Royal Asiatic Society Blog

The first of the Student Lecture Series will be held on Tuesday 20th January at 6.30pm when Liana Saif will speak on Occult Philosophy in Medieval Islam: Towards an epistemological understanding.

Liana Saif is a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University's Oriental Institute whose research focuses on the history of Islamic natural philosophy and occult thought, and also the intercultural exchange of esoteric ideas between the Islamic World and the European Middle Ages and Renaissance. She has worked as the curator of the Hajj Legacy Project in the British Museum in 2013 and her book, Arabic Influences on Early Modern Occult Thought, will be published by Palgrave in 2015.

The talk will focus on Saif's current research investigating the place of magic on the margins of orthodoxy in medieval Islam.

She has noted a shift in praxis for example, from talismans that are fashioned from natural elements with astral symbols or images to skins and metals inscribed with magic squares and the Beautiful Names of God, concurrent with a change in view from magic as natural to magic as extraordinary, achieved by mystics.

We look forward to hearing about her research and to welcoming you to this event at the RAS, 14 Stephenson Way. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception.

On Thursday 22nd January, the RAS will host an Evening with Michael Palin. During the evening Professor Peter Robb, President of the Royal Asiatic Society, will present Michael Palin with an Honorary Fellowship, after which Michael will talk to the gathered Members and friends about his travels in India.


Michael Palin CBE, FRGS( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Palin)

Palin becomes the latest in a long line of Honorary Fellows. The archival documents below are of a letter from His Highness, Nawab Ikbal al Dowlah, Bahadoor, Prince of Oude, with translation by General Briggs, thanking the Society for conferment of Honorary Membership in 1839 (A.H.1255). He begins:

A thousand thanks and grateful acknowledgements to the eminently distinguished members of the Royal Asiatic Society who in the exercise of their discretion and favour towards a Stranger have dignified this unworthy and incompetent individual by electing him an Honorary Member of that noble institution...

Last night's lecture by Dr. Santanu Das was an enlightening introduction into the lives of Asian soldiers serving in France and Mesopotamia during World War One.

Dr. Das illustrated his talk with an intriguing range of photographs, films, objects and literature to develop his thesis concerning the experiences of these soldiers and their families. He has identified the complexities of interpreting that experience in our current contexts - heroism, colonialism, service and sacrifice, fiscal reward, literature in a non-literate culture, exploitation and the horror of war all add many layers towards developing an understanding.

We are grateful to Dr. Das for agreeing to lecture to the Society and look forward to his forthcoming book upon the subject. Our next Evening Lecture will be on Thursday 12th February at 6pm when Professor Phiroze Vasunia of University College, London, will speak on Sir William Jones and the Gods of Greece, Italy and India. We also have our first lecture of the Student Series on Tuesday 20th January when Liana Saif will speak to us - see our previous blog for full details.

Such is the range of subjects addressed in our Student Lecture Series. On Tuesday 25th November we were delighted to welcome Simon Denham from the University of Manchester and British Museum. His lecture, a glimpse into his recent PhD thesis, provided an interesting theory around the patterning and use of stone seals in Greater Mesopotamia in the late Neolithic period.


Simon Denham presents his lecture

Fast on the heels of Tuesday's lecture is our next Student Series event. Brought forward to avoid the Christmas period, on Wednesday 3rd December, Angela Becher and Cleo Roberts will be coming to lecture at the RAS.

Angela Becher from SOAS will be speaking on "A Look Behind the Facade: Critical Inquiries into China's Monumental Architecture in Contemporary Chinese Art". She sent this picture as a taster:

Cleo Roberts from the University of Liverpool will lecture on "Waterscapes in Indian Cities"

'William Ward Baptising a Hindoo in the Ganges'.

We look forward to welcoming you all this coming Wednesday - 3rd December at 6.30 for these intriguing lectures to be followed by a drinks reception.

The conservation work on our Latin-Chinese dictionaries began today. The conservators are going through each volume, checking the pagination of the volumes and recording all the damage that needs to be repaired, as well as carrying out basic dusting and cleaning. Below are a few images to give you an idea.

Each of the 1200 pages in the set needs to be treated. Efforts that were made long ago to strengthen the pages, by adding a strip of paper along each edge, in the long-term had the opposite effect. Over time, the short-fiber Chinese paper began to split with a razor-like edge along the additions, as can be seen in the images below. The conservators need to remove every strip of paper, with painstaking care so as to avoid adding to the damage; as well as repairing the damage that is already there.

The conservation of these dictionaries has been made possible by the support of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust and the Sino-British Fellowship Trust.

Every page needs to be checked and the damage recorded for future reference

This image clearly shows the sharp splits along the page, running through the entry terms that are given in Latin.

Each of the 1200 pages needs attention.

As alluded to in a previous blog post, we are delighted that the Sino-British Fellowship Trust agreed to award the remaining £5,285 needed for the conservation of a rare Latin-Chinese manuscript dictionary, donated to the Society in 1824 by Sir George Staunton. This grant, added to the £15,000 already awarded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, means that all the funds required for the conservation of the two-volume dictionary are now secured.

With a history dating back to the British United Aid to China appeal in the 1940s, the Sino-British Fellowship Trust facilitates and encourages academic exchange between the UK and China, and vice versa, by providing funds to individuals and organizations. Today, the Trust promotes scholarly intercourse between China and the UK, helping fund organizations in Hong Kong, Beijing, and across the UK. We are very grateful for the Trust’s support of our conservation project, and look forward to the restored manuscripts being the subject of increased study and debate between Chinese and British researchers.

Created by Catholic missionaries in Beijing in 1745, the Latin-Chinese dictionary is important due to the insight it gives us into local dialect and vocabulary; as well as being a very rare and early physical embodiment of the study of Chinese language and culture by Europeans. The manuscript was given to Sir George Staunton, when he was in China, by the missionary Padre Adeodato di Agostino. Staunton, who accompanied his father on the Macartney Embassy to China at the age of 12, was one of Britain’s first sinologists and a translator of the Qing legal code. Staunton worked assiduously for many years as a member of Council of the Royal Asiatic Society after his return to England from China, and donated many books, manuscripts and works of art to the Society.

Our first lecture of 2015 in the RAS Student Lecture Series was given by Liana Saif on her understandings of Medieval Islamic Occult Philosphy.

Liana Saif lectures at the RAS

Liana sought to explain various practices and beliefs that were prevalent in the medieval era and examined the use of talismans. Her talk, illustrated with texts, provided a fascinating insight which raised some interesting questions from the floor.

Lian Saif chats with Alison Ohta, RAS Director, and Sami de Giosa, RAS Student Representative

The next Student Lecture will be on Tuesday 17th February at 6.30pm. The talk on Justice, Conquest and Victory: The Evolving Symbolism of Istanbul's Nusretiye Mosque will be given by
Ünver Rϋstem of the University of Cambridge.

Last night, at a special meeting of the RAS members and their friends, Michael Palin became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Palin has a special interest in Howard Houghton Hodgson (1801-1894) and his generosity has allowed for much of the Hodgson material at the RAS to be sorted and catalogued. Before the meeting Palin was shown some of the RAS 'treasures' including new Hodgson material that has recently been discovered in sorting the many boxes in the archives.

Palin was presented with a scroll of membership and a gift of two of the Society's books by Professor Peter Robb, our current President.

Peter Robb presents Michael Palin with his membership scroll and gifts

After the presentation, Michael Palin entertained the audience with slides and stories of his travels in different parts of India including his initiation to the continent on board a dhow when filming for 80 Days Around the World. Slides included the dhow's scenic toilet!

Michael Palin talks about India

Part of the joy of being an archivist at the Royal Asiatic Society is learning about some of the characters that were pioneers in the fields of Asiatic studies. Brian Houghton Hodgson was one such pioneer and knowing that Michael Palin had a particular interest in him, I spent some time before Palin's visit reading up about Hodgson so that I would be better informed.

We have a number of items in the Hodgson archive. One of these is an autograph book which was compiled by his wife, Susan, and contains correspondence from many of the people and institutions with whom Hodgson was connected. Here are a few sample pages:

Certificate of First Class Merit from Haileybury College, 1817


Letter from Museum d'Histoire Naturelle acknowledging receipt of birds from Nepal, 1835

Letters from the Nawab Nizam of Bengal, 1855

The Hodgson Archive is one that has already received some cataloging and therefore some of its treasures are known. The life of Hodgson has also been explored in the Royal Asiatic Society Book, The Origins of Himalayan Studies: Brian Houghton Hodgson in Nepal and Darjeeling 1820-1858, edited by David M. Waterhouse and published by RoutledgeCurzon. I read this accessible book over several days and it stirred my poetic leanings. So here is my take on Brian Houghton Hodgson:

Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801-1894)

How to tell his tale for modern ears? He grows up

in relative poverty, son of a failed banker –

there’s a discrepancy – who hears these days

of a banker’s failings afflicting his family financially?

Two years at Haileybury – now an independent school

of academic rigour and outstanding co-curricular activity,*

but then, trainer of men for the East India Company.

Top in Bengali, Hindi, Political Economy and Classics

but, with his father’s genes, failure in Mathematics.

Calcutta inflames his liver. Hodgson’s future lies

in temperate climes – virgin Nepal calls

for Postmasters, Residents. So off he goes, settles

in a time before Everest’s faces have been tackled,

foothills shackled with tourist trails.

His collecting (say it quietly, shooting and trapping)

provides specimens for zoology’s great and good,

discovers many species of the Himalayan region.

He commissions countless illustrations to record

temples, terrain, birds, mammals and men.

And collects a woman – Meharunnisha Begum

and two children – Henry and Sarah. But here’s

a conundrum: when he’s expelled from Kathmandu

(personality clash with Governor-General Ellenborough)

she stays, disappears from this tale – a common archival

problem – underdogs don’t get to document their outcomes.

Hodgson, unhappy in England, leaves kids (for the best)

with Aunt Fanny – after all, this is long before Bowlby’s

attachment theory. Though concerned for their unfortunate

hue, he returns to research in Darjeeling, alone,

with retinue of artists, servants, sweepers, messengers, shooters, stuffers and coolies.

Sarah’s death of TB doesn’t bring him back, just

his own poor health. And marriage. Anne Scott

is made mistress of Brianstone. Hodgson’s focus

turns to linguistics, ethnology, he advocates

colonization but deplores imprudent Englishmen.

In 1858 he departs

and though survives to become a nonagenarian,

India no more calls. He settles to family life,

after Anne’s death takes a 26 year old wife,

receives an honorary doctorate at Oxford.

Culture, personality, ideology meant he was often

wrong (and who isn’t?) on theories of religion

and race, species’ names. Still, studies of Himalayan

zoology, architecture, Buddhism and ethnography

are rooted in Brian Houghton Hodgson.

*Quote from Haileybury website http://www.haileybury.com/

Since its beginnings in 1823 the Royal Asiatic Society has been keeping records. Within the archives we have found the original lists of members' subscriptions - all beautifully scribed in a leather-bound ledger.

The Original Members' Subscription Ledger of the RAS

This book has unfortunately lost its spine and shows signs of 'red rot' - a common degradation of vegetable tanned leather. So we will be looking to undertake conservation work to enable future researchers to continue to make use of this archive.

The RAS also endeavored, from an early stage, to share knowledge in the field of Asiatic Studies. They initially produced the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, beginning in 1824. This became the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1834.


Opening pages of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society 1824

We have come a long way from recording all the details of the Society's meetings and activities neatly on lined ledgers. Many records are now on computer files and correspondence is often via email.

Likewise with our Journal. Though all members still receive a physical copy, Cambridge University Press have made available online both past and present issues:

Complete collection now available online

We are working in partnership with East View Information Services to digitize the entire Cambridge Archive Editions collection and make all the original print volumes and accompanying maps available as online editions via the East View eBook platform.

Cambridge Archive Editionsis an imprint of Cambridge University Press, publishing primary source collections, and conducting original research in government records and other sources. Our aim is to make available to libraries and scholars historical reference materials which otherwise would remain difficult to access.

Features

Over 120 titles available now, with more to come in 2015
Online editions mirror the print editions
Content published over 25 years
Over 1,000 volumes with nearly 700,000 pages of primary sources
Titles previously out-of-print now available online
Accessible browsing by title or subject area
Contents list fully searchable

Highlight Collections

Near & Middle East
110 titles, 900 volumes

East & South-East Asia
8 titles, 88 volumes

Slavic & Balkan Regions
11 titles, 39 volumes

Cambridge University Press: http://www.cambridge.org/

On Thursday 12th February the RAS are delighted to welcome Professor Phiroze Vasunia who will give a lecture on "Sir William Jones and the Gods of Greece, Italy and India". Vasunia, Professor of Greek at University College, London, has research interests which include the study of cross-cultural contact, colonialism, and empire.

Phiroze Vasunia (www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/staff/fulltimestaff)

His new book, The Classics and Colonial India, published by Oxford University Press provides a detailed account of the relationship between classical antiquity and the British colonial presence in India. One figure of the colonial period, who Vasunia includes in his text, is William Jones, founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784.

In the RAS Archives there is a "Catalogue of the Library of the Late Sir William Jones". This lists the books put up for auction in 1831 following the death of his widow. The catalogue reveals Jones' wide-ranging interests.

Cornwallis, Coleridge and Diogenes all feature on this page

Medical, Asian, Biblical and Musical Interests revealed on this page

Professor Vasunia is not the first to inspire the RAS with the connections between the Greeks and the East. Also amongst the archives is the 1937 Universities Prize Fund winning essay, by D.P. Costello, entitled The Relations between the Greeks and the East.

The beginning of the Prizewinning Essay by D.P. Costello

We would like to welcome everybody to Professor Vasunia's lecture this coming Thursday, 12th February. The lecture will begin at 6pm and be followed by a drinks reception.

The next lecture in our Student Lecture Series will be on Tuesday 17th February at 6.30 p.m. when we will welcome Dr. Ünver Rüstem (Fari Sayeed Visiting Fellow in Islamic Art, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge) to talk on the Evolving Symbolism of Istanbul's Nusretiye Mosque.

In 1826, the great reformist, Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II inaugurated two major new institutions in his capital, Istanbul: a modern army to replace the unruly Janissary corps, and an imperial mosque gracing the Bosphorus shoreline. Although begun in 1823, the mosque became firmly associated with the military reforms that occurred during its completion three years later. Not only was the opening of the mosque timed to correspond with Mahmud's announcement of his reforms, but the building underwent a series of name changes that underscored and announced its symbolic role, culminating in the appellation, Nusretiye (Victory).

Dr Rüstem's talk will use hitherto unexplored documents to trace the Nusretiye Mosque's formation as an architectural statement of Mahmud's modernizing agenda. Alongside the written evidence, attention will also be given to the Nusretiye's pronounced visual resemblance to the mosque of Mahmud's reformist predecessor, Selim III, whose thwarted efforts to overhaul the Ottoman military both anticipated and served as a foil for Mahmud's subsequent victory.

Ünver Rüstem gained his doctorate from Harvard University. His article, which explores the reception of illustrated Islamic manuscripts as revealed by a group of Ottoman textual inserts added to the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, won the 2009 Margaret B. Ševčenko Prize. His forthcoming publications include an article on the exportation of carved Ottoman tombstones from Istanbul to Cyprus, a contribution to a co-authored chapter on the artistic patronage of Mahmud , and edited translations of two later Ottoman primary sources on architecture.

We hope that you will be able to join us for this lecture. The evening will finish with a drinks reception.

Yesterday evening Professor Phiroze Vasunia enlightened the gathered audience, lecturing on how Sir William Jones' comparison of the gods of Greece, Rome and India. Vasunia, an expert in the interaction of the classical world and eastern thinking, paid homage to Jones, who in his time was at the forefront of thinking concerning eastern religion and languages.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, Professor Vasunia is not the first in the RAS to be interested in this subject.

RAS Council Minutes for11th November 1937

The Minutes for the Council Meeting of 11th November 1937 show that the Universities Essay Prize was to be awarded to Mr. D. P. Costello of Trinity College, Cambridge for his essay on "The Relations of the Greeks with the East". However the Minutes for the earlier Council Meeting of 14th January 1937 reveal that is was not Mr Costello's own choice to enlighten the RAS concerning the Greeks and the East...

The essay title was one of two chosen by the RAS as subjects about which the candidates could write. Costello opted to examine the Greeks and the East rather than consider Tamerlane.

The next in the RAS Lecture Series will be on Thursday 12th March when Dr. Chi-Kwan Mark from Royal Hollaway College with speak on "Not for (Re)turning: Margaret Thatcher and the Anglo-Chinese Negotiations over the Future of Hong Kong"

On Tuesday 17th February, Dr. Ünver Rüstem gave an enlightening talk into the motivations behind the building of the Nusretiye mosque in Istanbul. Mahmud II was intent on building a military mosque to symbolise his decision to modernise the military and overthrow the Janissary corps.

Dr. Ünver Rüstem at the RAS

The development of a new army and the building of the mosque were undertaken simultaneously, and the mosque, which was built in three years, was opened just a few weeks before the Janissary defeat. Dr. Rüstem, in a clear and interesting manner, explained features of the architecture and design of the mosque and its position on the waterfront. The lecture was followed by a series of questions which further helped to inform the audience.

We look forward to the next in our Student Lecture Series on Tuesday 17th March when Maurizia Onori from SOAS will lecture on "Turkish bath, Indian restaurant and funky bar: The fate of an oriental building in the East End of London", and Aisa Martinez from the British Museum will lecture on "Omani Costumes". We welcome you all to attend at 6.30pm for the lectures, which will be followed by a drinks reception.

Having been in post now for five months, I thought it would be a good time to update blog readers with my progress. On Tuesday, I unpacked and listed box 142. This was not papers but a box of objects including these shields:

These are one of the few objects to have a label: "Steel shield inlaid with gold and silver wire, North Indian, Sialkot work of mid-Nineteenth Century. Bequest of Major R.G. Gayer-Anderson 'Pasha' 1945". I'd already discovered Major Gayer-Anderson had donated a metallic dish, and in a late afternoon 'explore' of the library office filing cabinet discovered these letters telling of the donation:

This is one of the joys of being an archivist - beginning to re-collate the stories behind objects and papers. The letters, too, need to come out of the cabinet and be archived. So my sorting is not yet finished. However, I am beginning to think towards organising the collections in an appropriate way for cataloguing.

Back to the story of Major Gayer-Anderson - the Internet sometimes is a good source for gleaning information. The Fitzwilliam Museum's biography of Collector: Gayer-Anderson, (Major) Robert Grenville 'John' (1881–1945) provides more information about him. And so, when I come to cataloging, all this information will help to provide a more accurate entry. Of course, for others, the Internet appears silent, and so other sources will have to be researched.

As well as sorting and blogging, writing Tweets have become part of my work life. Here I am also discovering willing 'helpers'. So tweeting these objects:

led eventually to their identification as brass and enamel ware from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, dating to around 1900. And tweeting of this:

led to the suggestion that the grip is decorated with script naming the Twelver Shi'a Imams. I am very grateful to people freely giving of their time to help in the quest for identification and information.

Though this blog has highlighted objects more than the papers in the archives, it has also been exciting to be able to help researchers in their quest for material and to know that my list, provisional as it is, has already enabled access to material to answer some inquiries. This can only improve as my knowledge of the the collections increase and its ordering and cataloguing gets under way.

On Thursday, March 12th at 6pm we welcome Dr Chi-kwan Mark, Senior Lecturer in International History at Royal Holloway, University of London, to speak on Not for (Re)turning: Margaret Thatcher and the Anglo-Chinese Negotiations over the Future of Hong Kong.

Dr Mark's lecture will explore:

In 1982 Margaret Thatcher visited China to discuss with Deng Xiaoping the future of Hong Kong. Drawing on the newly declassified British documents, this paper outlines the Anglo-Chinese negotiations over Hong Kong between Thatcher’s visit and the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in December 1984, with a focus on the changing negotiating aims of the Thatcher government. It argues that it was her strong belief in free market capitalism, or ‘Thatcherism’, that explained why Thatcher was so determined to retain Hong Kong in 1982.

After two years of tough negotiations, the Iron Lady, who prided herself on being ‘not for turning’, could not but agree to China’s resumption of sovereignty and administration over Hong Kong in 1997. Thatcher was satisfied that the Joint Declaration stipulated the maintenance of Hong Kong’s capitalist system after 1997. Here was a detailed and binding agreement that was acceptable to the people of Hong Kong, who would otherwise demand the right of abode in the United Kingdom and provoke Parliamentary debates on nationality and immigration law.

This lecture forms part of the RAS Lecture Series and will be followed by the RAS Anniversary Dinner.

However, the RAS are also delighted to announce two additional lectures to their normal programme. On successive days, Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th May, Sonja Arntzen, Professor Emerita of East Asian Studies, and Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus of Chinese Thought and Literature, both from the University of Toronto will give public lectures at the Society.

Professor Arntzen will talk about a new translation of the Sarashina nikki that she has co-authored with Professor Moriyuki Itō of Gakushūin Women’s University. The Sarashina Diary: A Woman’s Life in Eleventh-Century Japan (Columbia University Press, 2014) recounts the life of Japanese noblewoman over a forty-year period, offers a portrait of the writer as reader, and explores the power of reading to shape one’s expectations and aspirations in life. This talk will discuss the diary itself and the rather unusual process of collaboration that produced the translation and study.

Professor Lynn will lecture on Early Reception of the Zhuangzi in the West which has a long history prior to the first translations by Balfour (1881) and Giles (1889) and should be studied in the context of 17^th and 18^thcenturies European encounter with South and East Asian religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism, a religio-cultural experience that profoundly shaped the development of modern Orientalism before imperialist ambitions and commercial greed compromised what had originally been essentially a search to expand Western religious perspectives on God, creation, and the individual soul.

Key players in this process, especially for the encounter with Chinese traditions, were members of the Jesuit mission to Peking. The majority of the Jesuit fathers attempted a Chinese-Christian synthesis based on accommodation to Chinese culture and figurist readings of the Confucian classics, especially the Classic of Changes, the Daodejing, and, to a lesser extent, the Zhuangzi, Liezi, and Huainanzi.

The writings of Joseph-Henri Prémare and Jean-François Foucquet in particular will be examined, as well as those of a coterie of 18^thcentury intellectuals, secular devotees of Christian mysticism associated with the “Quietism” movement, influenced directly or indirectly by the Jesuits, which included Andrew Michael Ramsay and Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte, as well as deists such as Voltaire and Diderot. The 18^th century translation of the short story “Zhuang Zhou Drums on a Bowl and Attains the Great Dao” by the late Ming writer Feng Menglongdeserves attention, for it did much to introduce the name “Zhuangzi” [Tchouang-Tse] to the West.

We are delighted to be able to welcome these two eminent speakers to the RAS and look forward to their forthcoming lectures.

As I am beginning to reach the end of unpacking boxes (though it's one of those things that there always seems to be another one to do), I am now contemplating how to arrange all the material in a systematic way that, hopefully, in some ways portrays some kind of original (or at least logical) order. I am going to start by retrieving all the early material about founding the Society. We have the Minute Book of the meetings that planned the start of the Society. The book is still in excellent condition and is beautifully handwritten.

We also have a copy of a photograph of the Thatched House Tavern, at which the inaugural meeting of the Society took place.

This picture presents a fairly typical archival dilemma in arranging of material. Firstly it is not of the Asiatic Society but of a Dinner of the Dilettante Society, and though it may be representative of the era, the article itself is a copy made at a later date. Therefore do I put it in with the archives about the beginnings of the Society, as people who are researching about the founding of the Society may be interested to see it, or do I try to discover when the copy was made for the Society, presumably by somebody putting on an exhibition, and add it to material of that date? Which would you choose to do? In the end, either is possible (though one may be more preferable) and as long as I make the description in the catalogue adequate, there should be no problem finding it by future researchers.

The archive also holds material about early finances. We have the original Accounts Book dating from 1823

At present, this book is being investigated by Peter Collin, one of the current Council members, who is discovering interesting discrepancies between the subscription lists and the original members lists.

In another box there is a sheet of paper listing voluntary contributions in 1823. I have yet to check whether these are also recorded in the accounts book:

Another early fiscal delight are these Certificates of Annuities in the names of James Alexander and Henry Thomas Colebrooke:

We also have early correspondence regarding donations to the Society. The letter below details a donation of a "new mineral found in the Mysore Country near Belloor and not I believe hitherto mentioned in any work on mineralogy". This letter was written by Major General Ogg on February 5th, 1825.

And, of course we have material that pre-dates the Society's beginnings - as in this book of letters from William Jones. This letter was sent from Calcutta in 1788

This is just a small selection of the early material, and it is mixed in with material of later dates. So I will start by trying to extract the material that relates to the RAS in the first half of the 19th century and bring it all together. In order to be able to catalogue this material and add appropriate descriptions I've been reading about the Society's origins in the book The Royal Asiatic Society: Its History and Treasures edited by Stuart Simmonds and Simon Digby. My reading has led to a new poem:

Beginnings

March 1823, H.T. Colebrooke

chaired a meeting at the Thatched House Tavern

to found a Society that would look

to further Asian scholarly concerns –

insights with which Company men returned.

Chartered as Royal by Georgian assent,

India Board Wynn reigned as President.

The particular poetic form is Rhyme Royal which I thought was appropriate for the Royal Asiatic Society. This form has a set rhyme scheme, which I have used, but I have to admit to being more loose in its rhythm. It is supposed to be iambic pentameter as used by Shakespeare for his blank verse. Because I had several multi-syllabled words to fit in the poem, I decided not to be so strict.

I am looking forward to getting these initial archives organised - so I guess it's time to stop blogging and get back to sorting!

Tuesday 17th March sees the next in our Student Lecture Series. There is a change to the advertised programme when Aisa Martinez will be joined by George Manginis who will lecture on The Benaki Museum Chinese Art Collection Resurrected: Strategies for making visible the invisble.

The 1,300-item-strong Benaki Museum Chinese Art Collection, largely donated by George Eumorfopoulos between 1927 and 1936, went into storage in 1990 and has remained there since. The lecture will present a few of the most interesting items in the collection, will trace the fifteen-year-long effort to raise awareness on it and will examine its future prospects within a shifting political and cultural landscape.

George Manginis studied archaeology and history of art at the University of Athens. He read Islamic architecture and Chinese ceramics as part of his MA at SOAS, where he was also awarded a doctoral title for a thesis on Jabal Musa, Egypt. He has participated in archaeological excavations around Europe and in Egypt and has contributed articles in scholarly magazines and exhibition catalogues in Greece, Cyprus, the United Kingdom and Korea. He recently completed the web catalogue of the collection of Chinese ceramics at the Benaki Museum in Athens. He lectures regularly on Islamic, Chinese and Byzantine art at SOAS, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and other educational institutions and learned societies.

He is joining Aisa Martinez who will talk about Omani Costumes

'Dress studies' is a relatively new academic field whose major theories and case studies emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Joanne Eicher, one of the earliest scholars, states that clothing and dress are part of a complex system of symbols and meaning. Kuchler and Miller (2005) argue that clothing is a living part of culture and society, expanding upon Appadurai's 'social life of things' (1988). The lecture will explore how regional styles of Omani dress reveal the individual wearer's age, wealth, socio-economic status, and religious or ethnic affiliation. Elements and details in a garment's shape, colour, use or non-use of certain embellishments and materials, go beyond the individual wearer and serve as evidence of trade routes and commodities integral in Oman's place within the western Indian Ocean trade network.

Aisa Martinez began her journey in studying dress and adornment in the Arabian Peninsula in 2007 during a Fulbright research fellowship in Muscat, Oman. She volunteered with the Centre for Omani dress, cataloguing a growing dress collection of pieces from nearly every corner of the Sultanate of Oman. She completed her MA in social anthropology in 2010 at SOAS, focusing her studies on Omani men's national dress and national identity. She also helped organize the British Museum's 2011 display on Omani silver jewellery and costume. From late 2011 until early 2014, she was a research fellow with the London Middle East Institute at SOAS, focusing on embroidery and embellishment in Saudi women's dress. During this time, she spent three months doing fieldwork and travelling around Saudi Arabia. She is currently a project curator with the ZNM Project at the British Museum.

We look forward to welcoming these two speakers and hope that you can join us on Tuesday 17th March at 6.30p.m.

Last night Dr Chi-kwan Mark from Royal Holloway, University of London, lectured at the RAS on Margaret Thatcher and the Anglo-Chinese negotiations over the future of Hong Kong. From his research into newly released British records, Dr. Mark has been able to trace how the negotiations enabled a transfer of Hong Kong back to Chinese sovereignty in a manner that could be seen as a political triumph for both the British and the Chinese.

Dr Chi-kwan Mark giving his lecture at the RAS

His informative lecture provided a platform for members of the audience to ask further questions. However, instead of the usual drinks reception after the lecture, members of the Society adjourned to the nearby Sardo Restaurant for the 192nd Anniversary Dinner. At the meal Professor Peter Robb gave a speech as retiring President of the Association.

Retiring President, Professor Peter Robb

The Anniversary Dinner has been a longstanding event within the RAS calendar. Within the archive we hold the invitation for the 1913 dinner held at the Hotel Cecil.

Unlike the 1913 dinner, when it was necessary to wear evening dress and decorations, the 2015 dinner was a more informal, but still very pleasurable, affair.

Both of the speakers at Tuesday evening's Student Lecture Series provided informative and well-illustrated talks on their topics.

Aisa Martinez

Aisa Martinez began the evening with her lecture on "Omani Costumes". Beautifully illustrated, she showed how variations in both male and female clothing styles reflected ethnic origins, influence of trade, and personal preference.

Boy in typical Omani male dishdhasha (dress) and kammar (cap) http://muscatcoorgs.tripod.com/id3.html

Her talk was followed by George Manginis lecturing on the Chinese Collection at the Benaki Museum in Greece. Again, this lecture was illustrated with many examples of the Chinese pottery donated by George Eumorfopoulos (1863-1939), a London businessman of Greek extraction.

Eumorfopoulos in 1930s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eumorfopoulos

Eumorfopoulos was the founder of the Oriental Ceramic Society and an avid collector - 'by the shipload', Manginis suggested - and backed up this suggestion with archival photographs of Eumorfopoulos's home on Chelsea Embankment. Eumorfopoulos gave a large donation to the newly opened Benaki Museum in Athens. Unfortunately this material has been in store for a considerable period.

George Manginis

Manginis, at present, is part of a movement to bring these treasures back into the public domain, with both an online presence and a travelling exhibition initially, before hoping to locate a permanent place of display.

The RAS would warmly encourage you to join us at next month's Student Lectures when Karin Warch from SOAS will speak on "Humour and 18th Century Korean Art", and Tara Desjardins, also from SOAS, will lecture on "18th century Indian Mughal Glass". The lectures begin at 6.30p.m. on Tuesday 21st April.

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