The poetics of the Sanskrit ornate epic ( mahākāvya), recognized as the most prestigious genre of Sanskrit kāvya literature, significantly rely on literary devices creating the sense of grandeur. The aim of this study is investigate the notion of atiśaya discussed by early works on Sanskrit literary theory and to identify it as a focal term within a discourse explicating the poetics of grandeur characteristic of mahākāvya genre. The here introduced distinction between atiśaya and hyperbole enables to capture the specificity of literary grandeur in mahākāvya compositions and elucidates the broader matter of ‘excess’ in the Sanskrit literature.

Foreskin, apart from its literal meaning, functions in Tanach also as a metaphor of blemish. Similarly, the circumcision is presented as a removal thereof. The perfecting function of the rite is visible in Second Temple texts, as well as in later tannaitic sources. The purpose of this paper is to analyze words of Jesus found in J 7:22–23 in the light of circumcision in the Hebrew Bible, understood as a ritual performed to remove a blemish. The conclusion is that Jesus’ words in the analyzed verses continue the biblical view, attesting to an exegetical trend visible in later Jewish sources.

The aim of this article is to characterize some lingual traits of the dialect spoken by ʽĪšɛ with regards to some selected socio-cultural aspects. ʽĪšɛ is a woman of more than one hundred years old, living in one of the villages of Testour district in North West Tunisia, accidently discovered by a Tunisian TV program in 2018. The examination being conducted here shows before all how ʽĪšɛ’s idiolect is strongly rooted in her geo-cultural environment, lingually and socially. Both similarities and differences between ʽĪšɛ’s idiolect and the General Tunisian as well as some other Tunisian dialects are also observed. What is more, ʽĪšɛ’s idiolect, living and intelligible beyond the boundaries of Tunisia up to present days, has stood thus the communicative test of time.

The paper exemplifies chosen textual variants extant in Qur’an versions in the Islamic world, focusing on printed readings according to Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim and Warš ʿan Nāfiʿ, against the historical background of Ibn Muǧāhid’s qirā’āt reform (10th century C.E.). The studied issue is part of and sheds light on a broader problem – the quest after elaborating a critical text edition of the Qur’anic text based on the oldest and best manuscripts. The preliminary conclusion is that neither Ibn Muǧāhid nor the oldest, surviving works by Muslim scholars devoted to the Qur’anic qirā’āt did actually record the factual state of the oral tradition from the 7th century, but that the variants of the oral tradition as codified in the 10th century have their origin only in the late written tradition (probably also only from the 10th century, possibly not much older).

Precepts and taboos play a central role in the systematization of Daoist communities. On this set of rules hinges the development of various Daoist movements and the establishment of different Daoist schools. In this article, I investigate the proscriptions about the five pungent vegetables (wuxin 五辛 or wuhun 五葷, allium vegetables) consumption in Daoist early medieval prescription’s texts. Whereas previous scholarship has analyzed the influence of Buddhism in Daoist monastic rules, this paper turns the attention to the way in which the five pungent vegetables taboo was elaborated in Daoist discourse, especially in texts from the early medieval era. It argues that in Daoist prescription’s texts, the allium vegetables taboo is supported and justified by the aversive emotion of disgust. By describing the five pungent vegetables as polluted, defiled and even dangerous items, Daoist texts construct the perfect condition for their repulsion and the taboo's final systematization.

The use of foreign bases in derivation and compounding has led to the creation of a very young, but rapidly expanding, fourth sub-lexicon of Contemporary Korean – hybrids. Their growing number enhances the degree of hybridization within the Korean lexical subsystem. Hybrids, however, can also be coined be means of borrowed affixes. It is on these that this article will use to illustrate the growing influence the formation of the global communicative community exerts on Contemporary Korean. It will also address the reasons for borrowing these bound morphemes. Although Korean linguists generally deny the existence of foreign affixes in Korean, this article, based on an analysis of neologisms coined after 2000, will identify -reo, -ijeum, -iseuteu and anti- corresponding to English -er, -ism, -ist and anti-, respectively. Hybrid derivatives with foreign affixes may be treated as marginal, due to their relatively small morphological productivity, in comparison to other well-researched coinages. Nonetheless their existence and the growing popularity of Konglish might be perceived as the beginning of further and even more prominent changes to the Korean language, which in a long-term perspective may also influence the perception of the world by Korean speakers, since the national language not only stores the cultural and material values of the community but also a changing view of the world.

This is a short overview of a Tatar journal Heberçı of 22 (+2 title) pages published in 1952 in Stockholm, the content, and the language features of which were unknown to the specialists up to now. It was called issue number 1. The publication was realized by a group of well-known Tatar writers, scientists and journalists who lived at that time in Sweden as immigrants. The copy of the journal which was at my disposal was received from Stockholm. The study of this bulletin may give new information about the duration of the keeping or not keeping of the immigrants’ mother tongue in a foreign language environment. Also, one can regard it as a source for research of the social status of the immigrants in Europe in the middle of the 20th century. This article will present the following: 1. an overview of the content of the bulletin, 2. an analysis of the language of the journal in comparison with the Modern literary Tatar language, 3. the translation into English of 2 texts from the bulletin and 4. 5 pages of facsimiles of the texts.

In the aftermath of their invasion of the South Arabian kingdom of Ḥimyar in 525 CE, the Aksumites of Ethiopia erected a series of inscriptions in Gəʿəz documenting the invasion. Although these inscriptions survive in very fragmentary condition, enough is preserved to indicate that the Aksumites presented their victorious campaign in religious terms, often quoting passages from the Bible. This manner of presentation provides insight into how the Aksumites conceived of themselves and their military venture in Ḥimyar, an undertaking that, while motivated by strategic concerns, had strong religious overtones in that it pitted Christian Aksumites against Ḥimyarite Jews. At the same time, the Aksumites took pains to emphasize their Ethiopian identity in this corpus of inscriptions, as evidenced by the fact that the inscriptions in question were composed in Gəʿəz, the Ethiosemitic lingua franca of Aksum, rather than in the local Sabaic language. That these inscriptions may have been erected as parts of symbolic stone thrones, as were similar Aksumite inscriptions erected elsewhere, would also have served to emphasize the Ethiopian identity of Ḥimyar’s conquerors. Thus, to the extent that the Aksumites identified with the Israelites, they saw themselves as an Israel in a Christian, Ethiopian guise.

17 November 2022 marks the centenary of the death of Jan Grzegorzewski – Orientalist, Slavist, publicist and social activist. The aim of this article is to highlight this figure and to show his activity in various areas of social and scientific life, especially his contribution to Polish Oriental studies. This somewhat forgotten but extremely interesting and colourful, although somewhat controversial, figure has still not received the comprehensive biographical treatment he fully deserves. Thanks to his extraordinary determination and commitment to his activities, Jan Grzegorzewski initiated the establishing of the first Polish scientific journal of Oriental studies, Rocznik Orientalistyczny, for which he also obtained funds. The first part of the first volume of Rocznik, covering the years 1914–1915, was published in 1915 in Cracow, and the second part (for the years 1916–1918) only in 1918. There is also no doubt that with his activities, both academic and journalistic, Jan Grzegorzewski contributed to the establishment of the first Polish Oriental studies in Poland, which took place in 1919 at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Analysing some of Grzegorzewski’s achievements from today’s perspective, one can venture to say that with the issues presented in his publications, he undoubtedly inspired many later Orientalists to set new research directions.

Iranian society underwent various transformations influenced by Western culture as part of its process of modernisation. This was driven by the state’s, intellectuals’ and the emergent middle class’s efforts to push cultural change. However, despite a century of such modernisation, a populist backlash accelerated the rise of religious leaders and the Shiʿite tradition before, during and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. For this important reason, the link between cultural change and modernisation need further examination in the Iranian context. This paper posits the preliminary hypothesis that modernisation as a means of cultural change did not transform Iranian culture in large measure due to the lack of nationwide education. A majority of Iranians remained devoted to the Shiʿite faith and traditions of Islam. This paper examines the importance of education in cultural change in the Qajar and Pahlavi eras, deploying aspects of Riane Eisler’s cultural transformation model to evaluate cultural change influenced by Western culture in Iran.

Professor Tadeusz Kowalski (1889–1948) was in correspondence with scholars from practically all over the world. He had an active interest in the developments of Oriental studies in the Soviet Union. He valued the publications he received from the USSR as well as all contacts he had with Russian researchers. He sought to cooperate with Alexander Samoylovich (1880–1938) – one of the most eminent Turkologists in the Soviet Union. This goal had been partially achieved. The archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków now hold, catalogued under ref. no. K III-4, j. 174, just three letters from the Russian Turkologist. These materials, despite their small number, are an engrossing source of knowledge on the state of Soviet Turkish studies in the mid-1920s and the Soviet Oriental studies community. As the author managed to determine, these letters are all the more precious as the branch of the archives at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St.-Petersburg, where the legacy of professor Samoylovich is kept, has no copies. Interestingly, there are no surviving copies of the letters from professor Kowalski to the Russian Turkologist. This article aims to analyse the contents of the letters written by Alexander Samoylovich, the Soviet Turkologist, to professor Tadeusz Kowalski, and determine the purpose and direction in which Turkish studies were developing in the USSR in the period described in these sources.

Folklore plays a crucial role in the preservation of the local heritage, and it can provide valuable information regarding cultural and religious norms, language, and environment of that people. The folktale is one of the many forms of folklore and it represents the product of the individual traditional heritage that originates from a population’s collective cultural imagination and background. In the Arabian Gulf societies, the oral tradition of storytelling has been prominent for a very long time and it has somehow been preserved until fairly recent times. The folktale belongs to the Emirati intangible cultural heritage, and it constitutes a deeply rooted element related to Bedouin tribal clans and to the desertic and maritime environments which characterised the territory. The United Arab Emirates is very attentive to the conservation of their heritage, both at national and international levels. This study provides a socio-cultural and linguistic analysis of the Emirati folktale, based on a sample of three stories from Al-Ain, written in Emirati Arabic, which share a common feature: the wickedness of wives.

Vasily Nikitin (1.1.1885–6.6.1960) – a former Russian consul in Urmia, Iranian studies researcher and Kurdologist – corresponded with professor Tadeusz Kowalski for over a quarter of a century. His letters sent to Krakow in the years 1922–1948 are held in the Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU). The aim of this article is to present the relationship of Vasily Nikitin with Polish Oriental studies and Orientalists on the basis of an analysis of the letters sent by him to Tadeusz Kowalski. The correspondence changed during this time. At the beginning, Nikitin sought help from Kowalski in finding a job at the Jagiellonian University. With time, when his financial situation in Paris – where he was in exile – stabilized, he was interested in working with Polish Orientalists at a distance. Due to Kowalski’s efforts, Nikitin became a foreign member of the Polish Oriental Society and the PAU’s Oriental Commission. Thanks to this, he received publications issued by these organizations. He also published in the oldest Polish Oriental journal – the Yearbook of Oriental Studies (Rocznik Orientalistyczny) – and in other journals.

The article is devoted to the establishment, development and activity of the Committee of Oriental Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, which has been operating under various names since 1952 and celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The Committee is the most important institution of Oriental studies in Poland, coordinating and monitoring the development of various fields of this area of science. It also conducts organizational activities (conferences, symposia, conventions) and publishing – among others it is the publisher of the oldest Polish scientific journal in this field, Rocznik Orientalistyczny / Yearbook of Oriental Studies and various publishing series.

The following essay examines how literary narration can transmit the historical memories and aesthetic emotions related to the tragic exile experience of the Ubykh people. When Russia subjugated the northwest Caucasus (present-day Sochi, Russia) in the 1860s, the Ubykh were expelled by Russian troops and had to flee to Turkey. The survivors were scattered around Turkey and assimilated into Turkish culture. The Last of the Departed (1974), a historical novel by Bagrat Shinkuba, an Abkhazian writer, narrating about one of the most tragic events in the history of exiles – the death of the Ubykh people and their language – shows that historical fiction may be an instrument contributing to the memorialization of ethnic identity. It also exposes the ideological accents and focusing of the displayed events.