of Pennsylvania

Nippur Tablet Types and the Definition of the Sumerian Literary Corpus

Jorge Silva Castillo, CEAA-El Colegio de México

The Term nagbu, "totality" or "abyss", in the First Hemistich of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Benjamin D. Sommer, Northwestern University

The Akitu Festival: Its Purpose and Meaning in Light of a Recent Comparative Approach

(break)

Peter Feinman, Columbia University

Cosmos and Chaos in the Ancient Near East-A Case Study: Genesis 14

Dexter E. Callender, Jr., University of Miami

"Your Timbrels and Your Pipes": An Interpretation of Accouterments of the Primal Man in Ezekiel 28

Ziony Zevit, University of Judaism

Mrs.`Ezer Kenegdo

D. R. Frayne, The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, University of Toronto

The Early Dynastic Hymn to Gilgamesh

Tuesday, March 25

8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Book Exhibit.

8:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Plenary Session: Food. Stanley Insler, Chair

Miguel Civil, University of Chicago

Ancient Near East

Stephen H. West, University of California, Berkeley

East Asia

John Masson Smith, University of California, Berkeley

Inner Asia

(Particpant to be announced)

Islamic Near East

Vidyut Aklujkar, University of British Columbia

South and Southeast Asia

11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon. Business Meeting

12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Meeting, American Schools of Oriental Research, Baghdad Committee. Paul Zimansky, Chair

2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Tuesday Afternoon Sectional Meetings

A. Ancient Near East VI: Religion, Science, and Medicine. Robert Biggs, Chair (2:00 p.m.--4:45 p.m)

William W. Hallo, Yale University

More Incantations and Rituals from the Yale Babylonian Collection

Anne Marie Kitz, The Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary's Seminary and University

KBo 18.151: A Hittite KIN-Oracle Reconsidered

Leo Depuydt, Brown University

The Beginning(s) of Day and Month in Egypt and the Ancient World

Walter Farber, University of Chicago

Is There a Specific Lamastu Disease?

(Break)

Barbara Böck, University of Chicago

Physiognomy and Astrology in Ancient Mesopotamia: A comparative study

Suzanne Estelle-Holmer, Yale University

Poetic Features of Early Akkadian Incantations

Tzvi Abusch, Brandeis University

Witchcraft and the Formation of Babylonian Therapeutic Texts

B. Ancient Near East VII: History and Archeology. David Owen, Chair (4:45 p.m -6:00 p.m.)

Glenn M. Schwartz, The Johns Hopkins University

1995-96 Results from Tell Umm el-Marra, Jabbul Plain, Western Syria

Clemens Reichel, The University of Chicago

An Interesting Group of Seal Impressions from Tell Asmar

Hripsime Haroutunian, University of Chicago

Bearded or Beardless? Some Speculations on the Function of Beard among the Hittites

Askold Ivantchik, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow / Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington, DC

The "Scythian Domination" in Asia and its Chronology

C. Islam IV: Religion. James Bellamy, Chair

Richard Weissman, University of California, Los Angeles

St. Guinefort, Kitmir and the The Seven Sleepers: New Evidence, New Theories about Cults of Saintly Dogs

Geoffrey D. Porter, New York University

Reorienting Motives of the Qiblah

Eerik Dickinson, Yale University

"Elevation" and Hadith Transmission in Ayyubid Syria

Sidney H. Griffith, The Catholic University of America

Theodore Abu Qurrah in the Majlis of al-Ma'mun

(Break)

J. Meric Pessagno, Pace University

Much Ado about Nothing: The Non-Existent and the "Dualism" of the Mu'tazila

Timothy J. Gianotti, University of Toronto

Exploring al-Ghazali's Doctrine of Discourse

Paul E. Walker, University of Michigan

The Case of Ibn al-Birdhawn and the Other Guy: Two Maliki Martyrs in History and Hagiology

D. South and Southeast Asia IV: Linguistics and Poetics. Christopher Z. Minkowski, Chair

Ashok Aklujkar, University of British Columbia

The Nirukta notion of karmopasamgraha nipata

Chlodwig H. Werba, University of Vienna, Institute of Indology

Verba Indo-Arica: Introducing a New WHITNEY

Steve Peter, Harvard University

Utá va in the Rigveda

(break)

Benjamin W. Fortson IV, Harvard University

Syntax and phonology in the Rigveda: "Metrical" lengthening of final syllables

George Cardona, University of Pennsylvania

Some issues concerning Vakyapadiya 2.64-87

Priyawath Kuanpoonpol, Harvard University

The Scope of the Text: Comparison of Abhinavagupta and Todorov on Defining and Demarcating Textual Boundaries

3:30 p.m. -5:30 p.m. Book Sale

6:15 p.m.-7:15 p.m. Social Hour (Cash Bar)

7:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m. Annual Subscription Dinner

Presidential Address (Near the Conclusion of the Dinner, at approximately 9:30 p.m.)

Jack M. Sasson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

The King and I

Wednesday, March 26

9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon. Book Sale Continues

9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Wednesday Morning Sectional Meetings

A. Ancient Near East VIII: History and Culture. Karen Nemet-Nejat, Chair

Matthew W. Waters, University of Pennsylvania

Sorting the Mail: Assyrian Correspondence and Neo-Elamite History

David Vanderhooft, Boston College

An Unpublished Exemplar of Nebuchadnezzar II's Etemenanki Cylinder and the Administrative Geography of the Neo-Babylonian Empire

Raymond Westbrook, The Johns Hopkins University

mar banî: A Taste of Freedom

Stephen A. Kaufman, Hebrew Union College

The Phoenician Text of the Incirli Trilingual

(break)

David Testen, University of Pennsylvania

Identifying the Amyrgian Scythians

Brian B. Schmidt, University of Michigan

`Imagining Other Worlds': The Many "What If's ..." of Arslan Tash

Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, Eastham, Massachusetts

The Present Situation of the Mandaeans of Iran

Marc Van De Mieroop, Columbia University

On the Political Development in Mesopotamia

James Evans, Stamford, Connecticut

Psycho Chronology in Ancient Literature (to be read by title)

B. Islamic Near East V: Approaches to Understanding Islamic Texts: a critical perspective. Sulaiman Al-Jarallah, Chair

Yushau Sodiq, Texas Christian University

Towards Understanding the Text: A legal interpretation of the Qur'an with reference to Imam Al-Qurtubi's approach and his interpretation of the Qur'an Chapter 4:2-3

Jamal Edin Zarabozo, Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America

Use Of Hadith and Ra'y in the Early Periods of Fiqh

M.M. al-Azami, Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America

On Norman Calder's Studies in Early Muslim Jurisprudence, with General Reference to Muwatta of Imam Malik in the Recension of Yahya b. Yahya al-Masudi al-Laithee

(break)

Houcine Chouat, Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America

Orientalist Interpretations of the Texts Regarding the Writing of the Prophetic Sunnah

Jaafar Sheikh Idris, Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America

Discussant

C. South and Southeast Asia V: Food and Eaters. Joel P. Brereton, Chair

Susan Rosenfield, Harvard University

The Significance of Salt in the Veda

Carlos Lopez, Harvard University

Food and Truth in the Veda

Enrica Garzilli, University of Perugia

Food and Sacrifice in the Veda according to Abhinavagupta's Tantraloka

(break)

James L. Fitzgerald, University of Tennessee

Some storks and eagles eat carrion; herons and ospreys do not: kankas and kuraras (and badas) in the Mahabharata

Stephanie W. Jamison, Harvard and Yale Universities

"First catch your rhinoceros": On some dharmic dietary prescriptions