A: Reviews: General

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HADITH. By John Burton. (Islamic Surveys.) Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1994. 210 pp. £39.95 (hb); £16.95 (pb).

POLITICS, GENDER, AND THE ISLAMIC PAST: THE LEGACY OF ‘A'ISHA BINT ABI BAKR. By D. A. Spellberg. New York, Columbia University Press, 1995. 250 pp. $35.00.

MEDIEVAL ISMA'ILI HISTORY AND THOUGHT. Edited by Farhad Daftary. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996. 331 pp. £40.00

THE THRONE CARRIER OF GOD: THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF ‘ALA’ AD‐DAWLA AS‐SIMNANI. By Jamal J. Elias. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1995. 260 pp. $16.95

OTTOMAN SEAPOWER AND LEVANTINE DIPLOMACY IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY. By Palmira Brummett. (SUNY Series in the Social and Economic History of the Middle East.) New York, State University of New York Press, 1994. xvi, 285 pp. 2 maps, 7 plates. $19.95.

HAIFA: TRANSFORMATION OF AN ARAB SOCIETY, 1918–1939. By May Seikaly. London, I. B. Tauris, 1995. 284 pp. £39.50 (hb).

THE FORMATION OF MODERN SYRIA AND IRAQ. By Eliezer Tauber. London, Frank Cass, 1995. 427 pp. £30.00 (hb); £15.00 (pb).

IRAQ: POWER AND SOCIETY. Edited by Derek Hopwood, Habib Ishow and Thomas Koszinowski. (St Antony's Middle East monographs, 29.) Reading, Ithaca Press, 1993. viii, 400 pp. £30.00.

SECRET WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE COVERT STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA, 1949–61. By Andrew Rathmell. London and New York, I. B. Tauris, 1995. 256 pp. £39.50.

LEBANON: A SHATTERED COUNTRY. By Elizabeth Picard. Translated from the French [Liban: État de discorde] by Franklin Philip. New York and London, Holmes & Meier, 1996. xii, 202 pp. £29.95.

THE ISLAMIST DILEMMA: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF ISLAMIST MOVEMENTS IN THE CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD. Edited by Laura Guazzone. Reading, Ithaca Press, 1995. 390 pp. £45.00.

ISLAM AND THE MYTH OF CONFRONTATION: RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. By Fred Halliday. London and New York, I. B. Tauris, 1996. 256 pp. £35.00 (hb); £12.95 (pb).

THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER. Edited by Haifaa A. Jawad. Basingstoke, St Martins Press/Macmillan, 1994. viii, 154 pp. $35 (hb).

CONFIDENCE BUILDING AND VERIFICATION: PROSPECTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Edited by Shai Feldman. (Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies Study, 25.) Published jointly by the Jerusalem Post and Westview Press, Boulder, 1994. 255 pp. £28.50 (hb).

CHILDREN IN THE MUSLIM MIDDLE EAST. Edited by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. Austin, University of Texas Press, 1995. xviii, 477 pp., photographs. $22.50 (hb).

THE HISTORY OF THE MAZRU'I DYNASTY OF MOMBASA. By Al‐Amin Bin ‘Ali Al Mazru'i. Translated and annotated by J. McL. Ritchie (Union Académique Interna‐tionale/Fontes Historiae Africanae: Series Arabica XI.) Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1995. x, 182, 76 pp. £27.50 (hb).

AN INTRODUCTION TO ARAB POETICS. By Adonis. Translated from the Arabic by Catherine Cobham. London, Saqi Books, 1990. 108 pp.

ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN PALESTINIAN LITERATURE. Edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi. New York, Columbia University Press, 1992. 744 pp. $34.95.

THE EYE OF THE MIRROR. By Liana Badr. Translated by Samira Kawar. (Arab Women Writers.) Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1995. 264 pp. £8.95 (pb).

THE GOLDEN CHARIOT. By Salwa Bakr. Translated by Dinah Manisty. (Arab Women Writers.) Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1995. 193 pp. £ 8.95 (pb).

THE STONE OF LAUGHTER. By Hoda Barakat. Translated by Sophie Bennett. (Arab Women Writers.) Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1995. 231 pp. £ 8.95 (pb).

AL‐KITAAB FII TA'ALLUM AL‐'ARABIYYA (A TEXTBOOK FOR BEGINNING ARABIC). By Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al‐Batal and Abbas Al‐Tonsi. Washington, DC, Georgetown University Press, 1995. Introduction 224 pp., textbook 480 pp., videotapes, cassettes.

DAS MUTAFI‐LAZISCHE. Edited by Silvia Kutscher, Johanna Mattissen and Anke Wodarg. (Arbeitspapier, Nr. 24, Neue Folge.) Köln, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft Universität zu Köln, 1995. 136 pp.

GRAMATIKA JEZYKA KRYMSKOTATARSKIEGO. By Henryk Jankowski. (Seria Jezykoznawstwo, Nr. 15.) Poznań, Uniwersytet Im. Adama Mickiewicza, 1992. xviii, 455 pp.

CULINARY CULTURES OF THE MIDDLE EAST. Edited by Richard Tapper and Sami Zubaida. London, New York, I. B. Tauris, 1994. 302 pp. £34.50 (hb).     

When Manu met Mahāsammata

Conclusions When Manu met MS is a story told to explain the origins of the dhammathats. This is where the text came from implies the corollary ... and that is why we must obey the contents of the text. The special feature of this story, which rendered it unsuitable for inclusion in our Postcanonical Adventures survey, is that MS shares equal billing with Manu. The legitimation of law is such a heavy task that it requires the combined efforts of two culture heroes. Forchhammer and Lingat recognised the strangeness of this shared responsibility and interpreted it in terms of sources. Putting their shared position in colloquial language:     

Thinking Ahead: Strategic Foresight and Government

The technique of strategic foresight — developing policy based on long-run scenario planning — has much to offer Australian governments. By paying greater attention to identifying emerging issues, and drawing on a broad range of information sources, policies are more likely to prove durable and effective. Drawing on examples from the private sector, and from governments in the UK, USA and Australia, I outline what strategic planning entails, and how it might be implemented.     

Book reviews

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

Multiparty electoral competition in the Netherlands and Germany: A model based on multinomial probit

A typical assumption of electoral models of party competition is that parties adopt policy positions so as to maximize expected vote share. Here we use Euro-barometer survey data and European elite-study data from 1979 for the Netherlands and Germany to construct a stochastic model of voter response, based on multinomial probit estimation. For each of these countries, we estimate a pure spatial electoral voting model and a joint spatial model. The latter model also includes individual voter and demographic characteristics. The pure spatial models for the two countries quite accurately described the electoral response as a stochastic function of party positions. We use these models to perform a thought experiment so as to estimate the expected vote maximizing party positions. We go on to propose a model of internal party decision-making based both on pre-election electoral estimation and post-election coalition bargaining. This model suggests why the various parties in the period in question did not adopt vote maximizing positions. We argue that maximizing expected vote will not, in general, be a rational party strategy in multiparty political systems which are based on proportional representation.