In the course of the late nineteenth century the urban structure of Tehran underwent profound changes. The city's great extension was accompanied by the demographic change and the transformation of the social hierarchy. This article provides a study of Mostoufi family involved in the growth of Tehran. Hajji Mirza Nasrollah Mostoufi (17. 7. 1809-28. 1. 1890) was appointed mostoufi as his father Mirza Esma'il's heir in 1853. He achieved a great role in the financial aff airs of Qajar Dynasty under Naser al-Din Shah. Based upon 'Abdollah Mostoufi's Sharh-e Zendegani-ye Man, the author analyses the family structure, the premises, the relation between Mostoufi's family and its toyul, Nayeh village that was situated at a distance of 9 farsakh from Qom, and the employees who had migrated from Nayeh and other villages into Tehran.

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In Central Asia, the term iqta' appeared in a chronicle again in the late 16th century. Soviet historians understood that it was similar to soyicrghal or tankhvah and was used as an outdated term having no substance. As B. Ahmedov pointed out, however, the iqta' meant that the members of the royal family and distinguished amirs were granted the administrative and the tax immunity at a certain area by the khan under the agreement that they would offer military service and pay a portion of their tax revenue to the state. The iqta' was different from the soyurghal apearing in the documents, which meant the right given to the moslem saints or the learned men and tankhvah given to the soldiers, but was synonymous with the soyurghal in the chronicles in those centuries. It was related to the khan's appanage grant policy and to the tradition of soyurghal in the previous eras', but was not the same with the military iqta' system.

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To define the correlation of ‘treaty’ with ‘covenant’, the functions of the gods in the Aramaic Inscriptions from Sefire (Sf) are investigated from the religious-historical point of view. It is stated in stele IA lines 7-14 that this treaty was concluded in the Presence of the gods of the contracting parties and the names of the gods as witnesses are listed. In the first half of these lines (11. 7-10) the gods of KTK, an unknown city or territory, are enumerated in pairs, showing clearly the influence of the Babylonian pantheon. The construction of these lines suggests that the Babylonian culture exerted a remarkable influence on KTK. The latter part of the same enumeration lists the gods in Arpad as witnesses (11. 10-12). There both western semitic gods, such as Hadad, 'El and 'Elyon, and natural phenomena were worshipped. Unlike the former enumeration, there is no pair consisting of a god and his consort. To enumerate gods as witnesses in such a way was very prevalent in the Ancient Near Eastern traditions. In Sf natural phenomena were adored as well as gods, but in the OT phenomena listed were limited to only heaven and earth (e. g. Dt. 31:28 etc.). In addition, God appears as the witness to the treaty between Laban and Jacob (Gen. 31:50). These examples show that the function of the gods in Sf is similar to that of God in the OT. There was a traditional thought in Ancient Orient that the transgressors of the treaties were cursed and doomed to extinction by the treaty-gods. A similar type of curses appears in stele IA lines 14-35, in which Hadad plays quite an important role and most curses are closely related with his character as the storm-god. Furthermore, it was essential that the gods themselves conclude the treaty, which means, they were not only witnesses but also parties to the treaty. The following verbal usages are discussed in detail here: sym and nsr. Frequent appearances of the expression 'lhy ‘dy’ or ‘treaty-gods’ emphasize the inseparable connection of Sf with the OT and Ugaritic Literature. My final conclusion is: although there may be no direct borrowings on the part of the OT from Sf, the covenant thought in the OT and the treaty thought in Sf are closely related each other.

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The present paper is an attempt to make clear the process of the development of religious buildings in northern Mesopotamia, that is, from the phase which might be called “religious structure” to that of “temple”. The process could be observed in relation to the settlement around the building. In this point of view, the development of religious buildings from Hassuna-Samarra period to Late Gawra period can be devided into the following five stages: I. The stage in which the religious structure occupies a part of a building (Hassuna-Samarra period). II. The stage in which the religious structure develops into a building (Halaf period). III. The stage in which the religious structure occupies a section in the settlement (Early Ubaid period). IV. The stage in which the section of the religious structure increases its importance in the settlement (Late Ubaid-Middle Gawra period). VI. The stage in which the religious structure becomes the center of the settlement (Late Gawra period). Through the above classification, we can observe the explicit process of the development of religious buildings: from the phase of “religious structcure” to that of “temple”, with the result that the fifth stage corresponds to the period in which “religious structure” has attained the constant function as “temple”.

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