Is Geography (Still) a Science?

Geographic science remains contested. The practice of geographic science has long been criticized on both methodological and institutional grounds, often justifiably. Even more serious is the continuing assault on the very idea of science as the objective discovery of and search for explanation in the university, including human behaviour in space and place. This essay argues that a scientific epistemology is incompatible with a relativistic one.     

Reviews

Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler: Ostiran und Transoxanien in vormongolischer Zeit , Jürgen Paul, Beiruter Texte und Studien, Bd. 59, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996, viii + 322 pp., bibliography, indices; German, English, and Russian summaries.

Khatireha‐ye Amir ^cAlam Khan , Amir ^cAlam Khan, Tehran: Markaz‐e Motala^cat‐e Irani, 1373/1994, 55 pp., illustrations.

Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 7: From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic , ed. by Peter Avery, Gavin Hambly, and Charles Melville, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, xxiii+1072 pp.

Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism , Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1996, 255 pp., index, bibliography.

Revolutionary Horizons: Regional Foreign Policy in Post‐Khomeini Iran , John Calabrese, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, xii + 221 pp.

Classical Persian Sufism: From its Origins to Rumi , ed. Leonard Lewisohn. London/New York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 1993, xl + 666 pp., bibliography, index, illustrations.

Shark Hikmat al‐Ishraq [li‐Shihab al‐Din Suhrawardi] (Commentary on the Philosophy of Illumination [by Shihab al‐Din Suhrawardi]), Shams al‐Din Shahrazuri, edited, with introduction and notes, by Hossein Ziai, Tehran: Institute for Cultural Studies and Research, 1993, xxiii pp., English + 646 pp. Arabic + 84 pp. Persian.

Symbol and Secret: Qur'án Commentary in Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb‐i Íqán , Christopher Buck, Studies in the Babi and Baha'i Religions, volume 7, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1995.

Studies in Honor of the Late Hasan M. Balyuzi , ed. Moojan Momen, Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'í Religions, vol. 5, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1988, xx + 293 pp.

Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi^ci Iran , Shahla Haeri, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1989, 272 pp., cloth and paper.

The Persian Revayat “Ithoter”: Zoroastrian Rituals in the Eighteenth Century , Mario Vitalone, Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1996, 301 pp.

Pand‐o Sokhan: Mélanges offerts à Charles‐Henri de Fouchécour , ed. by Christophe Balay, Claire Keppler, and ?iva Vesel, Bibliothèque Iranienne, 44, Tehran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1995, 348 pp., illustrated.

Standardization and Orthography in the Balochi Language , Carina Jahani, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Iranica Upsaliensia 1, Uppsala, 1989, 286 pp., ISBN 91–554–2487–2, ISSN 1100–326X

L'Argento Di Un Povero Cuore: centuno ghazal di Sa^cdi Shirazi , Persian text of one hundred and one ghazals by Sa^cdi, Italian translation, notes, introduction and concluding essay by Setrag Manoukian, with a preface by Riccardo Zipoli, Rome: Istituto culturale della Repubblica islamica d'Iran in Italia, 1991.

The Image of Arabs in Modern Persian Literature , Joya Blondel Saad, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1996, ix + 139 pp., index, paper, ISBN 0–7618–0330–0

Recasting Persian Poetry: Scenarios of Poetic Modernity in Iran , Ahmad Karimi‐Hakkak, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1996, 326 pp., $45.00, cloth.

The Marsh [Gavkhūni] , Jafar Modarres‐Sadeqi, trans. Afkham Darbandi, intro. Dick Davis, Bibliotheca Iranica, Persian Fiction in Translation Series, no. 3, Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers, 1996.

Bihzad, Master of Persian Painting , Ebadollah Bahari, foreword by Annemarie Schimmel, London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1996, xiii + 272 pp., 70 color and 48 black and white illustrations, map, appendices, bibliography, index, ISBN 0–85043–966–4