Volume 27 Papers presented at the Seminar for Arabian Studies, London,1996 Editorial notice Walter W. Müller, In Memoriam A.F.L. Beeston (1911 - 1995): personal reminiscences of a friend and scholar; with a Bibliography of Professor A.F.L. Beeston by M.C.A. Macdonald Hatoon Ajwald Al-Fassi, The Taymanite tombs of Mada'in Salih (Hegra) A. Benoist, J. Cordoba and M. Mouton, The Iron Age in al-Madam (Sharjah, UAE): some notes on three seasons of work Ueli Brunner, The history of irrigation in the Wadi Marhah R. Carter, The Wadi Suq period in south-east Arabia: a reappraisal in the light of excavations at Kalba, UAE V. Charpentier, M. Cremaschi et F. Demnard, Une campagne archéologique sur un site côtier du Ja'alan: Al-Haddah (BJD-1) et sa culture matérielle (Sultanat d'Oman) Serguei A. Frantsouzoff, Regulation of conjugal relations in ancient Raybun Claire Hardy-Guilbert and Axelle Rougeulle, Al-Shihr and the southern coast of Yemen: preliminary notes on the French archaeological expedition, 1995 Andrey Korotayev, A socio-political conflict in the Qatabanian Kingdom? (A preliminary re-interpretation of the Qatabanic inscription RES 3566) Manfred Kropp and W.Hahn, Letters on the cheek of Athena: the denominations of the Sabaean sigloi and their numerical signs B. André-Salvini et P. Lombard, La découverte épigraphique de 1995 à Qal'at al-Bahrein: un jalon pour la chronologie de la phase Dilmoun Moyen dans le Golfe arabe Sophie Méry, A funerary assemblage from the Umm an Nar period: the ceramics from Tomb A at Hili North, UAE Beatrice Nicolini, Unpublished documents from the India Office Library and Records concerning the history of Muscat and Zanzibar during the first half of the nineteenth century Eric Olijdam, Nippur and Dilmun in the second half of the fourteenth century BC: a re-evaluation of