The Structure and Chemical Composition of Wall Paintings From Islamic and Christian Times in the Seville Alcazar

Wall paintings from the Islamic epoch (10th to 12th centuries) and the Christian monarchy (14th to 16th centuries) have been recovered in discarded materials and on walls after reconstruction works in the Seville Alcazar. These paintings have spent centuries underground or under a plaster coat. Portable X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) and combined XRF/X‐ray diffraction (XRD) were employed in situ, as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM–EDX), grazing angle incidence XRD and micro‐Raman spectroscopy, on cross‐section samples to fully characterize the materials in the wall paintings. Using these methods, the fresco technique was demonstrated, and many kinds of pigments were identified in accordance with the various periods of the history of the Alcazar, thus assessing the authenticity of all the wall paintings studied here.     

Slingsby Bethel's Analysis of State Interests

Summary

Seventeenth-century thinking on the relationship between trade and state power was routinely conducted using the concept of state interests, which enabled users to conceive a Europe of competing states that managed the balance of power through trade and war. Poor interest management could arise from ignorance, error, or the divergence between the private interests of rulers and a state's true interests. The stakes of pursuing or neglecting true interest were high: the survival and prosperity of the state. The dominance of ‘mercantilism’ as a historiographical category has obscured the role of interest in early modern thought. This paper examines the work of one of England's most prolific interest writers, Slingsby Bethel, to demonstrate the importance of reading interest writings without recourse to mercantilism. The two focuses are, first, how the rhetoric of counsel was used to defend an ordinary subject's presumption to comment on state affairs and, second, the capacity for interest writers to construe the rise and fall of state power in terms of good laws and statesmanship.     

Mass Migration and the Polynesian Settlement of New Zealand

This paper reintroduces the concept of mass migration into debates concerning the timing and nature of New Zealand’s settlement by Polynesians. Upward revisions of New Zealand’s chronology show that the appearance of humans on the landscape occurred extremely rapidly, and that within decades settlements had been established across the full range of climatic zones. We show that the rapid appearance of a strong archaeological signature in the early 14th century AD is the result of a mass migration event, not the consequence of gradual demographic growth out of a currently unidentified earlier phase of settlement. Mass migration is not only consistent with the archaeological record but is supported by recent findings in molecular biology and genetics. It also opens the door to a new phase of engagement between archaeological method and indigenous Maori and Polynesian oral history and tradition.     

Uncertainty as Environmental Education

Here we focus particularly upon some implications of the symposium articles for future research agendas and priorities in environmental policy. First, however, we return to the central question posed by this symposium: “How can environmental policies achieve a combination of democracy with legitimacy and adequacy with effectiveness under conditions of great uncertainty?” In different ways, all articles addressed this problem in reconciling democracy with competent environmental management under conditions of uncertainty. Together, they provide the rudiments of an answer.     

Power of the Rank Adjacency Statistic to Detect Spatial Clustering in a Small Number of Regions

The rank adjacency statistic D is a statistical method for assessing spatial autocorrelation or clustering of geographical data. It was originally proposed for summarizing the geographical patterns of cancer data in Scotland (IARC 1985). In this paper, we investigate the power of the rank adjacency statistic to detect spatial clustering when a small number of regions is involved. The investigations were carried out using Monte Carlo simulations, which involved generating patterned/clustered values and computing the power with which the D statistic would detect it. To investigate the effects of region shapes, structure of the regions, and definition of weights, simulations were carried out using two different region shapes, binary and nonhinary weights, and three different lattice structures. The results indicate that in the typical example of considering Canadian total mortality at the electoral district level, the D statistic had adequate power to detect general spatial autocorrelation in twenty‐five or more regions. There was an inverse relationship between power and the level of connectedness of the regions, which depends on the weighting function, shape, and arrangement of the regions. The power of the D statistic was also found to compare favorably with that of Moran's I statistic.     

Das Problem der “entscheidenden Experimente”

In this historical essay an attempt is made to discuss the problem of decisive experiments both from the point of view of History of Science and of Philosophy of Science. The first part deals with Francis Bacon's idea of instantiae crucis and with the use of the term experimentum crucis mainly in optics. With respect to the experimental confirmation of Maxwell's electrodynamics the Duhem-Quine Thesis is discussed. Duhem had argued that not a single hypothesis but only a complete theory is examined by experiment. So a single experiment neither can prove nor can disprove a single hypothesis. With regard to Bucherer's and Neumann's data concerning the velocity-dependence of the electron's mass the question of the certainty of conclusions arising from experimental tests is treated. In the last parts the really historical problem of the decisive experiments is considered, namely the gap between the context of design of an experiment and the context of evaluation of an experiment in retrospect. The examples here are the Michelson-Morley experiment, the Franck-Hertz experiment, and the Compton-Effect. In the conclusion parity violation is discussed. Perhaps due to the possibility of a single alternative in theory and an unambiguous result of the experiment this test really was crucial. In general, however, the experimentum crucis will prove to be a very seldom event.     

Reviews

Hafez: Dance of Life Michael Boylan, et. al. Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers, 1987, 109 pp.

Once Upon a Time (Yeki Bud Yeki Nabud) Mohamad Ali Jamalzada. Translated by Heshmat Moayyad and Paul Sprachman. New York: Bibliotheca Persica, 1985. Modern Persian Literature Series, Number 6.

Banking and Empire in Iran: The History of the British Bank of the Middle East, Volume I Geoffrey Jones. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, xiii + 340 pp., plus 30 pp. of appendices, 36 of notes, and 12 of index.

Iranian Jewry's Hour of Peril and Heroism: A Study of Babai Ibn Lutfs Chronicle (1617–1662) Vera Basch Moreen. New York and Jerusalem: The American Academy of Jewish Research, 1987, xv + 247 pp. (American Academy for Jewish Research, Texts and Studies, Volume VI)

The Formation of Islamic Art Oleg Grabar. Revised and enlarged edition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987, xix + 232 pp., 131 illustrations, bibliography, index.

Language, Status, and Power William O. Beeman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986, xx + 255 pp., bibliography (p. 213), notes (p. 236) and indices (p. 224).

Highlights of Persian Art Richard Ettinghausen and Ehsan Yarshater, eds. New York: Persian Art Series, no. 1, Bibliotheca Persica, 1982, xii + 391 pp, 250 illustrations in color and black and white.

The Iranian Military Under the Islamic Republic Nikola B. Schahgaldian, with the assistance of Gina Barkhordarian. Santa Monica: The Rand Corporation, 1987, 164 pp. $15.00.

The Origins of the Iranian‐American Alliance, 1941–1953 Mark Hamilton Lytle. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1987, xxi + 239 pp. $49.50

Cultural Foundation of Iranian Politics M. Reza Behnam. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1986, 188 pp. $19.95.

Sorayya in a Coma Esmail Fassih. London: Zed Books, 1985.

The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American‐Iranian Relations James Bill. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988, 520 pp.

The Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic Nikki Keddie and Eric Hoogland, eds. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1986, 246 pp. $14.95 paperback.

The Elementary Structures of Political Life: Rural Development in Pahlevi Iran Grace Goodell. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986, 344 pp., bibliography and index to p. 362.

Moralia: Les Notions Morales dans la Litterature Persane du 3el9e au 7ell3e Siecle Charles‐Henri de Fouchecour. Paris: Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran, 1986, 514 pp.

Iran and the West: A Critical Bibliography Cyrus Ghani. London and New York: Kegan Paul International (Methuen Inc., Routledge & Kegan Paul), 1987, viii + 967 pp., index. $85.00.

Workers and Revolution in Iran Assef Bayat. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1987, 227 pp., including notes, bibliography, index.

Letters and Essays, 1886–1913 Mirza Abü‐Fadl Gulpaygani Translated and annotated by Juan R. I. Cole. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1985, n.p;

The Master in ‘Akka (Reprinted from The Life and Teachings of ‘Abbas Effendi, 2nd rev. ed., New York; London: Putnam, 1912) Myron H. Phelps. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1985, n.p;

In Iran: Studies in Badi and Baha'i History, Volume 3 Peter Smith, ed. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1986, n.p.

Selections from the Writings of E. G. Browne on the Badi and Baha'i Religions Moojan Momen, ed. Oxford: George Ronald, 1987, 499 pp. $29.50.

The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6, The Timurid and Safavid Periods, Peter Jackson and the late Laurence Lockhart, eds., Cambridge, 1986, xxiii, 1987 pp. 72 plates.

The Iran‐Iraq War and Western Security, 1984–1987: Strategic Implications and Policy Options Anthony H. Cordesman. London: Jane's Publishing Company Limited, 1987, 185 pp.

Mission to Tehran General Robert E. Huyser. New York: Harper and Row, 1986, ix + 298 pp., index to p. 306. $20.95.

Garden of the Brave in War Terence O'Donnell. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988, 216 pp.

Agriculture and Regional Development in Iran, 1962–1978 Nima Nattagh, Cambridgeshire, England: Menas Studies in Continuity and Change, Middle East and North African Studies Press Limited, 19, 105 pp. $7.00 paperback.

The Gulf War: The Origins and Implications of the Iran‐Iraq Conflict Majid Khadduri. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988, 173 pp., notes, appendices, and index to p. 236. $24.95 hardback.

Gurgan Faiences Mehdi Bahrami. Cairo: Le Scribe Egyptien, 1949; reprint edition Costa Mesa, California: Mazda Publishers, 1988, 134 pp., 48 pls. $39.95 hardback.

Arda Wiraz Namag. The Iranian ‘Divina Commedia’. Fereydun Vahman. London and Malmo: Scandinavian Institue of Asian Studies Monograph Series no. 53, Curzon Press, 1986, 326 pp.