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DECEMBER, 1888.]
sources and specially from Van-nian-shu (the Calendar for Ten-thousand Years), from recent calendars, astronomical journals and other publications of the Tribunal of Astronomy at Pekin, called Tsin-tian-tsian, and Chinese maps of the heavens, included in the work Da-tsin-huidian, which extends to sixty volumes and is the Encyclopædia of the Manchurian Dynasty. Herr Fritsche has also made use of Ideler's work, Die Zeitrechnung der Chinesen. At the end of the book is given a chronological list of the Chinese dynasties and Emperors.
(7) J.Haas. Deutsch Chinesiches ConversationsBuch, nach Joseph Edkins. Progressive lessons in the Chinese spoken language. Second Edition, Leipsic, 1886.
(8) G. Deveria. La frontière Sino-Annamite. Déscription géographique et ethnographique d'après des documents officiels Chinois, traduits pour la première fois. Paris, 1886, with maps. This valuable work contains plans of the various provinces from Chinese and other sources, and is a mine of information on the country and its inhabitants.
MISCELLANEA.
(9) Notice sur le livre de Barlaam et Joasaph, accompagnée d'extraits du texte grec et des versions arabe et ethiopienne, par H. Zotenberg. This work deserves the fullest attention of orientalists and students of church history generally. The object of the author is to ascertain exactly the time and place of the Greek version of this celebrated romance, the Indian origin of which admits of no doubt. Having carefully analysed the language and contents of the romance he arrives at the conclusion that the Greek redaction was made in Syria, in the first half of the seventh century, and that the belief, widely spread originally and recently reasserted by Max Müller (Selected Essays, London 1881), that St. John Damascenus was the author of the romance, will not stand the test of criticism. From the Greek version all the subsequent translations and imitations were made. The author analyses very carefully what he calls le système théologique of the romance in some chapters which shew his intimate acquaintance with patristic divinity. He refers its composition to the first half of the seventh century, and judging from some special dogmatic portions, probably to the time between 620 and 634. In Chapters vi. and viii. the author speaks of the Indian sources of the tale and discusses the route by which it was brought from India to Jerusalem, traces the importance of the Monastery of Saint Sabbas in the history of the Church and finally comes to the translations of the romance into the Eastern languages. The so-called Christian version
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in Arabic appears to be a verbatim translation of the Greek and he thinks it already existed at the beginning of the ninth century and served as a foundation for the poetical imitation of the romance by the poet 'Abdu'l-Hamid. The Musalmân version in Arabic is also based on the Greek. He then goes on to speak of the Hebrew and Ethiopic, and briefly of the Armenian versions. To arrive at a complete knowledge, however, we still want a thorough examination of all the Greek texts and especially those preserved in the Synodal Library at Moscow. So also up to the present time our knowledge of the Arabic Musalmâm version is but scanty and it cannot well be judged of by the Hebrew imitation. V. R[osen] the writer of the review goes on to shew from the valuable work recently published by A. A. Tsagarelli in Russian, Notices concerning the monuments of Georgian Literature, of which the first part appeared at St. Petersburg last year, that it is quite probable that an early Georgian version of this romance existed, and believes that he finds its name among some of the works translated by St. Euthymius. Perhaps after all it was translated from Georgian into Greek. That the name of Barlaam was known pretty early in the Caucasus we find from the Georgian lives of St. Barlaam, preserved on Mount Athos (see Tsagarelli). The editor concludes by expressing a wish that some of the Georgian scholars in Russia would edit and translate the lives of St. John and Euthymius according to the manuscript of the year 1074 and also the two existing lives of St. Barlaam. By translating these documents they would confer a great benefit on science.
(10). Ousáma Ibn Mounkidh, un émir Tyrien au premier Siècle des Croisades (1095-1188) par Hartwig Derenbourg; Deuxième partie. Texte arabe de l'autobiographie d'ousáma publié d' après le manuscrit de l'Escurial. Paris, 1887. The Amir wrote his autobiography towards the end of his life, when he was ninety years of age. The work is of no great value from the historical point of view; importance consists in the fact that it gives a graphic picture of the life of the period. There is no chronological order in the book and the events are narrated very confusedly. The author is fairly impartial and does not deny merit to the infidels-only the longer they have lived among Musalmâns the more civilised he finds them! He has some good stories to tell as to how some of them adopted Musalmân habits. The event of his life which he deplores the most, is the loss of his library, consisting of 4,000. volumes. Everywhere the fatalism of the author breaks out. The reviewer V. R[osen] expresses his
