[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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As a calligrapher of Arabic, I have been trying to discover the elements of beauty which would lie in each of the major styles of Arabic calligraphy; Naskhi style, Ruqua style, Diwani style, Jali Diwani style, Thulth style, Naas-Taariq style and so on. Because every time I was engaged in producing Arabic calligraphic works I felt it necessary to clarify the elements of beauty which remain vague and mysterious without being studied theoretically, so that I could recognize them and manage to put them under control in writing certain style of Arabic calligraphy. As an initial step to grasp the elements of beauty I made a three- demensional analysis of the shapes of alphabets for each style of Arabic calligraphy. The result of the analysis was published in the 6th AJAMES 1991. The analysis showed that the shape of each alphabet is a silhouette of a narrow tape whose shape was made according to the shape of the equivalent alphabet. At the same time the analysis made clear that shapes of some alphabets of highly artistic style like Thulth style are composed by combination of two parts of different silhouettes made by throwing lights from two directions. It is needless to say that shapes of the alphabets are only small parts of the elements which constitute beauty of the styles of the Arabic calligraphy. For the alphabets are connected one another to form a word, then words are connected into a phrase or a sentence. Through these processes of connections, the shapes are totally changed to become a new linear mass-object which comes to bear a new beauty. The calligrapher has to write words after words pursuing the elements of beauty consciously It is interesting to note that I could find through my experiences in the field of Arabic calligraphy, several important elements which would constitute beauty of the Arabic calligraphy. These are, for example, (1) shapes of the alphabets, (2) composition of the spaces where the calligraphic lines are written. (the harmony between the spaces which are full of lines and those spaces where lines are rare.) (3) The whole regular movements of the lines (visible trend of the lines/ invisible trend of the lines), and (4) role of the symbols for pronuntiation and decoration. According to the styles of Arabic calligraphy, a minute study was made this time to find out which of the above-mentioned elements would be included and emphasized in each of the styles. The results of the study are shown in a table in this thesis. It should be specially noted that I could discover through the study that each style has an invisible trend lines which would be hiden behind the visible movements of lines of words to cotrol them. Grasping these trend lines which differ according to the styles would help us in connecting lines smoothly in writing calligaphic works. At the same time in the light of the elements of beauty varoius comparisons were made among the styles in order to know the charecteristics of each of them. I would believe that this tentative study was fairly fruitful for me because I could be aware of various differences among the styles of Arabic calligraphy clearly.

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It is well-known that the US government played a crucial role to help the Zionists establish Israel the Jewish state in Palestine during a certain period after the World War II. This American support was a fruit of American Zionists' persistent campaign in 1930s and 1940s to win over the government and public opinion of the United States to creation of their state there. Remarkable success of this campaign was, in a sence, a product of the unprecedent persecution and massacre of the Jewish people by the Nazi Germany. This article deals with American policies toward the Palestine question and refugee problems caused by that harsh oppression of Jews by the German authorities. The author forcuses on the process of decision making related to these policies by the President and government officials in the period from March 1938 to January 1939. Special attention is paid to the days beginning at 6 October '38 toward 20 January '39. The former markes the date when American Zionists started the most intensive campaign trying to influence the government foreign policies in favor of the Zionist cause. The latter is that when Hijamar Schacht the German negotiator on the refugee problem was dismissed. His dismissal meant, in fact, the end of talks betweem Germany and an international body, composed of the U.S., European and other countries, for ordery migration of the European Jews. It was the Americans who took the initiative in starting this collective negotiaion in order to solve the refugee problem. This intergovernmental body was established by a decision of an international confernece known as the "Evian Conference", which President Roosevelt had called for after the "Anschluss". This body, called the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees (IGCR), took the charge of dealing with the Germans. It was also the U.S. which played leading roles in the IGCR activities. The one hundred and ten days from October, '38 to January, '39 were the period when the parties could cherish the highest hopes that the negotiation might produce some positive result for solving the refugee problem. For, the Germans had been temporalily appeased by the "Munchen Decision", and were apparently willing to talk on the refugee question. At a certain stage, they appointed one of Nazimoderates, Schacht, as the negotiator. The Nazi-radicals like Libbentrop, however, soon gained the upper hand in their power struggle; this actually led to the end of the deal. During these days, the most intensive efforts were made to find heavens for the refugees in other areas than Europe by the IGCR. The U.S. government on behalf of the IGCR requested to many governments in Latin American countries and European ones which possesed oversea territories to receive these unfortunate people as immigrants. Most of these governments were unwilling to receive considerable number of the Jewish refugees, however. Thus, the negotiations on the immigration as a whole ended in failure, too. The Nazi persecution, causing mass immigration of European Jews into Palestine, aggravated the political tention in Palestine, which led to the great revolt by Palestine Arabs in 1936-1939. This change of the situation urged the British government to reconsider their policy toward Palestine Mandate. The Britishes began to think of restricting the number of immigrants into Palestine. Alarmed with some indications of changing attitudes of the British government, the Zionists decided to launch a vigorous campaign to affect the U.S. policy makers. The Zionists urgently requested the Americans to intervene so as to prevent the British from the revision of immigration policies in the Palestine Mandate. October 6th was the date when an American Zionist leader sent a telegram to Roosevelt asking for immediate intervention. They mobilized all of their resource available for affecting U.S. Palestine policies

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Malak Hifni Nasif (1886-1918), also known by the pen name Bahithat al-Badiya "the Researcher of the Desert", was an Egyptian Muslim feminist. With the middle-class family background and education in girls' schools, she chose teaching for her career until she married, when she quit the job and started to write and speak out on women's problems. It is a well-known fact that Malak was the person who submitted to the Egyptian Congress a list of ten suggestions for improving the position of Muslim women. Her essays and speeches were collected in the book an-Nisa'iyat "Women's Issues", which was a depiction of the middle- and upper-class women's social life in Egypt. The book took up women's issues like veiling, education, polygamy, careers and social seclusion. Some of the views Malak expressed in the book were: 1. that women should not abandon wearing veils because, in her opinion, the time was not ripe yet for such a revolutionary act, and that women needed more education for the change, 2. that compulsory preparatory school education was a must for all girls, and that some women should be given medical or teacher training, 3. that polygamy, of which she herself was a victim, should be abolished, that it was humiliating not only to women but also to their children, and hence eventually to society, 4. that those who were engaged should at least be allowed to see each other prior to their marriage, 5. that women should be allowed to pursue their career if they so desired, and 6. that women should adopt the middle course between the strict social confinement in Egypt and the permissiveness in the West. Although Malak's approach to women's liberation was modeled on Muhammad 'Abduh's Islamic reformism, with the added influence of Qasim Amin, she tackled the problems from the uniquely feminine point of view, rejecting men's then-current conception of women's emancipation. This meant that she was concerned more with the psychological as well as physical aspects of the problems caused by men's maltreatment of women rather than with the more superficial aspects of their looks and appearances as "new women". An advocate of social changes for women, Malak nevertheless held a rather conservative view regarding class distinction and traditional men-defined sex roles and women's virtues. Furthermore political matters, in her opinion, were to be left entirely to men's control. Given the man-dominated Egyptian society of her time, this conservativeness may have been part of her tactics in dealing with a society that was still psychologically unprepared for rapid social change. Unlike Qasim Amin's radical approach, Malak's conservatism allowed her a more smooth middle course that was consonant with the social conventions of her time. In this way she succeeded in winning support from the modernists while avoiding direct confrontation with the shaikhs. In other words, rather than attempt a complete emancipation, what Malak actually did was improve the conditions women were forced to live in in her society. She was a realistic feminist.

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Dans le present article, nous faisons un apergu general sur l'histoire et l'etat actuel de l'ile de Socotra, que nous avons visitee en 1990. Nous y sommes arrive le 14 novembre pour la quitter une semaine plus tard. Pendant le bref sejour, nous avons visite certains villages de la region du nord, dont Hadiboh, Qalanstyah et Irlsal. A la suite d'un expose de la geographic et du climat, nous faisons un apercu rapide sur les auteurs qui firent mention de Socotra, pour decrire une petite histoire du pays. L'histoire d'expeditions et de recherches est aussi examinee. Nous presentons en dernier ce que nous avons constate sur l'etat actuel de l'ile.

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The extensive use of chemical weapons by Iraq both against Iranian soldiers and its own Kurdish population was one of the most hideous aspects of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). Based on American and Japanese newspaper reporting, this study includes a detailed chronology of dates and places of the use of the chemical weapons by Iraq in the war. This is the first of its kind in Japanese. It is hoped that the chronology will serve as source material for further study of the Iran-Iraq War. It is also the strong wish of this author that the study will contribute, however tangentially, to the abolition of chemical weapons by highlighting their inhumane nature.

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