Beginning in the seventh century, the expansion ofIslam brought with it an outpouring of peoples fromthe Arabian Peninsula. While the composition ofthese Islamic armies became more diverse as thereligion spread through the Near East and acrossNorth Africa to Western Europe, there were clearlyelements of both the urban Arabian population, ofwhich the Prophet was a member, and the ruralBedouins, whose migrations from their originalhomeland continued sporadically for severalcenturies. This slowed during the period of Turkishhegemony, but it left a scattering of enclavesidentifying themselves as ethnic Arabs throughoutthe Islamic world.

For several years now the Lafayette Project has beencompiling a data base of portrait photographs fromthe Copy I collection at the Public Record Office,Kew (PRO). The Lafayette Project was founded tofurther the cataloguing of historic photographs andfunding by the Elm Trust has enabled the project toset new standards for the documentation of historicphotographs based on careful analysis of an imageand its contents as a historical source. The database is a means not only of investigating portraitsbut also a starting point for entering into thewider scope of the collection to pursue historicalresearch.

In South India Cochin is well known for its Jewishsettlement, but the rich Muslim heritage of the townhas so far remained almost unknown. A reason forthis anonymity lies perhaps in that the Muslimcommunity of Cochin – unlike that of Calicut – whilehighly influential in the commerce of the region,kept a low profile with regard to political affairs,at least from the time of the appearance of thePortuguese. Cochin, situated at 9° 58′ N and 760°14′ E, occupies the northern part of a long stretchof land, about half a kilometre south of the Islandof Vypin (Baypin or Vypeen) and 1.5 km west of theshores of the mainland, now occupied by the moderntown of Ernakulam. Between Cochin and Ernakulam is along expanse of sheltered but navigable water, atthe mouth of which is Willingdon Island, housing themodern sea port and the airport.

“The recognition as well as interpretation ofarchaeological evidence will always be biased andincomplete. There can be no archaeologicallyachieved final truths or wholly objectiveinterpretations. But to recognize such limitation isnot to reduce the subject to a set of mereperceptual constructs. Archaeology is a societalactivity that embodies both the residues of its pastand its changing attitudes towards the past. We callthe residues evidence and the attitudesinterpretation. The continuing dialogue between thetwo enables archaeology, always open to newquestions, to reveal new knowledge.”

In the late thirteenth century the openness andreligious toleration of the Mongol Empire createdunique conditions which encouraged Europeanmissionaries to venture into Asia. The Franciscansand Dominicans who answered the call to evangelizein territories under Tartar dominion enjoyed suchsuccess by the early fourteenth century that thepapacy created archbishoprics and suffragan sees inCentral Asia and China, and entertained dreams ofnew Christian communities aligned with the RomanChurch. This paper focuses on a special set ofcircumstances which briefly encouraged thoseexpectations. Western missionaries to the Mongolsfound influential Christian women, the mothers andconsorts of rulers, at the courts of several khans.Because these Mongol queens played powerfulpolitical roles, their prayers and example mightencourage the conversion of their people and thosesubject to them. Faithful wives of pagan rulers, intimes long gone, had played a dynamic part in theconversion of husbands or sons, and of their realms,thus contributing to the spread of Christianity inEurope. Once again, at the close of the thirteenthcentury, hopes were voiced that pious women mightperform a similar task in Asia.

The publication of two volumes of collected papers byNathan Sivin is an event that should be welcomed byevery centre where Chinese studies are takenseriously. For all his considerable reputation in adifficult area of specialized research namely thehistory of Chinese science, he has never sought tocapitalize on his status as a specialist to “blindus with science”, but rather has written with an eyeto broader problems, problems of concern at least toanyone professionally interested in the Chineseelement in human experience, and (one would hope)many more besides. The spread of his concerns hasmeant in the past that many smaller collegelibraries have not possessed the periodicals andconference volumes in which his work has appeared,so this set of republished papers serves a usefulfunction in itself. But in the second of thesevolumes in particular we find a number of previouslyunpublished works, including one of over seventypages on a topic of considerable importance. Ratherthan leave this unexpected bounty simply for collegelibrarians to acquire in order to make good existinggaps (and to have on the record the full Sivinbibliography to 1995 which may be found in thesecond volume), there would seem to be every reasonto draw the attention of a broader number of readersto the appearance of important work which hasexisted for a while in draft form, but which has notbeen made generally available until now.