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     

Ancient soil resources of the Usumacinta River Region,Guatemala

In this study we present the results of a combination of methods used to identify possible agricultural activity of the ancient Maya in the Usumacinta River Basin in Guatemala. These methods included stable carbon isotope analysis of bulk soil organic matter, soil profile investigations and a spatial model of gentle slopes and well-drained soils to identify favorable agricultural conditions. Stable carbon isotope analysis of bulk soil organic matter in particular offers potentially direct evidence of agricultural activity. The δ¹³C results suggest that there is a strong signature of C₄ plants, such as maize and tropical grasses, throughout the study area. Further, the current soil conditions and extent of relatively gently sloped areas are favorable to agriculture. Overall, the results are supportive of the hypothesis that the area, located between the polities of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilán, was agriculturally important to surrounding areas.     

Transnational Development on the Frontier: The FAO's Fishery and Forestry Missions in the Brazilian Amazon

In the early 1950s, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organized a mission to the Brazilian Amazon Valley to assess development needs and help implement a development plan. The Brazilian government saw this as part of an initiative to integrate a sparsely populated and ‘backward’ region more firmly into the nation. The FAO's local partner was the Superintendancy for the Plan of Economic Valorization of the Amazon (SPVEA), a regional development agency created in 1953. This article analyzes the operation of the Mission, specifically its fishery and forestry sections, to understand the dynamics of transnational development cooperation. The mission eventually failed because the Brazilian state never offered sufficient support on FAO terms; SPVEA never acquired the necessary financial resources, administrative capacity and technical expertise. The FAO experts recognized the problems, but had no means to enhance the resources or change the approach of the local partner. The government's decision, in the late 1950s, to prioritize the building of a major road from Brasília to Belém, aggravated the lack of resources for the Mission's work. Importantly, the failure was not a question of ideological resistance to foreign meddling or a fundamental opposition to the FAO development strategy.