Book reviews

Isfahan Is Half the World; Memories of a Persian Boyhood. By Sayyed Mohammad ‘Ali Jamalzadeh. Translated by W. L. Heston. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Sorayya dar Eghma [Sorayya in a Coma]. By Esma'il Fasih. Tehran: Nashr‐e No, 1983. 321 pp.

Klidar. 5 volumes. By Mahmud Dowlatabadi. Tehran: Nashr‐e Parsi, 1978–1983.

False Dawn: Selected Poems. By Nader Naderpur. In Literature East and West 22 (1985).     

The Life of the Law in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Beyond the esoteric deliberations of Islamic jurists and their exegesis of criminal and private law doctrines, Iranian law lives a life of its own. It is a life of routine practices of judges, court clerks, lawyers and clients, each of whom is striving to turn the law to their own advantage. It is also a life of contested legality, a relentless struggle over the right to determine the law in a juridical field which is infused with strife and hostility. These conflicts are reproduced daily as two competing conceptions of law, and their corresponding perceptions of legality clash in pursuit of justice. The Iranian judiciary’s concept of law, its reconstruction of Islamic jurisprudence and methods of dispensing justice, which on the surface are reminiscent of Max Weber’s “qādi-justice,” collide with the legal profession’s formal rational understanding thereof. However, Iranian judges are not Weberian qādis, and the legal profession is not a homogenous group of attorneys driven by a collective commitment to the rule of law. To understand their conflict, we need to explore the mundane workings of the legal system in the context of the transformation of Iranian society and the unresolved disputes over the direction of its modernity.     

Reviews

The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism , Janet Afary, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, xxi + 448 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Surveyors of Persian Art: A Documentary Biography of Arthur Upham Pope & Phyllis Ackerman , Jay Gluck and Noel Siver, eds., Ashiya, Japan: SoPA and Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda, 1996, xxii + 658 pp., illustrations, Bibliography, Index.

Syria and Iran: Rivalry and Cooperation , Hussein J. Agha and Ahmad S. Khalidi, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, xii + 126 pp.

Iran and the Muslim World: Resistance and Revolution , Nikki R. Keddie, New York: New York University Press, 1995, ix + 303 pp.

Études safavides , Jean Calmard, ed., Bibliothèque Iranienne 39, Paris and Téhéran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1993, xiv + 389 pp., 58 plates.

Women and Fundamentalism: Islam and Christianity , Shahin Gerami, Women's History and Culture, Vol. 9, New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1996, xiii + 178 pp.

The Persian Revolution , Edward G. Browne, Abbas Amanat, ed., New Edition, Washington: Mage Publishers, 1995, Ixiv + 470 pp., Introduction, correspondence, reviews.

Iran After the Revolution: Crisis of an Islamic State, Saeed Rahnema and Sohrab Behdad, eds., London and New York: I.B. Taurus, 1995, xii + 292 pp., Index.

Mediaeval Isma^cili History and Thought ,Farhad Daftary, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xviii + 331 pp.

A Journey to Persia: Jean Chardin's Portrait of a Seventeenth‐Century Empire , R.W. Ferrier, ed., London and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996, 256 pp., illustrations.

George Ball: Behind the Scenes in U.S. Foreign Policy ,James A. Bill, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Shi^ca Islam: From Religion to Revolution , Heinz Halm, translated by Allison Brown, Princeton, New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997, 176 pp.

Iran and the Former Soviet South , Edmund Herzig, London: Royal Institute for Foreign Affairs, 1995.

Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran , Darius M. Rejali, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1994, xviii + 289 pp.     

Al-Ghoryeen: An Early Bronze Age settlement in central Oman peninsula

Al-Ghoryeen, located 95 km southwest of Muscat, is a unique settlement dating to the Umm an-Nar period and is built upon a Late Hafit period settlement. It was found in 2004 and excavation began in 2018. Preliminary analysis of the results revealed two major occupation phases with an occupational gap in between. A change occurred between the earlier and later phases of the settlement system reflected mainly in the difference in building sizes and plan. We excavated either partially or completely a stone round tower and more than 10 domestic structures. The distribution of the architectural features including the round tower, domestic structures and burials showed some kind of organised settlement structure. The Hafit period settlement was tested in two trenches where ¹⁴C analysis dated the earliest occupation to the late Hafit period.     

Miocene scleractinian corals from a mixed siliciclastic–carbonate system: Bakhtiari succession,Zagros Basin (central-western Iran)

Colonial scleractinian corals were sampled from three levels within a Miocene marine unit of the Bakhtiari succession, Zagros Basin, central-western Iran. The first two coral-bearing intervals, A and B, contain small-scale scattered colonies and show a poor coral diversity, whereas the third, consisting of a strongly lithified limestone package, reflects a well-developed biostromal framework with higher coral skeletal volume within the Bakhtiari succession. The Bakhtiari succession coral assemblages are characterized by Porites sp. cf. P. maigensis, Porites sp. cf. P. mancietensis, Porites sp. cf. P. collegniana, Tarbellastraea reussiana, Favia sp., Montastrea sp. cf. P. tchihatcheffi, Favites sp. cf. P. neugeboreni, Favites sp. cf. P. neuvillei, Agathiphyllia sp. and Acropora sp. Sedimentological and palaeontological data indicate that the depositional environment is consistent with a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic ramp that was gently deepening basinwards from the shoreline. The hemispherical and massive growth forms of colonies and sparse branching forms dominated the well-illuminated euphotic zone. Abundant domestone and dense pillarstone coral growth fabrics interdigitating with coarse-grained terrigenous sediments developed in the shallow inner ramp environment. Branching forms and meandroid branching colonies together with some massive forms mostly inhabited the low-energy conditions of the lower euphotic to oligophotic zones of the middle ramp. In the middle parts of the mixed carbonate–siliciclastic ramp, sparse pillarstone together with domestone comprises a mixstone coral growth fabric. Fluctuations in nutrient and clastic sediment input, salinity and the growth of red algae likely terminated coral growth.     

Reviews

Daughter of Persia, Sattareh Farman Farmaian with Dona Munker, New York: Crown Publishers, 1992, 396 pp., $22.00.

Der Khan aus Tirol, Reinhard Pohanka and Ingrid Thurner, Vienna: Bun‐desverlag, 1988, 203 pp.

Beitraege zur Wirtschaftsstruktur und Wirtschaftsentwicklung Persiens 1850–1900,Manfred Schneider, Erkundliches Wissen Series, Heft 103, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990, 381 pp., no price listed.

Iranian Refugees and Exiles Since Khomeini, ed. Asghar Fathi, Costa Mesa, Calif.: Mazda Publishers, 1991, 293 pp., paperback $16.00.

Nomad: A Year in the Life of a Qashqa'i Tribesman in Iran, Lois Beck, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991, 503 pp. with 4 maps, 43 b/w photographs, and 9 tables, cloth $49.95, paperback $17.00.

U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran, Mark J. Gasiorowski, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1991, xvi + 228 pp., biblio. and index to p. 242, hardback $35.00

L'islam chi'ite, croyances et ideologies, Yann Richard, Paris: Fayard, 1991, 303 pp.

Le shi'ismeen Iran, Imam et révolution, Yann Richard, Paris: Jean Maisonneuve, 1980, 135 pp.

Der verborgene Imam: die Gechichte des Schi'ismus im Iran [The Hidden Imam: History of Shi'ism in Iran], Yann Richard, trans. from French by B. Seel, Berlin: Wagenbach, 1983, 159 pp.

Iranian Immigrants and Refugees in Norway, Zahra Kamalkhani, Bergen: Migration Project Studies (Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen), 1988, 214 pp.

Qu'est‐ce qu'une révolution religieuse?, Daryush Shayegan, Paris: Al‐bin Michel, 1991, 262 pp.

Oil, Power and Principle: Iran's Oil Nationalization and Its Aftermath, Mostafa Elm, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992, xvii + 413 pp.

The Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution: The Pahlavi Triumph and Tragedy, Jahangir Amuzegar, Albany: SUNY Press, 1991, xii + 355 pp., including notes, bibliography, and index, hardback $71.50, paper $23.95.

Turko‐Persia in Historical Perspective, Robert L. Canfield, ed. (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series, Douglas W. Schwartz, general editor), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, xiv + 256 pp.

The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1969–1977, Asadollah Alam, introd. and ed. Alinaghi Alikhani, trans. Ali‐naghi Alikhani and Nicholas Vincent, London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1991, viii + 568 pp., £24.95.

The Islamic Movement of Iraqi Shi'as, Joyce N. Wiley, Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992, ix + 153 pp., appendixes to p. 166, glossary to p. 171, bibliography to p. 181, index to p. 191, cloth $30.00.