This article consists mainly of an annotated transcription of a report on the wartime courses in Japanese at SOAS prepared by Frank Daniels in August 1945. An introduction is provided setting his report in context and providing some of the background relating to the attempts by SOAS, well before the outbreak of war with Japan, to persuade the government that training needed to begin without delay. These attempts were unsuccessful, but Frank Daniels and the teachers assembled to help him, including his Japanese wife and some Japanese released from internment in the UK, successfully developed a teaching programme that went on to train many individuals who were to become the first generation of university Japanologists in the UK.

Section 1. Introduction 1.01. All the above-mentioned categories have been the subject of considerable interest in the last few years. T. Gotō (1987) has devoted a book to Class I presents (thematic presents with normal grade of the root and stable root accent) in Sanskrit, and H. Rix has published a monograph on Indo-European moods (1986) and an article on the middle voice (1988). B. Barschel (1986) has addressed the question of the antiquity of the subjunctive and optative, and their absence from the Anatolian branch of IE. The question of the special primary endings of the singular active in the thematic conjugation was reopened by W. Cowgill (1985). Yet despite all this attention some questions still remain puzzling.

No one interested in the Classical Hindu Law could read Dr. S. K. Belvalkar's Critical Note to Śāntiparva, Adhyāya 121, śl. 14 and ff., without experiencing a great curiosity. The important account given by Bhīṣma of the nature and purpose of Daṇḍa (Punishment) incidentally produces an Indian counterpart to the Roman jus naturale, the full implications of which deserve investigation elsewhere. Amongst the details we find a description of Daṇḍa as follows:—

nīlōtpala-dala-śyāmaś=caturdaṃṣṭraś=caturbhujaḥ

aṣṭapān=naikanayanaś=śankukarṇōrdhvarōmavān

jaṭī dvi-jihvas tāmrāsyō mṛja-rāja-tanucchadaḥ ētad-rūpaṃ bibharty=ugraṃ Daṇḍō nityaṃ durāvaraḥ.

The geographical statements of Mubarakshah Ghuri (Ta'rikh, pp. 4–6) are taken from Alberuni, precisely from his book al-Qānūn al-Mas'ūdi (cf. the MS. of the Library of Veliettin-Efendi, in the Bayazid Mosque, Constantinople, No. 2277, fol. 145b–153b). The following words and phrases of Mubarakshah are to be read in Alberuni:.

In his article in BSOAS, xv, 1953, pp. 588–597, Professor E. G. Pulleyblank has made a number of statements which, in my opinion, need explanation and correction. This is not the place to discuss wider problems of Chinese gentry society in detail; this will be done on another occasion. I limit my notes, therefore, to a few interesting points.

The main doctrines of the Shī'a are well known; Ibn Babuye, in his book The Reasons for Laws, gives a more popular view of theology.

The imam

‘Alī said: But for us God would not have created Adam, Eve, paradise, hell, heaven and earth. How shall we not be better than the angels? We knew our Lord before they did, our spirits were the first He created, and He made us speak of His unity. Then he created the angels and, when they saw that our spirits were one light, they glorified us; but we praised God that they might know that we too were created creatures. It is said that God created the five, Muḥammad, ‘Alī, Fāṭima, Ḥasan and Ḥusain seven thousand years before the world; they were before the throne. Ḥusain said: We were forms of light, circling round the throne of the Merciful; we taught the angels to praise, laud and magnify. Another expression is: A brilliant light, which was the substance (clay) of ‘Alī, passed before the angels. God created the hearts and bodies of the prophets from the substance of the highest places (‘illiyūn). An imam said: God created us from the highest places and our spirits from something higher; He created the spirits of our followers from the highest places and their bodies from something lower, so they are kin to us and their hearts yearn towards us. Then God created Adam and placed us in his loins; He commanded the angels to bow down to him to honour us. Their prostration was worship of God and respect and obedience to Adam because we were in his loins.