bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Histoire de la Révolution Française
Authors: Blanc Louis
Published: December 2011

Louis Blanc (1811–82) was a French historian and politician whose writings had a considerable influence on the development of French socialism. In his famous Organisation du travail (1839) he called for social reform by action of the State, an unusual position at the time. As a member of the provisional government established after the 1848 Revolution, he campaigned for workers' rights, advocating the creation of cooperative workshops. His twelve-volume Histoire de la Révolution Française (1847–62), most of which he wrote while in exile in England, combines years of thorough research with Blanc's characteristic socialist and republican enthusiasm. Volume 7, first published in 1855, deals with the 'second Revolution' led by the new revolutionary Commune on 10 August 1792. It explores the aftermath of this insurrection, including the September massacres in the Paris prisons, and concludes with an account of Louis XVI's trial.
Factorization Calculus and Geometric Probability
Authors: Ambartzumian R. V.
Published: December 2011

This unique book develops the classical subjects of geometric probability and integral geometry, and the more modern one of stochastic geometry, in rather a novel way to provide a unifying framework in which they can be studied. The author focuses on factorisation properties of measures and probabilities implied by the assumption of their invariance with respect to a group, in order to investigate non-trivial factors. The study of these properties is the central theme of the book. Basic facts about integral geometry and random point process theory are developed in a simple geometric way, so that the whole approach is suitable for a non-specialist audience. Even in the later chapters, where the factorisation principles are applied to geometrical processes, the prerequisites are only standard courses on probability and analysis. The main ideas presented here have application to such areas as stereology and tomography, geometrical statistics, pattern and texture analysis. This book will be well suited as a starting point for individuals working in those areas to learn about the mathematical framework. It will also prove valuable as an introduction to geometric probability theory and integral geometry based on modern ideas.
The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson
Authors: Nelson Horatio
Published: December 2011

First published between 1844 and 1846, this seven-volume collection of the letters of Lord Nelson (1758–1805) was assembled and edited by antiquarian, historian and former naval lieutenant Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (1799–1848), using letters supplied to him by many of Nelson's correspondents. Nicolas was better known for his many works on genealogy and heraldry, but his own naval background drew him to this work. In Volume 1 he asserts that 'the life of a man is best described by himself' and Nelson is subsequently revealed to be a skilled and engaging correspondent. The books document Nelson's long and celebrated career in the Royal Navy, from his appointment as a lieutenant in 1777 to his death at Trafalgar in 1805. Published in 1845, Volume 3 covers Nelson's career during 1798 and 1799, including the battle of the Nile in August 1798.
The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson
Authors: Nelson Horatio
Published: December 2011

First published between 1844 and 1846, this seven-volume collection of the letters of Lord Nelson (1758–1805) was assembled and edited by antiquarian, historian and former naval lieutenant Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (1799–1848), using letters supplied to him by many of Nelson's correspondents. Nicolas was better known for his many works on genealogy and heraldry, but his own naval background drew him to this work. In Volume 1 he asserts that 'the life of a man is best described by himself' and Nelson is subsequently revealed to be a skilled and engaging correspondent. The books document Nelson's long and celebrated career in the Royal Navy, from his appointment as a lieutenant in 1777 to his death at Trafalgar in 1805. Published in 1846, Volume 7 covers Nelson's last months, from August 1805 to October that year, when he was fatally wounded during the battle of Trafalgar.
A Matter of Principle: King Hussein of the Hijaz and the Arabs of Palestine
Authors: Mousa Suleiman
Published: December 2011

On the whole, King Hussein of the Hijaz, sharif of Mecca, has fared badly at the hands of British historians. To most of them he was an obstinate old man, so overambitious for himself, and so overconfident about his following in the Arab world, that he was a poor judge of his powers and unrealistic to a great extent. Examination of the papers in the British Public Record Office, in conjunction with his own letters and other sources, offers another image. It shows quite a different man – consistent in his beliefs and policy, stubborn about questions of principle, and wholly set on pursuing with dignity the rights that he reckoned the British to have promised to all Arabs ‘liberated’ from the yoke of the Turks.
Ottoman Population Records and the Census of 1881/82–1893
Authors: Karpat Kemal H.
Published: December 2011

Population movements have always played a dynamic role in the transformation of human society throughout history. Indeed, there is not a single phase of history anywhere in the world which has not been related in some way to low or high rates of birth and mortality, to migration and settlement and to their social, cultural, economic, and political effects. The history of the Middle East supplies excellent examples to support this contention. The Muslim calendar begins with an act of migration, that is the hejira of a.d. 622. Migrants going from the countryside to urban centers or fleeing from areas hostile to Islam have always exerted a crucial influence upon the social and political destiny of Muslim countries. The refugees from Spain to North Africa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the forced migration of Muslims from Russia (the Caucasus and Crimea) in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, the shift of population in India, Pakistan, and Palestine in the 1940s, to cite just a few examples, have been major factors accounting, at least in part, for the social transformation of the Muslim world in general, and of the Middle East in particular.
The Economy of Sudan: A Potential Breadbasket of the Arab World?
Authors: Kaikati Jack G.
Published: December 2011

The Democratic Republic of the Sudan was among the first of nonsovereign territories in Africa to obtain its independence from European political control. Formerly under the joint sovereignty of Britain and Egypt it became independent on January 1, 1956. Since its declaration of independence, Sudan has experienced three major self-proclaimed revolutions, and the format of government has twice changed between parliamentary democracy and military regimes. As of this writing, the current government under General Jaʻafar el-Numayri has been in power longer than any of its predecessors. General Numayri's success in ending the sixteen-year-old civil war between north and south has bolstered his position as head of state. Consequently, this success and at least three other factors have induced the world to pay considerable attention to Sudan.
Small Industries in Egypt: an Exploration of the Economics of Small Furniture Producers
Authors: Mead Donald C.
Published: December 2011

In the analysis of the transition from low-income, rural-centered, capital-poor countries to modern, capital-rich, urbanized nations, small enterprises have received increasing attention in recent years. In rural areas, there is a belated recognition of the importance of nonfarm enterprises as supplementary sources of income and employment in village households. In towns and cities, there has been an explosion of interest in small producers, including but not limited to the so-called urban informal sector.
Syrian Christians, the Rags-to-Riches Story, and Free Enterprise
Authors: Reid Donald M.
Published: December 2011

In the late nineteenth century, when American boys were devouring the success stories of Horatio Alger and cultivating the prescribed virtues of thrift and industry in hopes of jumping from rags to riches overnight, boys on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean were dreaming similar dreams. The Christian boy of the Levant was particularly drawn to such success stories. His decision for a business career was not entirely of his own choosing, for as members of a Christian minority in a Muslim land his ancestors had long been excluded from the most prestigious official careers of the Ottoman Empire–the bureaucracy, the military, and the Muslim religious profession. Since these choice callings were reserved for Muslims, thedhimmî subjects of the Sultan had no choice but to concentrate their energies on banking and trading, shopkeeping and shipping. Making the best of the situation, the indigenous Christian of the Ottoman Empire threw himself into these business careers and sometimes amassed such a fortune that he came to occupy unofficial positions of considerable influence. Often his position as agent and protégé of a European shipping house gave him a decided advantage over Muslim merchants. Increasing the toehold given to it by the Capitulations agreements, Europe made its power increasingly felt in the Middle East during the nineteenth century, and the protégé of a European power could no longer be treated arbitrarily by Ottoman authorities.
The Heritage of Islam in the Modern World (III)
Authors: Gibb Hamilton A. R.
Published: December 2011

If the Islamic Community was founded to constitute the nucleus or model of the ‘good society’ on earth, why has it so manifestly failed to do so? This is the problem which haunts all thinking Muslims, confronting them with an insistent, nagging, exasperating demand to which self-respect requires an answer. The simple Muslim answer, which points to the ideal, says that it is ‘because we, the Community, have ceased to live now for many centuries in faithful obedience to the Sharî'a and in conscious striving to live up to its ethic’. Another mocking Western answer points to practice in the world of Islam: ‘because you Muslims did not learn to control your inward violences you were forced to submit to tyranny in political life and allowed your social institutions to be ravaged by lust and greed’. For the true Muslim, however, neither answer is satisfactory. To the Westerner he reacts with a natural surge of hot and outraged pride: ‘What kind of social ideals do you imagine your practice holds out to the world? We at least have nothing to learn from atheists, infidels, hypocrites and Hollywood’, he says. But when he contemplates the simple Muslim answer, he becomes aware that here too something is wrong. Only the most simplehearted believer can continue to take the entire Sharî'a system on trust, although there are many Muslims who want no change because the existing system suits their interests.
Gh

azâlî's Argument from Creation (II)
Authors: Goodman Lenn E.
Published: December 2011

If, as Ghazâlî presumes, the fact of creation can serve as evidence of the existence of God, and if, as he attempts to show, creation is the only binding, reasoned proof of God's existence, Ghazâlî must, to fulfill his program of reconstructing the intellectual basis of Islam, somehow find arguments adequate to prove that creation did in fact take place. He must disprove what was in his time the still vital claim that the Universe had not come to be but had existed forever differing in no essential way from the world we know today.
The British, The ‘Ulamâ’, and Popular Islam in the Early Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Authors: Voll John O.
Published: December 2011

The power of traditional popular Islam in the modern world is difficult to assess. At times, however, developments provide at least an indirect means of evaluation for specific Muslim populations. One such experience is provided by the relations of the British with the ‘Ulamâ’ in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan during the early years of the Condominium. These relations also provide a case study of British imperial attitudes toward Islam.
From Bandit to Pasha: First steps in the Rise to Power of Ali of Tepelen, 1750–1784
Authors: Skiotis Dennis N.
Published: December 2011

Machiavelli, in The Prince, compared the Ottoman Sultan's authority with that of the King of France and found the latter wanting.

All the Turkish monarchy is governed by one ruler, the others are his servants, and dividing his kingdom into ‘sangiacates’, he sends to them various administrators, and changes or recalls them at his pleasure. But the King of France is surrounded by a large number of ancient nobles, recognised as such by their subjects, and loved by them; they have their prerogatives, of which the king cannot deprive them without danger to himself.
An Economic Indicator of Socio-Political Unrest
Authors: Zartman I. William , Paul James A. , Entelis John P.
Published: December 2011

The relationship between economic phenomena and revolution has intrigued political scientists from Aristotle2 to Zanzibar.3 As usual in political science, however, most studies of the matter have been limited to intuitive hypotheses, without any attempt at comparative empirical verification. As a result, a number of such hypothetical explanations have been proposed, each showing the persuasiveness of its own internal logic (as if convincing observers were the same thing as comprehending – let alone controlling – events) but none with any better claim on reality than the other.
Class Differentiation and the Informal Sector in Amman, Jordan
Authors: Doan Rebecca Miles
Published: December 2011

Studies of economic activities among the urban poor in various parts of the world have found more variation in the so-called informal sector than they had expected. The urban poor had typically been thought of as a kind of “reserve army” for the formal sector, an underclass at the margins of survival. Even early work that recognized the links between the formal and informal sectors lumped them together as a single class that ranked below all the others. The tendency to regard workers in the informal sector as members of an underclass masked the tremendous variations among them and between informal sectors in different places.
The Syrian Private Industrial and Commercial Sectors and the State
Authors: Perthes Volker
Published: December 2011

According to its constitution and the ideology of the ruling Ba?th party, Syria is a socialist people's republic with a planned socialist economy. This does not mean, however, that there is no place for a private economic sector: agriculture is almost entirely private,1as is small-scale industry, almost 90 percent of internal trade, most road transport, tourism, construction, and up to one-third of Syria's foreign trade. There is also a Syrian bourgeoisie apparently flourishing under the auspices of Syrian socialism. Since independence, however, the specific development of Syria's private sector has to a large extent been determined by political decisions, i.e., by decisions of those running state affairs.
Economic and Political Liberation in Egypt and the Demise of State Feminism
Authors: Hatem Mervat F.
Published: December 2011

In the late 1950s and the 1960s, an Egyptian welfare state was developed to provide the economic basis of a new social contract between the Nasser regime and its key class allies. Its main beneficiaries were the men and women of both the middle class and the labor aristocracy, who were to staff and run its expanding state sector. For Egyptian women, who were scorned by the pre-1952 states, the new welfare state offered explicit commitment to public equality for women. It contributed to the development of state feminism as a legal, economic, and ideological strategy to introduce changes to Egyptian society and its gender relations. In its own turn, state feminism contributed to the political legitimacy of Gamal Abdel Nasser's regime and its progressive credentials.
Popularity of Islamic and Persian Names in Iran before and after the Islamic Revolution
Authors: Habibi Nader
Published: December 2011

One of the most important ways that the members of a society express their cultural preferences is through the names they select for their children. Whether it is made by the elder members of the extended family or the parents of the child, there is no doubt that the choice reveals something about the attitudes and values of the selectors through the name's origins and meaning.

In societies that enjoy a multilinguistic heritage, first names can be divided into categories according to their linguistic origins. This phenomenon is most visible in societies with long histories of encounters among various cultures. One such society is Iran, whose pre-Islamic Persian culture combined with the culture that was introduced by Muslim Arabs after they entered Iran on a religious crusade in the 7th century. While the Arab conquest did not cause the Persian language to be replaced by Arabic, its impact was nevertheless permanent in the thousands of Arabic words that entered into Persian along with the Arabic alphabet.
The Shrinking Frontiers of Islam
Authors: Ahmad Aziz
Published: December 2011

I have borrowed the term “frontier” from the late Professor Joseph Schacht for the Islamic marches where Islamic political power and Islam were once firmly entrenched. Unlike him I would apply this term also to the Islamic marches in Europe: Spain and Sicily. Division of Islamic lands into geographical categories “The Central Islamic Lands” and the “Further Islamic Lands,” has also been adopted in the recently publishedCambridge History of Islam.
The Origins and Early Development of the Union Marocaine du Tralvil
Authors: Forst Robert D.
Published: December 2011

Before 1936 few Moroccans were concerned with or affected by French syndicalism. This condition was hardly modified by the promulgation of the dahir of 24 December 1936, under the impetus of the Front Populaire in the metropole, which accorded syndical liberties to the European populace of Morocco, nor was it changed by the dahir of 24 June 1938. These laws did not deter the French Congrès Général du Travail (CGT) from recruiting Moroccans, especially in the mining areas where it enjoyed considerable success. By the end of 1937 more than a thousand Moroccan miners had been enrolled at the Khouribga phosphate mines; but a series of rather violent strikes led to the repressive dahir of 1938. Disturbed by the entry of Moroccans into unions, the French administration presented to the sultan, Mohammed Ben Youssef, a dahir forbidding his subjects to form unions and established penalties applicable to Europeans permitting Moroccans to join their labor organizations. The sultan was only too ready to sign, seeing in union membership a grave threat to the authority of the Makhzen. Fortunately for the Moroccan labor movement, the formal interdiction of the 1938 dahir was never seriously applied.
Monastic Estates and Agricultural Transformation in Mount Lebanon in the 18th Century
Authors: van Leeuwen Richard
Published: December 2011

One of the central issues in the debate on the transformative impact of European economic expansion on agricultural structures in the Ottoman Empire concerns the formation of large agricultural estates. It has been argued that the growing demand for raw materials on the world market fostered efforts at the integration of small landholdings into larger units of production and an increasing commercialization of agricultural produce. This commercializaiton coincided with a tendency toward crop specializaiton and a regional differentitation between the rural areas.
The Administrative, Economic and Social Functions of Turkish Guilds
Authors: Baer Gabriel
Published: December 2011

A discussion of Turkish guild history becomes meaningless if it does not take as its point of departure that a guild is a professional organization. This means that a guild is neither an organization which is grouped according to professional criteria, nor just another name for groups of artisans or merchants about whose organization nothing definite is known. One may be justified in speaking about the existence of guilds if within a certain area all the people occupied in a branch of the urban economy constitute a unit which, at one and the same time, fulfils various purposes, such as economic, fiscal, administrative and social functions. A further condition is the existence of a framework of officers or functionaries chosen from among the members of such a unit and headed by a headman.
Central Bank Policy-Making in Israel: The Horowitz Governorship (1954–1971)
Authors: Prager Jonas
Published: December 2011

The functions of a modern central bank are manifold, but fall into a few general categories — technical, advisory, and control. Technical activities do not demand a separate central banking institution; they could be performed equally well by alternative arrangements. These functions are of a clerical nature and do not require continuous decision-making. For example, central banks typically handle the government's financial accounts, making its payments and collecting its receipts, paying interest on debt as well as the principal when the debt matures, and marketing the securities when issued. In effect, the central bank acts as an agency of the Finance Ministry, the latter making the decisions, the former implementing them. Similarly, central banks typically monopolize currency issue, but in so far as this is an automatic procedure — issuing currency to whomever wishes to acquire it — no decision-making is involved. Indeed, these two functions have often been performed by the Treasury itself, and even today occasionally still lie in the domain of some treasuries.
Islam and West: II. G. E. Von Grunebaum: Toward Relating Islamic Studies to Universal Cultural History
Authors: Banani Amin
Published: December 2011

It is too soon to measure the influence of G. E. von Grunebaum on developing trends in Islamic scholarship. But it is not too soon to assess the legacy of his writings. The assessment is bound to suffer from subjectivity and perhaps even border on the presumptuous. And I must confess at the outset that in this paper I have not ruled out a degree of inferential and impressionistic judgment, which in the end may only reflect my own limited vantage.
Dilemma of Development: The Agricultural Bank and Agricultural Reform in Ottoman Turkey, 1888–1908
Authors: Quataert Donald
Published: December 2011

During the final century of its existence, the Ottoman state, seeking to adapt and survive in a European-dominated world, launched a series of far-ranging reform programs touching nearly every aspect of Ottoman life. The financial basis of these programs rested on a predominantly agricultural economy characterized by Ottoman and foreign observers alike as backward and impoverished, yet possessing vast potential.Generally, these observers also agreed that Turkey's function in the industrializing world was to supply agricultural produce and raw materials. The expansion of Turkish agricultural production would not only help satisfy increasing European demand but also, by raising Ottoman revenues, both ensure the continuation of the Ottoman Empire and provide the additional funds required by the modernization efforts.
The Preparation of a Bio-Bibliographical Survey of Persian Literature
Authors: Borshchevsky Yu. E , Bregel Yu. E.
Published: December 2011

The history of literature in Persian has not been sufficiently studied although it is almost twelve centuries old, and was at times in widespread use in Afghanistan, Eastern Turkestan, India, Turkey and the Caucasus, as well as in Iran and Central Asia. The comparatively late development of Iranian studies and the condition of source materials are to blame for this situation.
The Transformation of the Ottoman State, 1789-1908
Authors: Karpat Kemal H.
Published: December 2011

The study of the Ottoman state in tĥe latter part of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth demands a broader analytical framework than hitherto used if its transformation and the social and political history of the Middle East, the Balkans, and even North Africa, which were parts of the Ottoman State at one time or other, are to be properly evaluated and interpreted.
The Murder of the Caliph 'Uthmân
Authors: Hinds Martin
Published: December 2011

The murder of ‘Uthmân was an important turning-point in Islamic history, and the story of how opposition in the provinces, particularly Egypt, combined with opposition at Medina itself and brought about the Caliph's death has been repeated many times. Accounts in sources such as al-Tabarî's History and al-Balâdhurîs Ansâb al-ashrâf bring together much transmitted detail concerning thisdénouement. Caetani's monumentalAnnali dell'Islamserves as an extensive compilation of such detail, and Wellhausen, Levi Delia Vida, Gibb, Veccia Vaglieri and Petersen are only some of the other modern scholars who have commented on the event. Perhaps Professor Gibb best expresses the current view of the background to it in his thought-provoking article entitled ‘An interpretation of Islamic history’, where he sees in the caliphate of 'Uthmân a conflict between two main parties, the Meccans and the ‘tribesmen’. He points out that the Meccan merchants had been swift to seize the opportunities of wealth which arose in the immediate post-conquest phase, and goes on to say that in the course of 'Uthman's caliphate there arose at Medina ‘growing resentment at the rapid affirmation of Meccan political control… and the economic exploitation of the empire. Open discontent was first expressed by several religious personalities, whose conscience was shocked by the worldliness and grasping materialism displayed in the name of Islam. But these only provided a rallying-cry and a cloak for the material grievances of the tribesmen and Medinians, who swung into line behind them.’ Gibb therefore sees a total of four alignments, of which the Meccans and the tribesmen were the main parties, while the Medinans and the so-called religious party were secondary in importance.
The Concepts of Religion and Government in the Thought of Mîrzâ Âqâ

Kh

ân Kirmânî, a Ninteenth-Century Persian Revolutionary
Authors: Philipp Mangol Bayat
Published: December 2011

Throughout the history of Iran, a country where religion has been a predominant element in the life of its inhabitants, spiritual restlessness and social malaise expressed themselves in various revolts which were religious in character. From pre–Islamic Iran to nineteenth–century Babism a series of radical sects, considered as heretical and consequently ruthlessly suppressed by the ruling authorities, came into being.
Admiral Mark L. Bristol, an Open-Door Diplomat in Turkey
Authors: Bryson Thomas A.
Published: December 2011

United States diplomatic historians have traditionally claimed that American foreign-policy makers employed the Open-Door principle in the Middle East after World War I merely to defend American rights from the Allied efforts to achieve economic hegemony over Turkey and other parts of the old Ottoman Empire. However, William Appleman Williams — supported by the works of several younger scholars — has asserted that Woodrow Wilson used the, Open Door to promote American economic expansion. Williams maintains that the Open Door was not anad hocpolicy, fashioned simply to meet the immediate postwar challenge of the Allies — as the traditional historians have alleged. Nor was it British-inspired, idealistic policy that received only sporadic support during the twentieth century, as George F. Kennan has asserted. According to Williams, the Open Door was an American-designed tactic that diplomats used continuously throughout the first half of the twentieth century for the express purpose of promoting American expansion, with a view to creating an American economic empire, a process that resulted in the extension of American political and economic influence.
Protestantism and British Diplomacy in Syria
Authors: Farah Caesar E.
Published: December 2011

The first twelve months following the arrival of the American Protestant missionaries to the shores of Syria, the eastern Mediterranean haven of religious dissidence, constituted the “bright spring time of the mission” as one observer put it. Soon thereafter in 1824 the ecclesiastical authorities of the Maronites, “Romanists”, and Uniat Meichites awoke to the danger threatening them and began to resent their presence. The reason for the short honeymoon is not difficult to perceive: when the missionaries took stock of the situation it soon dawned upon them that they could function in one of two ways, “either silently in the bosom of native churches to revive religion or attempt a reformation of rites and ceremonies”. They chose the second course, and the end result was both hostility to their activities and a feeble Protestant community at best, unable to survive without outside protection and support.
Secret Diplomacy and Rebellion in Palestine, 1936–1939
Authors: Cohen Michael J.
Published: December 2011

The Arab Rebellion in Palestine began with sporadic outbursts of terrorism on April 19, 1936. The ensuing disorders and the Arab general strike that followed were in retaliation against the British refusal to grant three demands first put by the Arab leadership of Palestine to the Mandatory in November, 1935. The three demands were: (a) total cessation of Jewish immigration into Palestine; (b) prohibition of all sales of Arab land to Jews; and (c) the granting of independence to Palestine and the ending of the Mandate.
Alienation and Political Participation in Lebanon
Authors: Nasr Nafhat , Palmer Monte
Published: December 2011

In a recent book Michael Hudson referred to Lebanon as the “Precarious Republic.” The Lebanese Republic was said to be precarious because its citizens tended to identify more strongly with the ideologies of their various sects than with the state, because of the gulf separating the rich from the poor, and because of the growing restlessness of the latter. It was also said to be precarious because of growing disaffection of most segments of Lebanese society with most areas of government performance.
From Elite to Class: The Transformation of Iraqi Leadership, 1920–1939
Authors: Pool David
Published: December 2011

The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of the pre-1958 political system in Iraq based on explanatory factors which are relevant to an understanding of the nature of similar pre-radical regimes in other Arab States and to an understanding of how and why such political systems were transformed. In order to understand the qualitative nature of the systemic change in the Arab States in the twentieth century it is essential to move away from concepts like “traditional” and “modern” and the rise of “new men” or “new social forces.” To explain how one kind of political system changed to another one requires the abstraction of those features which indicate the positive rather than residual attributes of that earlier system. Indeed some recent studies have attempted to do this, with analytic and conceptual awareness.
Islamic Laws on Riba (Interest) and Their Economoic Implications
Authors: Noorzoy M. Siddieq
Published: December 2011

The Islamic fundamentalist doctrine on riba states that the rate of interest is zero, a doctrine based upon the Quranic injunctions against it. The word ‘riba’ means ‘increase’ as interpreted by Imam Razi, which corresponds to the word ‘interest’ as defined by Webster's New World Dictionary. In both cases the increase refers to the amount beyond what is owed. Thus, the strictest interpretation that can be given to the word riba is that it means interest—an amount, or rate, due above the principal of a loan. The word riba, however, is commonly translated as usury which is defined by Webster's Dictionary as “an excessive or unlawfully high rate or amount of interest.” Thus, the fundamental aspect of the controversy about the doctrine of interest in Islam is whether the rate of interest is zero, in which case riba is interpreted to mean interest per se, or whether a positive rate of interest is permissible, in which case nba is interpreted to mean usury.
The Role of Foreign Capital in Egypt's Economic Development: 1960–1972
Authors: Abdalla Nazem
Published: December 2011

Egypt is a less developed country that made use of foreign capital to accelerate its rate of economic development and growth.

In 1960 Egypt embarked on long-term economic development planning. A Five-Year plan (1960–1965) was followed by a Seven-Year plan (1965–1972). In planning for economic development, Egyptian authorities relied heavily on foreign capital.
British Trade and the Rise of Beirut, 1830–1860
Authors: Issawi Charles
Published: December 2011

In Turkey, foreign trade now confines its principal operations to the cities of Constantinople, Smyrna, and Alexandria … Aleppo, which was before the Middle of the last century the most considerable emporium in Turkey, is now a place of comparatively little commercial importance. The trade began to decline shortly after the above mentioned period, and in the year 1792 the Levant Company finally dissolved the respectable Establishment which they had previously supported there, the Consul in fact being then the only English resident in the city, whereas in former times there had been as many as twenty-eight British merchants attached to that factory. The towns in Syria have been of late supplied with British manufactures from the establishments at Alexandria, but the consumption dose not appear to have been sufficiently extensive to encourage any of the trading houses in that city to form branch establishments on the Syrian coasts.
The Bakhtiyārī Ilkhānī: An Illusion of Unity
Authors: Garthwaite Gene R.
Published: December 2011

The very use of the term “Bakhtiyārī” with its implicit notion of sociopolitical unity has obscured the nature of the organization and relationships of these pastoral nomadic tribes.1 At the same time that observers of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Iran described the Bakhtiyārī as a unit, they could not explain the prevailing disunity that characterized tribal relationships. Major obstacles for analysis of this problem have been the office of the īlkhānī, paramount chief of all the Bakhtiyārī, and the domination of tribal history by the family of those eligible for this position, which has imposed a certain unity upon recent Bakhtiyārī history. The view that an īlkhānī had long ruled the Bakhtiyārī and that the tribes constituted a confederation has been accepted since the late nineteenth century. Yet the first īlkhānī, Husain Qulī Khan, was not appointed until 1867, and possibly only during his. tenure in office (d. 1882), and again during the Persian Revolution, have the Bakhtiyārī functioned as a true confederation. The significance of prevailing disunity under a temporary political and administrative unity goes beyond the history of the Bakhtiyārī and has important implications for an understanding of Iranian society and history itself.
The Assyrian Affair of 1933 (I)
Authors: Husry Khaldun S.
Published: December 2011

‘History’, Ernest Toller once observed, ‘is the propaganda of the victors.’ Alas, it may often be so; but in the case of the Assyrian Affair of 1933 history has been decidedly the propaganda of the victims.
The Syrian Christians and Early Socialism in the Arab World
Authors: Reid Donald M.
Published: December 2011

Few of the Egyptian schoolboys who now memorize the principles of Arab socialism have heard of Farah Antûn,ShiblîShumayyil, or Niqûlâ Haddâd. Yet in the opening decades of the twentieth century this trio of Syrian Christians living in Egypt — along with the Coptic intellectual Salâmah Mûsâ — were among the foremost advocates of socialism in the Arab world. What was the connection between these Christian pioneers and the widespread but as yet ill-defined Arab socialism of today? The answer will fully emerge only as the roots of Arab socialism are probed. A beginning can be made by examining these writers themselves, why they were attracted to Western socialism, what they understood by it, and how they proposed to adapt and apply it to the Middle East. A correct evaluation of their positions depends to a considerable extent on understanding the precarious, but not entirely hopeless position, of the Christian minorities in a Muslim world which had long despised them.
Egypt's Absorptive Capacity During 1960–1972
Authors: Abdalla Nazem
Published: December 2011

During the 1960–1972 period Egypt was committed to a socialist, centrally planned model of economic development. Economic growth goals were expounded in optimistic consecutive five-year plans. When it became apparent that these goals would not be achieved, the second five-year plan was expanded to seven years (1965–1972). private investment had been effectively discouraged after the nationalization of privately owned industry during 1960–1963. In order to finance ambitious development plans, Egypt borrowed heavily during 1960–1972. Approximately $2.3 billion was borrowed mainly from the U.S.S.R., the European Economic Community, and the United States. The plans' large capital development projects were undertaken with dismal results. A major factor causing these failures was the low absorptive capacity of Egypt during that time. This severely restricted the amount of capital that could be put to constructive use in any given time period and prevented Egypt from realizing her goal of doubling national income in ten years (1960–1970).
The Disintegration of the Armenian Cause in the United States, 1918–1927
Authors: Malkasian Mark
Published: December 2011

With the conclusion of World War I, the Armenian cause in the United States enjoyed a brief season of hope and vitality. American support was an offshoot of international sympathy for Armenian suffering and an unshakable sense of optimism. In a burst of national goodwill, the United States seemed intent on freeing the Armenians from centuries of persecution. Americans from the halls of Congress to the church pews of Mississippi joined together in the effort. They delivered speeches, wrote letters, exchanged ideas, and donated millions of dollars. Within less than a decade, however, the Armenian cause was irreparably splintered and largely forgotten.
The Population Of Aleppo In The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries According To Ottoman Census Documents
Authors: Raymond André
Published: December 2011

1.1. Among the most obscure aspects of the past of Arab towns, that of the number of their population at different periods of their history must be mentioned. A better knowledge of their demography would no doubt bring more accurate answers to the main problems of urban evolution (expansion or decline, prosperity or decadence) as, through lack of well-founded figures, they have often been resolved by authors from general impressions or even from a priori attitudes. The first really serious statistics go no earlier than the end of the eighteenth century (Description de l'Egypte) for Cairo. For earlier periods, the only available sources for a long time were the evaluations provided by chronicles or travel accounts which proposed more or less fanciful and often divergent figures, the more reasonable evaluations often being a question of chance, or being considered so only because they confirmed the users' prejudices.
Bandali Al-Jawzi's Min Tārīkh Al-Harakāt al-Fikriyyat Fi'l-Islām: The First Marxist Interpretation of Islam
Authors: Sonn Tamara
Published: December 2011

Bandali al-Jawzi (1871–1943) has been regaining popularity recently, particularly among his native Palestinians and Muslim nationalists of his adopted home, the Soviet Union. In 1977, for instance, the Union of Palestinian Journalists and Writers, in cooperation with the Oriental Institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, commemorated Jawzi as an outstanding Palestinian author. At that time a collection of various of his articles on the Arabic language and history was published in Beirut, as well as an edition of his only book, Min Tārīkh al-Harakāt al-Fikriyyat fi'l-Islām (The History of Intellectual Movements in Islam), first published in 1928. It is this recent exposure which was to take its rightful place in Islamic intellectual history.
National Planning—the Critical Neglected Link: One Hundred Years of Jewish Settlement in Israel
Authors: Ben-Zadok Efraim
Published: December 2011

Throughout one hundred years, Zionist ideology has dictated national settlement planning in Israel. In this highly dynamic society, political processes significantly affected the planning environment, and major planning goals were clearly derived from this reality, while being evaluated against social values. Negligence in the planning process was most critical in the formulation of conflicting long-range goals that impeded implementation. Goal conflict was especially harmful when economic planning was not as sound at a time when geopolitics, security, and defense goals were primarily pursued. Within the fundamental goals, incremental decisions—to construct new communities or extend existing ones—were also implemented. Antiplanning variables slowed down execution only to some extent, but their impact may increase in the future.

Analyzing the relationship between ideology and settlement implementation national planning concepts (through historical perspective), a subject that has received little attention in the past, contributed some analytical policy insights. Clearly, goal hierarchy or the domination of certain goals is sometimes required. However, in order to resolve conflicts, an effort should be made to decrease the differences in weights among goals. Thus, tension could be reduced to facilitate implementation. It is also possible to trade off one goal for another. Compromising among incompatible goals is a crucial matter to Israeli national settlement planning. There should be more balance in the allocation of resources economic objectives on one hand, and geopolitics, security, and defense goals the other. In addition, an attempt should be made to reduce the influence of antiplanning variables. Some of them, such as domestic or international political pressures, are more difficult to control; others are easier to influence. Specific attention should be devoted to achieving a higher professional level in planning, and more opportunity should be provided to experts to contribute input to decision-making processes.
The Inflationary Process of the Iranian Economy, 1970–1980
Authors: Dadkhah Kamran M.
Published: December 2011

During the past decade, the Iranian economy has experienced two severe shocks. The first was the huge increase in oil revenues and the subsequent increase in government expenditures. The second was the Iranian revolution, with the concomitant flight of capital and production setbacks. The first shock produced in the Iranian economy severe inflation that, although not unfamiliar to the Iranians, has been unprecedented in scale and is still accelerating. Analysis of the causes of this inflation is important for understanding the course of events and for predicting future trends.
Dependent Development and U.S. Economic Aid to Egypt
Authors: Weinbaum Marvin G.
Published: December 2011

Egypt was firmly ensconced by the early 1980s in the ranks of the Third World's more dependent, financially troubled economies. The country's total foreign debt, under $3 billion in 1973, had grown to 16 billion by 1979. In 1982–83, the external debt was estimated at $20 billion, with the servicing of medium and long-term obligations absorbing more than one-third of export earnings. The terms of trade were also moving against Egypt as its major exports lost value. A trade deficit, registered largely with EEC countries and the United States, stood at the equivalent of $4.7 billion in 1982–83.
The Ba

kh

tiyâri

Kh

ans, The Government of Iran, and the British, 1846–1915
Authors: Garthwaite Gene R.
Published: December 2011

Great power rivalry in nineteenth and early twentieth century Iran and the Qajar dynasty's dependence upon British and Russian support have long attracted the attention of western scholars. Recent scholarship also has begun tocus on internal power shifts in response to these conditions. An important element in these processes, but one which has been relatively unstudied, is political change within the great tribal confederations, especially the Bakhtiyâri. A number of elements contributed to the political transformation of the Bakhtiyâri. To begin with, the heightening of political activity in the tribe coincided with a decline of central power and authority and the growth of Anglo-Russian rivalry in Iran. Also significant was the concentration of powerand wealth within one princely family of the Bakhtiyâri. In addition a number of economic and strategic factors played a role in creating a new alignment of power among the Bakhtiyâri and Tehran and Great Britain. Chief among these elements were the increasing strategic and economic importance of the Bakhtiyâri winter pasture area in Khuzistan following the discovery of the oil fields there and the new national political role played by the Bakhtiyâri following the Persian Revolution.
First Names and Political Change in Modern Turkey
Authors: Bulliet Richard W.
Published: December 2011

One of the few predictable opportunities for the exercise of free will that comes the way of most human beings is the bestowal of names upon their children. To be sure, local or national custom may legally restrict or otherwise limit the scope of that freedom in some cases; but by and large, there is normally some choice to be made, and the beneficiary of the choice, the child, is inevitably powerless to influence it.
Early Ottoman Administration in the Wilderness: Some Limits on Comparison
Authors: Shinder Joel
Published: December 2011

A synthesis of Ottoman administrative history has yet to be written, and it is unlikely that one will appear in the near future. The task is enormous, and more glamorous subjects continue to receive priority. Even now the field of administrative history exists largely as an ancillary to the study of Ottoman diplomatic instruments or as a foundation for the study of the moderization of traditional society. In the latter case it has fallen under the spell of institutional history, where three theses and at least one ‘antithesis’ scurry in their murine way across the tiles of the Ottoman edifice. Despite the fact that a developed literature is lacking, speceialists in other disciplines have used the Ottoman example for broad comparative studies of bureaucratic empires. Their premature attempts have perpetuated the notion already endemic in Islamist circles that what we know of Islamic government is all there is to know and need be known. Several themes, however, have dominated the study of governing institutions in the Middle East with a force that has surely impeded progress and fresh thought. Our first results from the four theses referred to earlier are terribly outdated at worst or in need of modification at best. New source materials in the Ottoman archives and new readings of older materials long subject to scholarly scrutiny call for a reexamination of those leading themes and the theses they inspire before any attempt at synthesis and comparison is made.
De-industrialization and Re-industrialization in the Middle East since 1800
Authors: Issawi Charles
Published: December 2011

Like many other parts of the world, in the last two hundred years or so the Middle East has gone through a process of de-industrialization followed by reindustrialization.*The decline in handicrafts continued until well after the First World War. But by then another development was under way: the growth of a modern factory industry that started around the 1890s, gathered increasing momentum in the 1920s and 1930s, and since the Second World War has proceeded at a very rapid pace.