The “Tokyo lexical tablet” here published for the first time belongs to the Institute of Oriental Culture at the University of Tokyo. This tablet was originally purchased by Prof. Ikuo Hirayama, a leading painter of scenes from the “Silk Road”, and later given to Prof. Shinji Fukai, the University of Tokyo, who has subsequently donated it to the Institute of Oriental Culture.
Although the tablet bears some resemblance to tablets B and D of the Ká-gal=abullu series, the choice of lexical items, their arrangement and Akkadian translation are totally new. There are a number of morphological and phonological pecularities in the Akkadian columns, and new lexical items in the Sumerian columns.
According to Prof. Miguel Civil, the tablet has two duplicates, one in the Babylonian Collection at Yale University, another one in the British Museum. These tablets were called the SAG-tablet, Recension B, and will be published in the Materials for the Sumerian Lexicon, Supplementary Series I.
Columns IV and V of the Tokyo lexical tablet were, perhaps intentionally, chipped away, and lines 147-232 are totally missing.
The provenance of this tablet is unknown, but Prof. M. Civil suggested Emar (Meskene) as a possible candidate.
Finally, we would like to express our deep gratitude to Prof. Fukai for his permission to publish the tablet and his continued cooperation in this effort. And also our hearty thanks to Prof. Civil for his invaluable suggestions and advice.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the possible historical continuity of the Eblaic personal names Mikaya and Mikail down to the Biblical names Mikayahu and Mikael, and also is to demonstrate the fact that those names in the onomasticon of Ebla reappearing in the Bible does not always authorize us to make the Eblaites the forefathers of Israel.
We would be well adviced to discuss first the cultural and historical continuity in Mesopotamia and Syria, though the cultural continuity in Syria can be, in a sense, traced from Ebla tablets through the Ugaritic texts straight into the Bible as Dahood claims. It is too early to judge how much bearing these new finds in Tell Mardikh will have on biblical research, but from what little of the Ebla material have been published to date, the harvest is going to be much ampler than Dahood expects.

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The Ka'ba of Mecca and that of Naqš-e Rostam have several common features. Both have the dark rooms. The floors of them are on the protruded blocks of rock above the ground. The protrusions are the navels of the earth, i. e. the omphaloi.
The Iranian House of Origin and the Arabian First House were the centers of the universe from which creatures were produced.
There were a lot of monuments of the same principle as that of the Ka'ba in the Far East. They were also used as places of the rites de passage while people entered dark rooms of high floors and came out to get reanimated. The Emperor of Japan used to make the everyday toilet ceremony on the omphalos in his own palace.

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The hijra, the starting point of the Islamic state as well as of its calender, has been investigated in detail by modern scholars. Most of investigations, however, tend to center on migrators but a few on acceptors. Even the works of W. M. Watt, being very excellent and exact, want a vivid expression of the dynamic development of Islam in the Medinan society during a few years around the Muhammad's hijra.
Twelve, the number of the participants of the first 'Aqaba in the year of 621, 75, the participants of the second 'Aqaba in 622, and then 238, the participants of the battle of Badr in 624, might be near to the total number of the Medinan believers at each stage of times. These figures show the steady development of Islam in the society. Even the participants of the battle, however, might share less than ten percent of the male adult populations of Medina. None of twelve leaders, elected by Muhammd at the time of the, second 'Aqaba, were a political-military leader of any clan or sub-clan during the civil wars in the pre-Islamic time. It should be noted that the movement for Islam in Medina before the hijra, was organized by not so influencial persons and it covered only a few percent of the total population of the society.
The movement had a solid political goal, that was to stop the civil wars and to unite the society into one. Most of the persons who did not recognize Muhammad as a prophet and who were not converted, backed this goal and then, the movement became the main political current of the society. Sa'd b. Mu'adh, one of the strong leaders of the civil wars, was converted and supported the movement. 'Amr b. al-Jamuh, also an influencial leader, taking an indifferent attitude to the movement at first, became a supporter of this by the persuasions of his sons and grandsons. Abu Qays b. al-Aslat, a monk and another strong leader of the civil wars, offered oppositions to the movement. He might be a big obstacle to the progress of the movement, but died ten month after the Muhammad's hijra. Ibn Ubayy, being the most influencial man in Medina after the death of the two supreme commanders of the civil wars, did not become a supporter nor a opponant to the movement. Thus, believers could represent the whole society and concluded the treaty of peace, which should be the first part of the Constitution of Medina.

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With the intention of participating in the united action of the Timurids against Shaibani Khan Uzbek, Babur, future founder of the Mughal Empire, left Kabul for Khorasan in spring, 1506 and arrived in Herat on December 4. He stayed there for twenty days and returned to Kabul via dangerous and snowy mountain road around the end of February, 1507.
This long and difficult journey of Babur to Khorasan proved, in a sense, fruitless, because Babur's dream of joint action against his mortal enemy did not come true. The Timurids' princes of Khorasan, besides a disgusting discord among them, devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasures of life and were not ready to counter the Uzbeks. Nevertheless this visit to Khorasan had an important effect upon Babur's future way of life. Up till then Babur was a pious and strict Moslem and had never touched any alcoholic beverages. But the luxurious, sensual and unrestricted atmosphere of Herat tempted Babur to the pleasure of wine-drinking. Although it is not quite clear whether Babur actually violated commandment in Herat or not, it is clear that sooner or later, with this journey as a turning point, he became a son of Bacchus. It was also in Herat that Babur met a young lady whom he really loved and married later. Thus the journey to Khorasan was an unforgettable experience for Babur in his youthful years.

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Treaties, concluded by Japan for the first time with foreign countries during the years of 1854-58, were unequal treaties including such stipulations as consular jurisdiction, tariff rate by agreement and unilateral most favored-nation clause.
One of the most important tasks of Meiji new government was to negotiate with each country for the revision of these unequal treaties. For this accomplishment, the government modernized the Japanese legal system. Japanese codification was based chiefly up on the model of French and German laws, under the leadership of foreign advisers, such as Dr. Boissonade. On the other hand many practical jedges came into contact with foreign laws especially English law by going through the consular courts. And, during the process of negotiation Japan had known several Middle East legal institutions. For instance, at Constantinople, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nubar Pasha gaved useful advice about mixed court to a member of Iwakura Mission in 1873. And Egyptian rules for mixed courts were translated into Japanese in 1874. At the same time Japanese jurists asked for Dr. Boissonacle's lectures concerning the history of consular jurisdiction and Islamic law.
When Japan demanded the revision of the treaty to each country, Great Britain made decision to set up a mixed court for Japan as like Egypt. The Conference for the Revision of the Treaty was held in 1886, and “Draft of the Treaty for Jurisdiction” was proposed by Great Britain and Germany, which asked for Japan to adopt foreign judges. In those days the movement against the Revision of the Treaties arose in all over Japan. At that time Dr. Boissonade's opinion was known to Japanese, and it made the movement more violent. He insisted that the adoption of foreign judges by an independent state meant a loss of independence of its judicial power, and would lead subsequently to the national independence. Japanese government could not help postponing the negotiation for the revision of the treaty by the time when the codification had been concluded. Japan had strived for the Europeanized legislation, therefore the research on Egyptian or Islamic laws were discontinued. As Japanese constitution was promulgated in 1890 and many laws followed it, Japan assumed the form of a modern state. Thus, consular courts in Japan were abolished in 1899.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Islam and politics in the thought of Muhammad 'Abduh. In this study, I have come to some conclusions. First, the tension between two kinds of laws, namely Qanun and Shari'a was very clearly awared in his thought. Second, young 'Abduh believed in a harmony between Qanun and Shari'a in the age of ‘Orabi’s Revolution. Third, he tried to overcome the contradiction between Qantn and Shari'a in his activities during the reign of Khedive 'Abbas II, but he could not succeed in moulding the comprehensive belief-system.

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