B. Reviews: general

THE HISTORY OF AL‐TABARl (TA'RIKH AL‐RUSUL WA ‘L‐MULÜK). (An annotated translation] (Bibliotheca Persica) (SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies):

VOLUME II: PROPHETS AND PATRIARCHS. Translated and annotated by WILLIAM M. BRINNER. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1987. xii, 207pp.

VOLUME IV: THE ANCIENT KINGDOMS. Translated and annotated by MOSHE PERLMANN. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1987. xii, 205pp.

THE FIRST DYNASTY OF ISLAM: THE UMAYYAD CALIPHATE ad 661–750. By G.R. HAWTTNG. London and Sydney, Croom Helm, 1986. xx, 141pp., 4 genealogical tables, 2 maps. £19.95.

THE ADVENTURES OF IBN BATTUTA, A MUSLIM TRAVELLER OF THE 14TH CENTURY. By ROSS E. DUNN. London, Croom Helm, 1986. xvi, 357 pages, 12 maps. £22.50

TRADE AND CIVILISATION IN THE INDIAN OCEAN. AN ECONOMIC HISTORY FROM THE RISE OF ISLAM TO 1750. By K..N. CHAUDHURI. Cambridge, C.U.P., 1985. xiv + 269 pp. £25.00 Hardback, £8.95 Paperback.

MAMLUK JERUSALEM: AN ARCHITECTURAL STUDY. By MICHAEL HAMILTON BURGOYNE and DONALD S. RICHARDS. London, World of Islam Festival Trust for the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1987. xii, 623pp. £115.00

ISLAMIC TECHNOLOGY: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY. By AHMAD Y. AL‐HASSAN and DONALD R. HILL. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press/Paris, Unesco, 1986. xiv, [ii], 304pp. 165 illustrations, 1 map. £25.00.

OIL, INDUSTRIALISATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE ARAB GULF STATES. By ATIF A. KUBURSI, London, Croom Helm, 1984. 144 pp. Paperback.

BRITAIN'S INFORMAL EMPIRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: A CASE STUDY OF IRAQ 1929–1941. By DANIEL SILVERFARB. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. xii + 200 pp. $24.95 cloth.

IRAQ BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS: THE CREATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY. By REEVA S. SIMON. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. xviii + 233 pp. $30.00 cloth.

SADDAM'S IRAQ: REVOLUTION OR REACTION? London, Zed Press, 1986, for CARDRI (Committee against repression and for democratic rights in Iraq). 254pp. Paper.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SHATT AL‐ARAB BOUNDARY DISPUTE. By RICHARD SCHOFIELD, London, MENAS Press, 1986. 111 pp. Paper.

JORDAN IN THE 1967 WAR. By SAMIR A. MUTAWI. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987. 228pp. £22.50.

UNDER SIEGE: P.L.O. DECISIONMAKING DURING THE 1982 WAR. By RASHID KHALIDI. New York, Columbia University Press, 1986. 241 pp.

EMPIRE ON THE NILE. THE ANGLO‐EGYPTIAN SUDAN, 1898–1934. By M.W. DALY. Cambridge University Press, 1986. xv + 524 pp. + Map and 21 illustrations. £40.00.

ISLAM AND THE THIRD UNIVERSAL THEORY: THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT OF MU'AMMAR AL‐QADHDHAFI. By MAHMOUD MUSTAFA AYOUB. London, KPI Ltd., 1987. 155pp.

APPROACHES TO ISLAM. (World Religions in Education Series.) By RICHARD TAMES. London, John Murray, 1982. 264pp. P/B £4.95

MORALS AND MANNERS IN ISLAM. By MARWAN IBRAHIM AL‐KAYSI. Leicester, The Islamic Foundation, 1986. 200pp. H/B £9.50 P/B £4.50

REMEMBRANCE AND PRAYER. By MUHAMMAD AL‐GHAZAALI. Translated by Yusuf Talal de Lorenzo. Leicester, The Islamic Foundation, 1986. 232pp. H/B £10.00 P/B £4.95

THE ISLAMIC WAY OF LIFE. By SAYYID ABUL A'LA MAWDUDI. Edited by Khurshid Ahmad and Khurram Murad. Leicester, The Islamic Foundation, 1986. 80pp. H/B £6.50 P/B £2.00

ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENT: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE. By A. AL‐BURAEY. London, KPI Ltd., 1985.470pp.

ARAB SOCIETY. Edited by SAMIH K. FARSOUN. London, Croom Helm, 1985. 125pp.

WOMEN OF SAUDI ARABIA. By SORAYA ALTO'RKI. New York, Columbia University Press, 1986. 183pp. $30.00

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY ARABIC DRAMA 1847–1900. By MOHAMED A. AL‐KHOZAI. London, Longman, 1984. ix, 245pp. £7.95.

FROM NATIONALISM TO REVOLUTIONARY ISLAM. Edited by SAID AMIR ARJOMAND. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1984. 256pp.

OCCIDENTOSIS: A PLAGUE FROM THE WEST. By JALAL AL‐I AHMAD (translated by R. CAMPBELL, edited by HAMID ALGAR). Berkeley, Ca, Mizan Press, 1984. 160pp. $5.95.

THE RISING OF AL‐HUSAYN: ITS IMPACT ON THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MUSLIM SOCIETY. By SHAYKH MUHAMMAD MAHDI SHAMS AL‐DIN (translated by I.K.A. HOWARD). London, Muhammadi Trust (distributed by Routledge and Kegan Paul), 1985. 218pp.

IRAN SINCE THE REVOLUTION: INTERNAL DYNAMICS, REGIONAL CONFLICTS AND THE SUPERPOWERS. Edited by BARRY ROSEN. (Brooklyn College Studies on Societies in Change, No. 47.) New York, Columbia University Press, 1985. 187pp., 27 plates, 4 maps.

IN IRAN: STUDIES IN BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ'Í HISTORY. Volume 3. Edited by PETER SMITH. Los Angeles, Kalimat Press, 1986. 237pp. HC $19.95.     

Adolescent conceptions of the homeland: A cross-cultural study

Irish (135) and United States (123) subjects, aged from 8 to 17 years, wrote essays on their respective homelands. A content analysis revealed that American subjects, as they grow older, identify the homeland increasingly with its political ideals, while Irish subjects identify theirs with certain psychological ideals which they associate with the rural culture and landscape. Irish essays tended to be longer and more varied, and they showed a higher level of affective development. Profiles of the homeland on 7 semantic differential scales showed the break-up of a halo effect in the Irish sample. Adolescents in both countries showed a transition from concrete to abstract topics with age. The implications of these findings for research on the adolescent self-image are discussed.     

Perceived fairness of drug-testing policies: An application of Leventhal’s principles of procedural justice

Employees rate the fairness of organizational policies by applying principles of distributive and procedural justice. Using Leventhal’s (1980) Principles of Procedural Justice, the current study surveyed 279 upper-level college and graduate students to determine the impact each principle has on support for drugtesting policies. The results support the hypothesis that drug-testing programs that violate these principles are viewed as unfair.     

HIV/AIDS in prisons: recent developments

In a report released on 20 November 2002, entitled Action on HIV/AIDS in Prisons: Too Little, Too Late--A Report Card, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network concluded that despite repeated studies and nearly ten years of recommendations for urgent and pragmatic action, the response of Canadian governments to HIV/AIDS, HCV, and injection drug use in prisons remains inadequate. Only a few weeks later, the House of Commons Special Committee on Non-Medical Use of Drugs released its report, which contained a number of recommendations to the Correctional Service of Canada. Although the Committee avoided talking about needle exchange programs in prisons, it did recommend them! Meanwhile, in Ireland, not even condoms or bleach are provided.     

A critique on the concept of "brain death"

Since the concept of "brain death" was introduced in medical terminology, enough evidence has come to light to show that the concept is based on an unclear and incoherent theory. The "brain death" concept suffers by internal inconsistencies in both the tests-criterion and the criterion-definition relationships. It is also evident that there are residual vegetative functions in "brain dead" patients. Since the content of consciousness is inaccessible in these patients who are in a profound coma, the diagnosis of "brain death" is based on an unproved hypothesis. A critical evaluation of the role and the limitations of the confirmatory tests in the diagnosis of "brain death" is attempted. Finally it is pointed out that a holistic approach to the problem of "brain death" in humans should necessarily include the inspection of the content of consciousness.     

Estimating Aggregate Policy Reform Effects: New Baselines for Registration, Participation, and Representation

Statistical models are often extended to explore the aggregateimpact of policy reforms. After discussing these techniquesand the incorporation of prediction uncertainty, this articleexamines the effects of registration reform in an analytic frameworkthat explicitly considers the two stages that defined electoralparticipation throughout the 20th century in the United States—registrationand then voting. Using selection bias techniques, the effectsof counterfactual registration reform conditions are exploredon the aggregate level of participation and the nature of representationin the electoral process. These offer a richer baseline of theimpact of policy changes than previous work by directly exploringthe expected level of dropoff in going to the polls by new registrants.Results indicate that the dropoff between registration and votingwould be expected to increase as more individuals become registered.In addition, while turnout due to reforms among projected "newregistrants" shows potentially larger biases than those amongexisting registrants, because of the different bases of registrationthe changes would still lead to a modest reduction in the disparitybetween actual group sizes and their role in elections.     

Fatal outcome of poisoning with the benzodiazepines flunitrazepam and diazepam

On a wintry day a 29-year-old woman was found dead beside her car showing head injuries and signs of hypothermia. Several empty packets of sedative and hypnotic drugs were lying inside the car. Toxicological analysis revealed the presence of flunitrazepam (heart blood of the left and right chamber 0.033 mg/L each), norflunitrazepam (left heart blood 0.029 mg/L, right heart blood 0.027 mg/L), 7-amino-flunitrazepam (left heart blood 0.090 mg/L, right heart blood 0.104 mg/L), diazepam (left heart blood 0.395 mg/L, right heart blood 0.386 mg/L), nordazepam (left heart blood 0.112 mg/L, right heart blood 0.115 mg/L) and temazepam (left heart blood 0.034 mg/L, right heart blood 0.033 mg/L). Neither alcohol nor other drugs were found. It was concluded that benzodiazepine intake led to a disturbance of consciousness. Whether the woman died in this situation due to the icy temperature as a result of hypothermia or whether she died or would have died solely due to benzodiazepine overdosage could not be clarified.