Royal Asiatic Society Blog

Latest RAS lecture now available as a podcast

2012-03-14T09:42:00.001Z

Last week Dr Joya Chatterji from the University of Cambridge presented the thought provoking lecture 'An alternative history of India-Pakistan relations' to the Society. Like previous lectures the lecture is now available to listen to for free online at the backdoor broadcasting website.

The next lecture from our main programme will be held on Thursday April 12th when Dr Kevin Greenbank, also from Cambridge, will talk about 'Reel histories: the film and oral history collections of the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge'. Look out for more information about this event on this blog in the near future.

Documentary showing at RAS: Wednesday 21st March 7.15pm

2012-03-05T11:40:00.000Z

In a change to our advertised event the next Student Series evening on Wednesday March 21st will now be a documentary showing. In November last year How Wee Ng a doctoral candidate from SOAS presented the film Life is a Miracle to the RAS and we are delighted to welcome him back to show the documentary companion piece Together by Zhao Liang.

Life is a Miracle by the award-winning director Gu Changwei told the story of the blood-selling scandal which caused a widespread AIDS epidemic in Henan province in the 1990s. Together is in part a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Life is a Miracle but also follows the real-life stories of three HIV-positive individuals suffering from discrimination and marginalisation in their families and communities. It portrays the agony, efforts and difficulties of both patients living with HIV and health workers in contemporary China. The production of Together in China may be considered a watershed event in Chinese film history, because despite its focus on the highly sensitive topic of AIDS, it was officially approved for release and screening.

How Wee, who will be presenting the film, including a Q & A session specialises in Chinese media censorship practises, primarily of television and film in contemporary China. He says he selected the film and documentary because they are an example of how complex and ambivalent censorship practises can be in China.

The event will start later than usual at 7.15pm and will be followed by a drinks reception. For directions to the Society visit our website or for more information contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

Next RAS Lecture - Thursday 8th March 'An Alternative History of India-Pakistan Relations'

2012-03-01T16:00:00.001Z

On Thursday 8th March we are very pleased to welcome Dr Joya Chatterji to the Society to deliver her lecture 'An Alternative History of India-Pakistan Relations'.

Dr Joya Chatterji was educated in Delhi and at Cambridge. She is Reader of Modern South Asian History at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Trinity College, and the editor of the journal Modern Asian Studies. She has published extensively on the history of India's partition and its aftermath, and is presently working on a new monograph on migration, minorities and citizenship in India and Pakistan. In a summary of her forthcoming lecture she writes:

"The relationship between India and Pakistan is invariably characterised by scholars as one of ‘enduring conflict’. They stress the ‘intractable’ differences between the two countries, and assume that these were the inevitable consequence of the subcontinent’s ‘incomplete partition'. It has become fashionable to argue that the subcontinent is irredeemably mired in discord because the national identities of the two nation states are fundamentally incompatible. According to this view, India’s commitment to secularism and Pakistan’s to Islam preclude any possibility of a resolution to their conflicts, particularly over Kashmir, and hence peaceful co-existence in the future, just as they have prevented concord in the past. This paper will propose an alternative account of the complex relations between the two countries. Focussing on the first years of their existence as independent states, it will suggest that there were in fact significant areas of cooperation between them. The first, and most important, of these arose in response to the tidal waves of migration that threatened to overwhelm both India and Pakistan immediately after independence. The mass migrations elicited startlingly symmetrical responses - political, legal and bureaucratic - within India and Pakistan; they also obliged the two countries to work together in efforts to stem the flows. A second set of shared practices were evolved to create and manage the borders between the two countries. The paper will reflect on how a careful analysis of these areas of mutuality and cooperation beteen India and Pakistan might revise our understanding of the nature of their association."

The lecture will start at 6pm, followed by a drinks reception, it is free and open for all. For directions to the Society visit our website or for further information contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

Latest RAS lecture now available as a podcast

2012-02-27T11:55:00.000Z

The Society hosted an additional lecture last Wednesday 22nd February, when Prof. Efraim Lev gave a most fascinating and entertaining talk on Practical and Theoretical Medicine in Medieval Eastern Societies; the Case of Cairo Genizah. As is the case with other Royal Asiatic Society lectures, it has now been made freely available to listen to via the backdoor broadcasting website.

RAS celebrates Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Sir William Jones with special double book launch

2012-02-20T12:10:00.002Z

On the 24th of January this year the Society was absolutely delighted to celebrate the publication of two books which focus on two individuals who were both exceptional scholars in the field of western Indology and instrumental in the foundation of our own Society.

The Making of Western Indology: Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Company by Rosane and Ludo Rocher was published for the RAS by Routledge last December. It is a work which will deservedly bring to a wider readership the name of Colebrooke, the founder of our Society, who up to now has been comparatively neglected in scholarship.

Published by Routledge for the RAS. ISBN 978-0415336017

Most unfortunately the authors were not able to attend the launch in London on the 24th but Peter Marshall, Emeritus Professor in the Department of History, Kings College London, enlightened us with both an account of the phenomenal work of Colebrooke, and also the scholarly accomplishments of the Rochers in researching and writing this work; describing them both as 'scholars in the great tradition of western Indology' the origins of which are traced in this book. The foundation for their work is their own mastery of Sanskrit and the philology and the texts of ancient India, Hindu law and a strong interest in the history of western Indological scholarship. The bibliography to their study of Colebrooke is testament to how unsparing they were in locating sources and putting them to use. Prof. Marshall likened the Rochers to their subject, pointing out the Colebrooke was a relentless empirical scholar and very hard working and distinguished civil servant in the East India Company's Bengal service. Quite rightly he declared that to do justice to the life and work of a polymath of the stature as Colebrooke, would require the work of two biographers who are also polymaths and whose lifetimes of research have equipped them to undertake this forbidding task and produce such an accomplished book.

The evening happily included the launching of Michael Franklin's new book 'Orientalist Jones': Sir William Jones, Poet, Lawyer and Linguist, 1746-1794, published by Oxford University Press in September of last year.

Published by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199532001

It was Jones who founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784, four decades before Colebrooke's founding of the Royal Asiatic Society in London on the same model. In making comparisons between these two dynamic founders of Indology and Asiatic Societies Michael Franklin drew our attention to the work of Colebrooke's first biographer, his son Thomas Edward, who wrote in 1873:

'Probably no two writers, treating on the same obscure subjects, and with similar advantages of scholarship and learning, ever exhibited a greater diversity in the manner of communicating their knowledge to the world than did these two eminent men. They do, indeed, represent two distinct schools of thought, which pervade literature as well as science. The one class of writers, imaginative and inventive, powerful in illustration, always eager to trace analogies and to seek to throw light on the history of progress in one department by comparison with another. When these valuable qualities are united, as in the case of Jones, with great erudition, their works constitute the most attractive as well as instructive of compositions. The aim of the other school, of which Mr. Colebrooke may be regarded as the exponent, on the other hand, is to examine and record facts with the rigour of a student of physical science, and to lay down the results of their inquiries with a method necessarily dry, but affording a storehouse of important observations for future students.'

Michael went on to point out that, different as they were, Colebrooke like Jones rigorously developed a vast and polymathic range of interests in Sanskrit, Hindu law, religion and philosophy. Above all, many of their recreations were similar, and Michael focused upon one in which Colebrooke followed Jones's lead in cultural ecology - botany. This was a fascination which Sir William shared with his wife and editor Anna Maria. From his eloquently written book, Michael read:

Above all, it was botany that allowed them to collaborate in an engrossing interest where sensual delight and classificatory rigour, the aesthetic and the academic, mingled in precise observation of similarity and difference. Acutely conscious that he was ‘no Lynx like Linnaeus’, he could rely upon Anna’s skills in the examination of minute blossoms. The burgeoning flower borders of their Garden Reach villa testified to her artistry as an ornamental Oriental gardener, and her botanical sketchbooks reveal her growing skills as an illustrator. Though far inferior to the work of the superb artist Zayn al-Din from whom the Joneses commissioned many paintings, her ability to produce an accurate record was invaluable. Her sketches,annotated by Jones, demonstrate that everywhere they went—in the profusion of the Sundarbans, the fertile plain of Krishnagar, the dramatic hill country above Chittagong, or at home, along the fragrant lanes of Ariśnagar — William dissected and described while Anna, ‘whose progress in drawing and colouring is wonderful’, delineated. A loose sheet in which Jones gives Anna advice, gleaned from Reynolds, on the mixing of naturalistic greens, illustrates the scholarly dimensions of their ‘principal amusement’.

The RAS holds botanical paintings from the collection of Sir William Jones and to which Michael refers to in his book. The above painting of the horseradish tree is attributed to Zayn al-Din (fl. 1777-1782). RAS 025.069

Lady Anna Maria Jones (1748-1829) painted the above plant. RAS 025.060

In the conclusion to his speech, Michael noted that Colebrooke and Jones had arrived in Bengal within a few months of each other in 1783 - Colebrooke, a well-connected but socially insecure 18 year old, and Jones, a celebrity lawyer and Orientalist in his prime at 37. They both fell in love with India: Jones immediately and with a poet's passion, and Colebrooke more slowly, with a sort of 'lingering-out sweet skill'. The Society celebrated that love and the intensity of their desire to communicate it throughout Europe and the West with this special book launch. Below is a selection of images from the event.

The RAS President Gordon Johnson welcoming guests to the Book Launch

Prof. Peter Marshall speaking on behalf of Ludo and Rosane Rocher,
behind him is the bust of Henry Thomas Colebrooke, our Founder

Guests enjoy the drinks reception at the book launch

Dr Michael Franklin speaking about his new publication on
Sir William Jones

Additional Lecture at RAS: Wednesday 22nd February

2012-02-08T12:53:00.001Z

The RAS is very pleased to announce another additional lecture this month. On Wednesday 22nd February we will welcome Prof. Efraim Lev to the Society to deliver the lecture 'Practical and Theoretical Medicine in Medieval Eastern Societies; the Case of Cairo Genizah'.

Efraim Lev is a Professor at the Dept. of Eretz Israel Studies, University of Haifa. He studied at Bar-Ilan University and subsequently had a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, London, and Edelstein Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2000-2001). His main fields of interest and research are: prehistoric diet, medieval pharmacology, history of medicine in the Levant, ethno-pharmacology and medical issues in the Cairo Genizah. Prof. Lev was the chairman of the Israeli Society for the History of Medicine and Sciences (2001-2003) and is now National delegate to ISHM (International Society of the History of Medicine). He is a Research Associate at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London and at the Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library.

Prescription of electuary written in Judaeo-Arabic; begins with a basmalah in Arabic script,
followed by the prescription in Hebrew script
(We thank the Syndics of Cambridge University Library for permission to publish the Genizah fragments)

In a summary of his lecture, Prof. Lev writes:

"The Cairo Genizah has, for already more than a century, served as an almost unlimited source of information about medieval Mediterranean society, in particular about the Jewish community of Cairo. The hundred of thousands of fragments it contains shed light on numerous aspects of the social, economic and cultural life of the community and, as more lately revealed, on the community’s medical situation.
Out of the 150,000 fragments found in the main Genizah collection – the Taylor-Schechter Collection at Cambridge – about 1800 deal with medical and health-related issues. Processing these fragments is an arduous task due to their age, poor state of preservation, the difficulty of deciphering the handwriting of those who penned them, and various linguistic challenges.
This paper aims to explore and present practical and theoretical aspects of the community’s medical life. It is based on a study of about 1550 items that are made up of parts of medical and pharmaceutical books, 140 prescriptions, 70 lists of materia medica, 30 notebooks and a few letters written by Jewish medical practitioners in Cairo.
A unique aspect of the information that emerges from the prescriptions is their originality. Unlike the information derived from books, or often copied from classical or contemporary medical sources, the prescriptions are clear-cut primary evidence of the pharmaceutical use of medicinal substances, of the medical conditions afflicting members of the community, and of the ways that ill-health was treated.
Eye diseases were the most prevalent ailments. Others were skin diseases, headaches, fevers, internal diseases (liver), intestinal complaints and hemorrhoids. There are also many references to urinary problems, ulcers, swellings, coughs and gynaecological abnormalities."

The lecture will start at 6.30pm on the 22nd February. It is free and open for all. If you would like any further information please contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org and for directions to the Society please visit our website.

Next RAS Student Series Lecture: Wednesday 15th February

2012-02-03T15:10:00.001Z

This year's fascinating Student Series Programme continues on the evening of Wednesday 15th February with another double lecture night. In keeping with the diversity of topics and regions which have been discussed this academic year, we will be learning about two very different subjects. Mehreen Chida-Razvi will address 'The Original Layout of the Royal Mughal Tomb Complex in Shahdara' and Inbal Livne will present 'A Gentle Pursuit: The Role of Women in Colonial India in Bringing the Himalayas to the National Museums of Scotland'.

Painting of Jahangir's mausoleum at Lahore c1770
from the collections of the Royal Asiatic Society

Mehreen holds an MA degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art in Gothic Architecture and a second from the School of Oriental and African Studies in Islamic Art and Architecture. She has recently submitted her PhD thesis, The Imperial Mughal Tomb of Jahangir: History, Construction and Production, to SOAS for examination. Mehreen is a lecturer on the Asian Art Courses at SOAS, the V&A Museum and Sotheby’s Institute of Art and has been an academic consultant for a documentary on the Taj Mahal and an Open University educational film on Islamic Art.

In summary of her forthcoming talk, she says:

The Royal Mughal Tomb Complex of Shahdara, outside the walled city of Lahore, is the burial site of Jahangir, the fourth Mughal Emperor, his wife, Nur Jahan, and her brother, Asaf Khan. In addition to being Jahangir’s brother-in-law, Asaf Khan was also the father-in-law of Shah Jahan, Jahangir’s son and successor. The accepted chronology of construction for these three tomb is that Jahangir’s was commissioned first by Shah Jahan, who then ordered the construction of Asaf Khan’s, after which Nur Jahan built her own tomb at the site before her death in 1645. This chronology has been used to justify the resultant spatial construct of the complex. This paper will challenge this assumption through several means, the first of which will be a critique of studies on the spatial analysis of the site. This will be followed by a brief examination of the circumstances of Jahangir’s death and Shah Jahan’s accession and the resulting rift between Shah Jahan and Nur Jahan. Once this has been done the argument will be made that Nur Jahan was the true patron of Jahangir’s tomb and her original intent was that the Shahdara complex consist of the emperor’s mausoleum and her own, and that the introduction of Asaf Khan’s tomb as the third construction of the site was not only a deliberate attempt by Shah Jahan to alter the original layout of the royal burial complex, but was part of a wider effort to disassociate Nur Jahan with the creation of her husband’s tomb.

Inbal Livne is an AHRC award holder in the final year of a Collaborative Doctoral Award between the University of Stirling and the National Museums Scotland. Her PhD is titled 'Tibetan Collections in Scottish Museums: A Critical Historiography of Military and Missionary intent'. Before starting her PhD., Inbal spent five years working as assistant curator of East and Central Asia at the National Museums Scotland.

Lilian Le Mesurier's collection of Tibetan Curios,
published in Douglas W. Freshfield's 'Round Kachenjunga:
a narrative of Mountain Travel and Exploration', 1903.

She summarizes her lecture as follows:

In this paper I will examine the roles of two women, who were responsible for bringing two of the most significant groups of Himalayan material to the collections of the National Museums Scotland. Lilian Le Mesurier was the wife of a Political Officer, based in Ladakh, on the edges of British India. She travelled with her husband, using her position to enable the collection of over one hundred objects from some of the most important monasteries in the region, which were then published as part of a well-read travelogue of the day. Only a few years later, Florence Bailey, in her upper-middle class Edinburgh home, started to receive packages of objects from her son, who had taken part in the military expedition to Tibet in 1904, and then stayed on as a Trade Agent in the region. Florence Bailey displayed these objects around her home, created slide shows of the photographs her son sent her, and invited many of Edinburgh’s great and good to view the collection, creating an informal ‘salon’ of sorts in her home. In quite different ways, both women used collections as social tools, proving that the domestic sphere, whether in Edinburgh or the Empire, was a dynamic social, political and academic space where women played as active a role in forming representations of the world as did their husbands and sons.

The lectures will start at 6.30pm and will be followed by a drinks reception. For directions to the society visit our website or for more information contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

Lecture: The Chinese in Bengal. Thursday 16th February

2012-02-03T11:33:00.000Z

In a change to the advertised date the Society's next lecture, in our main lecture programme, will now take place on Thursday 16th February. We are looking forward to welcoming Peng Wenlan, independent documentary film maker and Chair of the Meridian Society , (a charitable organisation committed to promoting Chinese culture with the aim of fostering East-West understanding), who will speak about 'The Chinese in Bengal'.

In the early 1960s, Britain saw a sudden influx of Chinese from India. Having fled poverty and famine in south China, they had set up home in Calcutta and over the space of a century built up a strong and thriving community there. But with the Sino-Indian border dispute of 1962 looming, they were forced to uproot yet again. Certificates of Identity from the British authorities provided them with an escape route from persecution and many found their way to London and Liverpool. Educated, skilled and fluent in English, they contributed to the white-collar workforce that post-War Britain so greatly needed. Peng Wenlan will tell us their story: a story of courage, hardship and perseverance. Her talk is based on an oral history project conducted by the Meridian Society, with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and inspired by experiences of her own parents and grandparents.

The lecture will start at 6.00 pm and is free and open for all. It will be followed by questions and a drinks reception. For directions to the society visit our website or for further details contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

Additional Lecture at RAS - Tuesday 7th February

2012-01-25T14:04:00.002Z

The Society is very pleased to announce that we are hosting an additional lecture as part of this year's series. We are exceptionally lucky that Dr Monika Bincsik from the Art Research Centre at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, and foremost authority on Japanese lacquerware, will speak to us about 'The Japanese Incense Culture and its Lacquer Implements'.

The lecture will begin at 6.30pm and will be followed be a drinks reception. It is free and open to everybody.

For directions to the Society please visit our website. For more information please contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

Latest RAS lecture now available as a Podcast

2012-01-25T13:31:00.000Z

The Society started the New Year with a fascinating talk by Ming Wilson from the Victoria & Albert Museum 'Dressed to Rule: The Chinese Emperor's Wardrobe'.

If you missed the opportunity to come to the lecture you can now listen to it via the Backdoor Broadcasting website.

Next Student Series Lectures - Wednesday January 18th

2012-01-12T17:58:00.002Z

The next student series event at the RAS will take place next Wednesday evening 18th January and we have a very interesting double bill of lectures lined up.

Timothy Myatt will speak on 'Trinkets and Treasures: Looting during the British Mission to Tibet of 1904'. Tim's interest in Tibetan history and culture was stirred after spending eight months teaching in the Tibetan Monastery of Dip-Tse-Chok-Ling in Dharamsala, India, close to the Tibetan Government in Exile. He is now a doctoral student of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at Wolfson College, Oxford and the General Secretary of the Internal Seminar of Young Tibetologists and has edited and published numerous books and papers on Tibetan culture, history and Anglo-Tibetan relations.

View of Gyantse -The main Tibet stronghold during the Younghusband Mission

Tim says of his lecture:

I will present new research examining looting during the 1904 Younghusband Mission to Tibet. I will outline the social and cultural milieu that prevailed at the time and note the role models for, and influences on, those who took part in the mission. I will outline the position of L. Austine Waddell, the 'archeologist' to the Mission, and the controversial methods he used to acquire both personal and official collections. The aftermath of the Mission will be studied, focusing on contemporary newspaper reports from London and Delhi concerning the looting. I will then show how selected items looted from Tibet are now presented in British museums and collections, before studying the mentality behind the collectors and their desire to construct archives of achievement and 'Temples of Empire' that rationalize a perspective of 'the other' and thereby, themselves.

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From Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, Andrew Jarvis will present 'The Tangibility and Impermanence of Early Photographs of Burma and Sri Lanka'. As well as being a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of History at Cambridge, Andrew is also Associate Director of Studies t the Centre for History and Economics and was Donaldson Bye-Fellow at Magdalene College in 2010-2011. He will be a Visiting Researcher at Harvard University for three months of spring this year.

Andrew summarizes:

I will focus on the mechanisms that drove early photographic activity from radials such as Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras and the ways in which the work of early photographers might be recuperated from archives and utilized to illuminate wider processes, such as the uneven impact of informal and formal empire. I will draw attention to the work of Linnaeus Tripe (in Burma) and Frederick Fiebig (in Sri Lanka), in addition to a short-lived photographic society that was established in Moulmein (Mawlamyine, in present-day Burma) in 1856. A principal concern will be to consider how conceptions of death and disease in 'the tropics' may have contributed to the efflorescence of photographic activity. Did a preoccupation with photographic permanence reflect more general anxieties concerning decay and impermanence? Why did this society emerge at the eastern margins of British India, and why did it almost immediately evanesce? I will conclude by highlighting some issues relating to copyright (including the activities of 'photographic pirates') and the tangibility of photographs.

The lectures will begin at 6.30pm and will be followed by a drinks reception. The evening is free and open to everyone. For directions to the Society please visit our website or for more information contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

An evening with Rory Stewart: Thursday 26th January

2012-01-12T17:17:00.000Z

The Society is very excited to welcome Rory Stewart, MP for an evening of discussion on Thursday 26th January. Rory has had a long standing interest in Asia having worked for the diplomatic service in Indonesia, walked on foot across Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Nepal and served as a Deputy Governor for the coalition in Iraq. He is founder and Chief of Turquoise Mountain, a non-profit, non-governmental organization which is investing in the development of Afghanistan's traditional crafts and the preservation of its cultural heritage.

Attendance is free and open for all. For directions to the Society please visit our website.

If you would like to join us for what will be a fascinating event please contact Helen Porter hp@royalasiaticsociety.org to confirm your attendance. Places will be allocated on a first come first serve basis.

Next RAS Lecture Thursday 12th January - Dressed to Rule - The Chinese Emperor's Wardrobe

2012-01-10T12:20:00.000Z

The RAS is welcoming the New Year with its first lecture of 2012 this Thursday 12th January when we welcome Ming Wilson, Senior Curator in the Asian Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum, to the Society. In 2010 Ming curated the acclaimed exhibition 'Imperial Chinese Robes from the Forbidden City' the first exhibition in Europe of clothes, accessories and textiles from the Palace Museum, Beijing.

Emperor’s summer court robe, Xianfeng reign period (1851-1861)

Collection of Palace Museum, Beijing

Ming's lecture 'Dressed to Rule - The Chinese Emperor's Wardrobe' will look at the clothing system of the Chinese court, where there were clear rules on what to wear on different occasions. Every detail of the emperor's outfits will be explained, the importance of colour and symbolism discussed, and the rationale behind such an elaborate system will be explored.

The lecture will begin at 6.00pm and will be followed by a drinks reception. For directions to the Society please visit our website. If you need any further information please contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

Student Series Lectures - Wednesday 14th December

2011-12-07T15:13:00.001Z

We are very lucky to have two speakers for our next Student Series event on Wednesaday 14th December. Rosalind Wade-Haddon is a PhD student in the Art and Archaeology Department at SOAS, who works on fourteenth-century glazed wares of the Iranian world, Golden Horde and Mamluk Syria/Egypt.

A Golden Horde underglaze painted siliceous paste bowl
depicting a parrot in foliage styled in slip relied. Encircling this is a stylised
inscription repeating the Arabic work iqbal or 'prosperity'.
From the Volga area, 14th century. Azov Museum of Local Lore.

In a summary of the paper she will present at the RAS 'The Golden Horde: Fourteenth Century Tablewares in Context' she says:

"Most people associate the Golden Horde with fine metalwork and equestrian-related accoutrements discovered in rich burials in the Russian and Ukrainian steppes; little is known of their urban material culture in the west, probably because our museums have almost no artefacts and until recently most publications relating to them are poorly illustrated Russian products. In the noughties several exhibitions relating to Genghis Khan and his heirs have included Golden Horde or Jochid material, so gradually our perception is changing.
In the early thirteenth century Jochi was despatched by his father to conquer the Volga area up to and including Moscow, the Russian steppes to the north of the Black Sea and as far west as he could go. New cities were founded, the pax Mongolica promoted trade and the northern routes made the well-organised Turco-Mongol ruling elite extremely wealthy along with their merchants. By the fourteenth century most Golden Horde cities followed established Islamic patterns, with mosques, markets, caravanserais, and artisanal trades. The security was such that there was no need to wall these settlements. The trade routes were open year round despite the extremes of weather. Initially these centres relied on imports for their tablewares, but the archaeological record demonstrates that a fine pottery industry was established for decorating architectural structures and for the urban tables. Few could probably afford the beautifully crafted gold and silver status wares, but many could add a little colour to their tables, and provide suitable furnishings for religious foundations that offered travellers’ accommodation. It is these wares that will be discussed in this talk."

Sushma Jansari is a doctoral candidate in the history department at UCL, London. Her work focuses on diplomatic ties which developed, on the one hand, the Seleucid and Ptolemaic dynasties in the West, and on the other hand the Mauryan and other Indian kingdoms in the East. She follows the continuation and development of these East-West relations beyond the Hellenistic period and forward into the early Roman Imperial period.

Sushma will lecture on 'From India, with Love! Buddhism and Diplomacy in Asoka's Embassies to the Mediterranean World'. In the following summary of her paper she writes:

"Asoka is perhaps most famous for his conversion to Buddhism and developing a new and different theory of Dhamma (Sansk. dharma) which he spread throughout the Indian Subcontinent, Sri Lanka and to five Hellenic kings in the Mediterranean world. It is widely thought that the embassies to these Hellenic kings were, in the main, Buddhist proselytising missions. I take a slightly different view based on a re-evaluation of Asoka’s inscriptions and the Sri Lankan Chronicles (the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa). Asoka’s embassies are also discussed within the context of longer-term Seleucid-Mauryan relations to explore the likely reasons behind their dispatch and the impact that they may have had on the recipients: Antiochus I or II, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Antigonus II Gonatas, Magas of Cyrene and Alexander of Epirus."

The event is free and open to all. It will start at 6.30pm and the lectures will be followed by a drinks reception. For directions on how to get to the Society please visit our website. For more information please contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

The works of 'The Flamboyant Mr Chinnery' on show at Asia House

2011-12-07T11:54:00.001Z

The Royal Asiatic Society is delighted to highlight a new free exhibition which opened recently at Asia House in London and will run until 21st January 2012. 'The Flamboyant Mr Chinnery: An English Artist in India and China' is the first public exhibition of the work of George Chinnery (1774-1852) since a 1957 Arts Council Show.

Chinnery was born in 1774 and trained at the Royal Academy schools. He sailed to India as a young man in 1802 and spent 23 years there before sailing to China where he lived for 27 years within the expatriate community in Macao, Canton and for a short while Hong Kong. He immersed himself in Asian culture and his watercolours and drawings include depictions of local people and their daily activities; fisherman landing on the beach, blacksmiths working at bellows, junks at anchor on a calm evening and crowded market scenes.

Studies of Barbers. Image reproduced with permission of Mr and Mrs Peter Thompson

Despite his productive career in Asia, Chinnery is one of the most neglected artists here in England. He is however very well known to us here at the Society because we hold two lovely landscapes which he painted in India.

RAS 015.052 One of the paintings by Chinnery in the Society's Collections
'A landscape with Muslim domed tomb' Watercolour, 1819

The exhibition offers a fantastic opportunity to see over 100 of Chinnery's works which highlight his range, from oils and watercolours to landscapes and portraits. The exhibits have been drawn from major UK institutions including the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery and British Library as well as private collections.

Portrait of the Hong Kong Merchant Howqua
Image reproduced with the permission of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

The exhibition is curated by Dr. Patrick Conner, formerly Keeper of Fine Art at the Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museums, Brighton and currently Director of the Martyn Gregory Gallery, London who specialise in historical paintings related to China Trade.

For details about opening times visit the Asia House Exhibition webpage.

Next RAS Lecture Thursday 8th December

2011-11-29T12:37:00.000Z

The Society is looking forward to welcoming Dr Randolf G. S. Cooper on Thursday 8th December to deliver his lecture 'Afghanistan's Future as Viewed from Hindustan's Military Past'. Dr Cooper will examine how military history can be used constructively to understand current conflicts. He says:

"Is is the legacy of British colonial war fighting, in particular the First and Second Anlgo-Afghan Wars (1839-1842, 1878-1880 respectively), which comes to mind when we look for historic comparisons to help us understand the insurgency that now plaques provinces like Helmand. This lecture, however, considers that type of chronological juxtaposition - Afghan War historic to Afghan War contemporary - as counter-productive if our purpose is to explore new ways of thinking about conflict management in Afghanistan.
Pashtun insurgents, Arab mercenaries, coalition troops pinned down behind mud walls by small arms fire. The mental imagery may seem to be drawn from contemporary Afghanistan, but these were aspects of warfare in India during the 1790 to 1830 period. This lecture utilizes South Asian military history to explore a modern security challenge as it examines the destabilizing threat posed by the unbridled growth of 'military labour markets."

The above engraving is from the Society's collections. It shows Madhu Rao Narayan
in Durbar, 6th August 1790. It was engraved by Thomas Daniell and is a representation of the delivery of the Ratified Treaty of 1790 by Sir Charles Malet to the Peshwa of the Maratha Empire

The lecture is free and all are welcome, it starts at 6.00pm and will be followed by a wine reception. For directions to the Society visit our website. For more information please contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org.

Latest Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Now Available as a Podcast

2011-11-17T17:25:00.000Z

Last week the independent scholar Briony Llewellyn presented a fascinating talk to the Society on the work of the 'Orientalist' painter John Frederick Lewis (1804-1876).

If you missed the opportunity to come to the lecture you can now listen to it via the Backdoor Broadcasting website. The slides which Briony used to illustrate her talk so wonderfully are also available to look at whilst you listen.

Additionally if you would like to read more about John Frederick Lewis, Briony has recently contributed an article to Cornucopia Magazine (Issue 45).

Additional Lecture to be held at RAS Wednesday 23rd November

2011-11-16T17:55:00.001Z

We are pleased to announce an additional lecture to our series this year. Next Wednesday Dr Fiona Kerlogue will speak about the current Horniman Museum exhibition Bali: Dancing for the Gods in a lecture titled 'Revisiting dance and drama in Bali: interpreting a photo archive for exhibition'.

Photo: Horniman Museum 397-1712

The exhibition is based on a donation of film and photographs taken in Bali in the 1930s and donated to the Horniman Museum in 1962 by the collector Beryl de Zoete, author of 'Dance and Drama in Bali' published in 1938 but still the classic book on the subject. The lecture will discuss the research involved in identifying and interpreting this visual material for the current exhibition which is on show at the Horniman Museum until January 8th.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception and admission if free and all are welcome.

Click here for directions visit or contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org for more information.

RAS lecture this Thursday 10th November

2011-11-07T12:17:00.001Z

Next Thursday evening, 10th November, sees the second talk in our yearly programme of lectures. We are delighted to welcome Briony Llewellyn, an independent art historian who specialises in British artists' depictions of the Ottoman Empire. Her lecture is titled 'Painted Embroideries: Interwoven Threads in the Orientalist Images of John Frederick Lewis'.

Lewis, John Frederick. The Kibab shop, Scutari, Asia Minor, 1858.

Oil on panel, 53.3 x 78.7 cm. OM. 725. Orientalist Museum, Doha.

Briony will focus on John Frederick Lewis's vivid and colourful scenes of oriental life which, although celebrated in his lifetime for the perceived authenticity of their portrayal of Islamic society, have, since the publication of Edward Said's seminal book, Orientalism, been viewed more critically. More recent analysis has recognised that the multi-faceted complexities of his compositions deserve more careful consideration, and he has been acknowledged as one of the most intriguing of all Orientalist artists.

In fashioning his images, Lewis referenced a wealth of sources, both visual and textual. They drew on a decade of experience first in Istanbul and then Cairo, where he had lived a part Eastern, part Western existence, but they were painted in an English studio for a British audience imbued with the expectations and preconceptions of their time. Briony's talk will aim to unravel the cross-cultural threads that Lewis has skilfully woven together to create his images, with particular reference to one of his most successful watercolours, The Arab Scribe, of 1852, painted shortly after his return to England. An amalgam of many different elements, both Oriental and Occidental, it can be seen as a paradigm of the cultural interchange that characterises his work.

The talk is taking place at 6.00pm and will be followed by a drinks reception, it is free and everybody is welcome. For directions and contact information please visit our website.

Wallich and Indian Natural History Conference December 2011

2011-10-18T16:19:00.002+01:00

The Society is very pleased to highlight the upcoming conference 'Wallich and Indian Natural History: Collection Dispersal and the Cultivation of Knowledge' which will be held at the Natural History Museum London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on Tuesday December 6 and Wednesday December 7 this year.

The conference is a celebration of the World Collections Programme funded Wallich Project, which is a collaboration between the Natural History Museum, London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the British Library. The project includes the creation of an exciting new website which will host a virtual collection of the plant drawings, specimens and correspondence of the Danish botanist Nathanial Wallich (1786-1854). Wallich was the superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden between 1817 and 1846 and is one of the major figures in the history and development of botany in the nineteenth century.

The RAS is very pleased that one of the items from its collections will feature on the website; a bound volume of correspondence on botanical subjects between Wallich and one of our founder members, the Sanskritist Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1756-1837). The volume was kindly donated to the Society by Mr Tim Frost, a descendent of Colebrooke.

An image showing one of the envelopes of the letters sent between Nathanial Wallich
and Henry Thomas Colebrooke which are now kept in a bound volume at the RAS.

The first day of the Wallich conference at the Natural History Museum will include papers from distinguished international speakers from a variety of disciplines. The second day of the conference will include workshops and private viewings of the Wallich collections at Kew Gardens, as well as a complimentary ticket for entry to Kew Gardens and a wine reception. The price for the conference is £70 for both days and £45 for 6th December only. For full information about the conference and to book a place visit the conference registration website The last day for registration is 6th November.

Bedfordshire Branch of the Art Fund Visit the RAS

2011-10-18T13:15:00.000+01:00

The Society was very pleased to welcome members of Bedfordshire Branch of the Art Fund for a visit on Monday 17th October. The group were given a tour of our building which included a talk about the history and activities of the RAS, a viewing of the Society's paintings and an exhibition of highlights from the library collection.

We very much welcome approaches from community groups, professional associations and education institutions for visits to the Society and its collections. For more information please contact our director Alison Ohta ao@royalasiaticsociety.org or the Librarian Kathy Lazenbatt kl@royalasiaticsociety.org

Student Series - Introductory Event Wednesday 19th October

2011-10-18T12:19:00.000+01:00

After our summer break, tomorrow sees the first meeting in our Student Series Programme. The evening will include an introduction to the activities of the Society, including the upcoming Student lecture series, the chance to meet members of staff and also an exhibition of highlights from the Society's collections including paintings, drawings, photographs, manuscripts and early printed books on Asia. This will all be followed by a drinks reception. The event is free and it is a fantastic opportunity to meet others interested in Asia.

One of the many highlights of our Collection
Maharana Bhim Singh of Udaipur on horseback, with attendants
Gouache on paper, attributed to Ghasi (fl.1820)
Donated to the Society by Col. James Tod (1782-1835)

The evening starts at 6.30pm and will be held at our premises on Stephenson Way. Full details can be found on our website. If you would like any further information please get in touch with Helen hp@royalasiaticsociety.org or Camilla info@royalasiaticsociety.org

Diss Museum celebrates the life of Thomas Manning

2011-10-14T12:47:00.000+01:00

This year the Society was very pleased to contribute two items from its collections for display in the exhibition 'Friends in High Places: The Manning Story' at Diss Museum in Norfolk. The Manning family has a long connection with Diss serving as rectors for 138 years, but one member of the family, Thomas Manning (1772-1840), travelled much further afield and it was his story which was a major attraction at the exhibition.

Portrait of Thomas Manning showing him at the age of 35.
Painted by J.M. Davis fl. 1800-1840. Oil on canvas.

Thomas initially studied mathematics at Caius College Cambridge, but became hugely interested in the Chinese language after he completed his studies. He moved to Paris in 1800 where at the time works printed in Chinese language were more readily available. His next goal was to visit China and study the language and customes of the country there, but on his first attempt to reach Canton he was refused entry so he travelled to Calcutta. From there he made another attempt to enter China via Rangpur, Bhutan and Tibet. Although he was refused entry again this journey made him famous as the first European to visit Lhasa, where he met the 9th Dalai Lama, who was five years old at the time. He finally reached Canton in 1816 and stayed in China for a year before returning to England.

The exhibition in Diss celebrated Thomas Manning's journey with events such as a a Buddhist clay course, a Thomas Manning Day and half term workshops and a concert by the Tashi Lhunpo monks. The museum displayed a reproduction of the portrait of Thomas which is part of the Society's collection and also borrowed a bust of him.

A montage of events which have been taking place in Diss
in connection with the Manning Story Exhibition

Thomas had a connection with the RAS going back to its earliest days; in 1824 he was appointed Honorary Chinese Librarian and in after his death in 1840 his brother presented his vast collection of books and manuscripts in the Chinese language (which is now on permanent loan for the use of language students at the University of Leeds). We are therefore delighted that Thomas's achievements have been recognised in such a fantastic way in Diss.

Open House at the RAS

2011-09-28T12:39:00.000+01:00

The Society participated in Open House weekend for the second year running on Saturday 17th September. We welcomed visitors for free tours of the building throughout the day and it was a great success. Over 60 visitors with many different interests came along. Those interested in architecture particularly enjoyed seeing our atrium window on the top floor and for people with an interest in Asia there was a chance to view our paintings including a fine Qajar painting of two girls painted in Iran at the beginning of the 19th century and an Indian design for the game of snakes and ladders which illustrates the path to spiritual liberation. Visitors were also introduced to the history and modern day activities of the Society.

Visitors are welcomed to the society by
Prof. Tony Stockwell one of our Vice Presidents

The Librarian Kathy Lazenbatt giving a short talk on our
Snakes and Ladders painting in the Reading Room

Kaveh Bakhtiar, another Vice President and the Society's
Architectural Advisor, points out some of the
architectural features of the building

Council Member Helen Cordell shows visitors the Society's
painting of two Qajar ladies

Opening Lecture of the 2011-2012 Series - 13th October 6.00pm

2011-09-22T16:07:00.000+01:00

Professor Richard Bowring of the University of Cambridge is the first speaker of our lecture program for this academic year. His talk Bushido: yet another invented tradition will investigate the origin of the term Bushido and point to the conclusion that it is a modern concept created for a modern purpose. Claims for its antiquity being shown to be based on a conscious misreading of seventeenth century realities.

Print illustrating Miyamoto Musashi killing a giant creature by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

The talk is taking place on Thursday October 13th at 6.00pm followed by a drinks reception, it is free and everybody is welcome. For directions and contact information please visit our website

RAS Student Lecture Programme 2011-2012

2011-09-14T12:55:00.002+01:00

The start of the Society's lecture programmes is fast approaching and alongside the main lecture programme we also hold a series of lectures given by doctoral students. Like the main programme, lectures are drawn from a wide variety of subjects and regions of Asia; they also provide a forum for graduate students to share their research and highlight the latest approaches to the academic study of Asia.

All the lectures start at 6.30pm, are free and open for all, and include lively discussion and a drinks reception.

The schedule of lectures is as follows:

Wednesday 19th October
Welcome Event including an introduction to the Society by the Director Alison Ohta and an exhibition of items from the RAS collections.

Wednesday 16th November
Film showing of 'Dream of Ding Village' Directed by Yan Lianke
with an accompanying discussion by How Wee Ng (SOAS)

Wednesday 14th December
The Golden Horde - Fourteenth Century Tablewares in Context
Rosalind Wade-Haddon (SOAS)
and
From India with Love! Buddhism and diplomacy in Asoka's embassies to the Mediterranean World
Sushma Jansari (UCL)

Wednesday 18th January
Trinkets and treasures: looting during the British Mission to Tibet of 1904
Tim Myatt (University of Oxford)
and
The tangibility and impermanence of early photographs of Burma and Sri Lanka
Andrew Jarvis (University of Cambridge)

Wednesday 15th February
A gentle pursuit: the role of women in colonial India in bringing the Himalayas to the National Museums of Scotland
Inbal Livne (University of Stirling)
and
The original layout of the royal Mughal tomb complex at Shahdara
Mehreen Razvi (SOAS)

Wednesday 18th April
From frontier to borderland: the Chinese community in Upper Burma under British rule
Yi Li (SOAS)
and
Intellectual exchange between the Ottoman Empire and the Indian Subcontinent in the early modern period: the state of the field
Nurs Sobers Khan (University of Cambridge)

Wednesday 16th May
The stylistic roots of Alcázar of Seville: 14th century Christian and Islamic connections
Paola Chadwick (SOAS)
and
Gender and household economy in contemporary North Korea
Shaun McPhee (University of Edinburgh)

The lecture programme will also include two music concerts on Wednesday 21st March and Wednesday 20th June and further details of these will be posted here in due course.

Japanese prints of Kyoto newly catalogued

2011-09-06T13:24:00.001+01:00

The Society's collection holds quite a mixture of Japanese prints and drawings, it consists of prints that date from the late 18th century to late 19th century, and drawings dating from c. 1735 to the late 19th century. The majority of the prints illustrate theatrical productions of the 1850s as well as some scenes of every day life. Morikawa Sobun's album of prints 'Twenty-five views of famous places in Kyoto' (Miyako meisho ni-ju-go- kei) published in 1895 are of topographical interest, giving a good idea of the city's appearance at the end of the 19th century. This particular collection has recently been catalogued and can be viewed on the online library catalogue. The following prints are a selection from the collection.

RAS 080.001(24) Old pine-tree at Miyoshinji temple.

RAS 080.001(01) The imperial palace under snow

RAS 080.001(21) Autumn maples and conifers at the hill of Takao.

We are grateful to Jessica Cordell for cataloguing the Morikawa Collection and writing this blog post during her work experience placement.

All images of copyright of the Royal Asiatic Society

Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Programme 2011-2012

2011-09-05T13:40:00.001+01:00

The RAS has just announced the schedule for its lecture programme for the coming academic year. In keeping with the aims of the Society to provide a forum for those interested in the history, languages, cultures and religions of Asia, the lectures cover a wide variety of topics and geographical regions.

All lectures are free and followed by lively discussions and a drinks reception and everybody is welcome. For more information contact info@royalasiaticsociety and for a map visit our website.

The full schedule is as follows:

Thursday October 13th
Bushido: yet another invented tradition
Professor Richard Bowring (University of Cambridge)

Thursday November 10th
Painted embroideries: interwoven threads in the Orientalist images of John Frederick Lewis
Briony Llewellyn (Independent Scholar)

Thursday December 8th
Afghanistan's future as viewed from Hindustan's military past
Dr Randolf G. S. Cooper (University of Cambridge)

Thursday January 12th
Dressed to rule - the Chinese Emperor's wardrobe
Ming Wilson (Victoria & Albert Museum)

CHANGE TO ORIGINAL ADVERTISED DATE - Now Thursday February 16th
The Chinese in Bengal
Wenlan Peng, Independent Documentary Film Maker, Chair of the Meridian Society

Thursday March 8th
An alternative history of India-Pakistan relations
Dr Joya Chatterji (University of Cambridge)

Thursday April 12th
Reel histories: the film and oral history collections of the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge
Dr Kevin Greenbank (University of Cambridge)

Thursday May 10th
Anniversary General Meeting
For God, King and Country: monarchy, religion and nationalism in modern Iran
Professor Edmund Herzig (University of Oxford)

Thursday June 14th
The British presence in Macao and representations of the enclave in British travel writing
Dr Rogério Miguel Puga (Centre for English translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies, FCSH, New University of Lisbon, Portugal)

Fellows will receive their lecture cards by post shortly. RAS lectures are also made available to listen to as podcasts by Backdoor Broadcasting. Look out for more information about specific lectures and podcasts here in the coming year.

Royal Asiatic Society taking part in Open House London

2011-08-23T14:05:00.000+01:00

The Society will be opening its doors to the public during this year's Open House London weekend on Saturday 17th September. Participants will be given a tour of the Society including talks on its history and collections and will be able to view the paintings displayed throughout the building. Tours will also include an exhibition of the building and its neighbourhood and an architect led tour. They will start at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm and 4pm and although no booking is required places are limited to the first 20 people to arrive.

RAS 051.001 Design for the game of Snakes and Ladders
Unknown Maharashtra artist, c1800. Gouache on paper mounted cloth.

Full details of the location of the Society can be found on our website or the Open House website where you can also find more information about the weekend of events as a whole.

This is a great chance to learn more about the Society's activities and collections, it is absolutely free and all are welcome.

Barbara Brend's Muhammad Juki's Shahnama of Firdausi reviewed in the TLS

2011-08-18T17:29:00.000+01:00

Two reviews of Barbara Brend's book Muhammad Juki's Shahnama of Firdausi have recently appeared. Marianna Shreve Simpson, recently the Curator of Islamic Art at the Walters Art Museum and a specialist in the arts of the Islamic book has written a review for Iranian Studies (Vol. 44, No.4, 596-601). She marks the work out as 'among the most noteworthy art historical contributions' amid the recent output of work on the Shahnamah. As well as stating that the work is 'rigorous in its scholarship' Shreve also highlights Brend's 'exhilarating prose passages and memorable turns of phrase' the likes of which she says 'have rarely, if ever graced the pages of an art historical monograph in the field of Persian painting'.

In the Times Literary Supplement (August 12th Issue) Charles Melville, Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge highlighted Brend's ability to direct the reader to the many points of interest in the paintings of the manuscript. He also comments on the 'significant addition' made by A.H. Morton's analysis of the seals and inscriptions on the original flyleaf and also those on the recently revealed verso of the final folio. Professor Melville notes that the reproduction of each miniature painting on a full page and in enlarged detail has resulted in a 'visually stunning affect that also allows us to admire the painstaking skills of the artist'.

Below are a selection of the miniatures which are so wonderfully reproduced in Brend's book.

RAS Persian MS 239 Fol. 30b
Portrait of the infant Rustam shown to Sam

RAS Persian MS 239 Fol. 243a
The paladins in the snow

RAS Persian MS 239 Fol.362b
Bahram Gur hunting with Azadah

The book is available to purchase from the Society at £30.00, we also have a selection of prints of some of the folios from the original manuscript available for £10.00. For further information contact Helen in the library hp@royalasiaticsociety.org

Latest Issue of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society now published

2011-08-16T14:29:00.000+01:00

The July issue of the Journal was published online on Friday 29th July. UK Fellows will already have received their paper edition by post and Overseas Fellows will be receiving theirs soon. Fellows are also entitled to access the copy online, and also previous issues, for free. All you need to do is visit the homepage of the Journal, which is published by Cambridge University Press, and enter your login name and password which you will have received by post from CUP. Non-fellows can also subscribe to the Journal on the homepage or alternatively you can purchase specific articles.

This summer’s issue contains four articles on early Islamic topics, an examination of French influences on Frenkçin, a form of Ottoman music and a rigorously-researched but intriguing tale of fraud and deception resulting in posthumous academic acclaim for a deserving scholar. Our fourth part to this year’s volume (Volume 21) will be published in October.

The Society has published a printed serial since the 1820s and the journal has also been available online since 2001. Four issues are published per year, containing articles of original and previously unpublished research in fields including anthropology, archaeology, art, history, languages and religions of all parts of Asia.

India East / West: Exhibition catalogue now published

2011-08-12T11:19:00.005+01:00

Last year the Society collaborated with the Doha campus of Victoria Commonwealth University of Richmond, Virginia to present the exhibition 'India East/West: the Age of Discovery in Late Georgian India as seen through the collections of the Royal Asiatic Society, London'. It was curated jointly by our Director Alison Ohta and Dr Jochen Sokoly who is a fellow of the Society and Assistant Professor at VCU. This was the first major overseas exhibition drawn exclusively from the Society's artistic collections.

The exhibited items included examples of Indian work drawn for an Indian audience, Indian work commissioned for a European audience and European work showing Indian culture as expressed through European sensibilities.

Highlights of the exhibition included the botanical paintings by Lady Anna Maria Jones, the wife of Sir William Jones (1746-1794) who was a founder of the Asiatic Society Calcutta, the parent society of the RAS, as well as those by the Indian artist Zayn al-Din (fl. 1777-1782). The image below shows his watercolour of Moringa oleifera Lam (Horseradish tree).

RAS 025.069

Also on display were landscapes by William (1769-1837) and Thomas Daniell (1749-1840) who toured India in the late 18th century and George Chinnery (1774-1852) who was based there in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

RAS 090.006

Above is a coloured aquatint of the Mausoleum of Sultan Purveiz, near Allahabad, by Thomas Daniell originally published by Robert Bowyer, London 1796.

RAS 015.051

The landscape above was painted in watercolour by George Chinnery in India circa 1819 and shows a Muslim domed tomb.

Pieces from one of the Society's unique collections of drawings were also included; these are the original illustrations for Ram Raz's Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus which was commissioned by the Society and published in 1834.

RAS 034.019

The detailed drawings were done in pen-and-ink wash and relate to details found within Hindu architecture, they were made in the European manner by various Indian artists working for the Survey Department of Madras. The drawing above, by an unknown Indian artist circa 1825, shows a sculpted column of a lion and other figures.

The accompanying catalogue is now available to purchase from the Society for £20.00.

It is richly illustrated with the works that were exhibited in Doha and it also includes accompanying essays on Ram Raz, Zayn al-Din, Sir William and Lady Jones and their study of Botany, and the works and travels of Thomas and William Daniell among other interesting pieces.

If you would like to purchase a copy please get in touch with Helen hp@royalasiaticsociety.org / 02073884539

*All images are copyright of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Howell Collection of early photographs of Asia

2011-08-04T17:50:00.001+01:00

Among the 5000 photographs of Asia held by the Society one particular collection has received particular interest from scholars and exhibition curators.

The Howell collection of several hundred prints of China, Japan and parts of Southeast Asia taken in the early 1860s (originally in album form) was donated to the society in 1939 by Mr E.B. Howell, whose father Mr A.P. Howell (pictured in a carte-de-visite portrait below), had collected the photographs whilst he worked in China for the bank Dent & Co. The collection is certainly one of the most important albums of early photography taken in China and Japan.

RAS P.51(399)

The collection contains the work of many of the most eminent photographers active during the latter half of the 19th century and some of the first to take pictures in East Asia.

RAS P.51(043)

Felice Beato (1832-1909) travelled to the Far East in the early 1860s. The Howell collection contains photographs he took in Hong Kong, Beijing and Yokohama. The image on the left is his photograph of the 'Temple of Heaven' in Beijing which was first constructed in the 15th century.

RAS P.51(082)

The famous Scottish photographer John Thomson also travelled in Asia for much of the 1860s and the Howell collection includes photographs he took in Thailand, Vietnam and China. The image on the right is a portrait he took of an Annamese chief.

RAS P.51(296)

The Howell collection is also significant because of the portraits taken by a lesser known photographer Milton Miller, which are considered to be some of the finest surviving examples of portrait studies of both European and Chinese sitters from the 1860s. On the left is his portrait of the no.1 wife of the Tartar General, Canton.

RAS P.51(142) View of Hong Kong, from Glenealy
Unknown Photographer, 186-69

The importance of the Howell collection for both the study of 19th century photographic history and the quality of the images, has led to the selection of many photographs for display in several exhibitions. In 2008 reproductions of the original photographs were displayed at the National Library in Beijing as part of the collaborative exhibition between the British Library and National Library of China Western eyes: an exhibition of historical photographs of China taken by European photographers, 1860-1930. More recently in late 2010 several images appeared in the exhibition First Photographs of Hong Kong organised by Cécile Léon Art Projects as part of the Hong Kong Photo Festival. The Hong Kong Museum of History has recently selected some of the Howell images for display in their permanent exhibition The Hong Kong Story and later this year more of the photographs will feature in an exhibition at the Beijing World Art Museum as well as the accompanying catalogue.

In addition to the Howell collection the RAS photograph collection contains fascinating prints of South and South-East Asia, the Far East and Central Asia with particular strengths in architecture, topography and archaeology. Look out for further blog pieces on particular photographs in the future.

For more information about the Howell collection or RAS photograph collection more generally, please feel free to contact Kathy or Helen in the Library.

Kathy Lazenbatt kl@royalasiaticsociety.org

Helen Porter hp@royalasiaticsociety.org

All images copyright of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Mercers' Company Book Cataloguing Project

2011-07-20T11:23:00.001+01:00

Engraved title page of The travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East-Indies,
published in London 1686.

The majority of the Society's collection of European language books printed before 1820 is now fully searchable on the library's online catalogue . We are very grateful to the Mercers' Company for the award of a grant which enabled the Society to employ a cataloguer to produce records for approximately half of this collection. The Society had long been aware of its significant collection of early works on Asia but only brief print catalogue records existed for most of the items. The current project set out to create more detailed records of the books including subject, provenance and binding information and this work has highlighted some very interesting items.

The collection charts the development and diffrent types of European studies on and engagement with Asia. It includes works stemming from Jesuit missions such as Voyage de Siam des peres Jesuites, envoyés par le roy, aux Indes & à la Chine by Guy Tachard (1651-1712) who was sent to Siam during the late 17th century by Louis XIV. We hold an English translation of Louis Le Comte's (1655-1728) Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine first published in Paris in 1696. This work, like others in the collection contributed to the debates about how far Christian customs should be adapted for Asian societies.

We hold several accounts of diplomatic missions to Asia one of which is Du royaume de Siam by Simon de La Loubere (1642-1729) which is an account of his experiences on one of the French embassies sent to Siam in the late 17th century, which endeavoured to establish a French protectorate there. Another such work An authentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China by Sir George Leonard Staunton (1737-1801). It charts the British Embassy of Earl George Macartney (1737-1806) who went to China between 1792-1794 in an attempt to secure trade and diplomatic concessions. The Society's copy was donated by his son Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859) who was a founder member of the Society and who accompanied his father on the mission to China when he was a boy.

Travel accounts of various parts of Asia form a significant part of the collection; works include The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier ..., London 1678, Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine ... by Pierre Sonnerat, Paris 1782 and Les fameux voyages de Pietro della Valle ..., Paris 1664. Likewise there are a large number of works on the languages of Asia from the earliest dictionaries and grammars such as Frans van Ravelingen's (1539-1597) Lexicon Arabicum printed posthumously in 1613 in Leiden, where he had worked, to the vernacular textbooks, grammars and dictionaries published at the Serampore Press in Bengal in the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The books in the Society's collections hold added importance owing to their provenance. Many were donated by the authors themselves such as Charles Wilkins (1749-1836) who was the first to translate the Bhagavad Gita, William Marsden (1754-1836) who served in and wrote on Sumatra and Charles Stewart who was a professor of Fort William College and later Haileybury College, Hertfordshire. Particularly worthy of note for its provenance is a 1654 edition of the Gulistan of Sadi printed with parallel Latin and Persian text and bearing the inscription of Sir William Jones (1746-1794), famous linguist and founder of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. The inscription was written whilst he was engaged in research at University College Oxford. The book was later owned by Neil Benjamin Edmonstone (1765-1841) who acted as Persian translator to the government in India in the late 18th century. We hold a set of books once owned by Sir Robert Chambers (1737-1803) who served as a judge in Calcutta Supreme Court from 1774-99, one of which, Grammatica Arabica by the German linguist Mathius Wasmuth (1625-1688) contains a note that states it was given to him by his friend Samuel Johnson.

Inscription of Sir William Jones in Musladini Sadi Rosarium politicum : sive
Amoenum sortis humanae theatrum published in Amsterdam in 1654

Many of the books are illustrated with images of Asia using techniques from woodcut and copper plate engravings to lithography.

Engraved illustrtion from Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie,
en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales ..., published in Amsterdam in 1718.

A number of books have decorated bindings, a particularly fine example is the blind-tooled pigskin binding on De rebus Emmanuelis by Jeronimo Osorio published in Cologne in 1576.

Decorated pig skin binding (probably 17th century) on De rebus Emmanuelis
by Jeronimo Osorio published in 1576.

The cataloguing project has also enabled us to identify and prioritise our early books for minor repairs by our NADFAS volunteers which ensures the books are stored and handled in the best way for their preservation.

If you would like to know more about the pre-1820 collection at the Society or view items from the collection please get in touch with Helen in the library hp@royalasiaticsociety.org

Persian Manuscript Cataloguing

2011-07-07T17:06:00.002+01:00

RAS Persian 178 'Aja’ib al-Makhluqat wa Ghara'ib al-Maujudat' f.3

This year saw the completion of the Society's project to make records for its Persian manuscript collection available online through its library catalogue. The cataloguing has been undertaken by Alexander Morton, former lecturer in Persian at SOAS. The records include information about authors, scribes, bindings, provenance and illustrations and decoration. You can search for a particular manuscript by searching author or title, for example, or you can browse the collection by limiting the search to 'Manuscripts' and using 'Persian' as a keyword.

In addition to this we are very pleased that we will be contributing the catalogue records to a new project currently being developed which is a union catalogue for manuscripts written in Arabic script. This new initiative was first developed by the OCIMCO project in order to improve access to Islamic texts held in Bodleian Libraries, Oxford and Cambridge University Library. Additional funding from JISC has allowed the expansion of the project to include records of manuscripts from other UK institutions like the Society.

Work will also continue on other parts of the Society's Islamic manuscript collection in the near future; we are very grateful to have recently been awarded a grant by the The Islamic Manuscript Association for the cataloguing of our Arabic and Ottoman manuscripts. All of these projects are an important step in making the Society's valuable Persian manuscript collections known to researchers worldwide. Look out for more news of these projects here soon.

If you would like any further information about our manuscripts or how to access them please get in touch with Kathy or Helen in the library.

Kathy Lazenbatt kl@royalasiaticsociety.org

Helen Porter hp@royalasiaticsociety.org

The Sir Richard Burton Collection at the RAS

2011-07-05T16:17:00.002+01:00

The Burton collection at the RAS includes a large number of books, periodical articles and other memorabilia by and about Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG (1821-1890) the famous explorer, soldier and orientalist who was a member of the Society from 1859 until his death.

RAS 026.001 A portrait of
Oscar Eckenstein (1859-1921)
Inscribed in pencil, A. Legros, 1894

Much of this collection was originally brought together by Oscar Eckenstein (1859-1921), a railway engineer and mountaineer who had a keen interest in the life of Burton and endeavoured to collect anything that had been written or translated by him. After the death of Eckenstein the collection was acquired by Lewis C. Lloyd who presented it to the Society in 1939.

The books written by Burton include many first editions and fine copies which resulted from the travels and explorations he made during his career. Burton first travelled to India as a soldier for the East India Company and also served during the Crimean War, later he would be commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society to explore Africa with the hope that he would find the source of the Nile. He also made a pilgrimage to Mecca in disguise which brought him considerable fame and whilst serving as Consul in Trieste Burton was able to produce his 16 volume annotated translation of the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night first published in the 1880s which proved a huge success.

The image below is taken from A series of seventy original illustrations to Captain Sir R. F. Burton's 'Arabian Nights' ... reproduced from the original pictures in oils specially painted by Albert Letchford (Choice Edition de Luxe) published by H. S. Nichols Ltd., London, 1897. It depicts The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo.

The library holds some of Burton's rarest works such as A Complete System of Bayonet Exercise published by William Clowes & Sons in London in 1853 and Lord Beaconsfield : a Sketch published c1882. Some of the editions can also be found in excellent condition such as A Pilgrimage to Meccah and Medina published in London by William Mullen & Son in 1879 and The Prairie Traveller: a Handbook for Overland Expeditions again published in London in 1863. Several of the books have inscriptions in Burton's hand including a dedication to Justin H. McCarthy who wrote the valedictory poem on Burton's tomb.

Portrait of Captain Sir Richard F. Burton
taken from 1897 edition of illustrations of
the 'Arabian Nights'

Aside from books the Society holds letters including those written to A. G. Ellis, who was Keeper of Oriental Manuscripts at the British Museum, dealing with translation and bibliographic matters of concern to Burton. Also in 1949 the Prime Minister, the Right Honorable Clement Attlee, gifted Burton's Consulate hat and one of Burton's canes.

The entire Burton collection has been catalogued and is searchable in our online library catalogue using the term 'Burton collection'.

For more information about the collection or if you would like to view items contact Kathy or Helen in the library

Kathy Lazenbatt kl@royalasiaticsociety.org

Helen Porter hp@royalasiaticsociety.org

References

C. E. J. Whitting. The Burton collection at the Royal Asiatic Society. In: Simmonds, Stuart and Digby, Simon (eds.) The Royal Asiatic Society: its history and treasures. London : E. J. Brill, 1979.

Unpublished catalogue of Sir Richard Burton Collection by Mary S. Lovell and Bernadette Rivett

Benefit for the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, Wednesday 29th June 7 to 8pm

2011-06-24T11:52:00.002+01:00

The RAS is absolutely delighted to be hosting a joint benefit, along with the British Afghan Women's Society and Afghanaid, for the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. The Institute is founded and directed by Dr Ahmad Sarmast, son of the late Ustad Salim Sarmast, a well-known Afghan composer and conductor. It has been set up to promote both western classical and traditional Afghan music and is at the moment the only conservatory in Afghanistan.

The evening will include performances from Dr Ahmad Sarmast and Miss Robin Ryczek, cello instructor at the Institute (who has formerly toured with Jethro Tull) who will perform several original arrangements of traditional Afghan melodies for cello. The evening is open to all and free of charge but a collection will be made for Afghanaid, the British Afghan Women's Society and the Afghan National Institute of Music to support their plans for the future, which include providing scholarships for the musical education of war orphans and street children and collaborations with UK institutions on gap year programmes for music graduates.

For the location of the Royal Asiatic society click here or for further information contact Alison Ohta ao@royalasiaticsociety.org

RAS Painting on Tour: the Maratha Peshwa by James Wales

2011-06-15T14:45:00.000+01:00

The RAS possesses a considerable and miscellaneous collection of drawings and paintings the majority of which were donated during the first thirty years of the Society's existence from 1823 onwards. The artists were in the most part amateurs, civil or military officers of the East India Company, who enthusiastically sketched and recorded ancient buildings and remains. These works show subjects drawn from a wide area including palaces of Rajasthan, mosques and tombs at Gaur in Bengal, Mughal monuments in Delhi and Agra or temples in Java.

A few of the Society's paintings however are by professional artists and James Wales' portrait in oils showing the young Maratha Peshwa Madhu Rao Narayan is of particularly interest. It is in fact currently on loan to the V & A Museum for their Maharaja : Splendour of India's Royal Courts Exhibition, which was very well received in London last year and is now on tour in the United States having also been displayed in Toronto at the Art Gallery of Ontario until April this year.

RAS 01.014 The Maratha Peshwa with Nana Fadnavis

The painting shows the young Peshwa seated on cushions with his minister Nana Fadnavis beside him. Both are wearing white muslin dresses with red shawls and turbans and two attendants stand behind them. In the foreground are a line of objects, including a pan-box, spittoon, dagger and attar-sprinkler, the details of which were given great attention by the artist. It was almost certainly painted in 1792 when it was commissioned by the Peshwa himself when Wales stayed at the Maratha Court in Poona that year. James Wales (1747-1795) had travelled to Bombay in 1791 to work as a portrait and landscape painter and hoped to build up a practice in portrait painting amongst the Europeans there. He became friends with Sir Charles Malet who was Resident at the Maratha Court and it was he who introduced Wales to the Peshwa. The painting was given to the Society by the wife of Major-General Archibald Robinson in 1854.

The V & A Museum have produced an exhibition website and catalogue and the dates for the rest of the tour to the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts can be found here.

References

Archer, Mildred. Works by William Alexander and James Wales: pictures of note by British artists in the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society. In: Simmonds, Stuart and Digby, Simon (eds.) The Royal Asiatic Society: its history and treasures. London : E. J. Brill, 1979.

Head, Raymond. Catalogue of paintings, drawings, engravings and busts. London

RAS Student Lecture Wednesday June 15th

2011-06-13T12:56:00.000+01:00

To conclude the RAS Student Lecture Series this week we will be presenting the film Shugendo Now by Jean-Marc Abela and Mark Patrick McGuire. The film explores they ways a group of modern Japanese people integrate mountain learning with urban life. Using intimate camera work and sensual sound design viewers will be taken from deep within the Kumano mountains to the floating worlds of Osaka and Tokyo and back again.

The showing is free and open to everyone and will be followed by a drinks reception. The evening will start at 6.30pm and you can find directions to the Society here. If you need any further information please get in touch with us by telephone (0207388453) or email info@royalasiaticsociety.org

You can also visit the Shugendo Now website to find out more about the film.

RAS Lecture Podcasts

2011-06-10T12:08:00.000+01:00

The RAS lecture series for 2010-2011 concluded last night with Robert Skelton's lecture in memory of the respected scholar Simon Digby. This year we have hosted a wide range of fascinating lectures on topics as diverse as the the modern Chinese postal service, Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy and British trade and travel in the Ottoman Empire and they have been made freely available to listen to online as podcasts via the Backdoor Broadcasting Company website. We are looking forward to the next lecture programme which starts in September and further details will be posted here and on the website in due course.

Royal Asiatic Society Simon Digby Memorial Lecture

2011-06-01T13:13:00.000+01:00

On Thursday June 9th at 6pm Mr Robert Skelton will deliver a lecture to remember the life and work of the respected independent scholar Simon Digby. Simon regularly reviewed for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and served as Honorary Librarian for the Society from 1969 to 1985, his work with the library collections still proves extremely useful to this day. In 1999 Simon was awarded the Sir Richard Burton Medal by the Society.

In the lecture titled 'Some Evidence of Material Culture during the Sultanate Period in India' the speaker will highlight Simon Digby's key role in drawing attention to the fine and decorative arts of the period and explain why an investigation of these subjects had not been attempted before the mid-twentieth century.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception and admission is free and all are welcome. Click here for directions or contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org for more information.

Guest Blog Post: Malay magic and divination manuscripts

2011-06-01T12:32:00.000+01:00

For the first of our guest blog entries we are very grateful to Farouk Yahya a doctoral candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London who recently delivered the lecture 'Malay Magic and Divination Manuscripts: A study of an illustrated manuscript in the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Farouk writes:

'On 18^th May I was very pleased to have been given the opportunity to give a talk in the Royal Asiatic Society Student Lecture Series on an important Malay divination manuscript in its collection, MS. Maxwell 15. It is one example from a large database of manuscripts that I am currently studying as part of my research for my PhD thesis, and is particularly interesting for shedding new light on the role of European patronage in Malay manuscript production.

The manuscript, dated 22 April 1882, was commissioned by Sir William Edward Maxwell (1846-1897), a British officer who at that time was based in Taiping, Malaysia. Between 1865 and 1895 Maxwell held various legal and administrative posts in the Malay peninsula, and throughout his 30-year career was not only a key figure in the administration of the region, but also contributed significantly to the study of the local culture, language and history. Among his key works is a book entitled Manual of the Malay Language (first published in 1882) as well as numerous articles in the Journal of the Straits Branch (now Malaysian Branch) of the Royal Asiatic Society, for which he was Editor between 1883-1887.

His manuscript MS. Maxwell 15 contains a variety of divinatory techniques such as lot-casting, auspicious and inauspicious times, omens and dream interpretation. The texts are accompanied by numerous diagrams, tables, drawings and paintings, making it a valuable resource not only for the study of Malay divination but also for Malay art in general. During my talk I focused on some of the figural illustrations contained in the manuscript, which relate to the chapters on the pictorial falnama (a form of bibliomancy where the user opens the book at random) and the rejang calendar (where each day of the month is assigned to an object and is considered to be either lucky or unlucky). I highlighted how the style of the drawings and paintings is unusual because although they are in the Malay tradition, they show influences of a European style and incorporate elements of Chinese iconography. An extra dimension was brought to the talk that evening as the Society very kindly agreed to have the manuscript on display, which enabled the audience to view the document afterwards.

Apart from MS. Maxwell 15, the Society also holds other Malay texts that Maxwell had collected on the topic of magic and divination. These cover a diverse range of topics such as on the Malay cosmogony (MS. Maxwell 106), spells for controlling elephants (MS. Maxwell 107) and lucky/unlucky fowls and weapons (MS. Maxwell 24).'

Below are some of the illustrations from MS. Maxwell 15 which Farouk highlighted in his lecture.

The Garden, pictorial falnama, RAS Maxwell Malay 15

The Lion, pictorial falnama, RAS Maxwell Malay 15

Circular Qur'anic falnama, RAS Malay Maxwell 15

The full collection of Malay manuscripts held at the Society has been catalogued in:

Ricklefs M.C. and Voorhoeve, P. Indonesian Manuscripts in Great Britain: Catalogue of Manuscripts in Indonesian Languages in British Public Collections. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah of Firdausi

2011-05-20T16:48:00.000+01:00

Last year was the millenial anniversary of Firdausi's Shahnamah (Book of Kings) and so it was fitting that the Society placed its own exquisite Shahnamah at the heart of its activities. The manuscript, of the Persian national epic, was commissioned by the Timurid Prince Muhammad Juki (1402-1444) and is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Persian miniature painting of the 15th century. It was presented to Lord Hastings by the Nawwab Vizier of Oude in 1818 and subsequently given to Liet. Col. Charles Joseph Doyle who donated it to the Society in 1834.

In July we celebrated the publication (in collaboration with Philip Wilson Publishers) of 'Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah of Firdausi' by Barbara Brend. This is the first complete academic study of the manuscript and a beautifully presented book which includes the stunning miniatures that adorn the manuscript.

The book is available for purchase at the Society for £30.00 (r.r.p. £39.95) which is a lower price than online at Amazon.

Members of the public have also had the chance to view folios from Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah. In the latter part of 2010 selected illuminations were displayed at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge as part of the exhibition 'Epic of Persian Kings'. This year the Asia Society, New York was the first to exhibit all the illustrated folios from the manuscript together. The exhibition titled 'A Prince's Manuscript Unbound: Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah' was held from February to May this year, with Barbara's book as the catalogue. Asia Society have also produced a lovely website for the exhibition which includes a podcast of a lecture Barbara gave in New York about the manuscript. It can be viewed at http://sites.asiasociety.org/bookofkings/

Following the New York exhibition, selected folios will appear at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition 'Gifts of the Sultan: the Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts', curated by Linda Komaroff from 5th June to 5th September 2011.
http://www.lacma.org/art/ExhibSultan.aspx

RAS Persian 239 fol. 180A Rustam
rescues Bizhan from the pit

Along with Barbara Brend's book the Society is also selling some lovely prints of selected folios from Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah for £10 each.

If you would like to purchase the book or prints please get in touch with us at hp@royalasiaticsociety.org or 02073919424.

RAS Student Lecture Wednesday 18th May

2011-05-16T11:04:00.000+01:00

The Royal Asiatic Society Student Lecture Series offers the chance for postgraduate research students at the start of their academic careers to share their research. Topics discussed cover a wide range of disciplines and geographic areas; this year alone we have hosted lectures on contemporary Chinese cinema, 19th century Turkish architecture and tea drinking in Meiji Japan.

Our next lecture is on Wednesday 18th May at 6.30pm when Farouk Yahya (School of Oriental and African Studies) will talk about 'Malay Magic and Divination Manuscripts: A study of an Illustrated manuscript in the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society'.

RAS MS Malay Maxwell 15

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception and admission if free and all are welcome.

For directions visit http://www.royalasiaticsociety.org/site/?q=taxonomy/term/8 or contact info@royalasiaticsociety.org

About the Society

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The Royal Asiatic Society was founded by the eminent Sanskrit scholar Henry Colebrooke and a group of likeminded individuals. It received its Royal Charter from George IV in 1823 for 'the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia. Throughout the Society's history many distinguished scholars have contributed to its work, including Sir Richard Burton (1821-90) the eminent explorer and first translator of Arabian Nights and Sir Aurel Stein (1862-1943) the renowned archaeologist and explorer of the 'Silk Road'.

Today the Society continues to provide a forum for those who are interested in different languages, cultures and beliefs of Asia to meet and exchange ideas, attend lectures and research and publish on these subjects. We have an active publishing programme in association with Routledge and also several publication funds. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society is published four times a year by Cambridge University Press.

The collections of the Society include Persian, Arabic, Pali, Sanskrit, Malay and Javanese manuscripts, as well as a large collection of paintings, prints and drawings donated by Fellows. The Library holds a historic collection of books and periodicals on a variety of subjects on Asia and offers borrowing facilities to Fellows of the Society. Other students and researchers are also very welcome to consult material with prior appointment.

Our new blog will keep you up to date with the activities of the Society, its library services and collections. You can sign up to the blog on the right to receive emails notifying you of new posts. If you would like further information about the Society or are interested in becoming a fellow then simply follow the link to our website.