Pancatantra, famous collection of animal fables of Indian origin, was translated into Middle Persian by Burzoe in the sixth century, but this version was lost. In the eighth century, Ibn al-Muqaffa' translated the Middle Persian version into Arabic prose and named it “Kalila wa Dimna” after the names of two jackals in the text. This Arabic translation became the basis for subsequent Persian versions.
First of all, in the tenth century the famous poet of the Samanid court, Rudaki put the Arabic version into Persian verse form at Amir Nasr's request, but no more than several verses of this epic have survived.
Abu al-Ma'ali Nasr Allah, probably a native of Shiraz, translated the Arabic version into Persian prose about 1144, which was dedicated to Bahram-Shah of Ghazna. This version was made in such an elegant style that it had effect on many later Persian works, such as “Akhlaq-i-Nasiri” and “Marzban-nameh”.
About the end of the fifteenth century Husain Wa'iz Kashifi made by far the best known Persian version, entitled “Anwar-i-Suhaili”, which was aimed at simplifying and popularising Nasr Allah's version. But his style was much more bombastic and florid, with many exaggerated expressions and considerably expanded parts.
This bombastic version became simplified in India and Abu al-Fadl, a famous historian and minister under Akbar, compiled a book, entitled “'Iyar-i-Danish”, which was derived from Kashifi's version.

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This paper is a review of the methodology by which the writer analized the pottery unearthed in Area AI of the Tel Zeror excavations during three seasons, 1964-66. For the detail please see my article in “Orient”, vol. 5, 1969, pp. 41-53.

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The importance of Jerusalem in the Bible's imagery both of God's rule in the world and of the hope for the future.
Jerusalem is the “city of the great King, ” clearly locating Yahweh's function as King of the comes in the imperial sway over the surrounding area held from Jerusalem by the Davidic dynasty.
The meaning of the cultic re-enactment of Yahweh's sovereignity over the world, to which the “kings assembled solemnly” are witnessed along with Israel, is that through it, as well as through the political and military power that brought the kings in obeisance to Jerusalem. Thus were the sacred and the secular one in the ancient world. When the ark had been transferred to Mount Zion within the city area and, later, Solomon's temple had been built, Jerusalem became the spiritual centre of the kingdom. Jerusalem was above all the chosen city of Yahweh:
“But He chose the tribe of Judah Mount Zion, which He loves. (Ps 78:68).
Every year the Israelite came up to this city, this permanent abode of his God and there enjoyed friendly contact with Yahweh.
Jerusalem was the pride and joy of every man of Israel:
“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere” (Ps 84:10).
The songs picture the ultimate happiness, or blessing, as arising from that with which man makes contact in Zion.
Psalm 15 is but the example of a number of Israel's songs the origins of which are associated with the sacred site at which contact was established between the human and the divine spheres.
During these pilgrimages songs echoed and flutes were played.
There was joy in the hearts of all because they were on their way “to the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel” (Is 30:29).
This vision of the crowd streaming in from all sides inspired some of the prophecies of Isaiah.
In Summary: what message includes to us: “Jerusalem.”
It is a new prophetic message: Jerusalem must be the centre of a renewed people of God. Then all nations would pour into the holy city. (Is 60 and 66; Mic 4; Zech 8 and 14 etc.).
The royal songs are “prayers of hope”. God's blessings are now directed to the future, are now sung with a view to a coming time, full of hope and desire.

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It was generally thought that the Sumerian kingship appeared in their society which had been equal, when the Sumerian cities became to need the powerful director with the intensification of the disputes between the cities. H. Frankfort, Th. Jacobsen, S. N. Kramer, and some others generally thought like this, and concluded that the Sumerian kingship established at the Early Dynastic II.
But recently some scholars has begun to think earlier than the Early Dynastic II about the appearance of the kingship. They think that the centralization and the leading minority was rather suggested in the Sumerian great enterprises as the river improvements, the irrigation, and so on, though H. Frankfort thought them useful for strengthening the unity of the community.
I consider the establishment of the Sumerian kingship from the development of the temple architecture.
The Sumerian temple architecture deriving from the small shrines at Eridu developed into the gigantic temples of Uruk at the late Uruk period (c. 3000 B. C.). But after this period the precincts became more extensive and to be enclosed with the walls on the one hand, the temple architecture itself was inclined to be rather small, and to be built on a high terrace, that famous ziggurat, on the other hand. Almost all the great temples at the Early Dynastic period took this style, and this suggests the separation of the grades in the Sumerian society, that is to say the privileged class to be able to use the temple on the large terrace, and the mass to be able to approach only under the ziggurat. The former intervened between the mass and the great gods, and grasped the gods' will in their hands. The most powerful man of the privileged class became their king.
And so the Sumerian kingship already appeared at the late Uruk period, that is earlier than the period when H. Frankfort and some others suggested.

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Here the author treats two Iranian horse furnitures: I—Decorated lady's saddle and II—Horse blanket of the Kashgai nomads. Both of these are by no means antiques, nor objets d'art, but are valuable because of their rarity among Japanese collections.
I—The saddle is reinforced with white fringes of bones and covered with leather of black and green in colour. The green leather is dotted with gilt rivets in the shape of flower and all of them display an exquisite colour effect, common to European saddlery of Mediaeval Age, which must have been greatly influenced by the former during the Crusades.
The style of this saddle may be classified as half-West and half-East, with its seat-bars of wood on both sides in the style of rucksaddle. Defect of any device for hanging stirrups denotes its lady's use for side-riding, perhaps on ponnies or donkeys.
II—The horse blanket, or numdah, belongs to the same category with those depicted on the horse-shaped painted potteries, called ‘rhyton’ by Ghirshman, in Archaeological Museum of Teheran: one from Azerbaijan, another from Susa. The tamga on the horse's neck in the form of ‘trident’, or ‘fleur de lis’, is a fecundity symbol, as Dr. Ph. Ackermann explains it ‘labia and clitoris’.
The horse-blanket is not for the use of riding, as is shown on the Assyrian walls. Originally it is for keeping warmth, but eventually it turned into ornamental and ritual use, as is seen on the clay potteries cited above.
Lions and holly trees found among the bordering patterns are of Oriental origin. But they display striking resemblance to those found among the Pazylk and Noin Ula carpets respectively.
Especially interesting is the form of those lion patterns with remarkable long necks, which reminds us of the lion on the Scythian pole-top in Hermitage, 4th century, B. C. Those facts may denote that the present example belongs to the great tradition of the steppe nomads, rather to that of Ancient Orient.

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In 1965 I published my translation into Japanese of the “Epic of Gilgamesh”. The text I based on was that of R. C. Thompson (The Epic of Gilgamish, Oxford 1930), and I made use of several translations into modern languages; English, German, French and Russian, in understanding the original text written in accadian and other languages. After the publication of the text of Thompson, several fragments of the Epic were found and edited, and I saw it appropriate to add, especially for the readers of my translation, some explanation and appreciation of these new materials, to it (only the fragment belonging to the V tablet found at Iscali being included in the above Japanese translation). For some reason I confine myself here in mentioning the materials dealed with in the above short report in Japanese.

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Iraq or ancient Mesopotamia is one of the richest treasuries of archaeology. From eighteenth century, inspiring by the Bible or religious faith many Europeans visited here and remained their account of the trip. It is, however, from 1899 of R. Koldeway's excavation of Babylon that a comprehensive and scientific archaeological survey begun to start. Since mid-twenties century there were continuously remarkable excavations held by many famous foreign archaeologists.
After independence of the kingdom of Iraq, there brought up several Iraqi archaeologists. During the World War II, these young archaeologists carried out the surveys of some sites on their own country. Tell Uquir, Deir, Aqar Quf, Hassuna are their brilliant achievements.
Survey of Tell as-Sawwan, “Mound of the Flints”, is one of the most important excavations recently held in Iraq. The site is located some ten kilometers south of Samarra on the eastern bank of the middle Tigris river. The site was first noted by Ernest Herzfeld in 1911. Operations carried out five seasons by Behnam Abu as-Soof and others under the auspices of Directerate General of Antiquity since 1964 and not finished until now.
There were five main building-levels and these were numbers I-V from the top downwards. The special feature identified on the site consists of an artificial ditch cut into the natural conglomerate underlying the mound, forming three sides of a square round the eastern side of mound B. It may be regarded of an early defensive system. The pottery is classified 1) coarse ware 2) semi-corase ware 3) fine ware 4) incised, painted, incised-painted ware. Top two levels belong to Samarran type and levels IV and V are Hassunan type. In level III the incised Hassuna ware becomes very popular, but this phase is transitional pierod from Hassuna to Samarra pottery. The most remarkable objects were ‘mother-goddess’ statuettes made of clay or creamy alabaster, using clearly as cult objects.
The significance of Tell as-Sawwan are as follows: 1) in view of Tell as-Sawwan's geographical position, there was a reasonable prospect of cultural contacts between northern and southern Iraq during the sixth millennium B. C. 2) The pottery discovered on the site corresponds fairly closely to the standard Hassuna-Samarra repetoire which is known from Hassuna itself, and the mixture in levels III and II showed that Hassunan type gradually replaced Samarran type without cultural interruption. This also indicates there was no abrupt change of population in the area during this period.
As excavation has not finished, it is impossible to describe full account of this site. But it may provide answers to several important problems of Mesopotamian prehistory after excavation finishes.

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The existence of Modern Israel, or Jewish society colonized in Palestine during the past century, is usually interpreted in two different ways. On one hand, it is regarded as a product of international politics of modern Western world, while it claims to be the realized form of Jewish aspiration throughout the long history of the world. The former view is right as far as this society concerns with international political history, but is insufficient to explain its own history induced by the inner elements of this regional society. The latter, which comes from the Zionists' ideology, does not fail to notice the individuality of this society, but can not get rid of the illusional concept peculiar to the Zionists' thought, the “national” unity of World Jewry.
The writer believes, Modern Israel should be studied not only in the context of international politics, but also of its own evolution. We may conclude from the examination of the history of Jewish colonization in Palestine, that Modern Israel was the heir of the Zionist movement but this society itself brought forth the domestic elements which have turned Modern Israel relatively independent of the international framework of the Zionist movement. Thus the state of Israel, the present political establishment of this society, stands for the complex of various elements. In this paper, the writer intends to explain the nature of leading political ideas in Modern Israel, with reference to the ideological peculialities of the past Zionists' thought.

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