scholarly journals Sharwīn of Dastabay: Reconstructing an early Persian Tale

Author(s):  
JAAKKO HÄMEEN-ANTTILA

Abstract The article discusses a little-known lost Persian tale, The Story of Sharwin of Dastabay, and traces references to it in Arabic, Persian, and Byzantine sources. The earliest references to the story come from the mid- to late eighth century, and it seems to have remained well known in Arabic and Persian literature until the early twelfth and possibly the early fourteenth century, while Byzantine literature shows that at least some of its elements circulated already in the mid-sixth century. The article also discusses how the story may have been transmitted both in Iran and, crossing the linguistic boundary, in an Arabic context. Though much of the story remains unknown, it is clear that it relates to later epics and reveals something of the literary context of Firdawsi and his Shahname.

Abgadiyat ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-61
Author(s):  
ياسر إسماعيل عبد السلام ◽  
عبد العزيز منسي العمري

This paper deals with the study of thirteen unpublished grave inscriptions from Najran in the Museum of Najran of Antiquities and Heritage, which mostly date from the sixth century AH to the eighth century AH (twelfth century CE to fourteenth century CE). The authors will analyze types, decorative elements, and linguistic formulas. Finally, the authors will compare the undated inscriptions with those of Najran and of other regions of Hijaz, particularly from Mecca. (Please note that this article is in Arabic)


Author(s):  
Sandra Martani

Music plays an important role in Byzantine culture; however, only the melodies used in the sacred services have been preserved. Two main types of neumatic notation are used in liturgical books: the lectionary (or ekphonetic) notation—intended to guide the cantillation of the Scriptures—and the melodic notation, used to sing a variety of properly melodic chants. While ekphonetic notation appears in a considerable number of sources dating from the eighth century to the fourteenth/fifteenth centuries, scholars have not yet managed to decipher it. Signs recording musical elements are attested from the sixth century, but it is only from the mid-tenth century that articulated notational systems appear. Until about the mid-twelfth century, two main melodic notations, both adiastematic, were used: the so-called Chartres and Coislin notations. In its development, the Coislin notation leads to a new diastematic system, the so-called Middle Byzantine notation. However, the full diastemacy would be attained only with the Chrysanthos reform at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Melodic notation was used in different hymnographic genres, both syllabic and melismatic, and in psalmic texts. Theoretical treatises provide explanations on the rules needed to combine the neumes. From the fourteenth century onward, a new style appears and develops under the influence of a new aesthetic and of the Hesychastic movement—the καλοφωνία (beautiful voicing). In new or revisited compositions, music is privileged over text and the notation multiplies its μεγάλα σημάδια (big signs) to create a new meaning, a purely melodic one.


Author(s):  
David Wright

This chapter surveys capital letterforms, which have been in use from the second century BC until the present day. It defines two types of capitals in use since the Augustan Era: formal Square Capitals and informal Rustic Capitals, and traces the development of Rustic Capitals as a text hand in manuscripts of classical authors until the sixth century AD as well as the use of Square Capitals until the late fifth century AD. It closes with a look at the use of Rustic Capitals in rubrics of eighth-century manuscripts from England, and Rustic and Square Capitals found in Carolingian contexts.


Author(s):  
Paul J. du Plessis

This chapter provides a historical sketch of Rome. It has been written to provide a contextual basis for the study of Roman private law. The history of Rome is traditionally divided into three main periods based on the dominant constitutional structure in Roman society during these three periods. These are the Monarchy (eighth century bc–510 bc), Republic (509–27 bc), and Empire (27 bc–ad 565). Scholars of Roman law tend to refine this division even further. Thus, to the scholar of Roman law, the period from the founding of Rome in the eighth century bc–c. 250 bc is regarded as the ‘archaic’ period of Roman law. The period thereafter, from c. 250 bc–27 bc, is generally described as the ‘pre-classical period’ of Roman law.For scholars of Roman law, the ‘classical’ period, c. first three centuries AD, and the Justinianic period, c. sixth century AD, are the most important, owing to the compilation of ‘classical’ Roman law by order the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian, in the sixth century.


1970 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Cunliffe

SummaryExcavations at Portchester Castle have produced evidence of occupation throughout the Saxon period. After the cessation of standard Roman wares and local hand-made types early in the fifth century two Grubenhäuser were built. The contemporary assemblage, assignable to the mid fifth century, included (?) imported carinated bowls and local hand-made grass-tempered wares made in the Roman tradition. Late in the fifth or early in the sixth century stamped Saxon urns appear and probably continue, alongside the grass-tempered tradition, into the seventh century. An association of a grass-tempered pot with an imported glass vessel of eighth-century date shows that the local tradition persisted, but by the middle of the eighth century hand-made jars in gritty fabrics, like those from Hamwih, appear in a substantial rubbish deposit which belongs to the initial occupation of the hall complex. By the tenth century a new style of wheel-thrown pottery, called here Portchester ware, is dominant. It is mass produced and distributed largely from the Isle of Wight to central Hampshire and from the Sussex border to the River Mean. Contemporary forms include imported wares, green-glazed pitchers, pots from the Chichester region, and an assemblage made in a wheel-made continuation of the local gritty-fabric tradition. Portchester ware had gone out of use by 1100 at the latest.


1920 ◽  
Vol 14 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 173-185
Author(s):  
J. A. Fort

As is well known, this poem, which stood in the Anthologia Latina, is preserved in two MSS. only, the Salmasian (or S) and the Pithoean (or T), Nos. 10318 and 8071 in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; ‘the handwriting dates’ the former ‘as written at the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century; the other…is about two hundred years later in date. Modern scholars regard both MSS. as traceable to a common archetype, probably of the sixth century’ (Professor Mackail in Catullus and P.V., Loeb Classical Library). At first sight these MSS. seem quite untrust-worthy, for they differ from each other in more than one hundred words, while the scribe of S copied the refrain incorrectly twice, the scribe of T twice as often. Strangely enough, however, these variations are comparatively unimportant, for most of them disappear when the spelling of the two clerks is assimilated to some recognized usage. Each manuscript in turn corrects the other in many of these passages, and conjecture has successfully emended nearly all of the remainder—the variation S peruiclanda, T peruigila in v. 47 is perhaps the only passage of this kind which still causes anxiety. The grave corruptions of the text are found in passages in which the MSS. are in agreement; they agree exactly (I) in five lacunae, T having an additional one; (2) in two or more misplaced passages; (3) in the placing of the refrain, with all of which matters I deal below; they agree exactly in an error in the title ‘Peruirgilium’ for ‘Peruigilium,’ and in about twelve lines, of which vv. 51 and 79 have almost certainly been preserved in an incorrect form.


2015 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 163-179
Author(s):  
Richard Hillier

AbstractIt has long been acknowledged that Arator, author of the sixth-century Historia apostolica, was one of the Christian Latin writers with whom the author of the eighth-century Miracula Nynie episcopi was familiar. However, until now the critical consensus has been that the later poem was little more than a ‘cut-and-paste’ pastiche: Arator's phrases had been chosen largely for their metrical suitability; some were perhaps just ‘recycled’ borrowings rather than evidence of first-hand reading. But a close comparison of the two texts shows that the extent of the unknown author's borrowings from Arator is far greater than has hitherto been realized. Furthermore it reveals a detailed knowledge of the earlier poem, indeed an intimate understanding of it. This is evident not only in his poetic diction but also in his imitation of specific narrative detail where he displays a tendency to simplify his model, rendering the abstract concrete and the figurative literal.


1978 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 55-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brett

In the Seventh Annual Report of the Society I published an account of the journey of the shaykh Al-Tijānī to Tripoli at the beginning of the fourteenth century A. D./eighth century A. H., with particular reference to the Arab tribes and chiefs whom he encountered.What follows is a translation of the passages from the Riḥla in which he describes the city of Tripoli as he saw it during the eighteen months of his residence. Page references are to the 1958 Tunis edition of the work, followed by references to the nineteenth century French translation by Alphonse Rousseau. The latter is incomplete, and not always accurate.221, trans. 1853, 135Our entry into (Tripoli) took place on Saturday, 19th Jumāḍā II (707).237, trans. 1853, 135–6As we approached Tripoli and came upon it, its whiteness almost blinded the eye with the rays of the sun, so that I knew the truth of their name for it, the White City. All the people came out, showing their delight and raising their voices in acclaim. The governor of the city vacated the place of his residence, the citadel of the town, so that we might occupy it. I saw the traces of obvious splendour in the citadel (qaṣba), but ruin had gained sway. The governors had sold most of it, so that the houses which surrounded it were built from its stones. There are two wide courts, and outside is the mosque (masjid), formerly known as the Mosque of the Ten, since ten of the shaykhs of the town used to gather in it to conduct the affairs of the city before the Almohads took possession. When they did so, the custom ceased, and the name was abandoned.


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