Reviews

Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini , Houchang E. Chehabi, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990, xiv + 342 pp.

Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition , Michael M. J. Fischer and Mehdi Abedi, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990, xxxvi + 564 pp., cloth $49.75, paper $23.50.

Gnoseologiia sufizma , A. Mukhammedkhodzhaev, Dushanbe: Donish, 1990, 112 pp., 1.50 rubles.

Liberal Nationalism in Iran: The Failure of a Movement , Sussan Siavoshi, Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990, 196 pp., bibliography and index to p. 214, $24.50.

The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact , ed. John L. Esposito, Miami: Florida International University Press, 1990, viii + 346 pp.

Iran and the World: Continuity in a Revolutionary Decade , Shireen T. Hunter, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990, pp. 254, $35.00 cloth, $14.95 paper.

Miniature Painting in Ottoman Baghdad , Rachel Milstein, Islamic Art and Architecture No. 5., Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda publishers, 1990, 132 pp., 16 color plates, b & w illus., drawings, index, bibliography, no price listed.

The Great Mosque of Isfahan , Oleg Grabar, London: I. B. Tauris and Company Ltd., 1990, 156 pp., £24.95.

The State, Bureaucracy, and Revolution in Iran: Agrarian Reform and Politics , Ali Farazmand, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1989, 289 pp., $41.85.

Acta Iranica: Encyclopédie permanente des études iraniennes 30, Iranica Varia: Papers In Honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater , ed. D. Amin, M. Kashef, and A. S. Shahbazi, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990, xxxii + 291 pp., with maps and photographs.

Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village , Erika Friedl, Washington and London: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1989, 237 pp., no bibliography or index.

Le Discours populaire de la révolution iranienne (2 volumes), Paul Vieille and Farhad Khosrokhavar, Paris: Contemporanéité, 1990, 275 pp.

Iranian Drama, an Anthology , trans. from Persian, comp. and ed. M. R. Ghanoonparvar and John Green, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1989, xxix + 302 pp., $24.95.

Labor Transfer and Economic Development: Theoretical Perspectives and Case Studies from Iran , Hassan Hakimian, Herefordshire, England: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990, pp. xii + 206, $60.00.

Iranian Jewry During the Afghan Invasion: The Kitab‐i Sar Guzasht of Babai b. Farhad — Text Edition and Commentary , Vera B. Moreen, Freiburger Islamstudien, Band XIV, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990, x + 178 pp.

Persian Literature , ed. Ehsan Yarshater, Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, no. 3, New York: The Persian Heritage Foundation; Bibliotheca Persica, 1988, xi + 562 pp.

Oil, State and Industrialization in Iran , Massoud Karshenas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. xviii + 308.

On Islam and Shi'ism , Ahmad Kasravi, trans. M. R. Ghanoonparvar, intro. and ed. M. A. Jazayery, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1990, paper $14.95.

Neither East Nor West: Iran, the Soviet Union, and the United States , ed. Nikki R. Keddie and Mark J. Gasiorowski, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990, ix + 295 pp.     

Nabataean finds from Thaj and Qatif

Ties between the Nabataean area of northwestern Arabia and southern Palestine, and the northeastern portion of the Arabian peninsula have been discussed for some years. The material evidence of such ties is meagre, but nonetheless important. Two Nabataean coins from Thaj and one from Qatif are presented here, along with a painted Nabataean sherd from Thaj. Their implications are treated briefly.     

Tax Havens and Global Capitalism: Vanuatu and the Australian Connection

The growth of tax haven activities has been a feature of recent global capitalist development, yet geographical analysis of these activities has been limited. Vanuatu has become the South Pacific's major tax haven, expanding through its ability to capture (mainly) Australian and Asian investment in the 1970s and 1980s. Tax haven activities in Vanuatu have increasingly contributed to local employment and income generation, despite the growth of competition from newer tax havens in the region. Vanuatu is not used by major Australian public companies to the extent that either Hong Kong or the Caribbean tax havens are used, and it is suggested that activities from Asia are increasingly dominating Vanuatu's finance centre. Recent Australian taxation legislation may reduce Australia's role in the Vanuatu tax haven further, although it is apparent that there are limitations to the legislation's effectiveness in stopping tax haven activities.