Die Aufgabe, die sich mir hier zunächst stellte, bestand darin, die normalisierten Texte in der phonetischen Umschrift in den Personalcomputer einzugeben

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Klaus Boekels

Edition von neumandäischen Texten mit einem Personalcomputer

Das Neumandäische ist ein ostaramäischer Dialekt, der von der religiösen Minderheit der

Mandäer gesprochen wird, die in den Flußläufen des Euphrat und Tigris, im heutigen Iran

und Irak, beheimatet ist. Durch den Druck des Islam und Zwangsumsiedlungen ist es eine

zum Aussterben verurteilte Sprache. Der Dialekt steht dem Talmudisch-Aramäischen sehr

nahe, steht aber eigenständig gegenüber dem klassischen Mandäisch, das in dieser

gnostischen Sekte noch als Kultsprache gepflegt wird.

Mit dem Entschluß von Prof. Macuch, von ihm im Iran gesammelte Aufzeichnungen des

gesprochenen Dialekts neben unzulänglich geschriebenen, zu Beginn dieses Jahrhunderts in

mandäischer Schrift erschienenen irakischen Texten aus J. De Morgan, Etudes linguistiques, lie partie: Textes mandaites (Mission scientifique en Perse V), Paris 1904, S. 273-286) zu

veröffentlichen, wird dieser Dialekt erstmalig der Öffentlichkeit in Form von Texten

zugänglich gemacht. Die Veröffentlichung sollte mit Hilfe eines Personalcomputers erstellt

werden, um die Kosten und den Aufwand niedrig zu halten. Die Aufgabe, die sich mir hier

zunächst stellte, bestand darin, die normalisierten Texte in der phonetischen Umschrift in den

Personalcomputer einzugeben. Hierzu waren einige Probleme zu lösen, wie die Ausgabe von

den sonst nicht gebrauchten phonetischen Zeichen auf dem Computer und deren Ausgabe auf

dem Drucker. Beides wurde gelöst, indem ein RAM-font-fähiger Drucker und Monitor

eingesetzt wurde in denen diese Zeichen speziell definiert wurden. Als Textprogramm wurde WordPerfect gewählt. Von diesem Textprogramm wurden dann die Texte in das Datenverwal¬

tungsprogramm dBase übemommen und aus ihnen über ein Programm automatisch eine

Konkordanz erstellt.

Nach der automatischen Erstellung einer vollständigen Konkordanz wurden in dBase die

verschiedenen vorkommenden Worte nach dem mandäischen Alphabet über ein dafür

erstelltes Sortierprogramm geordnet und mehrfaches Vorkommen ein- und desselben Wortes

ausgezählt und die identischen Einträge gelöscht. Diese Datei stellte die Ausgangsform für

die Erstellung des Glossars dar. Nachdem darin jede Form bestimmt und Bedeutung und

etwaige Bemerkungen eingetragen worden waren, wurde hieraus wiedemm über ein speziell

hierfür geschriebenes Programm direkt die Rohform des Glossars hergestellt. Nachdem diese

überarbeitet worden war, konnten die Einfühmng und die Grammatische Skizze, bei der die

vollständige Konkordanz nützliche Dienste leistete, bearbeitet werden. Die Arbeit mit dem

Computer erfordert gegenüber der herkömmlichen Bearbeitung einiges Umdenken. So liegt

die Hauptaufgabe bei der Erstellung eines durchgängigen Konzeptes, das alle Sonderfälle

kategorisiert und mitberücksichtigt, so daß diese Aufgabe dann in Form eines Programms

vom Computer abgearbeitet werden kann. Während der Arbeit erwies es sich z.B. als sehr

aufwendig, an sich kleine Unstimmigkeiten oder Fehler zu beheben, da diese dann vom

Programm durchgängig durchgeführt wurden und sich auf das gesamte vom Programm

bearbeitete Material erstreckten, andererseits konnten sonst äußerst aufwendige Sortier- und

Selektierprozeduren in kürzester Zeit bewerkstelligt werden. Die Chrestomatie mit den

mandäischen Texten neben einer deutschen Übersetzung werden noch in diesem Jahr

erscheinen.

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Jeffrey Heath

Dialectology of Moroccan Arabic

Moroccan Arabic (MA) includes a chain of Muslim dialects framed by national borders, and

a set of distinct Jewish varieties (MJA). As a whole, MA is distinctive (vis-ä-vis Egypt and Asia) due in part to its long coexistence with Berber, and its recent massive borrowings from

French (in most of Morocco) and Spanish (northem coast, and separately in the former

Spanish Sahara to the south). This paper addresses some general issues in MA dialectology.

1) To some extent MJA dialects form a separate dialect chain among themselves, especially in the Fes/Meknes/Rabat belt of cities. Important dialectal variables are shared by these MJA

dialects but are absent in coexisting Muslim MA in the same cities. In other parts of

Morocco, such as Oujda (far east), Muslim and MJA dialects were more similar to each other in a given community.

2) Morocco displays a common pattem of increasing geographical and occupational mobility

combined with urban migration; this favors development of a national colloquial koine

stripped of stigmatized regionalisms. However, in some ways the northem dialect around

Tetouan is more divergent than it was sixty years ago because of its Spanish lexical stratum

(vs. French in the main part of the country). The impact of European languages is

exemplified, with discussion of the mechanics of integrating foreign stems, especially verbs.

3) In the study of dialect chains we have opportunities to test whether surface variation reflects minor, late mles or significant "deep" restmcturings. Analysis of the phonology of MA shows that competing "deep" models are at work. Former short vowels are treated in

various ways: a) phonetic elimination; b) reinterpretation as epenthetic, with rounding

reanalysed as a consonantal feature; or c) lengthening to merge with former long (full)

vowels.

Jacob Mansour

The Judaeo-Arabic Dialect of Baghdad:

Notes on Vocabulary

1. A striking feature of the vocabulary of the Judaeo-Arabic dialect of Baghdad (=JB) is its

large number of words borrowed from Persian and Turkish. But while Persian and Turkish

loans are common to all Baghdadi dialects, as well as to Iraqi dialects in general, JB is

distinguished by its incorporation of Hebrew and Judaeo-Aramaic words.

The Hebrew and Judaeo-Aramaic words in JB occur mostly in the fields of religion and

ritual, though they are found also in everyday matters. It is noteworthy that there are

sometimes two words having the same referent — object, action or concept — one derived

from Hebrew, the other from Arabic, Persian or Turkish. But having the same referent does

not necessarily make them synonymous or interchangeable. The Hebrew word usually focuses

on the religious aspect of the referent; the other on the more general aspect. Examples are:

(a) The Hebrew for 'a book' is sefer, in Arabic kitäb. Both are used in JB: sefir and ktäb,

but not synonymously. The former denotes sacred texts, particularly the Pentateuch Scroll

read in the synagogue, while the latter is the general term for secular books.

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(b) 'A meal' is expressed in JB by two words: the Arabic 'akal and the Hebrew s'öda.

However, the Hebrew word is used only for meals on religious occasions to which guests

have been invited, such as weddings, festivals, etc.

(c) The word 'asar in Hebrew means 'to forbid, prohibit'. In JB 'as^ar has the same

meaning, but it is used only in religious, ritual matters. The JB's equivalent of 'a^^ar for general use is the Turkish yassaq.

(d) JB has also two forms for 'curtain': the Hebrew paröxet, and the loan word from Persian or Turkish, parda. The former is used only for the curtain over the Ark in the synagogue.

2. The above does not imply that all the loan words in JB have acquired a special meaning.

Some have the same meaning as the equivalent Arabic word. There may, however, be a

'generational' difference between parallel words: the older members of the community using

the older term, the younger members using the newer term. The Persian and Turkish words

are as a rule the older, the Arabic word having come into JB (or being used as an equivalent of the loan word) only later. The linguistic phenomenon revealed here is that the older, foreign words are being replaced by Arabic words under the influence of Classical Arabic

(=CA) and other Arabic dialects. Examples are:

(a) The regular word in JB for 'a quarter, fourth part' was üägak, borrowed from Turkish or Persian. It was later replaced by the Arabic gsb" (CA rub').

(b) Cf. ödrM (pers. iünki, Turk, günkü) vs. li'an (CA Wan) for 'since, because'.

(c) päya (Pers. päy, Turk, paye) vs. dagja (CA daraja) for 'step'.

(d) JB has several words for 'train, railway'. The oldest, used during the Ottoman regime, appears to be Samandafar (French chemin de fer). After the British occupation the words rel (English railway) and tren (English train) came into use, replacing Samandafar. However,

young people and those who have recently emigrated from Baghdad exclusively use the

Arabic qitßr.

TAKAMrrsu Muraoka

Some Issues in Classical Syriac Syntax

The paper is an attempt to take up some of the central issues of the sentence structure in Classical Syriac which have been the subject of three recent studies, i.e. T. Muraoka, "On the nominal clause in the Old Syriac Gospels," J. of Semitic Studies, 20 (1975), 28-37; idem,

"On the Syriac particle Bibliotheca Oriemalis, 34 (1977), 21f.; Gideon Goldenberg, "On

Syriac sentence structure," in M. Solokoff (ed.), Arameans, Aramaic and the Aramaic

Literary Tradition (Ramat-Gan, 1983), pp. 97-140. Whereas the first of these three studies

attempted to show that the English utterance 'I am Abraham' can have five different

expressions in Syriac with three structural meanings to be distinguished, the present paper,

in addition to attempting to deal with some issues raised by Goldenberg, goes on to

investigate the question how Syriac expresses 'David is my lord', i.e. an utterance neither of whose major components is a personal pronoun, and concludes by suggesting four tripartite structures with three distinct structural meanings, namely, descriptive, identificatory, and contrastive. Furthermore, the nature of the so-called pronominal copula is discussed, and it

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is suggested that its original and primary function was to extrapose a sentence constituent.

Finally, the types of clause with the particle I'itJ is discussed. For further details, see T.

Muraoka, Classical Syriac for Hebraists (Wiesbaden, 1987), §§ 101-107.

G.Kh. Sarkisyan

Babylonian Variant of Hellenism

The Greek language penetrated into Babylonia together with the Greek conquerors themselves in the conditions of existence of bimillenary traditions of the written (cuneiform) Akkadian language and the prevalence of the Aramaic language in colloquial speech. Neither of the two

ceded its sphere. The Greek language only crowded the cuneiform system in the private law

and administrative, and even here only up to a point. No clear traces of the penetration of

Greek material or spiritual culture into Babylonian or of their obvious synthesis are in

evidence. The architecture, sculpture and applied art of the Hellenistic Babylonians preserved their long-standing traditions. The same applies to the literature, religion, and science. The

most productive in Babylonia was the contact in the sphere of politico-administrative and

partly socio-economic forms. The necessity of having semi-autonomous units in the systems of monarchies, especially the Seleucid monarchy, as a social standby of royal authority, led

to a certain evolution of Babylonia's ancient cities which oriented themselves to the

Hellenistic poleis. Characteritically, this evolution proceeded within the framework of the genuine traditions of the local forms of city life, the most important common result of which

was the formation of civic-and-temple communities, which were the city, more exactly, the

city communities, of Hellenictic Babylonia. The civic community stood out amid the rest of the city population much more clearly than before. There was an increase in the role of the

"Council of the city", an upsurge in the activity of the cit^ magistrates, and a widely

disseminated practice of prebend (isqu, logogram — GIS.SUB.BA) granted for the

performance of ritual functions at the temple on festive days. Curious features were acquired

by acts of manumission. The mediatory function of the temple shows the influence of

Hellenistic practices. A characteristic evolution was shown by the position and role of the Greeks who lived in Babylonian cities, in particular, in Uruk. At the end of the 3rd century they fused with the Uruk civic-and-temple community with all ensuing results. A characteris¬

tic feature was the penetration of Greek anthroponymy among the Babylonians, namely, the

fact it should be classed predominantly with the administrative and social rather than the cultural sphere of life. The Babylonian cities exhibited the cult of the Seleucid dynasty and its ruling representatives. The Hellenistic Babylonian city had an appropriate agricultural environment comparable to the chora of the Hellenistic poleis. The status of the Babylonian city was characterized by the recognition by the Seleucid kings of his semi-autonomy.

Alongside this, however, the limits of self-government were clearly determined by the

presence in the city of the royal official of the epistate type. Beginning from Alexander the Great, the kings had participated in temple construction schemes in Babylonian cities. A very characteristic fact is that of inclusion into the possession of Babylonian cities of the land presented by the king as a gift to his courtiers and kinsfolk. The three cities, Babylon and nearby Barsip and Kutha, are described as maintaining so close unity that their relations can be compared with Greek sympolity. Naturally, the Babylonian city was not a polis, which was a purely Greek phenomenon. But, due to the dictates of the time the Babylonian city began, as it were, to receive some features of the polis. A typical feature of this process of likening

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was that it proceeded within the bounds of the old and even ancient local traditional forms of city life.

The Babylonian city in its turn influenced the polis as well. The adaptation of this structure, originally formed on the basis of the sovereignty of the classical Greek "city-state", to the new role of "city-in-a-state", preceeded under his certain influence.

J.M. CÖRDOBA

Fortlaufender Übergang und Staffelung

Ein Vorschlag zur Charakterisierung der Churriter-Welt in Vorderasien

Der Ausgangspunkt der derzeitigen Krise der Charakterisierung des Churriter-Wesens dürfte im XXIV RAI (1977), der in Paris stattfand, zu suchen sein. Hier verfocht M.-T. Barrelet

eine rückblickende, kritische Vorlage, die grundlegend darauf hinausläuft, daß die den

Churritern zugeschriebenen Kulturgegenstände stets auf der Grundlage von Materialien

erfolgte, die gleichfalls eine Gegenhypothese gestatten.' Ihre endgültigen Schlußfolgerungen

sind eindeutig vemichtend: das archäologische Schaffen ist derzeit nicht in der Lage, die

eigentliche oder wesentliche Beschaffenheit eines Objektes zu definieren. Die von ihren

Mitarbeiterinnen und unter ihrer Leitung durchgeführten Tätigkeiten, die sich auf Elemente

beziehen, die als zur Welt der Churriter und Mitannis gehörend angesehen werden, wie der

stilisierte Baum und die geflügelte Scheibe, kamen zu ähnlichen Schlußfolgemngen.' Die

Kritik an der These Barrelet ist in gewisser Hinsicht interessant und nützlich. So sahen sich

zahlreiche Kollegen gezwungen, ohne eine ausreichende Analyse erstellte Konzepte und

Zuschreibungen einer entsprechenden Überprüfung oder Revision zu unterziehen, z.B.

B. Hrouda.' Ich bin der Ansicht, daß die kritische These von Barrelet, so wie sie vorgelegt

und entwickelt wird, in gewisser Weise von der New Archeology mit all ihren Vor- und

Nachteilen, einer von P. Courbin entsprechend analysierten und korrekt beurteilten Tendenz,

beeinflußt wird. Man kann jedoch nicht behaupten, daß die erworbenen Untugenden, die

zuerst vom Textmaterial Gebrauch gemacht hatten, ein Privileg der Forschung über die

Churriter gewesen seien. Wenn wir außerhalb des Rahmens des Zusammenhanges

identifizierte Materialien wie aramäische, hititische, aquämenidische oder neubabylonische

Funde ähnlichen Analysen unterziehen, dürften wir zu erstaunlichen Schlußfolgemngen

gelangen. An diesem Punkte angekommen sollten wir uns die Frage stellen: Was ist nun zu

tun? Auf alle Fälle sind die archäologische Praxis und die Stratenvergleiche weiter intensiv zu betreiben. Ohne aber die archäologische Feldarbeit beiseite zu lassen, glaube ich, daß das

' M.-T. Barrelet, "Le "cas hurrite" et rarchfelogie". RHA, XXXVI, 1978, 23-34.

' M.T. Barrelet (ed.), Problimes concemant les hurrites. Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris 1984, S. 9. Ch. Kepinski, "Un motif figuratif, l'arbre stylish ä Nuzi et Alalakh, durant la Periode mitannienne" . In M.-T. Barrelet (ed.) op.cit. 1984, S. 199-212. D. Parayre, "A propos de la glyptique "mitannienne": le disque ail6 de Thfebes ä Kirkuk et d'Alishar ä Meskene". In M.-T.

Barrelet (ed.), op.cit. 1984, S. 213-259.

' B. Hrouda, "Zum Problem der Hurriter". In Mari 4. Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, Paris 1985, S. 595-613. Vid. S. 596-597.

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vorhandene Material und die dariiber erstellten Studien unter Beriicksichtigung der These Barrelet die Ausarbeitung einer Charakterisierungs-Hypothese der Churriter-Kultur gestatten,

welche die Erforschung dieses Volkes und seiner Spuren in Vorderasien erlauben. Meiner

Meinung liegt der rote Faden dieses Aspektes in der Summe der Elemente verschiedener

Disziplinen und deren Zwischenverbindungen. Ich lege die Hypothese "fortlaufender

Übergang und Staffelung" zur Charakterisierung des Churriter-Wesens vor. Während des

Jahres 1981 legte ich an der Universitas Complutensis zu Madrid eine Dissertation vor, die sich in erster Linie auf die Rekonstruktion der Kulturgeschichte der Churriter und Mitannis und auf die Erläuterung der erbrachten Wurzeln und Charaktergegebenheiten des Churriter-

Wesens' bezog. Ein Teil der darin erfaßten Ideen, die ich für die Verwirklichung einer

Lösung als grundlegend erachte, wurde durch eine Arbeit von Herm Prof. I.M. Diakonoff

bestätigt, die kurze Zeit danach in meine Hände fiel.' Nachstehend erlaube ich mir, einen

Teil dieses Ideengutes vorzulegen, das durch das Werk von I.M. Diakonoff und meine

eigenen, später durchgeführten Studien bereichert wurde.

Die Suche oder Identifiziemng nach dem ungefähren Vaterland des Churriter-Volkes mit

Hilfe nachstehend genannter Elemente kann weniger als eine Spekulation als eher als eine auf

gewissen Kontrasten basierende notwendige und nützliche Hypothese bezeichnet werden. Wir

verfügen über ausreichende sprachliche and anthropologische Beweise, um das Vaterland der

Churriter-Völker in Zentralasien zu suchen. Ich verweise auf A. Kammenhuber, die das

Vater- oder Urspmngsland in ein unbestimmtes Gebiet jenseits des Kaspischen Meeres

verlegt.' Vor geraumer Zeit habe ich diese Zuwandemng vertreten und entsprechend belegt,

so daß ich zwecks einer weitgehenderen Erläutemng auf mein genanntes Werk verweise. Ihr

friedliches Eindringen geht langsam vonstatten und scheint den bereits dort Ansässigen nicht den Eindmek einer Invasion vermittelt zu haben. M. Astour hat bereits auf diesen langsam,

graduell folgenden und sich mehr oder weniger gleichförmig abwickelnden Charakter

verwiesen und darauf hingewiesen, daß das Anwachsen der churritischen Präsenz in

Nordsyrien zur Zeit von Alalah VII "nicht auf die Handvoll Churriter zurückgeführt werden könne, die in der Epoche von Ebla nach Nordsyrien kamen".

Um natürlich die Wirkung des vorgeschlagenen Mechanismus etwas besser verstehen und

erfassen zu können, muß eine Reihe von Extremfakten in Betracht gezogen werden. Seit

seinen Anfängen, Ausweitung, Ansiedlung auf Hochebenen, emeuter Ausweitung und

schließlicher Festansiedlung im Staate Mitanni durchläuft das Churriter-Volk verschiedene Kulturphasen in chronologischem Verlauf Unabhängig davon, daß wir seine Wandertätigkeit

oder seine Niederlassung am Rande des syrisch-mesopotamischen Gebietes in Erwägung

ziehen, — die dort Ansässigen erhielten auf unaufhaltsame Art und Weise und ebenso wie

die Anwohner der Ebenen eine langsame, jedoch ständige Einbringung von kleinen Gmppen,

' J.M. Cördoba, Mitanni y los hurritas. Dissertation presentada en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 1981.

^ I.M. Diakonoff, "Evidence on the Ethnie Division of the Hurrians". In M.A. MorrisonD.I.

Owen (ed.) Studies on the CivUization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 1981, S. 77-89.

' A. Kammenhuber, "Die Arier im Vorderen Orient und die historischen Wohnsitze der Hurriter".

Orientalia, NS, 46 1977, 129-144.

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die durcii Hunderte von Jahren hindurch die Richtungen der Zuwanderung verfolgten — so ersehen wir, daß sowohl die Wandergruppen als auch die Ansässigen einer logischen eigenen

Kulturrevolution unterzogen wurden, wobei die Evolution der letzgenannten außerdem durch

den Kontakt mit höher entwickelten Völkem bedingt war. Logischerweise muß man zu der

Schlußfolgemng gelangen, daß in dieser langen Zeitspanne die Churriter, die vielleicht in der Zeit des Übergangs von IV. zum III. Jahrtausend, des III. Jahrtausends und in der ersten und zweiten Hälfte des II. Jahrtausends eingetroffen waren, wohl nicht den gleichen Kulturstand

besaßen, wohl aber ähnlich lautende ideologische Gmndbegriffe, ähnliche Glaubenzüge —

mit den entsprechenden Unterschieden' sowie eine identische Sprache, deren Dialekte, wie

von M.L. Khacikyan und Professor I.M. Diakonoff erwiesen, meine Theorie der Staffelung

bestätigen, die sich im Kulturbereich infolge der progressiven Deskulturalisiemng in einem

"fortlaufenden Übergang" wiedergibt. Mit einem Wort: die churritischen Völker sind in

Mesopotamien und Syrien auf langsame, beständige Art und Weise wahrscheinlich seit den

ersten Jahrhunderten des III. Jahrtausends eingedmngen. Infolge ihres Rahmen oder direkten Kontaktes mit den höher entwickelten Kulturen des Gebietes unterziehen sich die Churriter

einem langsamen Entkulturisiemngs- und Anpassungsprozeß ihrer eigenen Gegebenheiten

mehr oder weniger innerhalb dieses geographischen Bereiches.

Ich gehe von der gmndlegenden Akzeptationsvorlage des ursprünglichen churritischen

Vaterlandes in Mittelasien und des Weiterbestandes der jeweiligen Symbole und Mythen vor

allem im Volksglauben, deren fortschreitender Anpassung an ein neues Milieu und des nach

und nach eintretenden Verlustes deren Original- oder Urspmngsbedeutung bis zur

Gleichstellung mit mehr oder weniger nahestehenden syrisch-mesopotamischen Parallelen aus.

Die Churriten, d.h. asiatischen Völkerstämme altaischen Urspmngs, legten bis zur Errichtung

von Mitanni einen langen Weg zurück. Zauber und Schamanentum der Steppe waren in der

Kultur der Churriter vorhanden, obwohl die Residualangaben deren Studium alles andere als

erleichtem. So müssen also die ikonographischen Darstellungen auf Glyptik und Keramik

emeut untersucht werden, da zugleich mit den üblichen syrischen oder mesopotamischen

Elementen Symbole erscheinen, die in Bezug auf ihren schamanischen oder magischen

Urspmng, der in den alten churritischen Glaubenswurzeln verwurzelt sind, zu lesen sind,

obwohl sie aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach ihres ursprünglichen Sinns verlustig gingen.

Angesichts der Bedeutung von Vögeln und anderem Geflügel im allgemeinen innerhalb der

Riten und Magie der Churriter gewinnt auf diese Weise ihre betonte Gegenwart und

Ausbreitung im churritischen Bereich eine gewisse Reichweite, die vielleicht nicht nur mit der

"Unterwelt" in Verbindung zu bringen ist, sondem ebenso mit dem Tod und der ursprünglich

in der Welt der Churriter gehandhabten Beerdigungs- oder Grabeszeremonie. Ihre

Nachdrücklichkeit innerhalb der Kulturelemente findet somit eine Erklämng und eine

Zuordnungsgmndlage.

Der für eine Debatte und die archäologische Praktik deutlichste Leitfaden ist bekanntlicher¬

weise die Keramik. Die Churriter passen sich bald und ziemlich gut an die Stadtkulturen an, wie Urkis oder Alalah zu belegen scheinen. Sprache, Riten und Magie der Churriter bildeten

im Inneren anderer Staaten ein Bindeglied und die Aufrechterhaltung einer bestimmten

Churriter-Welt. Sie passen sich dem Milieu und den technischen Ermngenschaften an und

erstellen im Rahmen ihrer Kulturstaffelung, die sie während ihrer nach und nach erfolgenden

' V. Haas, "Substratgottheiten des westhurrischen Pantheons". RHA, XXXVI, 1978, 59-69.

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Ankunft ausweisen, Keramikwerke, die sich gleichen und gleichzeitig unterschiedlich sind.

Hier kommen die Liebe zur Malerei, die technische Sorgfalt und die überlieferten

Omamentmotive in einer klaren Unterschicht zusammen. Sie benützen alles, was ihnen gefallt und nützlich ist, unabhängig davon, ob es aus Syrien, Palästina, Assyrien, den Bergen oder

dem Seengebiet stammt. Nun könnten auf dem Bereich der Glyptik genauere Ausführungen

gemacht und weitere Beispiele herangezogen werden. Es steht außer Zweifel, daß die

klassische Ordnung oder Anordnung der "churritischen Stile" überprüft werden sollte, was ich derzeit vorhabe. Auf jeden Fall besitzen das Siegel von Saussattar sowie jedes einfache

Siegel mit Baum und Ziegen bedeutende andere Unterschiede, sie weisen jedoch ikonogra¬

phisehe churritische Züge und Eigenheiten und nur diese auf. Die Gründe für deren

augenscheinliche Unterschiede oder Abweichungen besitzen eine einfache Erklärung, auf die

ich zu einem gegebenen Zeitpunkt zurückkommen werde.

Zusammengefaßt also: Die in den geographischen Bereichen Vorderasiens, die von den

Churritern besetzt wurden, vorhandenen Material Objekte können die Besonderheiten oder

Eigenheiten der Churriter-Welt aufweisen und tun dies auch: desgleichen geben sie jenen

ständigen Übergang und jene kulturelle Staffelung im Rahmen des churritischen Eindringens

nach Nordmesopotamien und Syrien wieder. Natürlich wurden die Churriter auch von der

örtlichen Tradition geprägt, die ebenfalls Wandlungen verursachte und zu regionalen

Differenzen führte. So muß z.B. darauf hingewiesen werden, daß nicht alle Churriter

Vorderasiens während einer bestimmten Zeitperiode Habur- oder Bichrome-Keramik fertigten,

sondem nur die Bewohner einer bestimmten Region dank bestimmter Faktoren. Wir stoßen

jedoch dauemd auf Elemente, die uns eine Identifiziemng der Churriter-Anwesenheit

gestatten. Eine zum Teil gemischte Kunst, die jedoch ausreichend persönlich geprägt ist und

uns vor allem gestattet, die Essenz der churritischen Geschichte und Kultur wie von mir

vorgeschlagen zu lesen und zu erfassen, d.h. wie ein "fortlaufender Übergang und eine

fortlaufende Staffelung".

B.W.W. Dombrowski

"Eblaitic ": The Earliest Known Dialeet of Akkadian

Being based on an intensive and extensive investigation of the published written materials unearthed at Tell Mardikh, this paper shows that previous classifications of their language such as "Northwest Semitic", "North Semitic" or "Archaic" resp. "Proto-Semitic" are untenable. It draws attention, however, to the tme character of Eblaitic as the earliest well attested Akkadian dialect.

Surely, the obviously native tongue of the people of Ebla has been subject to both the impact of Old Sumerian in layers being clearly older than those well known prior to the discovery

and evaluation of the archives of Ebla and influences originating in this kingdom's

geographical situation and environment, yet its genuine Akkadian character, especially, when

compared with Pre-Sargonic and Sargonic becomes the more apparent the more one devotes

oneself to careful scmtiny of both its morphology and its lexicon. Phonological matters can be clarified concomitantly. Their treatment prior thereto must inevitably be misleading.

(The paper has been published in full in ZDMG 138,1 (1988))

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Metuge Enongene

The Scientific Foundations of Agricultural Technology in the Egyptian Nile Valley of the 14th Century B. C.

Introduction: Technology is an ancient Nile Valley Craft with key developments. From

antiquity, technology has evolved in an essential way. In the very early ancient epoch 4236- 1320 B.C. direct Upper Nile Valley Support for scientific policy analysis, politico-economic unification of the 470 km stretch of the Nile Basin has produced humanity's longest history in agricultural technology. Particularly so, the epoch 1400 B.C. documents with certainty;

scientific achievements, management, acts of skill and insight in agricultural technology development.

Key Developments: The foundations were laid for the great technical achievements that

followed directly on the developments of large irrigation schemes, mathematical concepts of agricultural technology, the wooden-plough, science of empirical regularities and fundamental laws, engineering, mechanics and socio-economic management. Because of the requirements of agricultural farmlife, concepts such as matriarchy, totemism and monotheistic religion were bom. Such an agricultural economy owed its vitality to the weaker resistance put up by feudal

ceremonial pattems of farmlife, development of iron-mouldboard tum plough, row

cultivation, seed drill, oxen-heoing complex and winnowing technology. Agricultural

technology and quality of life reach full flowering with science policy reforms, land use and values. Proof of these details can be found in written documents: Papyri, Pyramids texts, Manetho's chronicles, models and paintings of technical devices in tombs of Priests. Thus,

millennia of the technology of crop production and the existence of disposable money

"DEBEN" stems from state revenue policy of financing applied agricultural research, technology development, training and stimulus diffusion of knowledge. Here, we encounter

an economy-wide production process where commodies were produced by means of

commodities.

Frontier Phenomenon: This thesis contends that the Lower Nile Basin was frontier region to

the Saharan-Upper Nile Valley civilization. A frontier is a penetration phenomenon. It

evolves. The Nile Basin is a region into which people came from another and older sedentary African civilization which practised scientific farming systems and Neolithic technology; circa

7000 B.C. It brought with it its acts of skill and insight that produced humanity's first

technological leadership and agricultural revolution. Agricultural technology in particular had only to be diffused because resistence at the frontier was free and easy. The actual experience of frontier civilization is that it was endowed with a full complement of scientific tools, derived from parent culture and then completely severed from the institutional power system of its parent that resisted technological change. East-Asia, Americas, Mediterranean, became frontier regions to the Nile Valley. Regions into which Egyptian agricultural treaties were

diffused by Memphis and Thebes Priests. These were later copied by Jesuit Priests for

Medieval European development. Hence, agricultural technology is known to have spread

across the whole inter-tropical region from the Sahara to Asia.

Modem Sub-Saharan Africa and the Nile Valley is frontier to industrialized regions in

stimulus diffusion of technological capabilities, research and development.

Conclusion: It is maintained that technology diffusion evolves within frontier concepts. It is recommended that frontier technological policy must consider unique institutional severance

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and factors that generate accumulated capabilities. The Nile Valley has bequeathed to humanity technology policy that promotes intemational collaboration.

Lukas M. Muntingh

A Syro-Palestinian Free Man during the Amama Age

In 1987 it will be 100 years since the discovery of the Amama letters in Egypt. These

invaluable texts dating from the 14th century B.C. contribute greatly to our knowledge of the relations of the ancient Near East, and of Egypt to Asia in the second half of the second millenium B.C. Recent linguistic research gives proof of the lasting value of the texts and enables us to understand them even better.

Since their discovery, the Amama letters have been supplemented by other texts found at Ras Shamra (Ugarit), Kamid el Loz (Kumidi), Tell Hariri (Mari), more recently at Tell Mardikh (Ebla), and elsewhere. A clearer concept is gradually emerging of the Syro-Palestinian social stmcture, including the Israelite settlement in Palestine, during the third and second millenia.

The following three main classes may be distinguished: (1) the state and its officials, (2) free people, and (3) semi-free and unfree people. This paper is limited to the second class, with special reference to the term aw/milu, "man" in a changing society as a result of the decline of Egyptian suzerainty. While the ancient Near Eastem texts are often neutral and impersonal, this is not the case with the letters from the Amama archive.

The following aspects of a "free man" in the El Amama letters were discussed:

7. The form of the term, always written with the ideogram LÜ in the West-Semitic texts, in earlier times was pronounced awilum, but later as aw/milu. The Canaanite scribes could even have had a local term for "man" in mind (compare the situation in Ebla 1000 years earlier).

2. Man and ancient Near Eastem anthropology. In the Hebrew story of the creation of man,

God breathed life into man's nostrils. In the EA letters soldiers were encouraged by means of the divine breath that flowed to them from the deified Pharaoh (£4 100: 36, 40, etc.).

3. The Old Babylonian term awilum could mean:

1) a man of the higher class, a noble;

2) a free man of any class; and

3) a man of any class, from king to slave.

4. The meaning of aw/milu in Syria-Palestine in the EA letters. The term was used as an

indication of

1) the local mler in one of the many cities;

2) the subject, citizen or inhabitant of a city or region; and 3) man, someone.

Conclusions

1. The EA letters reflect some evidence of ancient Near Eastem anthropology, and the

question: 'What is man?'

2. For a study of Syro-Palestinian social stratification it is important to keep in mind that the A. Wezler/E. Hammerschmidt (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the XXXII Intemational Congress

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same Akkadian terms in tiie same time but different regions, do not necessarily have the same

meaning, especially where Akkadian was not the mother tongue. In Syria and Palestine the

meaning could differ from that in Babylonia.

3. In Syria and Palestine during the Amama age, the term awilu was preferably used for 'free man' (local mler, citizen and inhabitant of a city, with different shades of meaning) and in combinations also indicating gentilicia.

Diether Kellermann

Notes on the Trisagion in Isa. 6.3

In the OT the trigemination is found twice in Jer. (7,4;22,29), once in Ezek. (21,32-

engl.v.27), and as the Trisagion in Isa. 6,3. Jer. 7,4 is an apotropaic formula, by which

people assured each other of Jahwe's help, which was thought to be represented by the

temple. But Jeremiah exposed the threefold magic formula "the temple of the Lord" as void, not forceful enough to grant the desired protection.

Jer. 22,29 the threefold "o land, land, land" is an imploring incantation supposed to emphasize the author's passionate will to be heard. Ezek. 21,32 (engl. v. 27) the threefold

"min, min, min" sounds very much like a forceful magic formula.

In Accadic, in the collection of magic texts, the trigemination can sometimes be also found

as an introduction of sentences. This observation has been taken up by O. Keel, and in

connection with his interpretation of the seraphim as "snakelike and birdwinged, as beings perhaps endowed with human hands and feet" he would like to deduce the Trisagion from the officially prohibited magic of that seraphim-cult. But as J. Herrmann has already pointed out, Isa. 6,3 is a liturgical formula not comparable with the Accadian parallels. As there are only rare examples of the trigemination in the OT, some of the old versions have reduced it to a

mere gemination, which, as a figure of speech, is quite common in the OT. There is also

some controversy about the trigemination Isa. 6,3. R. Kittel has wondered whether originally qädoä stood only once in that verse, because then we would have a so-called "Doppeldreier"

as the most common metre. In IQIs' the word qädoä only tums up twice, while it's found

three times in the masoretic text. The reason might simply be an error of the copyist

(haplography). But N. Walker has pointed out that there is a linea paseq after the first qädoä in the masoretic text. As this sign does not belong to the masoretic system of accentuation it might be a text-critical sign. So N. Walker considers it an amalgamation of two different

readings. A very early text had only one qädoä in this verse. In IQIs" someone made a

"pious" correction by doubling the word qadoS in the sense of a superlative. Another scribe

supposedly either wished to preserve both readings or was not able to make up his mind

which to accept of the two and therefore put a paseq-sign between the variants; so an

amalgamation of the two readings would possibly be the way by which the existing form of

the Trisagion in Isa. 6,3 could have come into existence. Considering that the paseq-sign as an auxiliary sign has emerged comparatively late in the Middle Ages there was no consent whatsoever as to when and where the paseq-sign had to be put in, and since it is known that

already in the Old Church and during the Middle Ages up to modem times the threefold

qädoä referred to the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, — considering all this, the

insertion of the paseq-sign could be understood as a Jewish-rabbinic protest against such a A. Wezler/E. Hammerschmidt (Hrsg.): Proceedings ofthe XXXII Intemational Congress

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Christian interpretation.

With the paseq Isa. 6,3 is to be translated: Holy, very holy indeed, is Jahwe Zebaoth (the Lord of hosts), all countries are full of his glory.

Rudolf Macuch

Der gegenwärtige Stand der Samaritanerforschung und ihre Aufgaben

In unserem Jahrhundert wurden gelehrte Kontakte mit den Samaritanem intensiviert, wertvolle

Handschriften erworben, die traditionelle Aussprache des SH und des SA wurde eingehend

studiert, zuverlässige Grammatiken der beiden Sprachen sowie mehrere gmndlegende

samaritanische Werke wurden veröffentlicht oder befmden sich im Dmck, die Vorbereitung

des Wörterbuchs des SA wurde in Angriff genommen, neue Zentren samaritanischer Studien

mit eigenen Handschriftensammlungen und Schriftenreihen sind an den Universitäten in

Jemsalem, Tel-Aviv, Leeds, West-Berlin, Torino und sogar an den australischen Universit¬

äten in Sydney und Melboume entstanden. Zwecks Koordiniemng der intemationalen

Zusammenarbeit auf diesem Gebiet wurde am I. intemationalen SamaritanistenkoUoquium im

Oktober 1985 in Paris die Socifetfe d'Etudes Samaritaines gegründet. Die Bibliographen der

Samaritanerstudien arbeiten um die Wette. Nach der posthumen Veröffentlichung von

L.A. Mayer, Bibliography ofthe Samaritans (1964), die ungefähr 800 Titel enthielt, haben

J. Margain, M. Mor, S. Noja, R. Pummer, R. Weiss u.a. zahlreiche weitere ältere und

neuere Titel hinzugefügt, und die neueste Bibliographie von A. Crown (1984) enthält schon 2806 Titel und wird auch bald ergänzungsbedürftig sein.

Der ungewöhnliche Aufschwung der samaritanisehen Studien in unserem Jahrhundert hat Z.

Ben-Hayyim nicht nur gmndlegende Veröffentlichungen, sondem auch persönliches

Engagement für die Erfüllung vieler wichtiger Aufgaben auf dem Gebiet der hebräischen, aramäischen und arabischen Literatur der Samaritaner zu verdanken.

Die phonetischen Studien des SH und des SA können hiermit als abgeschlossen gelten. Trotz

aller Schwankungen der mündlichen Tradition enthält die eigentümliche samaritanische

Phonetik viele altertümliche Züge, die für das SH durch die Eigennamen in der LXX sowie

durch die Onomastica sacra des Eusebios und Hieronymus, für andere Wörter durch Origenis

Hexapla und für das SA durch die ixeTayQa<pai der aramäischen Wörter Jesu in den

Evangelien genügend bewiesen wird. Sie werden deshalb auch für das Studium der

Aussprachetraditionen des Hebräischen sowie der Phonetik des Palästinischen Aramäisch in

den ersten Jahrhunderten unserer Ära berücksichtigt werden müssen.

Über weitere an verschiedenen Orten und auf verschiedenen Gebieten der Samaritanistik

laufenden Arbeiten soll die Lettre Annuelle de la Societe d'Etudes Samaritaines informieren.

(Der vollständige Text des Referats erscheint in der ZDMG.)

A. WezIer/E. Hammerschmiclt (Hrsg.): Prcx;eedings of the XXXII Intemational Congress for Asian and Norüi Afriean Studies, Hamburg, 25th-30üi August 1986 (ZDMG-SuppI. 9).

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John F. Healey

Some Aspects of Nabataean Aramaic

Although Cantineau's treatment of Nabataean grammar of 1930-32 is still in some respects satisfactory, his remarkable synthesis is gradually becoming outdated by new discoveries. It is now clear that there is a need for a major new and more comprehensive treatment.

(a) The texts need re-editing and should be brought together in a coherent series of volumes.

(b) There is need for more work on syntax, incorporating newly discovered texts on papyrus and comparison with other Late Aramaic inscriptions, (c) With regard to lexica there is again a need to set Nabataean in the context of other Late Aramaic dialects (Palmyrene, etc.). (d) The typology of the personal names has not been studied systematically on the basis of a full corpus of texts. There are also important questions of ethnicity and history at stake. Scholars have always had the feeling that the personal names support the view that the Nabataeans were Arabs by race, but this needs to be quantified.

The most important part of the corpus comes not from Petra but from Madä'in Sälih in Saudi

Arabia, where there are thirty-four tomb inscriptions, many of them quite long (up to 14

lines) and mostly very well preserved. Recent work by the author at Madä'in Sälih has led

to the establishment of new readings and new texts which will be published in due course.

Taken with the texts from Petra and the Hawrän they form a substantial corpus, mostly

ascribable to the 1st century A.D. However, the vast majority of the inscriptions are tomb

texts of a rather legalistic type. Despite this, some of the information in them is of

considerable historical importance. Apart from numerous legal terms and formulae, there is frequently a date in the reign of a Nabataean king and reference to temples and deities. The Nabataean legal papyri overlap in legal terminology with the tomb inscriptions.

The graffiti and a few of the more formal inscriptions cover a much wider historical period, extending beyond the fall of the Nabataean kingdom to the Romans and as far as the 4th/5th century A.D. The graffiti are still being found in large numbers. They can, however, often only be dated on the basis of palaeography. The establishment of the Nabataean palaeographie sequence is one of the aims of the present author's research. Fortunately, apart from the 1st century inscriptions there are a few dated later texts using Nabataean script (e.g., 166/9, 267, 306, 328, 356 A.D.).

Although Arabic influence has long been recognized in the Nabataean texts, the relations

between Nabataean, Nabataeao-Arabic and Frühnordarabiseh need to be explored. It is

important, however, that Nabataean Aramaic should be evaluated in the wider Aramaic

context. Nabataean Aramaic is much closer to Achaemenid Imperial Aramaic of the earlier

period than to later Jewish Aramaic. Its roots may lie in the earlier Aramaic influence in the

area of southem Jordan and northem Arabia, best attested to by the Tayma' inscriptions of

the 6th/5th century B.C.

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Naphtali Kinberg

Al-Farrä "s Grammatical Terminology — an Examination ofthe Küfic Term mutar¬

jim and the Basrian badal

The terms mutarjim and tarjama are said to be the küfic equivalents to the Basrian term badal

'apposition'.' An examination of the occurrences of these terms in al-Farrä''s Ma'äni

l-Qur än shows that indeed they are often used where the Basrian term badal would be a

proper substitute, e.g. Qur 'än 37:6: innä zayyannä s-samä 'a d-dunyä bi-zinatini l-kawäkibi the author sa.ys: fa-xafada l-kawäkib tarjamatan 'ani z-zina (2, 159, 7). In this verse the word al-kawäkib actually occurs in apposition to the preceding zinatin, and agrees with it in case (even though not in definition). Similarity between the two terms is also manifested in Qur 'än 20:29-30: wa-j 'al li wazlran min ahli härüna axi. According to one analysis härüna axi is a mutarjim of al-wazir (2, 178, 8-10). Here too one could use the term badal instead of mutarjim, and the latter agrees with the preceding noun in case, but not in definition.

However, the term mutarjim in al-Farrä' 's Ma 'äni l-Qur än is not always identical with the

Basrian badal. The author uses the term mutarjim with regard to the word say ' in Qur an

34:39: wa-mä anfaqtum min say in fahuwa yuxlifuhu: li- anna s-say 'a lä yakünu hälan, wa-

läkinnahü -smun mutarjimun. wa-innamä dakartu hädä li- 'anna I- araba taqülu: li-llähi

darruhü min rajulin, tumma yulqüna "min" fayaqülüna: lillähi darruhü rajulan, fa-r-rajulu mutarjimun ßi-mä qablahü] wa-laysa bi-hälin (2, 104, 3-5). From this passage it is clear that

the term mutarjim, unlike the Basrian badal, reflects a semantic category rather than a

syntactic category which follows the grammatical case of its antecedent.' The different

approach regarding the Küfic term mutarjim and the Basrian badal is clear in this passage, where say 'in is presented as mutarjim of mä and man even though it does not agree in case with these nouns, and the same is true with regard to rajulin. In other words, whereas the term badal belongs to a wider category of syntactical elements which agree in case with their antecedents, namely the so-called tawäbi ', the term mutarjim reflects a semantic category, and is applied even when there is no case-agreement within the noun and its complement.

The conclusion from this short examination is quite obvious: the special terms occurring in

al-Farrä''s Ma'äni l-Qur'än reflect not only differences in terminology, but rather a

different approach to grammatical analysis. Hence it is impossible to make a mechanical substitution of a Küfic term with an apparently equivalent Basrian term.

Bibliography

Al-Farrä' Abü zakariyyä Yahyä b. Ziyäd, Ma 'äni l-Qur 'än. Vol. 2, ed. Muhammad Ali

n-Najjär, Cairo, n.d.

Al-Maxzümi Mahd, Madrasatal-Küfa, Cairo, 1958.

' Cf. Maxzümi, 310, who cites Sarh al-Usmüni. See also the footnote of Muhammad Ali an

Najjär, the editor of vol.2 (p. 261)

^ The author expcicitly states so saying: wa-dalla 'alä annahü mutarjimun 'an ma 'nä (the emphasis is mine, N.K.) man wa-mä(2, 104,2).

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Alice Faber

Diachronic Relationship Between Interrogative and Negative Markers in the Semitic Languages

This paper consists of a study of negative and interrogative markers in the Semitic languages.

The negatives studied are *ma, * i, *lä/* 'al, and their derivatives, and the interrogatives treated are those based on *m- and * ayy-. Based on the attestation of negative *ma in extra- Semitic Afroasiatic language groups and the innovation within Semitic of non-negative uses

of *ma (e.g., enclitic mem, -m(a) in indefinite pronouns like Akkadian mimma 'anyone'), I

suggest that '*ma was the primary negative marker in PS. The narrowing of the contexts

permitting negative *ma in the attested languages is correlated with increased use of other

negative markers as well as an increase in non-negative uses of *ma; indefinite *ma,

however, betrays its negative origins in continued negative polarity (NP) — distribution restricted to negative and semantically allied contexts. Given extra-Semitic attestation of negative "^ma and interrogative "'''ayy-, it appears that the PS presence of negative and interrogative forms of both stems results from convergence and contamination.

The significance of this research is two-fold. Treatment of non-negative, non-interrogative

uses of Semitic *ma as innovations allows more rigorous morphological comparisons within

Afroasiatic and greater precision in reconstruction. And, at a more general level, diachronic studies of interrogative and negative markers in particular languages are relevant to general claims about the possible behavior of these particles. Most studies of negative polarity assume

that NP particles originate as referential nouns which become weakened through overuse in

phrases like "not a bit" to the point that they acquire negative force; the reconstruction discussed in this paper of a source other than a referential noun for a Semitic NP marker requires rethinking of the developmental series posited by Jespersen of noun -» emphatic particle -» NP marker (-* negative marker) as a universal source for NP markers.

Ottmar Hegyi

Arabic Lexical Pattems in Spanish Aljamiado Texts

The term aljamiado (derived from Arabic al- gamiya) is normally used in modem times to

refer to Iberoromance texts written in the Arabic alphabet, and, by extension, it has also been applied to similar phenomena elsewhere, e.g. to Serbocroatian, Albanian and Greek texts in the Arabic alphabet. Such linguistic documents differ from the corresponding standard written languages not only in their extemal aspects, but also in their linguistic peculiarities.

In the past, there has been a tendency to regard Spanish aljamiado texts as written expression of a linguistically unsophisticated minority, not fully conversant with the subtleties of Spanish.

However, there is sufficient evidence that the authors of most aljamiado texts were native speakers of Spanish. The Arabicizing peculiarities found in them should, accordingly, not be

regarded as signs of inadequate knowledge of Spanish, but rather as a conscious effort to

transform the language into a suitable vehicle for the transmission of Islamic thought and spirituality. We would thus have an Islamic variety of Spanish, in which Arabic is looked upon as a model language, acting as a linguistic superstratum as Latin does in the case of Christian vemacular texts.

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This influence of Arabic is particularly noticeable in the frequency of loan-words and

syntactical pattems imitating Arabic sentence stmcture. Less easily recognized are loan-

translations and changes in the semantic content of Spanish lexemes induced by Arabic model.

Even more surprising is the presence of paradigmatic lexical stmctures which reflect

characteristic pattems of Classical Arabic. The present paper intends to examine these in the light of E. Coseriu's theories related to semantic fields and lexical stmctures (outlined in his Principios de semäntico estructural, Madrid: 1977).

The above can be illustrated by examples like la buena creencia 'the good faith', el alqunut buerw 'the good alqunut', or buenas rogarfas 'good rogations', etc. While, at first sight, the use of the adjective bueno would seem to be possible in the above cases, such combinations are, nevertheless, not quite reconcilable with the linguistic sensibilities of the native speaker

of Spanish. Expressions like the good Lord's prayer would sound outlandish in most

European languages. However, the adjective bueno, in the above cases, seems to translate the

Ar. tayyib, the nuances of which do not correspond to that of the Spanish bueno, but are

determined by its relationship to the paradigmatic set of synonyms and antonyms of which

it forms a part, tayyib also differs in its function in the syntagmatic sequence and in its

combinatory possibilities with other lexemes. Apart from loan-words, neologisms and the

more obvious loan-translations, the influence of Arabic lexical pattems contribute

considerably to a linguistic differentiation of aljamiado texts from the standard ones.

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Samiran Chandra Chakrabarti

The Vedic Tradition in Assam: The Present Situation

The article is an attempt to present a preliminary report on the investigation undertaken with

reference to the area of Cachar and Sylhet (now in Bangladesh) and the area adjoining the

Brahmaputra valley. At the present time, when the Assamese people is trying to emphasize the Assamese culture, not many are interested in identifying the traits of Vedic culture still prevailing there. The majority of the people is not much aware of the Vedic tradition, and apathy towards Sanskrit and Sanskritic studies can be felt in general.

Tradition goes that westem Brahmins from Ita (near Agra) came with their families to Sylhet

and settled there. They formed a Vedic society in Ita pargana of Sylhet. Afterwards,

Brahmins from Mithila came to this region for helping the performance of Vedic sacrifices.

The localities where they settled are also mentioned. Several gotras are mentioned in this

connexion — Vatsa, Vätsya, Bhäradväja, Krsnätreya, Käsyapa, Kätyäyana, ParäSara,

Maudgalya, Svarnakausika, and Gautama. Brahmins belonging to these families are called

sämpradäyika and said to be devoted to virtuous conduct. The land grants of Assam present

a historical, and therefore far more reliable, account of Brahmins settling in Assam.

Nidhanpur Grant alone mentions 205 Brahmins of 58 gotras receiving landgrants. The grants also indicate royal patronage behind the spread of the Vedic culture in Assam, particularly during the reign of the Varman dynasty. From different sources, published and unpublished,

names of 81 gotras prevailing in Assam have been collected. A few of them are however

mere variants.

The majority of people have no clear idea of the Vedic texts they follow (or are supposed to follow) in performance of their rites. The following paddhati works are reportedly followed:

Käleiipaddhati based on the Äsvaläyana Grhyasütra, PäSupatapaddhati based on the

Päraskara Grhyasütra, and Bhavadevapaddhati based on the Gobhila Grhyasütra. Previously, the Maithila Smrti was mostly followed. It appears that later on Raghunandana's work became

current in Bengal and from there they were introduced also in Assam. In practice one now

finds followers of both. On enquiry from some local advocates it is leamt that Däyabhäga

prevails also in Assam, and Mitäksarä applies to the outsider now residing in Assam.

According to tradition, Naraka came from Mithila, and during his reign the Maithila culture

spread in Assam and gradually influenced the earlier cultures. During the Gupta period

Hinduism flourished in Assam under the patronage of the Varman kings, who themselves

performed grand Vedic sacrifices. Reportedly, no Vedic sacrifice was performed in recent

years.

Vedic manuscripts are now rare in Assam. Jatindra Bhattacharya collected a large number of manuscripts from different sources. The collection, now in care of Jadavpur University, has not yet been duly processed.

Traditional Vedic teaching is imparted in Manikul Ashram in Gauhati. No Tol in Assam in

known to be exclusively devoted to Vedic studies. The situation is in no way better in

colleges and universities.

Several features of the Assamese rites and festivals are believed to be survivals of Vedic sacrifices. Interesting resemblances between the religious belief of the Vedic people and that of some hill tribes of Assam have also been noted. Further careful investigation is however

a. Wezler/E. Hammerschmidt (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the XXXH Intemadonal Congress for Asian and North African Studies, Hamburg, 25th-30th August 1986 (ZDMG-SuppI. 9).