Professor C.E. Bosworth FBA is a Middle East historian of world stature. In this volume his friends and colleagues come together to honour his 70th birthday. The diversity of these essays reflects the diversity and depth of Professor Bosworths own interests. Ranging through the five areas of Literature, Language, History, Law, and Art and Epigraphy, this volume embraces the ancient, the medieval and the modern, covering topics as diverse as the Maq ma genre, the significance of wooden weapons in al-Mukht rs revolt and nineteenth century exchanges in Himyaritic inscriptions. The volume illustrates the vibrancy and dynamism of modern scholarship in the field of Arabic and Semitic Studies.