The Julius Terentius Fresco, one of the most important works found in Dura Europos, shows the military tribune Julius Terentius performing a rite dedicated to the three gods represented in the upper left-hand part of the work. Previous studies have focused on identifying the deities by comparing them with other iconographies found in Dura Europos and the surrounding areas. However, the depiction of Terentius, together with his army, performing the rite has not been investigated. This paper examines the meaning and iconographical characteristics of this fresco, focusing especially on the sacrificial scene.

First, by comparing it with three iconographies from the Italian peninsula, depicting sacrifices performed by Roman army, it becomes clear that the fresco does not follow the tradition of Near Eastern sacrificial images, but rather that of Roman ones in its composition and its depiction of the priest. Besides the Terentius Fresco, three other sacrificial iconographies have been found in the same temple in Dura Europos. The Terentius Fresco and the other three images have some common characteristics: the hand gestures of the figures in the Terentius Fresco and the Conon Image are the same, and the depictions of the deities in the Terentius Fresco and the Otes Fresco are similar. An examination of the gestures with respect to the social situation suggests that the gestures were intentionally incorporated from the Conon family image in order to show respect for this important ancestor of the citizens of Dura in order to encourage the rapid spread of the Roman domination in the city.

This paper points out that the Terentius Fresco was probably created not only by following the Roman way of representing sacrificial images in its composition and its depiction of the priest, but also by incorporating some Near Eastern elements such as its gestures and representations of the gods. The fresco was clearly votive, but in the gestures of the soldiers it may also have had a meaning related to the social situation.

Although Imamology has always been central to the theological doctrines of Twelver Shīʿism (al-Ithnā ʿAsharīya), the matter of how it was developed and revised during the Il-Khanid period has not yet been satisfyingly studied. According to previous research, although Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274) and his disciple al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī (d. 1325) tried to integrate the Islamic philosophy which had been systematized by Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037) into their traditional theology, the philosophy had little effect on their Imamology. With regard to theologians’ attitude to Sufism, it has been the common view that most Twelver thinkers did not approve of merging Sufiideas into their theology before Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. 1385), who is known as a Shīʿite adherent of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240).

This paper argues that Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn al-Ḥillī (d. 1369/70), who was a son and disciple of al-ʿAllāma and a teacher of Āmulī, but who as yet has been scarcely studied, introduced the philosophical theory of the soul and the training theory of Sufism into his Imamology. It also shows that philosophy and Sufism already had influenced the Imamology of Twelver Shiʿism in the 14^th century. Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn’s predecessors such as al-ʿAllāma had limited the role of the imams in divine assistance (luṭf) to physical actions and denied any impact on people’s hearts. However, Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn interwove these outside theories into traditional theology, and developed his Imamology in that he expanded the imams’ instructive role in divine assistance into the psychological realm. Moreover, he developed a new description of the imams’ infallibility (ʿiṣma): he formulated that the imams can act rightly in all circumstances by virtue of the perfect asceticism (zuhd), achieved by the perfection of their rational souls.

This paper aims to contribute to the development of the study on the school of Ibn ʿArabī in South Asia. As Chittick points out, many thinkers who belonged to the school of Ibn ʿArabīin South Asia did not read his works like Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam per se, but were indirectly influenced by his disciples, such as Farghānī and Jāmī. Ashraf ʿAlī Thānavī, one of the most influential thinkers in 20th-century South Asia, is different from other thinkers in that he was directly exposed to the worldview of Ibn ʿArabī through his writings. He left a commentary on Fuṣūṣ and a book in defense of Ibn ʿArabī, both of which were written in Urdu, the lingua franca of South Asian Muslims. Thus, Thānavī deserves to be called the heir of Ibn ʿArabī in South Asia. However, because previous studies on Thānavī have focused on him as a Deobandī scholar, his aspect of the school of Ibn ʿArabī remains unexplored. Therefore, this paper illuminates the influence of Ibn ʿArabī on Thānavī, mainly how Thānavī understood the cosmology based on the concept of tajallī (self-disclosure of God), a keyword in Ibn ʿArabī’s philosophy. Thānavī explains that God’s self-disclosure is permanent and omnipresent and that created things play an ontologically important role as the place of His manifestations. This view aligns with Ibn ʿArabī’s understanding of God’s self-disclosure. Thānavī rarely shows his origi nal interpretation of Ibn ʿArabī’s philosophy and seems to avoid an esoteric discussion. Nevertheless, Thānavī’s attempt to disseminate Ibn ʿArabī’s idea to a more popular level by articulating his world view in plain Urdu and with a lucid argument is unique to the intellectual milieu of modern South Asia. In this sense, we can conclude that Thānavī created a modern form of the school of Ibn ʿArabī.

Wādī al-Khirqa is situated about 75 km northwest of Tabūk, Saudi Arabia. In 2017, a Saudi–Japanese team started graffiti surveys at the site, within the framework of al-Jawf/Tabūk Archaeological Project led by Prof. Sumio Fujii (Kanazawa University), and completed the third season in 2022. The site yielded 113 early Islamic Arabic graffiti, among which 32 were published in my previous papers. In this paper, 28 unpublished graffiti in good condition are introduced with their textual and orthographic analyses.

Regarding the texts, in addition to the common invocations beginning with Allāhumma (“O Allāh”), the formula with Anā PN (“I, PN”) that is typical of the Islamic period’s earliest stage (the midseventh to the beginning of the eighth centuries), the early simple proclamation of faith with Āmana PN (“PN believes”) and shahāda (declaration of faith) were observed. In shahāda, the texts following the declaration of tawḥīd (Allāh’s oneness) are not uniform, which suggests that the common shahāda with the declaration of Muḥammad’s messengership might not have been established in this period. Similarly, some expressions for Allāh in the graff iti are rather rare in later periods. Concerning orthography, the spelling of some words does not correspond with the grammar of Classical Arabic, but they seem to follow certain rules.

The period of these inscriptions corresponds to the last period of the Rashidun Caliphate and the beginning of the Abbasid period, in which Muslims had to build their own identity due to rapid territorial expansion. The graff iti of Wādī al-Khirqa seem to reflect the stage of trial and error of this period in establishing a common traditional Islamic formula, as well as providing a glimpse into the diversity and flexibility in writing before the establishment of the Classical Arabic orthography.