A trip to Alamut,Lahijan and Rasht

Middle East

Arab Political Memoirs and Other Studies. By Elie Kedourie. London, Frank Cass, 1974. Pp. 327. Bibliog. Index. £5.95.

Arabian Assignment. By David Smiley. London, Leo Cooper, 1975. Pp. 248. Illus. Index. £6.75.

From Encroachment to Involvement. A Documentary Study of Soviet Policy in the Middle East, 1945–1973. By Yaacov Ro'i. Jerusalem, Israel Universities Press, 1974; distributed in the UK by John Wiley &; Sons. Pp. 616. Indices.

Nasserist Ideology: Its Exponents and Critics. By Nissim Rejwan. Jerusalem, Israel Universities Press, 1974. Pp. 271. Appendix. Index. £6.75.

The Modern History of Israel. By Noah Lucas. London, Weidenfeld and Nicol‐son, 1975. Pp. 500. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £6.00.

The Moors in Spain and Portugal. By Jan Read. London, Faber &; Faber, 1974. Pp. 268. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £4.95.

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean and the Threat to the West. Four Studies in Global Strategy. Edited by Patrick Wall. London, Stacey International, 1975. Pp. 198. Maps. Illus. Index. £3.50 (paper £2.00).

South Asia

China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. By J. P. Jain. New Delhi, Radiant Publishers, 1974. Pp. vi+232. Notes. Appendices. Bibliog. Index. Rs. 55.

Soviet Policy towards Pakistan and Bangladesh. By J. P. Jain. New Delhi, Radiant Publishers, 1974. Pp. 212. Notes. Appendices. Bibliog. Index. Rs. 50.

Soviet Policy toward India: Ideology and Strategy. By Robert H. Donaldson. Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press, 1974. Pp. x+264. Notes. Appendix. Bibliog. Index. £7.50.

Minorities in Madras State. Group Interests in Modern Politics. By S. Saras‐wathi. Delhi, Impex India, 1974. Pp. 247. Tables. Bibliog. Index. Rs. 50.

India ‐ Development and Experience. By Sardar Tarlok Singh. Madras and London, Macmillan, 1975. Pp. xx+458. Index. £8.00.

British Economic Thought and India 1600–1858. A study in the history of development economics. By William J. Barber. Clarendon Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1975. Pp. 243. Bibliog. Index. £6.00.

Marriage, Religion and Society. Pattern of change in an Indian village. By Giri Raj Gupta. London, Curzon Press, 1974. Pp. 180. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £3.00.

The Lion River. The Indus. By Jean Fairley. London, Allen Lane, 1975. Pp. xv+290. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £4.95.

An Indian Summer. By James Cameron. London, Macmillan, 1974. Pp. 224. £3.50.

Sources for the History of British India in the Seventeenth Century. By Shafaat Ahmad Khan. London, Curzon Press, 1975. Pp. 395. Index. £4.50.

Political Relations between India and Nepal, 1877–1923. By Kanchanmoy Mojumdar. Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1973. Pp. xv+331. Maps. Appendix. Bibliog. Index. Rs. 30.

Himalayan Traders. Life in Highland Nepal. By Christoph von Fürer‐Haimen‐dorf. London, John Murray, 1975. Pp. 316. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £7.50.

Pakistan Under Challenge. By L. F. Rushbrook Williams. London, Stacey International, 1975. Pp. 224. Maps. Illus. Index. £3.90 (paper £2.20).

South‐East Asia

Southeast Asia Under the New Balance of Power. Edited by Sudershan Chawla, Melvin Gurtov and Alain‐Gerard Marsot. New York, Praeger; London, Pall Mall Press, 1974. Pp. 196. Bibliog. Index. £2.25.

U Nu: Saturday's Son. By U Nu; translated by U Law Yone and edited by U Kyaw Win. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1975. Pp. xv+358. Index. £7.50.

Economic Growth and Development in West Malaysia 1947–1970. By David Lim. London, Oxford University Press, 1974. Pp. xx+346. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £9.95.

Far East

China's Foreign Relations since 1949. By Alan Lawrance. London, Routledge &; Kegan Paul (World Studies Series), 1975. Pp. 261. Maps. Biblog. Index. £5.95.

East Asia &; U.S. Security. By Ralph N. Clough. Washington, The Brookings Institution, 1975. Pp. 248. Index. $8–95 (paper $3.50).

The Logic of “Maoism”: Critiques and Explication. Edited by James Chieh Hsiung. New York, Praeger; London, Pall Mall Press, 1975. Pp. 227. Bibliog. Index. £8.00.

The Pattern of Sino‐American Crises. Political‐Military Interactions in the 1950s. By J. H. Kalicki. London, Cambridge University Press, 1975. Pp. 279. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £7.50.

China's Economic Aid. By Wolfgang Bartke. London, C. Hurst &; Co., 1975. Pp. 215. £5.00.

Russia and the Roots of the Chinese Revolution, 1896–1911. By Don C. Price. Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press, 1975. Pp. 301. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £8.00.

Mirror to the Son of Heaven: Wei Cheng at the Court of T'ang T'ai‐tsung. By Howard J. Wechsler. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1975. Pp. xii+259. Appendices. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £7.50.

Between Tradition and Modernity: Wang T'ao and Reform in Late Ch'ing China. By Paul A. Cohen. Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press, 1974. Pp. x+357. Notes. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £8.00.

Some Remarks on the Relationship between China and Mongolia. By C. R. Bawden. London, The China Society, 1974. China Society Occasional Papers. No. 17.

United States‐Japanese Relations: The Seventies. Edited by Priscilla Clapp and Morton H. Halperin. Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press, 1975. Pp. 234. £4.00.

Japanese Radicals Revisited: Student protest in postwar Japan. By Ellis S. Krauss. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 1974. Pp. xiv+192. Bibliog. Index. £6.60.

The Samurai. By Paul Varley with Ivan and Nobuko Morris. First published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970; London, Penguin Books, 1974. Pp. 106. Map. Illus. Index.

Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan: A Study of the Kamakura Bakufu, Shugo and Jito. By Jeffrey P. Mass. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1975. Pp. 257. Glossary. Map. Bibliog. Index. £6.25.

Ishiwara Kanji and Japan's Confrontation with the West. By Mark R. Peattie. Princeton and London, Princeton University Press, 1975. Pp. 430. Glossary (Romaji/Kanji). Bibliog. Index. £870.

The Kuril Islands. Russo‐Japanese Frontiers in the Pacific. By John J. Stephan. Clarendon Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1975. Pp. 279. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £6.25.     

Evaluation of technology transfer strategy of petrochemical process

In this paper we present technology transfer strategy of petrochemical process to Iranian industries. Petrochemical industries import requested technology by some known strategies such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Licensing, Joint Venture (JV), Turn-key, Reverse Engineering (RE) and Research & Development (RD). The strengths and weaknesses of each strategy was evaluated according to our situation and condition. In first step, the related literature and previous studies we investigated to find indexes for technology transfer of petrochemical process. By prepared questionnaire and referring to petrochemical experts, through AHP method, the significance of indexes related to each strategy was evaluated and analyzed. The result shows that make JV with an International company who owns the know-how technology and strong background in requested technology, will help us to succeed in our investment. Licensing, also, is an appropriate alternative for some technology transferring projects that no JV could be created.     

Cross‐border analysis of China– Pakistan Economic Corridor development project and local residence quality of life

China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a megaproject, which directly and indirectly benefits the local community of two countries, namely, Peoples' Republic of China and Pakistan. The purpose of current research is to investigate the impact of CPEC development on the quality of life of local residents in China and Pakistan. We intend to investigate the perceptions of local community related to CPEC development, as policymakers of both countries argue the CPEC to be equally beneficial for the people of China and Pakistan. To test the proposed hypotheses, we collected primary data through a research survey conducted in Pakistan and China. In total, 410 Chinese respondents and 480 Pakistani respondents were included in the study. Most of the hypotheses were supported in both studies showing the positive attitude of the people of both communities towards CPEC project. Specifically, the perceived impact of CPEC has shown a significant effect on employment and quality of life in both samples. This research provides important suggestions and recommendations.     

Islamo-Arabic Culture and Women’s Law: An Introduction to the Sociology of Women’s Law in Islam

The present paper addresses the mutual relationship between society and law in shaping women’s law in Islam from the perspective of the sociology of law. It analyzes the role of pre-Islamic social, political, and economic structures in the Arabian Peninsula in modeling women’s law and highlights some customary laws which were rejected or revived and integrated in Islamic jurisprudence. In this regard, the paper reviews issues such as polygyny, rights to inheritance, marriage, the process of testimony and acceptable forms of evidence in legal matters, diyya (blood money), the exclusion of women from the judiciary and the system of issuing fatwa (legal opinion), natural right of guardianship (wilāya) of underage children after divorce, and regulations related to the veil. Finally, referring to the manner of the Prophet of Islam, the paper suggests that ?urf (custom) can be considered as a source of Islamic legislation alongside other commonly known sources of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).     

Everyday health security practices as disaster resilience in rural Bangladesh

Health security is a relatively new concept in terms of how it is practised in disaster-prone locales. We observed 10 rural households in Bangladesh for four months using informal interviews, field diaries, and observation. The findings suggest that the everyday practises of health security involve the capabilities of “caring for themselves” in resource-constrained contexts. Understanding how households care for themselves prior to and during disasters presents an opportunity to examine how improved health might reduce the effects of disasters, ill health, and poverty. Some interventions are proposed to improve health security for poorer households in general and women in particular.     

Perspectives on Ethno-National Conflict Among Kurdish Families With Members in the PKK

This article reports the findings of an ethnographic study of families with members involved in the armed struggle for Kurdish nationalism led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews and observations with a theoretical sample of six families in the area of Yüksekova, detailed discussions were held with twelve members of families with children, partners, or siblings involved in the conflict. Ethno-national exceptionalism plays a significant role in determining the motivations of political violence among groups, but with the additional background of the perceptions and realities of systematic racialization, de-territorialization, disenfranchisement, and cultural exclusion that affect certain Kurdish groups. The findings in this article offer critical sociological and anthropological accounts of the localized drivers of ethno-nationalism, and the motivations for and the experiences of conflict among families with members involved in the armed conflict and the “Kurdish question” in Turkey.     

Factionalism and political discourse in the Islamic Republic of Iran:The Case of the Hujjatiyeh Society

The revolutionary Islamic government of Iran is dominated by clerical forces organised for the most part in the Islamic Republic Party. After defeating and banishing its secular opponents, notably the first President of the Republic, Bani-Sadr, the clerical party and regime developed factional struggles within their ranks. The issue of these struggles is what we consider to be the central dilemma of the revolutionary regime: the radical, populist slogans and policies of the revolution vs. routinised government maintaining order and protecting property. Khomeini's doctrine of Wilayat-i-Faqih which required the politicisation of religion and the sacralisation of politics has become closely associated with revolutionary populism. The radical forces, self proclaimed Maktabis, have insistently defended the original principles and policies of the revolution in the name of Khomeini and his ‘Imam line’ against the forces which they claimed to be infiltrating the regime to subvert the revolution and restore capitalist-imperialist control. The Maktabis with the vocal support of the Tudeh (communist) party, identified subversive forces with the Hujjatiyeh, a shadowy society, apparently with close connections to the clerical establishment

We examine the attacks upon and the defences of the ‘Hujjatiyeh’ to distinguish the styles, discourses and directions of factional struggles in relation to the central conflict between populism and order