The Illustration of Mīrkhwānd's Rauḍat al-ṣafā, RAS Ms. P. 38

Among the precious manuscripts belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society is a copy of volume four of the Tārīkh-i Rauḍat al-ṣafā (History of the Garden of Purity), a work of ‘universal history’ in six volumes, compiled by Muḥammad b. Khwāndshāh b. Maḥmūd (d. 903/1498), generally known as Mīrkhwānd. He composed his chronicle in Herat under the patronage of ‘Alī Shīr Navā’ī (d. 906/1501), the Naqshbandi Sufi, Chaghatay poet and statesman at the court of the last Timurid ruler, Sulṭān-Ḥusain-i Bāyqarā (r. 875-912/1469-1506), see Fig. 1.

A Note on Sufi Snakes and Ladders

Among the diverse treasures of the Royal Asiatic Society are two early nineteenth century paper playing boards for the north Indian game of gyān caupar̩, the ‘Chaupar of Knowledge (Gnosis)’. This once popular game, played with dice or cowry shells, leads its players gradually up the board from hellish states or earthly vices to higher virtues and ultimately to heaven or liberation. It is known in various Jain and Hindu (mainly Vaiṣṇava) versions of the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries and a small handful of nineteenth century Muslim (or Sufi) examples. By the 1890s it also gave rise, in a simplified and denatured form, to the English children's game of Snakes and Ladders. One of the Society's boards is an ingenious 124-square version of the Vaiṣṇava form of gyān caupar̩, unique in its design and philosophical conception, whose inventor has been identified as the Brahmin scholar Thiruvenkatacharya Shastri. The Society's other board is a rare example of the 100-square Muslim form of gyān caupar̩ (Fig. 1), inscribed with Persian and Arabic square names that are loosely based around Sufi terms for the stages of the mystical path. I am here concerned with this form of the game and in particular with an expanded variant form of it that has recently come to light.

The Orchid Flora of Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir), Malaysia - 120 Years after Ridley

A comprehensive assessment on the orchid flora of Gunung Ledang, Johor, Malaysia was carried out from 2012 to 2018 with the aim to re-evaluate the presence of orchid species listed by Ridley in his “Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 35:1–28”, published in 1901, after more than 100 years. The relevant account for comparison is also listed, noting that Ridley’s historical collections were for the isolated group of hills commonly known as Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir), while the collated item in Orchidaceae is part of catalogues for the whole of Peninsular Malaysia. After Ridley, no account on the orchid flora of Gunung Ledang has been properly given, particularly from the uppermost peak of the mountain, where many interesting plants and orchids are to be found there. This study identified 26 species or 67% were the same as those recorded by Ridley (1901), and 65 species or 83% of Turner (1995) checklist of 270 species of orchids for the state of Malacca and Johor, including the common and widespread species to Peninsular Malaysia. By contribution, this paper provides an updated account on the diversity of orchids in Gunung Ledang, listing 122 species of orchids, of which eight are endemic to Peninsular Malaysia, two are hyper-endemic known only from Gunung Ledang, and 30 were recognised as new records. A comparison table of the current findings against Ridley (1901) and Turner (1995) is provided which shows only 16 species were the same in all three studies.

Edward William West and the Pahlavi codex MK

This article discusses some manuscripts copied and described by E. W. West in his Notebooks held at the Royal Asiatic Society, with special reference to the texts contained in the Pahlavi codex MK.

The Shanghai Museum and the introduction of taxidermy and habitat dioramas into China, 1874–1952

The Shanghai Museum, which was established by the primarily British and American expatriate-led North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1874 and continued to operate until 1952, had a major influence on the popularization of natural history knowledge in China. It contributed to training the first generation of Chinese taxidermists, many descendants of whom continue even today to hold positions in academic institutions related to natural history in the country. Moreover, the Museum's habitat dioramas, in particular, played a significant role in raising public awareness about environmental issues among local and foreign residents of Shanghai. This paper traces the salient aspects of the Museum's history, focusing on the key individuals involved in its development and the contributions that it made to the production, dissemination and popularization of natural history knowledge and techniques.

An Illustrated Shiʿi Pilgrimage Scroll in the Collections of the Royal Asiatic Society

The collections of the Royal Asiatic Society hold an illustrated pilgrimage scroll apparently dating from the first half of the nineteenth century. The scroll's hand painted images relate to the journey that a pious Shiʿi Muslim would have undertaken after the performance of the pilgrimage to Mecca. Its visual narrative continues, first to Medina and then to the Shiʿi sanctuaries in present-day Iraq, concluding in the Iranian city of Mashhad at the sanctuary of the eighth imam of the Twelver-Shiʿi creed, imam Riḍā (d. 818). The scroll was likely prepared in the early nineteenth century and acquired by the Royal Asiatic Society from its unknown previous owner sometime after 1857. In terms of chronology the pilgrimage scroll fits neatly into the period between the Niebuhr scroll, bought in Karbala in 1765, and a lithographed item most likely dating from the latter half of the nineteenth century, both of which depict a corresponding journey. The present essay's initial survey of the scroll's visual dimension, by Ulrich Marzolph, adds hitherto unknown details to the history of similar objects. The concluding report, by Mathilde Renauld, sheds light on the scroll's material condition and the difficulties encountered during the object's conservation and their solution.

The (Mis)Representation of Reality: ‘Knowledge’ and Image-Making in Glass Lantern Slides of China

The Royal Asiatic Society in London houses a collection of magic lantern slides of China dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By investigating a selection of lantern slides, this article explores their epistemological nature and their wider relations to socio-cultural and political systems of power. These lantern slides highlight the complexity of our ways of seeing and representing that are embedded into particular historical and ideological systems in which meaning is both shaped and negotiated. This article argues that images are powerful conduits in disseminating and, if unchallenged, maintaining particular notions and ideas.

Koleksi Raffles Dari Jawa: Bukti Dari Eropa Tentang Sebuah Peradaban

Stamford Raffles was promoted to Lieutenant Governor of Java when the island was taken from the Dutch by the British East India Company in 1811 as part of the Napoleonic warsin Europe. During Raffles’ years on Java, he collected substantial cultural materials,among others are; theatrical objects, musical instruments, coins and amulets, metal sculpture, and drawings of Hindu- Buddhist buildings and sculpture. European interest inantiquities explains the ancient Hindu- Buddhist material in Raffles’s collection, but thetheatrical objects were less understood easily. This essay explored Raffles’ s collecting practices, addressing the key questions of what he collected and why, as well as what were the shape of the collection can tell us about him, his ideas and beliefs, his contemporaries, and Java, including interactions between colonizers and locals. I compared the types of objects in the collections with Raffles’ writings, as well as the writings of his contemporaries on Java and Sumatra in the British Library and the Royal Asiatic Society. Raffles was one of the first people to apply the enlightenment notion of systematic collecting to cultural material, but his collections were not systematized by Javanese standards, indicating his incomplete understanding of the local culture. Instead, the objects demonstrated that Raffles chose items considered indicative of civilization according to European ideas, assembling objects to support his argument in favor of Java as a remaining of a British colony, as well as to promote his own image as a scholar- official.