Many early Sufi literatures contain a section about adab (sing. adab). The word adab means ‘rules of conduct’, and adab consequently sometimes means ‘proper conduct’. Having the ethical nature, I think, adab is a very important concept for understanding the process in which Sufism had adapted itself to the Islamic Society.
This article treats Kitab Adab al-Muridin of Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi (1097-1166). This title can be translated into English as “Ethical and Practical rules for disciples”.
I tried to analyze the items in the book from the historical and sociological points of view.
His concept of Sufism can be illustrated above.
My conclusion is that this conformist structure of Sufism reflects the social position of its order in the civil society of Baghdad in 12th century.

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Some Texts in which “the gods of the night” (ilani mušiti) appear are known to us. They were written between the Old and New Babylonian periods, not only in Babylonia and Assyria but also in Anatolia and Syria. These are astral gods in addition to the stars (kakkabanu), the three regions of stars (šut Anu, Ea and Enlil), and the many constellations.
We chose a text where “the gods of the night” are invoked as judges (dajjan kinatim/kittim) in a religious court, in order to dicide cases occurring in the dark night, when Šamaš is asleep after having worked as judge all the day long.
Our text is not just a prayer written in private nor is it written from the literary point of view. Our text has a “Sitz im Leben” in the religious court of Old Babylonia, that is in official religion. Our prayer is a “Night Office” attached to the trial (têrtu) that is to be held soon after—a counterpart to the daytime office.
The priest (bâru) must experience the judgement of “the gods of the night” and give account of that to the plaintiff (alik urhim) and also to the defendant (ša dinim), if the defendant is human. Our text is the prototype of prayers to “the gods of the night” which have been handed down with differences in various places and ages and included into canonical series like maqlû, namburbû and so on. In these prayers “the gods of the night” have also fulfilled an apotropaic role against evil destiny.

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After Mohammad Hasan Khan was killed in 1759, his eldest son, Aqa Mohammad Khan, was kept in Shiraz under the control of Karim Khan Zand. When his younger brother, Hosein Qoli Khan, came from Qazvin to Shiraz to meet his brother, Karim Khan appointed him the ruler of Damghan and sent him there in 1769. Damghan was not so far from his father's former domain of Astarabad and Mazandaran. These two districts were now governed by the persons responsible for his father's death, so he began to take actions against them.
According to the sources written in the Zand period, Hosein Qoli Khan's field of activity was restricted to Mazandaran only, but we cannot agree with them for several reasons. Qajar sources relate his conquests of the Astarabad districts in detail, so it is reasonable to consider that his conquest extended to both the Astarabad and Mazandaran districts according to these sources. His conquest went smoothly in spite of several Zand expeditions, but he was assassinated in 1777.
In Shiraz, Karim Khan intensified his observation of Aqa Mohammad Khan after Hosein Qoli Khan rose in revolt. So, Aqa Mohammad Khan escaped from Shiraz to Astarabad immediately after the Karim Khan's death in 1779. After his return to Astarabad, Aqa Mohammad Khan inherited Hosein Qoli Khan's former sphere of influence and pushed forward the establishment of the Qajar dynasty. It is thereby possible to estimate that Hosein Qoli Khan's revolt played an important role in the establishment of the Qajar dynasty.

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Pour autant que noes le sachions, il y avait deux systèmes de datation en Arabie du Sud antique. Le plus ancien est un système de datation par des magistrats éponymes et était en usage dans les royaumes en bordure du désert de Sayhad et à Sm 'y jusqu'à la fin du III^e siècle apr. J. -C. Dans un second système en usage à partir, au plus tard, du I^er siècle de notre ère jusqu'au VI^e, on compte les années partant d'une époque (=ère). Nous avons étudié, dans cet article, des problèmes importants du deuxième système de datation. Les conclusions que nous tirons sont ce qui suit:
1. A propos de l'identification des ères, nous pouvons distinguer trois ères concurrentes: l'ère de Mbhd (=l'ère himyarite) en usage dans la confédération tribale de Himyar, l'ère de 'b'ly en usage dans la tribu de Radmân, et l'ère de Nbt en usage dans la tribu de Madhay.
2. Etant donné que chacune des ères avait sa propre formule caractéristique de datation, on pourrait dire que les différentes formules correspondent respectivement à des ères différentes. Mais it y a des cas où la diversité de certaines formules ne peut s'expliquer que par le décalage chronologique qui sépare des dates exprimées par rapport à une même êre donnée. Et il y a aussi des cas où l'on doit tenir compte du facteur régional pour comprendre la particulatité de formule de quelques inscriptions.
3. Dans nos trois articles précédents, nous avions étudié le début de l'ère himyarite en arrivant à la conclusion qu'il tombe en 110 av. J. -C. partant de cette date, nous pouvons dire que les débuts de l'ère de 'b'ly et de l'ère de Nbt se placeraient respectivement en 74/75 apr. J. -C, environ, et vers 31 av. J. -C. avec une mange d'erreur inférieure à 15 ans.
4. Quant à l'origine des ères, il pourrait se dire que la fondation de chaque ère doit commémorer un événement réel et historique. Pour les Himyarites, ce serait la naissance de la confédération des tribus qui aurait désormais été appelée “Himyar”, et pour les Radmânites, leur séparation d'avec Qatabân et affiliation à Saba'-Himyar. Nous supposons que l'origine de l'ère de Nbt soit aussi un événement politique concernant la tribu de Madhay.

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There is in Japanese a phenomenon called kakekotoba, in which a word is a homonym with two different meanings, and which coheres two different contexts by the correspondence of one meaning to each context. This brief paper aims to observe that we can find also in Hebrew a similar phenomenon to Japanese kakekotoba called “Janus parallelism” and to clarify features of Hebrew “Janus parallelism” compared with Japanese kakekotoba.
“Janus parallelism” has been studied through the analysis of tricola in Hebrew poetry and it has been held that second colon carries the kakekotoba-like function, i. e. that a homonym in second colon parallels “what precedes it with one meaning, and what follows it with a different meaning.” (Gordon)
The greatest difference between Hebrew “Janus parallelism” and Japanese kakekotoba may be that the Janus-word in the second colon semantically corresponds to words of different cola because Hebrew poetry is based on parallelism, and so it coheres to two other cola, while the kakekotoba in Japanese poetry semantically and/or syntactically coheres words immediately before and/or after it. But we should note that such a phenomenon with homonym is seen not only in Japanese but also in Hebrew. “Janus parallelism” is found also in prose and poetry besides the tricolon. “Janus parallelism” in such cases will be discussed in the future.

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Spondylus gaederopus Linné is a large and durable marine bivalve, and Neolithic people in Europe used to make various shell objects, especially ornaments like bracelets, pendants and beads, from this species. Spondylus shells and shell objects were transported from the eastern Mediterranean far into inland Europe, and they are one of the most spectacular indicators of large scale trade in Neolithic Europe. In order to discuss Spondylus trade, the study of Spondylus shells and shell objects in the Aegean region, which is now assumed to have been the principal resource area, is indispensable. But the study in this region has just begun. In this article, the author begins with an analysis of the shell assemblage found in the new excavations at Dimini, then refers to the Spondylus shell objects of the other Greek Neolithic sites. Trade routes are also discussed.
The main characteristics of Spondylus in the shell assemblage of Dimini are as follows; 1. Spondylus shell objects form a high percentage of the entire shell object assemblage, compared with a relatively low percentage in the entire shell assemblage (Fig. 3); 2. There is a high percentage of shell objects within this species despite its relatively large quantity (Fig. 4). A lot of unfinished Spondylus shell objects are included in the samples; 3. The production technique for making Spondylus shell objects is quite sophisticated, and a variety of object types are produced from Spondylus shells; 4. Significant accumulations of Spondylus shell objects are recognized in two find spots of the settlement, and these spots are workshops for Spondylus shell objects (Fig. 5). These characteristics indicate the special position of Spondylus in the shell assemblage, and prove that large scale manufacture of Spondylus shell objects took place within the settlement of Dimini. The important part which the manufacture of Spondylus shell objects played in the society of Dimini is also recognized.
Now it is clear that there were at least two principal manufacturing and transporting centers of Spondylus shells and shell objects in Neolithic Greece. One was eastern Macedonia as has already been proved, and the other was south-eastern Thessaly, which included the settlement of Dimini. Based on the comparative studies among the Spondylus shell objects in Greek Neolithic sites and their geographical distributions, it is supposed that the Spondylus shells and shell objects of the former center were transported into eastern Balkan and those of the latter center were transported into western Balkan through central Thessaly and western Macedonia.

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Nouruz, the new year festival, is one of the most important and famous festival in Iran. It is said that Nouruz originated with Jamshid. According to Nouruz Nameh attributed to 'Omar Khaiyam, at that day he found the sun entered into the Aries, which is the sign of the equinox, then he held the festival and called the day “Nouruz”. After the model of Jamshid, Iranian kings had continued to celebrate this festival on the first day of Farvardin; it flourished specially in the Sasanian period.
In those days they adopted a 365-day calendar and used to ignore the intercalation. As a result a quarter of the day had been lost annually and the whole year had slipped steadily backward. It had distressed people, as they were obliged to pay tax at Nouruz. In the eleventh century, in order to help them, Malekshah enacted a new calender and Nouruz was fixed on 21th of March, the first of Farvardin in this calendar. Since then Iranian people has celebrated Nouruz on the vernal equinox.
In this paper I try to prove that Nouruz, held on the vernal equinox, shows three characters: spring festival, agricultural festival and ancestor festival.

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