Vol. 3 No. 4 December 1997

Manuscripta Orientalia. International Journal for Oriental Manuscript Research.

CONTENTS

TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS: DESCRIPTION AND RESEARCH - 3   S. Levitt. Sinhalese Painted Wooden Bookcovers - 3 T. Sultanov. Turkic Versions of the "Tarikh-i Rashidi" in the Manuscript Collection of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies - 17 Vladimir Polosin. Two Late Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Fiscal Documents from the Manuscript Collection of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies - 30     TEXT AND ITS CULTURAL INTERPRETATION - 35   E. Rezvan. The Qur'an and Its World: IV. "Raise Not Your Voices above the Prophet's Voice" (Society, Power and Etiquette Norms) - 35     PRESENTING THE COLLECTIONS - 45   T. Deryagina, O. Frolova. Antoni Muchlinski and His Collection of Arabic Manuscripts in the St. Petersburg University Library - 45     ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS AND NEW INFORMA TION TECHNOLOGIES - 54   M. Carter. The Platonic Edition: Some Consequences of Computer Editing for Text-Based Scholarship in Arabic Grammar - 54      PRESENTING THE MANUSCRIPT - 59       O. Bolshakov. The St. Petersburg Manuscript of the "Maqamat" by al-Hariri and Its Place in the History of Arab Painting - 59     BOOK REVIEWS - 67       Manuscripta Orientalia in 1997, vol. 3, Nos. 1-4 (list of contributions) - 70

AUTHORS

Prof. Oleg G. Bolshakov - Chief Researcher of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in Arab history, archaeology, and culture, author of several monographs and numerous articles in the field.

Prof. Michael G. Carter - Professor of the Faculty of East European and Oriental Studies, Oslo University, Norway. Specialist in Arabic language and literature, author of numerous works in the field.

Mrs Tamara P. Deryagina - Chief Librarian of the St. Petersburg University library, specialist in the field of Oriental manuscripts, one of the authors of the catalogue of Arabic manuscripts in the St. Petersburg University library.

Prof. Vladislav N. Goreglyad - Head of the Far Eastern Department of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Chair of Japanese Philology of the Oriental Faculty of the St. Petersburg University, specialist in the history of medieval Japanese literature and culture, author of several monographs and numerous articles.

Dr. Stephan H. Levitt - Expert in Sinhalese and Indie manuscripts. At present, a private tutor and consultant for the University of Pennsylvania Library, the Center for Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Union Theological Seminary, etc., and an independent researcher. Author of descriptions of manuscripts and numerous articles in the field.

Mr. Vladimir V. Polosin - Senior Researcher of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in the Arabic language and pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, author of several translations into Russian of medieval Arabic writings in verse and prose, as well as monographs and articles in the field.

Dr. Tursun I. Sultanov - Chief Researcher of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Chair of the History of Central Asia and the Caucasus at the St. Petersburg University, specialist in Central Asian history and manuscripts, author of a number of monographs and articles.

Dr. Efim A. Rezvan - Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in Arabic and Islamic studies, author of a number of monographs and articles dealing with Russian-Arab relations, the history of Islam and Oriental studies computing.

Dr. Igor N. Vojewodzki - Chief Librarian in the library of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, specialist in Semitic studies, author of articles dealing with the history of Islamic and Judaic culture.

Prof. Olga B. Frolova - Professor of the Oriental Faculty of the St. Petersburg University, specialist in the history of Arabic literature and culture, author of several monographs, a textbook and articles in the field.