The Journal of the American Oriental Society articles from October 1999

The Journal of the American Oriental Society archives from October 1999

EMPIRICISM IN BABYLONIAN OMEN TEXTS AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF MESOPOTAMIAN DIVINATION AS SCIENCE.
October 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION: THE CLASSIFICATION OF BABYLONIAN DIVINATION AS SCIENCE THE STUDY OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN SCIENCE HAS been largely devoted to the reading and analysis of the many astronomical records, both observational and computational,...

A SHII-JEWISH "DEBATE" (MUNAZARA) IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.(Jewish-Muslim polemical literature)
October 1, 1999... THE HISTORY OF POLEMICS between Jews and Muslims still has a number of unexplored comers even if the basic framework and arguments used by both sides were largely formulated as early as two centuries after the advent of Islam, and have been...

THE FOURTH-CENTURY B.C. GUODIANN MANUSCRIPTS FROM CHUU AND THE COMPOSITION OF THE LAOTZYY.
October 1, 1999... I. THE GUODIANN TOMB COMPLEX THE GUODIANN "TOMB COMPLEX" is one of twenty tomb complexes that have been identified in the area of the Jihshan [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] mountains in Hwubeei province, nine kilometers north...

THE DOCTRINE OF THE THREE HUMORS IN TRADITIONAL INDIAN MEDICINE AND THE ALLEGED ANTIQUITY OF TAMIL SIDDHA MEDICINE.
October 1, 1999... 1. SIDDHA AND AYURVEDA THIS STUDY REALLY BEGAN IN 1968 at the Second World Tamil Conference in Madras, where the organizers had arranged for an exhibit of traditional Tamil medicine, with a large number of Siddha(1) practitioners...

CHRISTIAN PALESTINIAN ARAMAIC AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO THE WESTERN ARAMAIC DIALECT GROUP.
October 1, 1999... THE DIALECT KNOWN AS Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA), Syropalestinian Aramaic, or Melkite Aramaic (the latter term suggested and used by A. Desreumaux) has a significant place in Western Aramaic (WA), which is considered to belong to the...

ARTISANS AND MATHEMATICIANS IN MEDIEVAL ISLAM.
October 1, 1999... AN UNWIELDY BOOK LIKE THIS is often not intended to be read. To start with, its dimensions make it cumbersome: it is 26.75 inches long when opened flat, 11 inches high, and weighs close to ten pounds. You can not carry it easily in your hands...

REMARKS ON THE "PERSON OF AUTHORITY" IN THE DGA' LDAN PA / DGE LUGS PA SCHOOL OF TIBETIAN BUDDHISM.
October 1, 1999... TOM J. F. TILLEMANS, one of the foremost authorities on the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist logico-epistemological tradition (pramana, tshad ma) founded by Dignaga (fifth-sixth century) and Dharmakirti (sixth-seventh century), has been intrigued by the...

A Note on the Authenticity and Ideology of Shih-chi 24, "The Book on Music".
October 1, 1999... A Note on the Authenticity and Ideology of Shih-chi 24, "The Book on Music" Chapter 24 of the Ssu-ma Ch'ien's [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (c. 145-c. 86 B.C.) Shih-chi [CHINESE TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], the "Book on...

ADDENDUM TO JAOS 119.2.(Correction Notice)(Brief Article)
October 1, 1999... The figure below was inadvertently dropped from the Brief Communication, "On the Amenhotep III Inscribed Faience Fragments from Mycenae," by Christine Lilyquist (JAOS 119.2: 303-8). The editors and the compositor regret this oversight. ...

Le Papyrus Harris I (BM 9999).(Review)
October 1, 1999... Le Papyrus Harris 1 (BM 9999). By PIERRE GRANDET. Bibliotheque d'etude, vols. 109.1-2. Cairo: L'INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE DU CAIRE, 1994. Pp. xxxix + 342; xvi + 352, 80 plates. FF 600 (paper). Students of antiquity, so...

Testi amministrativi della III Dinastia di Ur dal Museo Statale Ermitage.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Testi amministrativi della III Dinastia di Ur dal Museo Statale Ermitage, San Pietroburgo, Russia. By FRANCO D'AGOSTINO. Materiali per il Vocabulario Neosumerico, vol. 20. Rome: BONSIGNORI EDITORE, 1997. Pp. 1 + 121. This new volume is...

Crossings: Early Mediterranean Contacts with India.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Crossings: Early Mediterranean Contacts with India. Edited by F. DE ROMANIS and A. TCHERNIA. New Delhi: MANOHAR, 1997. Pp. 283, illus. Rs 425, $34. This collection of essays on early Mediterranean contacts with South Asia is translated into...

A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah, vol. 2.(Review)
October 1, 1999... A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah, vol. 2. By WILLIAM MCKANE. The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Edinburgh: T. & T. CLARK, 1996. Pp. ix, cxxliii-clxxiv + 737 (659-1396)....

A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Hosea.(Review)
October 1, 1999... A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Hosea. By A. A. MACINTOSH. International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament. Edinburgh: T. & T. CLARK, 1997. Pp. xcix + 600. $69.95. The new commentary on Hosea, in the...

The Purity of Kingship: An Edition of CTH 569 and Related Hittite Oracle Inquiries of Tuthaliay IV.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Purity of Kingship: An Edition of CTH 569 and Related Hittite Oracle Inquiries of Tuthaliya IV. By THEO VAN DEN HOUT. Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui, vol. 25. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1998. Pp. xxi + 371. $86, HFl 146. When a...

The Legacy of Mesopotamia.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Edited by STEPHANIE DALLEY. Oxford: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1998. Pp. xviii + 227, maps, illus. $95. Stephanie Dalley is not only the editor of this book but also its main author, having written seven of the ten...

Inanna und [check{S}]ukaletuda: Zur historisch-politischen Deutung eines sumerischen Literaturwerkes.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Inanna und Sukatetuda: Zur historisch-politischen Deutung eines sumerischen Literaturwerkes. By KONRAD VOLK. Santag--Arbeiten und Untersuchungen zur Keilschriftkunde, vol. 3. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 1995. Pp. xv + 227, 9 plates. DM 98....

The Rise of Yahwism: The Roots of Israelite Monotheism.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Rise of Yahwism: The roots of Israelite Monotheism. Second edition. By J.C. DE MOOR . Leuven: PEETERS PRESS, 1997. Pp. xv + 445. With this study, J. C. de Moor makes an important contribution to the study of the origins of Israelite...

Die Personennamen der kassitenzeitlichen Texte aus Nippur.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Die Personenamen der kassitenzeitlichen Texte aus Nippur. By MONICA HOLSCHER. Imungla, vol. 1. RHEMA, 196. Pp. vii + 306. This systematic and updated collection of all the anthroponyms occurring in texts from Middle-Babylonian Nippur (fully...

Mittel[ddot{a}]gyptische Grundgramnwtik: Abri[beta] der mittel[ddot{a}]gyptischen Grammatik von Hellmut Brunner in Neubearbeitung.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Mittelagyptische Grundgrammatik: Abri[Beta] der mittelagyptischen Grammatik von Hellmut Brunner in Neubearbeitug. By BOYO OCKINGA. Mainz: VERLAG PHILIPP VON ZABERN, 1998. Pp. xi + 180 The seemingly elusive quest for the ideal Middle Egyptian...

Families in Ancient Israel.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Families in Ancient Israel. By LEO G. PERDUE, JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP, JOHN J. CLLINS, and CAROL MEYERS. The Family, Religion, ad Culture Series. Louisville: WESTMINSTER/ JOHN KNOX PRESS, 1997. Pp. xii + 285. $20. Four well-known scholars...

The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce. By ROSALIE DAVID. LONDON: ROUTLEDGE, 1996. Pp. x + 264. 12 illus., 32 plates. $19.95 (paper [cloth ed., 1986]). This paperback edition of a book first...

Die G[ddot{o}]ttin I[check{s}]hara: Ein Beitrag zur altorientalischen Religions-geschichte & Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old Testament.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Die Gottin Ishara: Ein Beitrag zur altorientalischen Religions-geschichte. By DORIS PRECHE. Abhanlungen zur Literatur Alt-Syrien-Palastinas und Mesopotamiens, vol. 11. Munster: UGARIT-VERLAG, 1996. Pp. xii + 248. DM 102. Asherah: Goddesses in...

No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel.(Review)
October 1, 1999... No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel. By ROBERT KARL GNUSE. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, vo. 241. Sheffield: SHEFFIELD ACADEMIC PRESS, 1997. Pp. [pounds sterling]47.50, $78. There has been an...

The Babylonian Theory of the Planets.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Babylonian Theory of the Planets. By N. M. SWERDLOW. Princeton: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1998. Pp. xv + 246. $39.50. It has been almost one hundred years since J. Epping, J. N. Strassmaier, and F. X. Kugler made the discovery that the...

The Coffin of Djedmonthuiufankh in the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, vol. 1: Technical and Iconographic/Iconological Aspects.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Coffin of Djedmonthuiufankh in the National Museum of Antiquities at Leiden, vo. 1: Technical and Iconographic/ Iconological Aspects. By RENE VAN WALSEM. Egyptologische Uitgaven. vol. 10. Leiden: NEDERLANDS INSTITUUT BOOR HET NABIJE OOSTEN,...

Sumerian Gods and their Representations.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Sumerian Gods and their Representations. Edited by I. L. FINKEL and M. J. GELLER. Cuneiform Monographs, vol. 7. Groningen: STYX PUBLICATIONS, 1997. Pp. ix + 249, illus., maps. HFI 150. While the majority of ancient Mesopotamian deities...

Gudea and His Dynasty.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Gudea and His Dynasty. By DIETZ OTTO EDZARD. The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods, vol. 3.1. Toronto: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS, 1997. Pp. xvii + 233. [pounds sterling]113. $150. The history of later third millennium (B.C.)...

L'Accadico di Emar.(Review)
October 1, 1999... L'Accadico di Emar. By STEFANO SEMINARA. Materiali per il Vocabolario Sumerico, vol. 6. Rome: UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA "LA SAPIENZA," 1998. Pp. 644. Anyone with an interest in the texts written in what is widely called "Western...

Onomasticon of the Hittite Pantheon.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Onomasticon of the Hittite Pantheon By BEN H. L. AN GESSEL, Two volumes. Handbook of Oriental Studies: The Near and Midle East, vol. I.33. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1998. Pp. xxiii + xv + 1069. HF1 434.50. $256. This expensive two-volume set is...

Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts. By JOAN GOODNICK WESTENHOLZ. Mesopotamian Civilizations, vol. 7. Winona Lake, Ind.: EISENBRAUNS, 1997. Pp xiii + 410. $54.50. This volume is an edition and commentary on twenty-five Akkadian texts...

The Laws of the Hittites: A Critical Edition.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The laws of the Hittites: A Critical Edition. By HARRY ANGIER HOFFNER, JR. Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui, vol. 23. New York: E. J. BRILL, 1997. Pp. xx + 362, 10 plates, HF1 233, $145.75. In 1959 a critical edition of the Hittite...

Devotional Islam and Politics in British India: Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and His Movement, 1870-1920.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Devotional Islam and Politics in British India: Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi and His Movement, 1870-1920. By USHA SANYAL. Delhi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. Pp. 365 $48. In the second half of the nineteenth century Muslim religious scholars...

The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Gulf.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Gulf. By NATHAN J. BROWN. Cambridge Middle East Studies, vol. 6. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. Xvii + 258. $59.95. Some might consider that this work is actually...

Master and Disciple: The Cultural Foundations of Moroccan Authoritarianism.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Master and Disciple: The Cultural Foundations of Moroccan Authoritarianism. By ABDULLAH HAMMOUDI. Chicago: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 1997. Pp. xxiv + 195. $38 (cloth); $13.95 (paper) Abdullah Hammoudi's Master and Disciple weaves...

The Quran as Text.(Review)
October 1, 1999... The Qur an as Text. Edited by STEFAN WILD. Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science: Texts and Studies, vol. 27. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1996. Pp. xi + 298. This collection, its editor notes, aspires to be "a worthy sequel" to the earlier...

Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Interpreting Islam: Bandali Jawzi's Islamic Intellectual History. By TAMARA SONN. OXFORD and New York: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996. Pp. xi + 206. $39.95. This book is primarily a translation, with introduction and notes, of Bandali...

Mi Fu: Style and the Art of Calligraphy in Northern Song China.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Mi Fu: Style and the Art of Calligraphy in Northern Song China. By PETER CHARLES STURMAN. New Haven: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. xi + illus. $35. Calligraphy has traditionally been given pride of place in the hierarchy of the arts in...

Formations of Ritual: Colonial and Anthropological Discourses on the Sinhala Yaktovil.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Formations of Ritual: Colonial and Anthropological Discourses on the Sinhala Yaktovil. By DAVID SCOTT. Minneapolis: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, 1994. Pp. xxxi + 300. $21.95. Yaktovil, a Sinhala Buddhist "healing ritual," widely practiced...

Essays on Vaisnavism in Bengal.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Essays on Vaisnavism in Bengal. By RAHUL PETER DAS. Calcutta: FIRMA KLM PRIVATE LIMITED, 1997. Pp. Rs 220. Of the four essays collected in this slim volume, the first two-- "Of Worlds and Times" and "The Origins of Caitanya's Vaisnavism in...

Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravda Tradition.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition. By KEVIN TRAINOR. Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions, vol. 10. Cambridge: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS,1998. Pp. xiv + 223. $54.95. ...

Aceh: Art and Culture.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Aceh: Art and Culture. By HOLLY S. SMITH. Kuala Lumpur: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. xi + 75. $24.95. There can be few parts of Indonesia that exhibit a greater or a more colorful diversity of historical influence than Aceh, fewer...

Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th Centuries.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th Centuries. By ALLYN MINER. Performing Arts Series, vol. 7. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 1997. Pp. 265. Rs 325 (cloth); Rs 195 (paper) Although appreciated for some time by a small number of connoisseurs...

Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Veda ad Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture. By BARBARA HOLDREGE. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 1996. Pp. xiii + 765. $19.95 (paper). Veda and Torah is a large volume which takes on a very large project, the...

Traditional Jewelry of India.(Review)
October 1, 1999... Traditional Jewelry of India. By OPPI UNTRACHT. NEW YORK: HARRY N. ABRAMS, 1997. Pp. 432. $85. There are books that are so beautiful that the reviewer, while looking at their pictures time and again, forgets to review the work. That is what...