Neo-Sumerian archival texts from Nippur more often attest oaths taken by invoking the king's name (mu-lugal) than those expressed by the phrase originally meaning “cutting curse (namerim₂), ” which seem to have been conducted under the jurisdiction of a god or gods. This paper focuses on and analyzes the former, and makes the following arguments:
1. Obligations sworn to in the mu-lugal oath are primarily of two categories: 1) performance of some future act in “executory” contracts and 2) preclusion of possible dissension in “executed” contracts.
2. The swearers are basically poeple of lower economic status, while the beneficiaries are those occupying higher economic ranks.
This study thus uncovers some aspects of the Sumerian socio-economic custom hitherto little noted.

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A view has been widely accepted that state-formation was based upon a nation in Media and Persia. But, the existence of a nation before state-formation is questionable in the Iranian areas in the first half of the first millennium B. C. The Neo-Assyrian cuneiform documents show the lack of ethnic identy among the Medes. “Media” is apparently not self-named, since the attempts have not succeeded to interprete it by any Indo-European languages. An explanation is most convincing that the name is derived from the Akkadian appellation KUR (Mad/t)-a-a “men of the mountains, frontier” to the Medes. The Medes was really men of the frontier, a people of aboriginal and Iranian origins in the central Zagros. They were incorporated to a nation in the process of forging political unity (cf. T. C. Young, CAH IV², 21f.). A similar phase is described by de Miroschedji (ZA 75, 265-306) in pre-Empire Persia. He considers the ethnogeny of the Persians in accordance of the rise of Persian monarchy in the last seventh century. He asserts persuasively that the Achaemenian rule is started by Darius the Great. In this paper, it is emphasized that the real formation of the Persians was promoted by the founder of Achaemenian rule.

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The Near Eastern frontlets (horse forehead ornaments) of 9th-8th centuries B. C. have subtriangular shapes in which the upper parts are wide, the lower parts are narrow and are broad in general. But in the 7th century B. C., the shapes changed completely to the slender ones. The contrastive difference is obvious, and the change isn't natural. In the Near Eastern world of the 7th century B. C., armaments were reinforced to cope with Scythian invasions. So it is possible to say that the change happened by a strong agency, namely the shifting from chariot-battles to cavalry-battles. However, it isn't a functional change for defense. Because those of the 7th century B. C. are too narrow to protect horse heads. The Powers, Assyria, Urartu, and so on, instantly introduced the cavalry in the Scythian style. Therefore the auther considers they imitated the Scythian frontlets then. It is possible that Scythians used the wooden or leather frontlets in the 7th century B. C. which don't remain now. In fact, the Near Eastern frontlets of the 7th century B. C. bear a strong resemblance to the Scythian ones of 4th century B. C. in shape. The auther focuses on one type of frontlets which have one overhang on either side. In the Near East, this type was made only in the 7th century B. C., and we can't find the prototype. But some Scythian ones have the same overhangs. It is possible that the Scythians used the originals of this type.

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In AH352/AD963, Mu'izz al-Dawla, a Buwayhid ruler of Baghdad, introduced two official observances: the public lamentations for the martyrdom of al-Husayn at the Day of 'Ashura, and the festival of Ghadir al-Khumm. From that time on, the religious strife between Sunni inhabitants of Baghdad and Shi'is became more serious. And in this situation, Sunni people invented two counter-celebrations to the Shi'i's: the visits to the Grave of Mus'ab b. al-Zubayr, and the festival of the Cave. Each observation of Sunni's and Shi'i's worked as a place for sectarianism. Then, we must ask the historical meanings of the visit to the Grave of Mus'ab, and why Sunnis chose Mus'ab as a counterpart to al-Husayn.
Mus'ab was appointed as a governor of Basra by his brother, Ibn al-Zubayr, the anti-Caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate in the Second Civil War. After he suppressed the Shi'i movement of al-Mukhtar, he waged several wars against the Umayyads and was killed by 'Abd al-Malik. Many historical stories depict him as a generous and brave man, but without piousness.
We can point out at least three factors that led to the invention of visits to the Grave of Mus'ab, as a counter-celebration of that of al-Husayn. First, he massacred al-Mukhtar and his followers, who held up a slogan: Revenge for al-Husayn. Secondly, the tragic story of his death bears a structural resemblance to that of al-Husayn. And thirdly, these two graves are placed symmetrically with respect to the city of Baghdad. All these factors show that the visit to the Grave of Mus'ab bore a social significance only as a contrast to that of al-Husayn.
In the Buwayhid Dynasty, we can see some religious symbols and symbolical acts of Shi'i's such as: (1) visits to the graves of Shi'i Imams, (2) Shi'i calls for prayer, (3) slogans written to the gates and paths of their quarters, (4) public insults for Sahabas, (5) Catapults which they brought with to the graves. These symbols promoted their internal cohesiveness and invoked their sectarianism more openly, while Sunnis, who had been offended by Shi'i usage of these symbols, began to seek their own.
They then found a symbol, which corresponded to one of the most important Shi'i Symbols of “the Death of al-Husayn”, in a historical account of “the Death of Mus'ab”. That is to say, under the social situation of the aggravated religious strifes, they found a new meaning in the death of a governor who lived in the Second Civil war and symbolized it as a counterpart to “the Death of al-Husayn”, which led them to the visit of his grave.
We can point out that the sectarian symbols of both parties became more open and complicated, which it brought more serious confrontations in the later rule of the Buwayhids, and must be considered as a significant feature of the religious strife during this period.

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In this paper, I have attempted to investigate the political thought of Rashid Rida (1865-1935) in the 1920's. Rashid Rida is known as a famous salafiyya reformer. His main concern in his political activity was maintaining the political independence of Islam. After the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire, he sought his ideal political order in Husain's Kingdom of the Hijaz in the Arabian Peninsula. But, when Ibn Su'ud conquered the Hijaz, he considered the newly established Ibn Su'ud's kingdom as the state which best represented the political independence of Islam.

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“Tanasukh” and “Taqammus”, are terms that mean metempsychosis in Arabic. This concept is accepted by the Alawite and the Druze, but rejected by the Sunnis, who considered this concept as heretical and those who believe in the concept as heretics. There is some debate among scholars about the origins and the exact meanings of terms “Tanasukh” and “Taqammus”. The former derives from a Koranic reference to “the conception of the soul”. It has been interpreted by the method of the Isma'ili Shia doctrine of “Batin”. Finally, although “Tanasukh” predates “Taqammus”, both have apocalyptic overtones referring to the reincarnation of the Mahdi and the so-called “Day of Judgment”.

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Among the Bedouin living in the Mediterranean coastal zone of the Egyptian Western Desert, a word ‘faqih’ (fgi in the dialect) denotes a distinguished religious person living and having lived with them in the desert. Based on anthropological fieldwork, this paper analyses how the Bedouin talk about and behave towards faqihs, which should give insight to the Bedouin's traditional practice of lslam.
Faqihs, both alive and dead, are frequently requested by the Bedouin to grant various kinds of wishes. Here two concepts, knowledge and grace, are crucial to understand the two different modes of being a faqih; living faqihs provide some religious services because they know Islam much better than the Bedouin; dead fagihs are thought to provide similar favors because they are given the grace of God as power to cause miracles on them and to be mediated to the Bedouin.
That faqih is usually a stranger coming from the outside of the desert is the third important point. In principle, Islamic knowledge is open to everyone and only God knows to whom He gives his grace. Therefore, faqihs' being privileged holders of such knowledge or grace is not normative but practical, which is highly convenient for the Bedouin's practice of Islam. As an articulate point to the God and to the Muslim community as a whole, faqihs create internal homogeneity among the Bedouin and facilitate their effective incorporation into the wider outside. An outsider living along with them is quite suitable to such a social position.
In Bedouin saint worship, it seems that two opposite polarities are at work; one is toward the assimilation of all the Muslims and the other is toward the differentiation; they have created a balance in the form of social articulation as faqih, which I may suggest is just a possible solution and that we would also find many other different balances in every socio-religious practice of Islam in the world.

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This paper presents a synthesis of the administration of corvée work and corvée workers in the Fisrt Dynasty of Babylon especially during the reign of Hammurapi (1792-1750 B. C.).
Corvée work was imposed by the central government of Babylon upon all male citizens, except registered permanent public workers, of the provincial and/or local administrations to which the central government assigned public works on a local basis. The provincial and local administrations were required to provide corvée workers, unpaid laborers, to the labor pool of the central government. Corvée work could be avoided by payment of exemption money or by providing a work substitute. The period of corvée work was probably a few months. However, it was flexible, depending on the level of authority held by the central government to impose levies upon the provincial and local administrations for public works.
Corvée workers were under the direct control of the central government and were usually deployed to public works sector which required a large number of unskilled workers under the highly centralized regime of Hammurapi. Large scale public works were carried out by the central government with the collaboration of provincial and local administrations. The main areas of public works were construction of public buildings, canal works, sheep shearing, weaving and boat-making. The labor forces of public works were comprised of corvée workers, temporary hired workers, soldiers as a supplementary work force, and public slaves in addition to specialists and administrators.

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