Tne Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain for July contains a very learned article by the President, Sir T. E. Colebrooke, on "Imperial and other Titles." The subject was suggested by the proposal to give Queen Victoria an additional title expressive of her relation to the people and princes of India, and the paper contains a mass of erudition, and jis, to use the hack. noyed phrase, replete with interest. We must restrict our notice to the portion of the paper which treats of Eastern titles. The writer begins with " Malik," the title which bears the stamp of the highest antiquity which has come down to us from the time of Melchizodek, King of Salem, and is the ordinary designation of Kings or Ralers in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is curious that from the same root we have the names of the god Moloch, and the same root in its passive form becomes at once the designation of a slave (Mamluk) and the title of sovereignty borne by a dynasty which raled in Egypt. Malikena is applied to Crown grant of land, and M'alk to freehold pro. perty. We also observe a singular uso of this title by the Yezidis, or worship. pers of the devil, mentioned by Mr. Layard. The word Sheitan, or any word that resembles it in sound, never passes their lips. "When they speak of the devil," says Mr, Layard, "they do so with reverence as Melek Taous, King Peacock, or Melekel Kent, the mighty angel. The next term to which attention is called is Sultan.
Selden points out that the term Siltonim is applied in the book of Daniel to the Lords of the Assyrian monarchy. The early traces of the form are obscure, The Mogal conquerors of Asia did not affect the title at the beginning of their career. They brought with them that of Khan or Khacan from the North, and used it on their coins, The title of Sultan came, however, soon into uso among the descendants of Gengiz, and is found on coins of their dynasty and of that branch of the fumily who founded a kingdom on the Northern shores of the Caspian, and are known by the designation of the Khans of Kapchak, In Persia it wae rarely used after the accession of the Sufi dynasty in the sixteenth century. The only instances of its appearance on theircoinsare in the case of Hussein, who reigned at the close of the seventeenth century, and of the famous Nadir Shab, whose title on his coins ran, "Nadir, lord of the (planetary) conjunctions, is Sultan of the Sultans of the world, Shab of Shas." But though assumed by Nadir in this form, Sultan has long ceased to be the title of any such Sovereign except that of Constantinople, With regard to the application of the term to females, Sultan originally admitted of both genders. Reziah, daughter of Altansh, reigned at Delhi in the thirteenth century, as Sultan. The title on ber coins runs, "The great Sultan Reziab, of the world and of religion." 'The conversion of the word into a female title, Sultana, is of Western origin, and seems to have taken its rise with the Greeks, April Lascaris, Patriarch of, Gonstantinople, applies the term to jthe Virgin Mary in the sense in which' the words Our Lady are employed in' the West. The titles Khalif and Co'mmander of the Faithful, which are indissolubly associated in the minds of English readers with the Arabian 4 Nights, are closely connected with each other. Abubekr, the immediate: successor of Mohammed, would take nol other title than Khalif, or the Vicegésrent, and it was applied to all his sucvtessors until the final extinction of the *Khalifat of Baghdad in the thirteenth cefatury. The title has an ecclesiastical aspect, Tadeed, curiously enough, Sir T.- Colebrooke brings out the fact theft Khalif is frequently rendered Papa or Pope, and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.