This article re-examines the notion of “partnership” and its applicability to the relationship between the Japanese government and domestic NGOs in the context of foreign aid. As such, it provides empirical insights on government-non-profit relationship in understudied policy field of foreign aid in East Asian context. Illuminating how governmental financial support for Japanese NGOs has evolved in recent years, the article concludes that whereas “partnership” may be a preferred term of the Japanese government to describe the relationship with Japanese NGOs, the manner in which it is operationalized through selected financial support schemes raises legitimate questions about the validity and applicability of this particular term to the case under investigation. Hence, the chosen financial assistance schemes serve as the lenses through which the article explores and assesses the official “partnership” assertions. In sum, the relationship suffers from shortcomings in terms of mutuality and organizational identity, qualifying both the extent and quality of government-sponsored opportunities for Japanese international cooperation NGOs.

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa (1921–2020) was one the most famous and controversial sangomas – sages, clairvoyants, healers and diviners – in South Africa. He was also the first sangoma who published books revealing sangomas’ esoteric calling, vocation and cooperation with spirits. He wrote extensively about Zulu mythology. A part of his version of mythology is the ‘history’ of the Bantu languages speaking peoples, their divine origins and the conquest of the lands in the South of Africa. Mutwa also wrote about relationships between Zulus and other ethnic groups, focusing on their mythological beginnings. The aim of this article is to analyse Mutwa’s myths and stories about the history of Bantu languages speaking peoples, relationships between Zulus and other peoples, and place it all within historical facts and religious beliefs known to academics. The article is part of the project ‘Esoteric landscape of Southern Africa’ financed by the Polish National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki), Poland, project no. 2017/25/N/HS1/02500.

The article examines the role of ‘Abd Allāh Ibn Muḥammad aṭ-Ṭā’ī in the development of modern literature and culture in Oman and Gulf Countries. His life was devoted to build bridges of understanding between people. He was not only poet and writer but also Author of critical studies on literary life in the Gulf Countries. ‘Abd Allāh aṭ-Ṭā’ī paved the way for the next generation of men of letters and became a symbol of the revival of the Gulf Literature. All works by ‘Abd Allāh aṭ-Ṭā’ī were collected and published in 2016 in Dār Faḍā’āt in Amman.

The article aims to analyse Kāyam Khā̃ Rāso and to contextualize it against the interplay of cultural influences in early modern India. While earlier research showcased that Jān chose to accentuate just the local qualities of their Rajput lineage, this paper argues that Sufism sacred kingship presents an equally important role in its interpretation. ‘The local’ of Kāyam Khā̃ Rāso should be understood as both Islamic and Rajput rather than Rajput at the expense of Islamic features. This article examines different facets of the image of the Kāyam Khānī rulers in the text and showcases how they are presented in Rāso. It then uses the analysed image in to argue that their ‘locality’ belongs simultaneously to both worlds. Their milieu should be regarded as local, Rajput and Islamic, but equally distant from both the so-called Great Tradition of Hinduism, and orthodox Islam. It forms conversation space where contact between traditions can be achieved.

Eugene Schuyler was the first American to travel to Central Asia. Recognized as a scholar diplomat, he had written extensively on Russia and served as the US consul to Reval and the secretary of the American legation in St. Petersburg. During his diplomatic service in Russia, Schuyler was granted absence of leave to visit Central Asia and witnessed the Russian conquest of the region. He was also accompanied by the Russian army to visit the Ili region in Xinjiang amid the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877). Schuyler’s unusual experience was detailed in his travelogue Turkistan, Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkistan, Khokand, Bukhara, and Kuldja. This paper aims to analyze his travelogue to track down the earliest American contact with Central Asia. It argues that the US, even though aware of Russian military activity in the region from Schuyler’s report, tacitly acknowledged Russia’s hegemony in Asia. This could be attributable to Schuyler’s partiality to Russia’s cause, the generally congenial atmosphere in the US-Russia relations in the 1870s, and the absence of perceived US interests in Central Asia. The US foreign policy decision of the 1870s had far-reaching economic consequences and lasting political implications into the 19 ^th century and beyond.

The student of Ottoman Empire always keeps a watchful eye open for the rare, sometimes unique record which has somehow survived from the heyday of Ottoman historiography or archival treasuries and illuminates an aspect of history otherwise unknown to us. One such records concerns is the Book VI of Hašt Bihišt, written by Idrīs Bidlīsī (1457–1520), who is undoubtedly one of the most original and important intellectual figures in the Ottoman-Iranian borderland in the sixteenth-century. This paper deals with critical edition and translation of an unpublished tahniyat-nāma, given in Hašt Bihišt VI, which Bidlīsī dedicated to the first marriage of Mehmed II.

The present paper examines the textual evidence, mainly the late Vedic codifications of the domestic rituals Gṛhya sūtras and Hindu religious and legal duties Dharma śāstras, related to the name giving tradition in ancient India. Issues are addressed: why according to tradition a brāhmaṇa should have two names, and why one of these names should be the nakṣatra (lunar constellation) name? How the secret ( guhya) stellar name was chosen? How name giving practices are related to the concept of the sacred speech in Indian religious culture? The historical and textual analysis of the Sanskrit sources, besides of the historical approach to religious studies shall be applied as the principal methodological tools. Conclusion is made that the Indian name derived from the nakṣatra was vitally connected with the of the individual and his super-personal power lying behind, and kept secret less enemies may do mischief to the man through it. The adoption of a second, secret name was assumed also for success and distinction in life.

Child-authored poetry is one of the most remarkable and fascinating phenomena in the contemporary Chinese poetry world. However, for all its immense popularity among Chinese readers and attractivity for professional, adult poets, due to its unclear ontological status and lack of well-proven methodological tools that would be easily applicable to it, it has thus far remained beyond the scope of literary-critical and scholarly interests. The present paper offers a broad panoramic view of Chinese children’s poetry through six case studies of individual young authors and collective initiatives aimed at the artistic activization of certain groups of children, discussing the educational and social significance of children’s poetry writing, its complicated reception patterns, as well as its entanglement with various literary-political discourses. Subsequently, the study delves into the aesthetic, conceptual, and philosophical aspects of children’s works. The final part analyses the essential theoretical-philosophical questions that child-authored verse asks with regard to poetry at large, prompting us to rethink notions such as authorship or “poeticness” and the definition of poetry per se. The author proposes the metaphor of asymptotic freedom to illustrate how marginal phenomena of questionable status contribute to maintaining the distinctness and coherence of the field of poetry as a whole.

After Italy declared war on Great Britain and France on June 10, 1940 Turkey remained neutral, despite the fact that the treaty with Western powers obliged it to enter the war in such circumstances. Turkish government referred to the Second Protocol attached to the Treaty of Mutual Assistance which made possible for the Turkish side to ignore their obligations in case a threat of armed conflict with Soviet Union. However it is still not known if this was real reason for Turkish decision. The aim of this article is to review interpretations of Turkish attitude that have been present in historiography since the war. It includes short-term and long-term factors of Turkish decision from June 1940. In addition, attention was concentrated on British intelligence sources, which, in relation to the period between spring and summer of 1940, have not yet been taken into account by scholars when trying to determinate Turkish motives.

In the article the author deals with the years the famous Turkologist and historian Ahmet Zeki Velidi Togan (1890–1970), who is known for his great edition of the 10th-century Arabic travel account of Ibn Faḍlān was working and teaching at Rheinische Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn (1935–1938). Various documents relating to events from this period are reproduced in the article (including his appointment to the Oriental Seminar at the university, his appointment as a member of the Finno-Ugric Society in Helsinki, his appointment as an honorary professor, a research stay in Turkey, his leave of absence to carry out a lectureship at the Georg August University in Göttingen, and finally his defence in response to accusations regarding his “political reliability”, which are not known in detail. This defence was made both by Paul Kahle and by himself in the form of an account of his political activities in the years 1917–1929, the full text of which is appended and which was later also used by Togan himself in his autobiography.

The purpose of the paper is to present difficulties lying ahead of translators of literary works in which specialized terminology is used. The authors have chosen as their research material one of the most well-known Polish alexandrines titled Pan Tadeusz czyli ostatni zajazd na Litwie. Historia szlachecka z r. 1811 i 1812, we dwunastu księgach, wierszem [“Master Thaddeus, or the Last Foray in Lithuania: A Tale of the Gentry in the Years 1811–1812, in Twelve Books of Verse”] and its translations into English and Korean. As the main purpose was to analyze the translation of hunting terminology into Korean, the authors have chosen an English translation rendered approximately at the same time as the Korean one. Therefore, the English language version has been used instrumentally. The research material has been limited to one plot only, that is to say the trials and tribulations of one of the heroines, whose name is Telimena and her chase for a husband. The main research method is the comparison of parallel texts. Apart from that, the authors have also resorted to techniques of providing equivalents and classifications of translation errors and mistakes. The findings prove that proper rendering of culture-bound terminology is very difficult and consultations with specialists are frequently necessary to achieve high quality translation products.

The aim of this article is an attempt to analyse the world-famous documentary film entitled The Parade (Polish title Defilada). The film has a unique narrative structure, as it belongs to the performing arts, and makes use of hyperbole which represents one of rhetorical tropes. Thus, the narration of the film is characterised by a specific rhetorical order which follows the rules of composing a text about art, culture and other phenomena. The result is often art itself. At the level of creative intention, Andrzej Fidyks’s films constitute spectacles which have to be appealing enough to attract the attention of a contemporary viewer. Thus, spectacularity of this film is not only a feature directly related to audiovisual art. It constitutes an aesthetic value as well, and the spectacle appears as a parade in honour of the country’s leader. Research methods include two types of text analysis, i.e. the rhetorical analysis, and the analysis based on film studies. The neo-rhetorical (i.e., argumentative) approach to the cinematographic text is visible in studying The Parade as a documentary which was created under conditions of full control over the director, together with lack of access to information. Perversity is a deliberate argumentative strategy, as Fidyk uses it in order to explain to the viewers the reality of the visited country.

The city of Homs, formerly known as Emesa, strategically located in the central region of Syria, has been long linked to a folk belief that portrays its inhabitants as mad and fool. Historical and traditional sources also link the alleged madness and foolishness of the Homsians to the day of Wednesday, the so-called “Day of the Fool” or “Homsians’ Feast”, which is considered a special day. The legend regarding the “Day of the Fool” and its celebration during Wednesdays has been passed down orally in the local culture and its origins likely trace back to ancient times when the city was still called Emesa. Therefore, this article attempts at reconstructing history and origins about this folk belief, and exploring the reasons behind the supposed madness and foolishness of the inhabitants of Homs and their connections to Wednesdays by comparing three studies published after 2000s in Arabic by Homsian intellectuals, namely Al-Aḥmad, Samʽān, and Kadr.