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Soviet Asian studies may become as important for world politics as Soviet sci. These studies began long before the Revolution & the Soviet built upon a pre-existent foundation. From 1950 work has been stepped up. After the Bandung Conference there was a shift from hostility to friendship to Asian `bourgeois nationalism'. The centralization of control in Moscow has been accompanied by a signif dispersal of Soviet oriental studies-the reverse of the Tsarist development. Basic solid factual res is being combined with pol'al work. Soviet academicians are now taking part in international congresses of orientalists & displaying impressive scholarship. But the main function of the Russian orientalists is to support Moscow's policy-objective of identification with Afro-Asian solidarity. IPSA.

"Unity and variety" in the Islamic cultural tradition has recently been made the centralizing theme of a number of essays by eminent orientalists in a volume edited by Professor von Grunebaum. Another important recent book by Professor W. C. Smith has a similar theme, though it is more concerned with the contemporary adjustment of Islam to new political and social conditions in a number of Muslim countries. Social scientists, however, as opposed to orientalists, have tended to disregard the unifying aspects of classical Islam and have concentrated upon the particular variety of Islam practiced in a particular place or that practiced by a particular group of people. Perhaps the only social area where both "unity" and "variety" are brought close enough for examination by the social scientist is in the study of the organization, the social and political role, and the ideology of the recognized learned man of Islam: the alim, mullah, akhund, or kijaji.

Nos collègues orientalistes ont beaucoup travaillé au cours de ces dernières années dans le domaine difficile de l'histoire des prix au Moyen Age. Une fâcheuse lacune vient d'être ainsi, sinon comblée, du moins considérablement réduite : une conférence récente d'E. Ashtor l'a démontré de façon éclatante.Dans cette courte note, je n'ai nullement l'intention de présenter le détail de ces travaux difficiles, risqués parfois, intéressants toujours ; encore moins de les critiquer. Les spécialistes ont certainement leur mot à dire sur telle unité de mesure ou sur telle monnaie et leur contribution sera certainement utile pour l'avancement et la perfection de nos recherches futures. Notre problème est différent.