W B Henning
Biographic Data
| ID | 699628 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W B Henning |
| GIVEN NAMES | W B |
| FAMILY NAME | Henning |
| SIGNATURE | HENNING W B |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 86 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 93 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 86 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1937 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Selected Papers 1: (Hommages et Opera minora, 5)
The ‘Coin’ with Cuneiform Inscription
The Ancient Language of Azerbaijan
The Name of the “Tokharian” Language
The Kurdish Elm
A Bactrian Seal-Inscription
Plates
Gabae
The Survival of an Ancient Term
The Manichrean Fasts
Die Älteste Persische Gedichthandschrift: Eine Neue Version von Barlaam und Joasaph
The Monuments and Inscriptions of Tang-I Sarvak
The Khwarezmian Language
The Sogdian Texts of Paris
A New Parthian Inscription
Two Manichæan Magical Texts with an Excursus on the Parthian Ending - Ēnaēh
Oktō(U)
A Grain of Mustard
The Structure of the Khwarezmian Verb
A Forgotten a Vest an Word
The Bactrian Inscription
Two Central Asian Words
‘Surkh Kotal’
Preliminary Material
The Murder of the Magi
The Date of the Sogdian Ancient Letters
The Sogdian "Ancient Letters", no doubt one of the most important of Sir Aurel Steins many finds, have been attributed to the middle of the second century of our era, on the strength of archaeological evidence (Serindia, ii, 671 sqq.). Their editor, H. Reichelt, expressed a mild doubt (Die Soghdischen Handschriftenreste des Britischen Museums, ii, p. 6), and so did Pelliot in his review of Reichelts edition (Toung Pao, xxviii, 1931, 457-463). If …
A new Parthian Inscription
The scantiness of Parthian inscribed material enhances the importance of any new find. The existence of inscriptions and drawings on the rock-walls of a gorge near Birjand (Southern Khorasan) had been known for some time; but their antiquity was not recognized until Mr. Jamal Rezai, a Persian student from Birjand, visited the gorge and took photographs, which he submitted to Dr. Sadiq Kiya, of the University of Tehran. Dr. Kiya at once correctly …
The Murder of the Magi
When the Persians, led by Darius, had slain Gaumāta the Magian and a great number of his colleagues (. . . ἔκτεινον κου τιν μάγον εὕρισκον), they instituted an annual feast to remind the Magians of their humiliation: it was called τά μαγοφόνια (Herodotus, iii, 79), or μαΥοφονία (Ctesias, epit. Photii 15, § 46 ed. Gilmore). Gilmore (p. 149 n.) wisely remarked that “the agreement of Herodotus and Ctesias makes it impossible to doubt the existence o…
The Sogdian Texts of Paris
It would be a happier occasion to be able to announce the completion of the publication of all the Sogdian manuscripts that Sir Aurel Stein and M. Paul Pelliot secured from the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" at Tun-huang, were not this consummation overshadowed by the death of P. Pelliot, who has now followed Sir Aurel Stein after so brief an interval. The Sogdian MSS., which he entrusted to the care of the Bibliothèque Nationale, were believed …
A Pahlavi Poem
The study of the Pahlavi poetry, so spiritedly initiated by M. Benveniste twenty years ago, seems to have come to a dead end. That certain Pahlavi texts, as the Ayādgār-ī Zarērān or the Draxt-ī Asūrīg (the Dispute of the date-palm with the goat), are poems, is conceded on all sides; but the formal problems, the problems of rhythm, metre, and rhyme, remain in the dark. It seems doubtful whether the material at hand is capable of leading us to defi…
Two Manichæan Magical Texts with an Excursus on The Parthian ending -ēndēh
It is surprising that the Manichaean religion did not become altogether submerged in the slime of witchcraft and sorcery. There were countless demons to be warded off and nearly as many divine and semi-divine beings that could be invoked. Mani, it is true, had regarded his " gods " as hardly more than exponents of particular functions of the Godhead, and had been conscious of the inadequacy of the anthropomorphic terms he had ill-advisedly employ…
Sogdian Tales
The röle which the Manichæans played in the migration of tales and fables from East to West and West to East has received much attention in recent years, but next to nothing has been published of the abundant Iranian material which was found in Chinese Turkestan. The present collection of Sogdian stories, taken (with the possible exception of text J) from Manichæan manuscripts, is meant to close this gap. These stories are also of some interest f…
An Astronomical Chapter of the Bundahishn
A Translation and full explanation of the complete recension of the Bundahishn have been wanted ever since Anklesaria in 1908 published his facsimile edition, the few Iranian scholars having been occupied with the endless stream of fresh material that has descended upon them since the beginning of this century. This article contains a translation of the second chapter; the first and third chapters were made available by Nyberg, JA. , 1929, i, 206…
"Argi and the "Tokharians
A Precious fragment amongst the treasures in the possession of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin contains a Sogdian "List of nations" (nāfnāmak), the edition of which I am preparing. Two names, however, call for a special study: (1) denoting a people in the Oxus-region, obviously the inhabitants of Toxāristān, and (2) 'rkcyk, mentioned immediately after Kāšγar, Khotan, and Kučā
A Spurious Folktale
Professor G. Vernadsky, well-known as an historian of ancient Russia, recently published an Ossetic folktale, which he had obtained from a Mr. Dzambulat Dzanty, an Ossete by birth, who in his turn stated that he had heard it (and written it down) in his youth, 'in the village of Great Iron (Bolshoe OsetinsJcoe) at the time of hay-making (xosgärdän), June, 1910', from an 'old white-bearded man' by name of Khulyx [] 'The Lame One', who 'was a poet …
A Sogdian Fragment of the Manichaean Cosmogony
As a good missionary and teacher Mani knew the value of repetition. With endless pains he had elaborated a story of the world, which was to explain all phenomena, of nature and the mind, that came within reach of his knowledge. Its comprehensiveness made it so complicated that it required-and still requiresa strong effort to remember all its details. t All the greater was the need to force it, by ceaseless repetition, into the minds of those who …
The Book of the Giants
Isaac De Beausobre, the Huguenot author of one of the best books ever written on Manichæism (Histoire critique de Manichée et du Mani cheïsme, Amsterdam, 1734, 1739), was the one to make the only sound suggestions on the sources used by Mani for the compilation of his Book of the Giants: the Book of Enoch, and the which Kenan, a great-grandson of Noah, discovered lying in a field (vol. i, 429, n. 6). The latter work has been indentified by Alfari…
A Farewell to the Khaǵan of the Aq-Aqatärān
Perhaps the most exotic among the many strange kings and rulers mentioned in the inscription of Paikuli is the Khagan of the Aq-Aqatärān or 'White Khazars'. This is the meaning which the late E. Herzfeld, in his edition of that inscription, attributed to a group of words in the Middle Persian version which he read as ḥ'k'n ZY 'kka'n. As the inscription dates from the last decade of the 3rd century (probably from A.d. 293), his interpretation seem…
A Sogdian god
The argument to be presented here proceeds from the analysis of a Sogdian word of uncertain orthography and disputed meaning. It first occurred, as by' / npšqty (apparently with word-division), in Soghd. Texte, I, 39.4, in a translation of Luke xii, 36, corresponding with Syriac bed meštūoā = (ÉK) Tŵv yáuwv; Müller gave 'Gastmahl', with an asterisk to denote his doubt. Later I published two Manichaean passages. One, hi the text I titled 'A Job st…
The Bactrian Inscription
The long-awaited Greek-letter inscription discovered, on 6 May 1957, by the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan in the course of their excavations at 'Surkh-Kotal', the ancient Bagolango, has now been made public by M. André Maricq under the title of 'La grande inscription de Kaniṣka et l'étéo-tokharien, l'ancienne langue de la Bactriane', JA, CCXLVI, 4, 1958, 345-440. It is wonderfully well-preserved and, once one gets accustomed t…
The Manichæan Fasts
In an excursus to his article on “The Early Sasanians” in BSOAS. , xi, 42 sqq., S. H. Taqizadeh has given a full and illuminating discussion of the Manichæan two-day fasts which preceded the feast of the Bema . All hitherto known about these fasts is contained in a passage in the K. al-Fihrist , 333, 28–334, 1, which runs as follows:— As regards the fasting— (1) when the sun is in Sagittarius and the moon is full, they fast two days without break…
Mani's Last Journey
The most detailed account of Mani's last days is contained in the Coptic “Narrative on the Crucifixion” (Polotsky, Man. Hom ., pp. 42 sqq.). As I had occasion to point out before, this “Narrative” had been quoted by the Christian Jibrā'īl b. Nūḥ in his anti-Alanichaean book which was still available to al-Bērūnī ( Chronology , 208 19–22 ). During the brief reign of King Hormizd Mani went to Babylonia, where he stayed until the accession of Bahram…
Sogdian Loan-words in New Persian
It is well known what an extraordinary power of absorbing foreign words Persian possesses. In addition to the innumerable Arabic words which since the creation of the New Persian literary language have formed an integral part of Persian speech, we have a fair number of Aramaic words 1 on the one hand, and of Eastern Iranian words on the other; in later times, there is also considerable borrowing from Turkish. It is, I think, proper to regard East…
A List of Middle-Persian and Parthian words
As the publication of the Manichæan fragments in the possession of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften will necessarily take some more years, it may be found useful at present to make the linguistic material contained in those texts available to students of Iranian languages. The following list of words which are not yet attested in the texts hitherto published, is offered as a contribution to this aim. Out of the materials made known up …
A List of Middle-Persian and Parthian words
As the publication of the Manichæan fragments in the possession of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften will necessarily take some more years, it may be found useful at present to make the linguistic material contained in those texts available to students of Iranian languages. The following list of words which are not yet attested in the texts hitherto published, is offered as a contribution to this aim. Out of the materials made known up …
"Argi and the "Tokharians
A Precious fragment amongst the treasures in the possession of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin contains a Sogdian "List of nations" (nāfnāmak), the edition of which I am preparing. Two names, however, call for a special study: (1) denoting a people in the Oxus-region, obviously the inhabitants of Toxāristān, and (2) 'rkcyk, mentioned immediately after Kāšγar, Khotan, and Kučā
The Great Inscription of Sāpūr
The Pahlavi inscription discovered in 1936 by the expedition of the Oriental Institute of Chicago is perhaps the most important document of the Sasanian empire. It was found at the eastern wall of the so-called " Kaaba of Zoroaster " which was probably a Firetemple, in front of the Achsemenian tombs at Naqšl-i-Rustam.We owe our thanks to Professor Sprengling, of Chicago, who unhesitatingly undertook the task of publishing this very difficult insc…
"Sulphur" in Sogdian
A Passage in the Sogdian edition of the Manichæan Book of the Giants relates what punishment the angels meted out to the γίγανтες (Sogd. kwyšt, cf. βγyšt, etc.). They apply" ṯr nfṯṯ'ṯ[yy l-2]wqṯṯ "fire, naphtha, and?" It is a priori obvious that the third, damaged word is "sulphur", and further confirmation (although not necessary) can be found in a similar sentence of the Middle Persian Kawān where we read: pd 'dwr npt' wd gwgyrd "with fire, nap…
Sogdian Loan-words in New Persian
It is well known what an extraordinary power of absorbing foreign words Persian possesses. In addition to the innumerable Arabic words which since the creation of the New Persian literary language have formed an integral part of Persian speech, we have a fair number of Aramaic words 1 on the one hand, and of Eastern Iranian words on the other; in later times, there is also considerable borrowing from Turkish. It is, I think, proper to regard East…
An Astronomical Chapter of the Bundahishn
A Translation and full explanation of the complete recension of the Bundahishn have been wanted ever since Anklesaria in 1908 published his facsimile edition, the few Iranian scholars having been occupied with the endless stream of fresh material that has descended upon them since the beginning of this century. This article contains a translation of the second chapter; the first and third chapters were made available by Nyberg, JA. , 1929, i, 206…
Mani's Last Journey
The most detailed account of Mani's last days is contained in the Coptic “Narrative on the Crucifixion” (Polotsky, Man. Hom ., pp. 42 sqq.). As I had occasion to point out before, this “Narrative” had been quoted by the Christian Jibrā'īl b. Nūḥ in his anti-Alanichaean book which was still available to al-Bērūnī ( Chronology , 208 19–22 ). During the brief reign of King Hormizd Mani went to Babylonia, where he stayed until the accession of Bahram…
The Book of the Giants
Isaac De Beausobre, the Huguenot author of one of the best books ever written on Manichæism (Histoire critique de Manichée et du Mani cheïsme, Amsterdam, 1734, 1739), was the one to make the only sound suggestions on the sources used by Mani for the compilation of his Book of the Giants: the Book of Enoch, and the which Kenan, a great-grandson of Noah, discovered lying in a field (vol. i, 429, n. 6). The latter work has been indentified by Alfari…
The Murder of the Magi
When the Persians, led by Darius, had slain Gaumāta the Magian and a great number of his colleagues (. . . ἔκτεινον κου τιν μάγον εὕρισκον), they instituted an annual feast to remind the Magians of their humiliation: it was called τά μαγοφόνια (Herodotus, iii, 79), or μαΥοφονία (Ctesias, epit. Photii 15, § 46 ed. Gilmore). Gilmore (p. 149 n.) wisely remarked that “the agreement of Herodotus and Ctesias makes it impossible to doubt the existence o…
The Manichæan Fasts
In an excursus to his article on “The Early Sasanians” in BSOAS. , xi, 42 sqq., S. H. Taqizadeh has given a full and illuminating discussion of the Manichæan two-day fasts which preceded the feast of the Bema . All hitherto known about these fasts is contained in a passage in the K. al-Fihrist , 333, 28–334, 1, which runs as follows:— As regards the fasting— (1) when the sun is in Sagittarius and the moon is full, they fast two days without break…
Sogdian Tales
The röle which the Manichæans played in the migration of tales and fables from East to West and West to East has received much attention in recent years, but next to nothing has been published of the abundant Iranian material which was found in Chinese Turkestan. The present collection of Sogdian stories, taken (with the possible exception of text J) from Manichæan manuscripts, is meant to close this gap. These stories are also of some interest f…
The Sogdian Texts of Paris
It would be a happier occasion to be able to announce the completion of the publication of all the Sogdian manuscripts that Sir Aurel Stein and M. Paul Pelliot secured from the "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" at Tun-huang, were not this consummation overshadowed by the death of P. Pelliot, who has now followed Sir Aurel Stein after so brief an interval. The Sogdian MSS., which he entrusted to the care of the Bibliothèque Nationale, were believed …
Two Manichæan Magical Texts with an Excursus on The Parthian ending -ēndēh
It is surprising that the Manichaean religion did not become altogether submerged in the slime of witchcraft and sorcery. There were countless demons to be warded off and nearly as many divine and semi-divine beings that could be invoked. Mani, it is true, had regarded his " gods " as hardly more than exponents of particular functions of the Godhead, and had been conscious of the inadequacy of the anthropomorphic terms he had ill-advisedly employ…
A Sogdian Fragment of the Manichaean Cosmogony
As a good missionary and teacher Mani knew the value of repetition. With endless pains he had elaborated a story of the world, which was to explain all phenomena, of nature and the mind, that came within reach of his knowledge. Its comprehensiveness made it so complicated that it required-and still requiresa strong effort to remember all its details. t All the greater was the need to force it, by ceaseless repetition, into the minds of those who …
The Aramaic Inscription of Asoka found in Lampāka
Several years before the war a photograph of a stone inscription in Aramaic letters was published in the Persian language periodical Kabul (vol. ii, 1932, p. 413). The following note (in Persian), printed below the photograph, constitutes the whole of our information on the material, history, and provenance of the inscription:ߞ"A historical inscribed stone: A few years ago a broken stone tablet (lauhe) with ancient Sanskrit writing was procured i…
A Pahlavi Poem
The study of the Pahlavi poetry, so spiritedly initiated by M. Benveniste twenty years ago, seems to have come to a dead end. That certain Pahlavi texts, as the Ayādgār-ī Zarērān or the Draxt-ī Asūrīg (the Dispute of the date-palm with the goat), are poems, is conceded on all sides; but the formal problems, the problems of rhythm, metre, and rhyme, remain in the dark. It seems doubtful whether the material at hand is capable of leading us to defi…
A new Parthian Inscription
The scantiness of Parthian inscribed material enhances the importance of any new find. The existence of inscriptions and drawings on the rock-walls of a gorge near Birjand (Southern Khorasan) had been known for some time; but their antiquity was not recognized until Mr. Jamal Rezai, a Persian student from Birjand, visited the gorge and took photographs, which he submitted to Dr. Sadiq Kiya, of the University of Tehran. Dr. Kiya at once correctly …
Βεσήχανα πόλις: Ad BSOAS ., XIV, 512, N. 6
Hardly had the article ‘A Farewell to the Khagan of the Aq-Aqatärān’ been printed, when my eye fell on a passage in Pliny which settles the problem posed by Mšyk . Shapur, it will be recalled, defeated the Roman army, under Gordianus (who fell in the battle), at Mšyk = MHCIXICH and MICIXH , and renamed the town (and district) Pērōz-Šabūr . The ancient name, in a form which precisely corresponds with the Parthian spelling Mšyk , is mentioned by Pl…
The Ancient Language of Azeebaijan
Surkh Kotal
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The Inscriptions of Tang-I Azao
Although your scholarly fame, Sir Ralph, rests principally on your achievements as a comparative linguist, your work on certain Asoka inscriptions has shown that you are no less at home in the field of epigraphy. I gratefully recall how generously you helped me when, some years ago, I struggled with a particularly difficult inscription (also attributable to Asoka) from the Indo-Iranian borderland. This interest in matters of epigraphy encourages …
A Spurious Folktale
Professor G. Vernadsky, well-known as an historian of ancient Russia, recently published an Ossetic folktale, which he had obtained from a Mr. Dzambulat Dzanty, an Ossete by birth, who in his turn stated that he had heard it (and written it down) in his youth, 'in the village of Great Iron (Bolshoe OsetinsJcoe) at the time of hay-making (xosgärdän), June, 1910', from an 'old white-bearded man' by name of Khulyx [] 'The Lame One', who 'was a poet …
The Bactrian Inscription
The long-awaited Greek-letter inscription discovered, on 6 May 1957, by the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan in the course of their excavations at 'Surkh-Kotal', the ancient Bagolango, has now been made public by M. André Maricq under the title of 'La grande inscription de Kaniṣka et l'étéo-tokharien, l'ancienne langue de la Bactriane', JA, CCXLVI, 4, 1958, 345-440. It is wonderfully well-preserved and, once one gets accustomed t…
A Sassanian Silver Bowl from Georgia
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A Bactrian Seal-Inscription
Professor O. Maenchen kindly draws my attention to a paper by B. Staviskiy (Soobščeni'a Gostidarstvennogo Ermitaža, xx, 1961, 54-6) on a hitherto unpublished Kushan-type seal with a cursive inscription in Bactrian. It consists of a single word
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