Late Eighth Century Research Articles

Evidence for Hospitals in Early India

The article surveys the history of South Asian literature and epigraphy for reliable evidence regarding the existence of early hospitals. It explores the reasons that may account for the exclusion of South Asian data from international scholarship on the history of hospitals. The widely-repeated idea that King Aśoka built hospitals is refuted. Nevertheless, hospitals may be very early in India. It is suggested that scholarly medical literature on the building and equipping of a hospital was transmitted to Baghdad in the late eighth century and influenced the construction of early Islamic hospitals

A (Presumably Chinese) tantric scripture and its Japanese exegesis: the Yuqi Jing 瑜祇經 and the practices of the Yogin

ABSTRACT The Yuqi jing [Sūtra of the Yogin] is often listed as one of the most important scriptures of Tantric Buddhism in East Asia, but its content and contribution to the esoteric system have so far been little understood. Traditionally regarded as a translation by Vajrabodhi, it was probably compiled in China in the late eighth century. The role that it played in Chinese Buddhism, however, remains unclear. In medieval Japan on the other hand, the scripture appears to have been rediscovered and enjoyed great fortunes. Medieval interpreters intervened on the text by articulating novel conceptual associations, often expressed through curious imagery. At the same time, a new type of initiatory abhiṣeka informed by the sūtra emerged, which engendered a distinctive discourse on the yogic identities pursued by a tantric practitioner. What spurred such sudden interest in the Yuqi jing in medieval Japan? What did Japanese exegetes read into the text? This article addresses these issues by exploring ‘canonical’ commentaries and unpublished initiatory documents that have recently come to light in temple archives.

Sharwīn of Dastabay: Reconstructing an early Persian Tale

AbstractThe 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.

Isaiah 19


 
 
 This essay dates portions of the “Burden of Egypt” prophecy in Isaiah 19 to the Neo-Assyrian period, based on its borrowing of motifs from Assyrian royal inscriptions. These include the unique motif of the establishment of a monument on the border with Egypt and Assyrian attempts to dominate Egypt by controlling its trade. The essay also demonstrates the dependence of parts of Isaiah 19 on material in Exodus 1–15, integrating specific phrases from these Exodus chapters with motifs known to us from Assyrian royal inscriptions. This integration could only have taken place during the Assyrian period (late eighth–early seventh centuries), and this has obvious implications for the dating of the Exodus text.
 The essay understands the prophecy as a re-envisioning of the Assyrian campaign of 734, part of which was directed at Egypt. In this re-envisioned campaign, YHWH Himself is directing the Assyrian attack (Isa. 19:1–4) on Egypt. The essay focusses on 19:19–25, which describe how the Egyptians suffer as a result of the Assyrian attack. In their despair, they acknowledge the sovereignty of YHWH. This recognition is based on the Assyrian model of recognizing the Assyrian king as universal sovereign, and the monument described in v. 22 is based on the monument established by the Assyrians on the Egyptian border. The behavior of the Egyptians in vv. 20–22 provokes the unique theological statements of vv. 23–25, in which Egypt and Assyria join Israel in the triad blessed by YHWH.
 This passage demonstrates Isaiah’s use of a sort of “replacement theology” in which the universal sovereignty of YHWH is imagined and described based on Assyrian claims of universal dominion.
 
 

Wandalgarius’ Letters of the Law: Figural Initials and Book Culture in the Late Eighth Century

Abstract Long sidelined by art historians, the Wandalgarius Codex is a compendium of legal texts dated to 793 that represents an early venture in a trend associated with the 790s: populating initial letters with lively figures. This article centers the Wandalgarius Codex in discussion of experimental book illumination in the late eighth century. The decade saw re-definition of the visual organization of books, the uses illumination could serve, and the ways manuscripts in many genres reflected and shaped projects of education and reform. The essay sets Wandalgarius’ approach to initials in conversation with the well-known Gellone Sacramentary, and investigates the scribe-draftsman’s characterization of his own work as an ambitious contemporary book-maker.

Vernacular languages in the long ninth century: towards a connected history

ABSTRACT Before the late eighth century, with a few exceptions (epigraphy, the languages of the Caucasus and the North-Western Isles), little had been written in Europe in languages other than Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The long ninth century saw this monopoly of the ‘three sacred languages’ shaken and challenged: several vernacular languages (Celtic, Germanic and Slavonic, but also, if to a lesser extent, Romance) appeared in writing for the first time and others developed in significant ways. This paper, introducing this special issue on Vernacular Languages in the Long Ninth Century, starts with an assessment of the linguistic situation of Europe before the changes began; it goes on with a summary of the main developments known to have taken place in the long ninth century; it then addresses their possible connections and observable entanglements and identifies the conditions that allowed the emergence and the sustained flourishing of written vernaculars.

Fragmentation and Reassembly: Decoration, Technique, and Meaning at an Early Islamic Platform

Diverse plants, animals, humans, and supernatural hybrids decorate the paving stones of an early Islamic reservoir platform in the Azraq oasis, Jordan. Built for an unknown Umayyad-era patron in the late seventh or early eighth century, the platform is typically eclectic in its iconography but features an unusual composition adapted from Roman-Byzantine zodiac diagrams and unprecedented “jigsaw-puzzle” interlocking masonry. The stone pieces of this Umayyad puzzle echo the rhetoric of political and cosmic fragmentation and reassembly that appears in early Arabic poetry and chronicles, suggesting that Umayyad patrons and builders articulated meaning through technique as well as composition and content.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the Southwest: Imperial Domination and Its Consequences

The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the Southwest: Imperial Domination and Its Consequences

The Lion Stamp Impressions from Judah: Typology, Distribution, Iconography, and Historical Implications. A Preliminary Report

We examine here the typology, distribution, iconography and the historical-cultural implications of seal impressions depicting a lion as a lone motif stamped on handles of storage-jars from Judah. These seals were part of an administrative-economic network run by the governing authorities of Judah during the Babylonian rule and in the early phase of the Persian-Achaemenid rule of Judah. The type of storage jars and the very habit of stamping handles on such containers continued as a local administrative practice attested from the late eighth century to the second century in Judah. The current corpus is comprised of some 136 jar handles, a majority of which were found at Ramat Raḥel. Most stamped impressions were uncovered in hill country sites around Ramat Raḥel, Jerusalem, and Nebi-Samwil. They were stamped by ten types of actual seals that are divided thematically to three major groups. The lions represented on these thematic sealings’ types alluded to Yahweh and most probably served as a stand-in of the god of Israel worshiped in Jerusalem.

Towards a Reassessment of Indrabhuti’s Jnanasiddhi

This article argues for the reassessment of Indrabhuti’s Jnanasiddhi in the light of newly discovered primary witnesses and previously unnoticed relations to other works. Presumably composed in the late eighth to early ninth century CE, it belongs to the earlier phase of Tantric Buddhism, a transitional period between the predominance of the Yoga- and Mahayogatantras to the later Yoginitantras, and relates to a variety of important scriptures of this formation. While this article briefly discusses the origins, authorship, contents and context of the Jnanasiddhi, including a brief overview of its modern scholarship, it also highlights its intertextual relations with and notable influences upon other tantric works of major importance. The Jnanasiddhi stands out as a tantric scripture of paramount importance, and we attempt to demonstrate the necessity of its reassessment with recourse to hitherto neglected but nonetheless vital sources that have only recently come to light.

Early Shiʿi Kufan Traditionists’ Perspective on the Rightly Guided Caliphs


 
 
 This article revisits a widely accepted yet unsubstantiated trajectory of early Kufan Zaydi history, namely, that with ʿAlī recognized as the fourth rightly guided caliph by the proto-Sunni traditionists, represented by Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal (d. 241/855), the Batri traditionists were Sunnified. Analysis of Safīna’s hadith transmission and the transmitters of the first four caliphs’ virtues suggests that the four-caliphs thesis was likely circulated in Kufa by the late eighth century and that Kufan traditionists of various sectarian persuasions played an important role in its formation . This paper argues that the Kufan Shiʿi traditionists came to identify with their tradition- ist townspeople as a result of shared qualities and mutual enemies. By revisiting a narrative that is often taken for granted, this study proffers new insights into the formation of a defining Sunni doctrine—the four-caliphs thesis—as well as the transformation of the Kufan Shiʿis .
 
 

Ceramic Fragments with Christian Graffiti from Mediaeval Burials in the Crimea

The thirteenth and fourteenth century Christian burials in the the south-western Crimea and Sudak contained the fragments of wheel-made vessels and building ceramic ware showing the graffiti drawn on baked clay in the form of a simple cross (type 1), a cross with two-line formula “IC XC NIKA” (type 2) inscribed between the arms, or the formula “IC XC NIKA” written in one line (type 3). These graffiti were applied to ceramic shards specifically for burials; the finds of this kind are not known in cultural layers of the settlements. The graffiti of type 1 replaced underwear crosses worn during the human’s life and served as apotropaic amulets for the dead. In the graves, they were placed under the lower jaw, at the neck or head of the deceased person. The formula “IC XC NIKA” is a partially abbreviated form of the Greek “Ἰησοῦς Χριστòς νίκα” (“Jesus Christ, conquer”) or “ Ἰησοῦς Χριστòς νίκᾷ” (“Jesus Christ conquers”). It is accepted that this formula first appeared in 720 on the coins of Leo III and his son Constantine IV and proclaimed the victory of the Byzantines over the Arabs under the protection of Christ and His Cross. Later on, imperial connotations of triumph and victory gave way to a more modest prayer for help and protection from the forces of evil. In the Crimea, the formula “IC XC NIKA” occurred from the late eighth century in building inscriptions, on architectural details, tombstones, and individual worship objects. From the thirteenth century on, the formula “IC XC NIKA” combined with a cross or independently appeared in burials: on slabs placed vertically at the eastern end of the grave so that the face of the deceased was turned to the image, or on ceramic shards that covered the mouth or neck of the deceased. The artefacts featuring this image were placed mainly in the burials of untimely departed persons: children, teenagers, or those who suffered from serious illnesses during their lifetime. The rite of placing ceramic fragments with Christian graffiti into burials for protection and scaring away evil spirits is documented in the Crimea in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, though in Byzantium it appeared from the tenth century on.

Poems on Painting from the High Tang to Later Tang Periods

That the practice of inscribing poems on paintings was brought to new prominence during the High Tang period is a well-known aspect of literary history. That poets’ ways of treating paintings in poems changed again in the late eighth and ninth centuries is a less well-known development. This article looks at that change and analyzes several of its manifestations, including new treatments of the “illusion” of painting, the relationship of the painter to his art, and the relationship of painting to poetry. Also briefly discussed is the new closeness between the poets of the later period and the painters they wrote about. Several of these changes anticipate the emergence of “literati painting” in the Northern Song period and allow us to see the later Tang period as an important transitional bridge between poetic treatments of painting before and after it.

Historical Earthquake Scenarios for the Middle Strand of the North Anatolian Fault Deduced from Archeo-Damage Inventory and Building Deformation Modeling

Abstract The city of İznik (ancient Nicaea), located on the middle strand of the North Anatolian fault zone (MNAF), presents outstanding archeological monuments preserved from the Roman and Ottoman periods (first to fifteenth centuries A.D.), bearing deformations that can be linked to past seismic shaking. To constrain the date and intensity of these historical earthquakes, a systematic survey of earthquake archeological effects (EAEs) is carried out on the city’s damaged buildings. Each of the 235 EAEs found is given a quality ranking, and the corresponding damage is classified according to the European Macroseismic Scale 1998 (EMS-98). We show that the walls oriented north–south were preferentially damaged, and that most deformations are perpendicular to the walls’ axes. The date of postseismic repairs is constrained with available archeological data and new C14 dating of mortar charcoals. Three damage episodes are evidenced: (1) between the sixth and late eighth centuries, (2) between the nineth and late eleventh centuries A.D., and (3) after the late fourteenth century A.D. The repartition of damage as a function of building vulnerability points toward a global intensity VIII on the EMS-98. The 3D modeling of a deformed Roman obelisk shows that only earthquakes rupturing the MNAF can account for this deformation. Their magnitude can be bracketed between Mw 6 and 7. Our archeoseismological study complements the historical seismicity catalog and confirms paleoseismological data, suggesting several destructive earthquakes along the MNAF, since the first century A.D. We suggest the fault might still have accumulated enough stress to generate an Mw 7+ rupture.

The Zuqnin Chronicle as Evidence of Vernacular Aramaic in Eighth-Century Northern Mesopotamia

Abstract This article examines a Syriac historiographical writing of the late eighth century—the so-called Zuqnin Chronicle, or the Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Maḥre—and certain lexical features that are found at the end of the work. It is argued that these lexical items were drawn into the chronicle from a colloquial Aramaic language spoken in the vicinity of Amid, and that this colloquial variant is linked with the Neo-Aramaic language Turoyo. In addition, the article offers a methodology for identifying colloquial Aramaic words in the corpus of Classical Syriac literature.

Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah

Archaeology and History of Eighth-Century Judah

The adoption of cattle pastoralism in the Arabian Peninsula: A reappraisal

AbstractThe translocation of livestock into the Arabian Peninsula was underway by the sixth millennium BC. It remains unclear, however, whether nascent pastoralism in Arabia focused on specialised cattle herding, intensive caprine husbandry, or more extensive forms of sheep, goat and cattle management. Here, the role of Bos in Neolithic animal exploitation systems in the Arabian Peninsula is re‐examined in the context of fisher‐hunter‐gatherer groups inhabiting the coasts of the Arabian Gulf, agro‐pastoralist settlements located in the Jordanian highlands, and hunter‐herder communities in adjacent Jordanian steppe (badia). By the late sixth millennium BC, cattle from southern Mesopotamia were imported to the Arabian littoral via Ubaid exchange networks but remained a relatively unimportant part of local hunter‐gatherer‐herder subsistence for at least a millennium. New zooarchaeological evidence indicating cattle herding in the Jordanian highlands by the late eighth millennium BC suggests a southern transmission route originating out of Late Pre‐Pottery Neolithic B settlements and the subsequent spread of cattle along the Sarawat mountains into the interior or down the relatively arid Red Sea coast via land or boat. Cattle eventually played a central role in the symbolic and ritual lives of herders in southern Arabia, but the use of the term ‘cattle pastoralism’ to describe early Neolithic subsistence systems in the region is premature.

The Dipylon Mistress: Social and Economic Complexity, the Gendering of Craft Production, and Early Greek Ceramic Material Culture

This article considers the role of changing contexts of production in the evolution of ceramic material culture in early Greece. Rather than focusing on the aesthetics of ceramics or reading political and social change from patterns in ceramic style and consumption, we consider Early Iron Age (EIA) ceramic style in its context of production. Isolating the idiosyncratic aspects of EIA material culture and evaluating them in dialogue with the ethnographic record, we argue that dynamics of change in EIA ceramic repertoires may be best explained as the result of evolving contexts of production after the Bronze Age collapse that resulted in women having an increased and prominent role in potting and painting vessels. Likewise, stylistic changes occurring in the late eighth and seventh centuries BCE may be related to a transition back to a more complex economic structure in which ceramic style was driven by profit-seeking male potters.

Economic incentives for the Frankish conquest of Saxony

Contrary to received scholarly wisdom, this article argues that the Frankish conquest of Saxony under Charlemagne in the late eighth and early ninth centuries was driven in no small part by the pursuit of material wealth. Specifically, most scholars have viewed pre‐conquest Saxony as too materially impoverished for economic incentives to have played a significant role in Frankish expansion into the lands between the Rhine and the Elbe. However, a thorough review of the written and archaeological evidence suggests that Saxony had much to offer its Carolingian conquerors in the form of plunder and tribute, land and mineral resources, revenue from royal and ecclesiastical renders and taxation, and access to and control of trade routes.

Tears for Fears: Alienation and Authority in the World of Benedict of Aniane

In this article, we will take a closer look at the role played by the depiction of weeping and tears in the story of the conversion of Benedict of Aniane. According to his hagiography, Benedict, seen as one of the most important intellectuals at the Carolingian court in the late eighth and early ninth century, started his career as a secular aristocrat before undergoing an inner conversion and subsequently pursuing a monastic lifestyle. As presented by the contemporary hagiographer Ardo, the tears, rather than denoting any kind of ‘abnormal’ behaviour, were among the first external signs of this conversion. As such, they should be analysed not only in terms of the behaviour of a historical figure, but also as a narrative trope with many layers of meaning that would have presented themselves to a contemporary audience familiar with the same traditions as the author of Benedict’s vita. Rather than simply denoting the emotionality of the protagonist, they signalled the author’s concerns about the state of the world as well, and as such should be seen as a way of ‘normalising’ rather than exoticising Benedict’s conversion against the broader backdrop of Carolingian court culture in the early ninth century.