July 5, 1872.]
ASIATIC SOCIETIES.
he advanced is marked by the intersection of Long.
95° and Lat. 27°, or the districts east of Sibsagar and Nazirah. In the expedition to Rakhang (Ara kan), which was undertaken immediately after Mír Jumlah's death, the most southern part which the Mughuls reached, is Rāmū or Rumbá, half way be tween Châtgānw (Chittagong) and Akyab. Beyond these two points the Muhammadans did not ad Vance.
Mr. Blochmann has collected all notes regarding Koch Bihār, Koch Hájo (the “kingdom of Azo' of early European travellers in India) and Asām, from the Akbarnāmah, the Tuzuki Jahāngirí, and the Pádishāhnāmah. He then gives a free translation of the Fathiyah i' Ibriyah, or, as the book is some times called, Tarikh i Fath i Asham (Conquest of Asām), in 1662 by Mir Jumlah. The author of this work, a native of Persia, was a clerk in the employ of Mír Jumlah, and wrote the book in 1662-63, be cause the official reporters, in Mír Jumlah's opinion,
did not send correct accounts of the progress of the expedition to court. The author of the A'lamgir mamah appears to have used the Fathiyah i Ibriyah for his history. . Shiháb's work contains many interesting remarks on Asām and the Asamese, and on several of the aboriginal tribes. The book ends with the death of Mír Jumlah, on the 2nd Ramazán, 1073, at Khizr pár was Dháká.
found vestiges of an ancient surrounding wall and 24 fragments of inscriptions. He left Saná, and for three days explored the beautiful plains of Rauda, Zubeyrāt, and Rahaba, forming part of the Beled-Hårith, where he found some fragments of inscriptions. At Sirwāh, a large ruin in the territory of Beni Jebr (Khaulān), a day's journey to the west of Mareb, he found a great number of Steles, part standing and others overturned, and bearing long inscriptions. The principal colonnade is called by the Arabs 'Arsh Bilgis—' the throne of Bilgis,” the supposed Queen of Saba, which tradition makes the wife of Solomon. Here and on a hill near by, he secured parts of 21 inscriptions, but after his arrival at Shirā’ in the territory of the Beni Arhab, he was imprisoned by the Sheikh, who confounded him with a personage passing himself off as the Messiah among the Jews of Yemen. He was, however, set at liberty, and found Shirá to abound in Sabean monuments, though very many of the inscriptions have already perished through the care lessness of the inhabitants who largely prepare lime and burn whatever stones fall into their hands.
From this place he obtained 25 inscriptions and portions. His next halt was at El-Medid in Beled Nehm, fully a day's journey east of Saná, in the neighbourhood of which he found many inscriptions.
The vicinity of this place forms the rallying point for the nomad tribes, who bring their flocks to
graze at certain times of the year. Journal Asiatique, No. 68, Jan. 1872. This first part of tome XIX. is chiefly occupied with the “Report on an Archaeological Mission to Yemen,' by M. Joseph Halévy. The Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, having presented a scheme for the publication of a Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum to the Minister of Public Instruction,
M. Halévy was charged with a mission to seek for and copy the Sabean or Himyaritic inscriptions in Yemen.
From Aden he proceeded first to Hodeyda, whence he started for the Sefān, one of the three provinces governed by the Dái, a viceroy of the race of the Makārémés, the religious and political chiefs of Nejrán, who have made large conquests in Arabia during the last two centuries. After much dan gerous investigation in this Arabic Switzerland he was disappointed in finding a single veritable
Himyaritic inscription. On arriving at Saná he fell ill, and was confined to his couch for a month. Saná, he says, is the most beautiful and most char acteristic city of Arabia. It is half in ruins. The quarter Bir Azeb, where were the pleasure houses and gardens of the late imām, as well as the famous Qasr Ghumdān, contain almost no inhabitants, and have been despoiled of inscriptions. Some stones in certain buildings and on the chief gates of the city had inscriptions, mostly very short, of which he enumerates twelve. At Ghāymān, five hours S.E. from Sána in the territory of Beni Bahlul, he
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The district
between Awdián and Jauf is dangerous and arid, and M. Halévy had some difficulty in obtaining a guide, and had to content himself with an Arab of no reputation, who from the inoffensive ap
pearance of the traveller and his assumed character of a Qudsi (inhabitant of Jerusalem) was rather won towards him. On the way they passed many ruins destroyed by the Arabs, and called 'Adiyyāt— belonging to the 'Ad, an ancient people to whom are attributed all the ante-islamic buildings. The Arabs see in the advanced arts of the ancients a
sign of pride and rebellion against heaven ; so that in place of being pleased to have for their ancestors so civilized a people, the inhabitants of Yemen are vain enough to consider themselves as the true descendants of Ishmael, and he who would dare to tell an Arab he was sprung from 'Ad might pay for it with his life. Even the name of Himyar is hated in the country, and the epithet Yehud Himyar—or Himyarite Jew, is the last insult that one of the faithful in his rage can level at the follower of Mo ses when he wishes to overwhelm him with oppro brium and shame. Near Jebel Yam he came upon many tombs; then he reached Wadi Saba, a cultiv able tract a day's march in width, on the confines of the great desert El-Ahqāf. At Mejzer he was asked by the Arabs if he had seen the stone called Hajarat el-Waqā‘a, which they believe is suspended in the air above the mosque of Omar. This stone descends insensibly but with in