A Study of three Tibetan letters attributed to Dorzhiev held by the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences

This article discusses three Tibetan letters held by the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences and originally collected by the Russian Orientalist Fyodor Shcherbatskoy. The three letters are attributed to the well-known figure of Agvaan Dorzhiev, the Buryat who became an aide of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, but the authors determine that only the third letter is actually by Dorzhiev, while the other two were composed by a Kalmyk leader. The article discusses the historical significance of each of the letters and provides an annotated translation of them.

On the Printed Fragment in Classical Mongolian Script from the Collection of IOM, RAS

The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences possesses a xylographed fragment in classical Mongolian script with a handwritten text on the reverse side (call mark G 110 recto), which was obtained in 1909 during P. K. Kozlov’s expedition in Khara-Khoto. The printed text in classical Mongolian script with several interlinear glosses in Chinese and a page footer (of the transcription of the Chinese name of the chapter and the page number) was read by the Soviet Orientalist N. Ts. Munkuyev more than 50 years ago. Munkuyev dated it by the XIV century based on the paleographic peculiarities. Moreover, based on the official history Yuan shi, he supposed that the text might be a Mongolian translation of the legislative code Da Yuan tong-zhi and suggested two possible versions of original Chinese name of the chapter, out of which an incorrect one was unfortunately chosen. Since Da Yuan tong-zhi was not preserved in full and the major part of the written monument including the chapters of interest were lost, it was impossible to find the text in scope, and the mistake in the reconstruction of the chapter name also could not be detected. However, in 2002 in South Korea a part of Zhi-zheng tiao-ge code was found, which was promulgated in 1346 and was intended to replace the outdated Da Yuan tong-zhi. In one of his previous articles, the author has shown that both codes were built according to a general pattern elaborated as far back as the Tang epoch (618–907). This enabled reconstruction of the name of the chapter mentioned in the fragment. Fortunately, the surviving part of the Zhi-zheng tiao-ge code contains the required chapters, and the Chinese glosses in the fragment allowed us to find the original Chinese text, which turned out to be a document dated 1303 and, according to the date, was evidently included in both codes. The article also contains the Chinese text of the document and its annotated translation.

A Treatise on Practical and Theoretical Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate

This article presents an annotated translation of The Exposition of Devotions, a short text by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Muṣtafā (1218–1280/1804–1864) about his spiritual master and maternal uncle, Muḥammad Sambo (1195–1242/1782–1826). Muḥammad Sambo was the son of ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī (also known as Usman dan Fodio), the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest pre-colonial polities on the African continent. While modern scholarship has tended to focus on the political, legal, social, and economic dimensions of the jihad movement that created the Sokoto Caliphate, this text provides a brief, but detailed account of the spiritual practices and discussions amongst Usman dan Fodio’s clan (the Fodiawa), demonstrating the centrality of the Akbarī tradition in technical discussions, as well as the unique developments of this tradition in thirteenth/nineteenth century West Africa. The work begins with an account of a dream of the then-deceased Muḥammad Sambo that occasioned its composition, and after a brief discussion of the status of dreams and their importance, gives an account of Sambo’s spiritual method and practices. The short treatise concludes with the author’s summary of Sambo’s responses to several technical and highly esoteric questions posed to him by the author, illustrating the profound mastery and unique perspectives developed on these topics by the Fodiawa. Combining oneirology, hagiography, practical and theoretical Sufism, this short treatise is an illuminating window into the spiritual and intellectual traditions of the founders of the Sokoto Caliphate.

A Mughal Treatise on Essence and Existence

This article presents an annotated translation of The Equivalence between Giving and Receiving (al-Taswiya bayna al-ifāda wa-l-qabūl), a short Arabic treatise on essence (dhāt) and existence (wujūd) composed by the South Asian philosopher-Sufi Shaykh Muḥibb Allāh Ilāhābādī (996–1058/1587–1648). Although modern scholarship has habitually referred to Muḥibb Allāh as an ardent defender of the doctrine of waḥdat al-wujūd (“unity of existence”) associated with the figure of Ibn al-ʿArabī, such generalized formulations fail to do justice to the uniqueness of Muḥibb Allāh’s intellectual contributions. Most authors who had set out to provide a philosophical defense of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s teachings – including the well-known likes of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī, ʿAfīf al-Dīn al-Tilimsānī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī, Dāwud al-Qayṣarī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī, Mullā Ṣadrā, and so on – had tended to prioritize a philosophically utilizable formulation of wujūd or “existence.” Muḥibb Allāh, in notable contrast, favors a presentation of the divine Reality in terms of “pure essence/quiddity” (dhāt/māhiyya maḥḍa), at times going to considerable lengths to uphold his alternative formulation. Such a strategy of argumentation is uncommon amongst philosophical defenders of Ibn al-ʿArabī, the distinctiveness of which is further enhanced by Muḥibb Allāh’s peculiar mode of disputation, which straddles the line between metaphysics and natural philosophy/physics. The Taswiya occasioned at least sixteen commentaries and refutations; this translation benefits from consulting the earliest of these, composed by Mullā Maḥmūd al-Jawnpūrī (d. 1062/1652) and Khwāja Khwurd (d. 1073/1663), as well as three later commentaries by Ḥabīb Allāh Paṭnaʾī (d. 1140/1728). Most significantly, this translation makes extensive use of Muḥibb Allāh’s own Persian auto-commentary, the Sharḥ-i taswiya, which is a critical aid for deciphering the author’s at times opaque manner of expression and argumentation.

Honoré de Balzac’s Treatise on Modern Stimulants: An Annotated Translation

<p>Honoré de Balzac is most often celebrated for his realist fiction, but what is less well-known is that he also had philosophical aspirations, and published numerous analytical works which have largely been overlooked by French-English translators. One such work, Traité des excitants modernes, traces the societal impact of five commonly-used stimulants: tea, sugar, coffee, alcohol, tobacco. It was first published in 1839 as an appendix to the cornerstone gastronomic work, Physiologie du goût, by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. The translation, “Treatise on Modern Stimulants,” will give readers a rare insight into life in Balzac’s Paris in the 1800s, a city which was undergoing a revolution culturally, politically and within the scientific fields. Balzac’s treatise is delicately balanced between science and satire, and includes anecdotes about the author overindulging in coffee, cigarettes and alcohol. Further, it sketches out Balzac’s beliefs about the impact of diet on reproduction, and he cites stimulants as one of the causes of degeneration and decline in France. The accompanying commentary examines the context of the work, and presents new ideas about the way in which the essay was written and why. Importantly, it also discusses the challenges of translating a historical work and explores whether translation can bridge the divide between generations, disciplines and cultures.</p>

Honoré de Balzac’s Treatise on Modern Stimulants: An Annotated Translation

<p>Honoré de Balzac is most often celebrated for his realist fiction, but what is less well-known is that he also had philosophical aspirations, and published numerous analytical works which have largely been overlooked by French-English translators. One such work, Traité des excitants modernes, traces the societal impact of five commonly-used stimulants: tea, sugar, coffee, alcohol, tobacco. It was first published in 1839 as an appendix to the cornerstone gastronomic work, Physiologie du goût, by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. The translation, “Treatise on Modern Stimulants,” will give readers a rare insight into life in Balzac’s Paris in the 1800s, a city which was undergoing a revolution culturally, politically and within the scientific fields. Balzac’s treatise is delicately balanced between science and satire, and includes anecdotes about the author overindulging in coffee, cigarettes and alcohol. Further, it sketches out Balzac’s beliefs about the impact of diet on reproduction, and he cites stimulants as one of the causes of degeneration and decline in France. The accompanying commentary examines the context of the work, and presents new ideas about the way in which the essay was written and why. Importantly, it also discusses the challenges of translating a historical work and explores whether translation can bridge the divide between generations, disciplines and cultures.</p>

Buddhist Homiletics on Grief

The study first introduces a hitherto completely unstudied anonymous work, for which I reconstruct the title *Saddharmaparikathā. This substantial text is a Buddhist homiletician’s guidebook with sample sermons in Sanskrit on a rich variety of topics. I argue that it dates from the 5th century and that it was possibly authored in a Saṃmatīya environment. I first discuss the unique manuscript transmitting the text, the structure and contents of the work, what information it can provide for the tradition of preaching and its importance for Buddhist studies. In the second half, I provide a sample chapter ‘On Grief’ with an annotated translation.

A Translation and Study of Chán Master Jìngxiū’s 淨修禪師 Preface to the Zǔtáng jí 祖堂集

This paper examines Chán master Jìngxiū’s preface to the original Zǔtáng jí in one scroll, which was presented to him by Jìng and Yún at the Zhāoqìng monastery in Quánzhōu around the mid-tenth century. Building on a recent TEI-based edition, it offers an annotated translation and comprehensive analysis of the preface, with special attention to its structure, linguistic features, and issues of intertextuality. The essay focuses on elements of textual history, the possible incentives behind the compilation of the Zǔtáng jí, and Jìngxiū’s perception of the text. Most importantly, this study investigates in detail two idiomatic expressions used by Jìngxiū (i.e., “[cases of] shuǐhè easily arise”; “[the characters] wū and mǎ are difficult to distinguish”), showing their significance for understanding the preface. In addition, we demonstrate that further research is needed to support the hypothesis according to which the original Zǔtáng jí would correspond to the first two fascicles of the received Goryeo edition of 1245. Eventually, this article serves as the first part of a research summary on the textual history of the Zǔtáng jí aimed at facilitating further studies on this highly important Chán text.

Chronicles of Bailundo: a fragmentary account in Umbundu of life before and after Portuguese colonial rule

Abstract‘Chronicles of Bailundo’ is a fragmentary account of life in Bailundo, Central Angola. The manuscript, whose authorship and exact date are unknown, is available at the archives of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) at Houghton Library, Harvard University. It was written in Umbundu, the vernacular spoken in Bailundo, by North American Congregational missionaries between 1903 and the 1930s. Although the source mentions no dates, it refers roughly to the period between the seventeenth century and the gradual establishment of Portuguese colonial rule and Christian missions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It gives access to both the Umbundu then spoken in Bailundo and the perspective of Umbundu-speaking subjects on what it was like to live in this polity. The source addresses socio-cultural, political and economic aspects of life in Bailundo as well as significant historical events, such as the Bailundo War (1902–03). The text in Umbundu, published as supplementary material with this article, has been transcribed, translated into Portuguese and English, and annotated. The version published following the main introduction of the article presents an annotated sample of the source in English. The full version, published as supplementary material, comprises the complete original in Umbundu, its complete annotated translation into English, and a complete annotated translation into Portuguese. The article addresses the authorship, contents, form and context of production of the source.