SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Differential Treatment in International Environmental Law.

This text is a comprehensive study of differential treatment for developing countries in international environmental law. It offers an analysis of the legal dimension of the relationship between developed and developing countries in the environmental field and beyond. It first critically examines the principle of legal equality of states and then explores the conceptual framework behind the notion of differential treatment in international law and its relevance in bringing about substantive equality. The book examines the development of differentiation in international environmental law, considers its application in various environmental treaties and evaluates the legal status of existing differential norms. It also examines the contribution of differentiation to the implementation of environmental treaties and the extent to which differential treatment fosters the decentralization of international environmental policy making. It is a useful resource for all actors involved in environmental law and policy making, scholars and students.

Hindu Law. Beyond Tradition and Modernity

This book examines the development of Hindu laws from ancient period to its emergence as postmodern phenomenon. The book is divided into three parts. The first part, comprising of seven chapters, examines in depth our current deficient understanding of the historical development of central Hindu concepts within the classical, postclassical, colonial and postcolonial context. The second part, composed of five chapters, relies on the theoretical arguments developed in part I, providing detailed analysis of selected areas of Hindu family law. In examining the maintenance from the Vedic period to the turn of this millennium. The study criitcally evaluates the legal evidence to examine how Hindu law has developed into a postmodern condition which modernist scholarship seems both unable and unwilling to recognize. The third part has the concluding analyses dealing with the inadequacies of the modernist discourses in relation to Hindu law. This volume will be of immense value to scholars and students of law, religion, sociology, modern social history and philosophy. This book will also be of interest to social theorists and comparatives as well as general readers.

Dil Ogretiminde Deneysel Sesbilim Yontemi

This study analyses the interference of Turkish first language speech properties in the production of utterances in English as a second language and shows how experimental phonetics can be used in language teaching. A contrastive analysis of Turkish and English phonetic features is presented using palatography and in particular spectrography. A visual representation of some of the acoustic features as they change between Turkish and English is given through the sound spectrographs included in the book. The phonetic properties of Turkish vowel sounds and the effect lengthening has on these vowels is also presented. As the articulatory positions are subject to modification during continuous speech due to the movements of the articulatory organs preceding and succeeding the current point of articulation, it is particularly important that connected speech as well as utterances in isolation should be examined. Accordingly, this study also shows the importance of looking at connected speech, particularly in Turkish, rather than analysing single lexical items.

Item Type: Authored Book
Authors/Creators: Rona, Bengisu
SOAS Departments & Centres: Faculty of Languages and Cultures > Department of the Languages and Cultures of the Near and Middle East
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
ISBN: 9758385666
ID Code: 3840
Deposited By: Huei-Lan Liu
Deposited On: 10 Jun 2008 11:53
Last Modified: 10 Jun 2008 11:53

Early Mongol Rule in Thirteenth-Century Iran. A Persian Renaissance

Review
'No doubt it will be a while before such a comprehensive study of these years of Ilkhanate is again attempted, not least because Lane has written such a rich and provocative book that brings together much relevant material neglected in standard narrative accounts.' - Journal of School of Oriental and African Studies

Product Description
This book opposes the way in which, for too long, the whole period of Mongol domination of Iran has been viewed from a negative standpoint.

From the Back Cover
For a long period both before and after the Arab conquests of the seventh-century, the people of the Iranian plateau and surrounding countries had been living in political and cultural turmoil interspersed with temporal islands of stability and development. A sense of historical identity and continuity had, however, tenuously prevailed, and it was the so-called catastrophic thirteenth century that finally saw the rebirth of Persia as a central cultural, spiritual and political player on the regional, if not the world, stage.

After the traumatic years of anarchy following the collapse of the Great Saljuqs in the latter part of the twelfth century, the 1250s saw the arrival of Hulega Khan. This study demonstrated that Hulega Khan was welcomed as a king and a saviour from the depredations of his predecessors, rather than a conqueror, and that the initial decades of his rule were characterised by a renaissance in the cultural life of the Iranian plateau. Freed from the spiritual and political oppression from Baghdad and fed by a rich influx of cultural, commercial and mercantile influences from Asia, Persia, its languages , the 'state' and culture prospered.

The voice of this unique era of renaissance echoes still in the modern state or Iran and beyond.

About the Author
After spending 20 years living, working and seeking adventure throughout the Middle East and then later in the Far East, during which years he worked as an English teacher, a freelance writer and journalist and as a businessman, George Lane returned to his more concentrated academic life in 1991 when he took up work and studies at SOAS. Since then he has been concerned primarily with Medieval Islamic History and with Iran and Central Asia in particular. George Lane has two young children with whom he lives with his wife in Dulwich, S. E. London.

Korean Grammatical Constructions. Their Form and Meaning

This is a functional-typological analysis of Korean grammatical constructions in which the grammatical relation, or the case-marking, alternates. The constructions discussed in this book are double-nominative constructions, dative-subject constructions, causative constructions, passive constructions, anticausative (neutral-verb) constructions, possessor ascension constructions, and space-object constructions. The author has tried to analyse those constructions by studying the relationships between coding features, grammatical relations and semantic roles. Although there is a great deal of correspondence between grammatical relations and the morphological marking, the latter sometimes fail to give a clear indication of grammatical relations, or give inconsistent indications. The grammatical relations (GR) can be changed by the operation of GR-changing processes such as causative, passive, anticausative and possessor-ascension, but the semantic roles remain unchanged in some constructions. The author has taken into account semantic (and pragmatic) factors in explaining the morpho-syntactic behaviour of Korean grammatical constructions. It was shown that differences in morphological coding features may indicate differences in semantic implication. --Sajid Rizvi, Editor in Chief, Saffron Books

Product Description
The inaugural volume in the "Saffron Korean Linguistics Series", this title is published in connection with the Centre of Korean Studies, London. The series is primarily devoted to functionally- and typologically-orientated research on the Korean language and linguistics. This volume addresses broadly defined issues rather than matters of abstract theoretical polemics. The series aims to offer an international academic forum for the dissemination of Korean linguistics as well as Korean language studies.

About the Author
Dr Jaehoon Yeon is Senior Lecturer in Korean language at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Dr Yeon received his BA and MA in Linguistics at the Seoul National University and his PhD in Linguistics at SOAS. He is the author of Korean Grammatical Constructions: Their Form and Meaning (volume 1 in Saffron Korean Linguistics Series) and co-author of Teach Yourself Korean, Elementary Korean, Continuing Korean, and Integrated Korean: Advanced 1 and 2. He has also published numerous articles on Korean grammar and linguistics.

Lakota

Written by Bruce Ingham
SOAS, London

Lakota is a language of the Siouan family spoken in the region of the Northern Plains of America. Speakers of Lakota and the related Dakota dialect were traditionally known in English as the Sioux Indians and were a powerful and numerous component of the horse born plains culture since the mid 1700s. There are now thought to be around 20,000 speakers mainly in the states of North and South Dakota and in Saskatchewan in Canada.

Lakota has a complex derivational and relational morphology with relational morphology centred on the verb. This shows prefixes, suffixes, infixes and reduplication. The main word classes are verb, noun, adverb, postposition and conjunction. The language is remarkable for its extensive use of adverbs and for its elaborate system of stems of circumstantial meaning. Its syntax is interesting for its use of stem truncation associated with subordination, producing participle-like words from verbs and incorporating nouns as modifiers.

Bruce Ingham is Reader in Arabic Linguistic Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. He has worked on Arabic since the 1960s and begun working on Lakota in 1992. He has done field work in South Dakota and Canada and is the author of an English-Lakota Dictionary, 2001.

ISBN 3895868493. Languages of the World/Materials 426. 114pp. 2003.

ref.no.: ISBN 3 89586 849 3
price: EUR 37,60
USD 52,64
incl. 7% VAT/MWST/TVA

Nur leere Reden. Politischer Diskurs und die Shanghaier Presse im China des späten 19. Jahrhunderts

Hardcover: 386 pages
Publisher: Harrassowitz (2003)
Language German
ISBN-10: 3447044608
ISBN-13: 978-3447044608

Janku, Andrea
Nur leere Reden
Politischer Diskurs und die Shanghaier Presse im China des späten 19. Jahrhunderts
pages/dimensions : XIII, 386 Seiten, 8 Abbildungen - 24 x 17 cm
language: german
binding: gebunden
publishing date: 1. Auflage 2003
price info: 76,00 Eur[D] / 78,20 Eur[A] / 129,00 CHF
ISBN10: 3-447-04460-8
ISBN13: 978-3-447-04460-8

Poems of Hanshan

Review

"Read the real writers, read Balzac, Han Shan, Shakespear, Dostoevsky."

Product Description

Hanshan, which means Cold Mountain, was the pseudonym adopted by an unknown poet who lived in China as a hermit twelve hundred years ago. The poems collected under his name have had an immense impact worldwide, especially among Zen Buddhists, and have been translated into many languages. Peter Hobson's translation of more than a hundred of the poems, almost all of which are published for the first time in this volume, brings those qualities of timelessness, poetic diction and engaging rhythm that do justice to the concepts and language of the original.

About the Author

Peter Hobson was an authority of world religions and had a particular interest in archaic Chinese poetry. Professor T. H. Barrett teaches in the Department of the Study of Religions at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and has a particular interest in the history and religion of China.

Questions of Style: Literary Sources and Literary Journals in Modern China, 1911-1937

Dealing with the central issue of style in literature, this groundbreaking study is a must for sinologists, but also for all students of comparative literature.
Michel Hockx takes as a point of departure the observation that most writers of the Republican period adhered to a distinctly traditional practice of gathering in literary societies, while at the same time displaying a marked preference for publishing their works through the modern medium of the literary journal.
The first part of the book analyses different types of societies and their journals. The case studies in part two convey the wider impact of literary collectives and journal publications on literary practice.
Convincingly breaking with the 'May Fourth' paradigm, the author proposes a radically new way of understanding the relationship between New Literature and other styles of modern Chinese writing.

Rethinking Islamist Politics. Culture, the State and Islamism

'Salwa Ismail has produced a work of great interest. I found it stimulating and thought-provoking, engaging with a wide range of recent literature (most informative), and presenting challenging arguments clearly and cogently. This is a most attractive book for both the academic and general reader.' - Sami Zubaida, Birkbeck College, University of London

Product Description
This text revisits the main arguments and explanatory frameworks that have been used since the 1970s to understand Islamic activism, moderate as well as militant and violent, and proposes a rethinking of Islamist politics. Linking macro-level explanations to micro-level analysis, it analyzes Islamist activism and militancy in terms of the interplay of social formation and political structures on the one hand, and network processes within the other.

About the Author
Salwa Ismail is Director of the Middle East Politics Programmes in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter.

Robert Mugabe. A Life of Power and Violence

Robert Mugabe -- modern Africa's Stalin or a patriot fighting to reverse the effects of colonialism and white domination? Stephen Chan seeks not to demonise Mugabe but to explain and interpret him in his role as a key player in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. In this masterly portrait, Mugabe's character unfolds with the ebb and flow of triumph and crisis over more than 22 years of his rule. Mugabe's story is Zimbabwe's from the post-independence honeymoon of idealism and reconciliation, through electoral victory, successful intervention in the international politics of Southern Africa and resistance to South Africa's policy of apartheid. But a darker picture emerged early with the savage crushing of the Matabelelands rising, the elimination of political opponents, growing corruption, disastrous intervention in the Congo war, and all worsened by drought and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Here was a beleagured president in the face of growing unrest resorting to increasingly desperate measures -- seizing white-owned farms, increasing presidential constitutional powers, muzzling the press and intimidating opposition.

Stephen Chan's tightly argued and rigorous narrative, based on close personal knowledge of Zimbabwe, depicts the emergence of a ruthless and single-minded despot amassing and firmly clinging to his power. We follow the triumphant nationalist leader, reconciling all in the new multi-racial Zimbabwe, degenerate into a petty tyrant consumed by hubris and self righteousness facing an endgame of potentially horrifying dimensions.

Stephen Chan is Professor of International Relations and Dean of Law and Social Sciences at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. He has served on the faculties of the universities of Zambia, Kent, and Nottingham Tresnt. He was a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat from 1977 to 1983,and was seconded to the Commonwealth Observer Group that oversaw the election campaign that led to Zimbabwean independence in 1980. Since then, he has visited Zimbabwe at least annually, and for some years, lived in neighboring Zambia. He advised the early government of Zimbabwe and has published many books on the international relations of Southern Africa.

Social Foundations of Markets, Money and Credit

The idea that money and its power over the world needs to be demystified, is one that not many people will argue with. This snappy well argued book attempts to do exactly that.

Where does the power of money come from? Why is trust so important in financial operations? How does the swapping of gifts differ from the exchange of commodities? Where does self-interest stop and communal solidarity start in capitalist economies?

These issues and many more are discussed in a rigorous, yet readable, manner in Social Foundations of Markets, Money and Credit. It is shown in particular that capitalist economies are permeated with non-economic characteristics.
This carefully argued book will prove interesting and valuable to students and researchers not only in economics, but also in sociology and anthropology. Well-informed critics of capitalism will also find it a useful read.

Song Ceramics: Objects of Admiration

Written by Stacey Pierson,  & Shane McCausland, 7.8 x 9", 130 pp., 50 color illustrations, cloth, d.j., London, 2003.

Song Ceramics are among the most widely admired ceramics in the world. Produced in China from 960-1279 they are singled out for their beautiful glazes and classic form. This is an exhibition catalogue of full color images of 50 objects from the Percival David Foundation and contains a scholarly essay defining Song ceramics, their classification, their patronage, forms and functions and the technology of these ceramics. The subject of connoisseurship is covered by Dr. McCausland.Song Ceramics: Objects of Admiration

The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts

'... monumental ... splendid book ... expect to see a revival of Gilgamesh studies in the next few years, renewed and invigorated by George's magnificent study.' - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

'... exhaustive ... comprehensive ... George is an excellent cuneiformist and his edition is as complete as anyone might hope ... a great achievement.' - The Times Higher Education Supplement

'George will be thanked by Assyriologists for the labour of producing such a comprehensive edition of all known pieces of text, great and small.' - The Times Higher Education Supplement

Description

Presents a definitive text with full apparatus of introduction, translation, and commentary, and facsimiles of the cuneiform which are true to the original documents.Based on the author's first-hand study of all sources
Includes the complete cuneiform text and twenty-three new fragments

The Babylonian Gilgamesh epic is the acknowledged masterpiece of ancient Mesopotamian literature. Nevertheless it has to be re-edited periodically to take account of the enormous increase in primary sources that occurs every generation. Since the last critical edition of the epic seventy years ago the known fragments of the epic have almost doubled. This book collects all the extant texts in one place again, including twenty-three fragments published for the first time. The author has studied personally every available fragment to produce a definitive edition and translation. Four introductory chapters place the epic in its context and examine the name, person and traditions of Gilgamesh and other characters in the poem. The plates present the cuneiform text of all the extant fragments of the epic. The result is a publication which is a standard academic resource.

Readership: Academics in the fields of ancient (especially Mespotamian and Babylonian) literature, comparative literature, the history of epic poetry, ancient history, assyriology, Old Testament studies, anthropology, classics, and archaeology

Contents
1.Part One: Introduction
The literary history of the epic of Gilgamesh
2. The name of Gilgamesh and its history
3. Literary, historical, and religious traditions about Gilgamesh
4. Enkidu and others
5.
Part Two: The older versions of the epic
Old Babylonian Tablets and fragments
6. Middle Babylonian tablets and fragments
7. Assyrian fragments of one or more intermediate recensions
8.
Part Three: The Standard Babylonian Epic
The manuscripts of the standard Babylonian epic
9. Introduction to the text of the standard Babylonian epic
10. Synopsis and exegesis of the standard Babylonian epic
11. Edition of the standard Babylonian epic
12. Bilgames and the netherworld 172-end
13. Critical and philological notes on the standard Babylonian epic
Bibliography

Index of cuneiform tablets and other objects
Cuneiform texts
Plates

Authors, editors, and contributors

A. R. George, Professor of Babylonian at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

The Lost Tribes of Israel. The History of a Myth

The quest for the Lost Tribes of Israel, like the quest for the Holy Grail, is one of the enduring motifs underlying Western views of the wider world. It has spawned legends that have been used to explain the origin of myriad people around the globe, from ancient times until the present. Each tribe of Israel claimed descent from one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and the land of Israel was eventually divided up between them. The tribes disappeared from history centuries before Christ, but the Bible foretold that one day they would be reunited in the final redemption of the people of Israel. Their subsequent history became a tapestry of hearsay, and the belief persisted that they had been "lost" in some remote part of the world. In his new book, Tudor Parfitt travels the world to trace the history of this compelling myth. Tudor Parfitt is the author of "Operation Moses" and "Journey to a Vanished City."

The Rule of Water. Statecraft, Ecology and Collective Action in South India

This work, based on long term anthropoligical fieldwork, oral histories and detailed archival work, explores the changing ecology, political significance and cultural meaning of water in south India

Readership: Policy makers, post graduate students and researchers in South Asian Studies, history and anthropology, geography, poltical studies and development studies and those interested in environmental issues and community based resource management.

Authors, editors, and contributors

David Mosse, Dr, Senior Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Paperback: 356 pages
Publisher: OUP India; New edition edition (2 Jun 2005)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0195672208
ISBN-13: 978-0195672206
Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 1.8 cm

Unbecoming Citizens. Culture, Nationhood, and the Flight of Refugees from Bhutan

In this absorbing book, Michael Hutt provides a cogent analysis of the problems and challenges of nation-building facing a small land locked state and its repercussions on minority groups. Asian Voice

Product Description
During the early 1990s, about 95,000 people arrived in eastern Nepal. They claimed to have come from Bhutan, and they alleged that they had been forced out of their homelands by the Bhutanese government. Very few believed them, and even now, not a single one of these refugees has returned to Bhutan. This text explains who these people are and why they left Bhutan. It also examines the broader implications of their story for a world awash with refugees.

International Human Rights and Islamic Law

Review(s) from previous edition:

'Sensitive, highly informed and eminently readable, it offers a unique perspective that transcends the now trite arguments between the universalistic and cultural relativistic camps - in their evaluation of Human Rights in Muslim societies. It will undoubtedly prove beneficial, for these momentous times, as well as for the future.' - Hameed Agberemi, Research Fellow, Islam and Human Rights Programme, Emory University Law School, Atlanta
'Baderin has achieved in this slim volume what many a scholar might not have accomplished in a much larger one.' - Hameed Agberemi, Research Fellow, Islam and Human Rights Programme, Emory University Law School, Atlanta
'This sort of scholarship is particularly important for informing public policy in the present international environment.' - European Journal of International Law
'Baderin presents a masterful and thoroughly documented definition, exploration, and historical analysis of both 'human rights' and 'Islamic law'.' - European Journal of International Law
'Sensitive, highly informed and eminently readable, it offers a unique perspective that transcends the now trite arguments between the universalistic and cultural relativistic camps - in their evaluation of Human Rights in Muslim societies. It will undoubtedly prove beneficial, for these momentous times, as well as for the future.' - Hameed Agberemi, Research Fellow, Islam and Human Rights Programme, Emory University Law School, Atlanta
'This is an ambitious book...the book boldly challenges the argument that the observance of international human rights law is impossible within an Islamic legal dispensation' - Humanitäres Völkerrecht Informationsschriften

Description

A clear and readable examination of whether international human rights law and Islamic law are compatible
Careful presentation of this highly topical and difficult area
Provides persuasive and thoroughly documented definitions, historical analysis, and discussion

This volume examines the important question of whether or not international human rights and Islamic law are compatible. It asks whether Muslim States can comply with international human rights law whilst adhering to Islamic law. The traditional arguments on this subject are examined and responded to from both international human rights and Islamic legal perspectives. The volume engages international human rights law in theoretical dialogue with Islamic law, facilitating an evaluation of the human rights policy of modern Muslim States.

International Human Rights and Islamic Law formulates a synthesis between these two extremes, and argues that although there are differences of scope and application, there is no fundamental incompatibility between these two bodies of law. Baderin argues that their differences could be better addressed if the concept of human rights were positively established from within the themes of Islamic law, rather than by imposing it upon Islamic law as an alien concept.

Each article of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as relevant articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women are analysed in the light of Islamic law.

The volume concludes that it is possible to harmonise the differences between international human rights law and Islamic law through the adoption of the 'margin of appreciation' doctrine by international human rights treaty bodies and the utilization of the Islamic law doctrines of 'maqâsid al-sharî'ah ' (the overall objective of Sharî'ah ) and 'maslahah ' (welfare) by Muslim States in their interpretation and application of Islamic law respectively. Baderin asserts that Islamic law can serve as an important vehicle for the guarantee and enforcement of international human rights law in the Muslim world, and the volume concludes with recommendations to that effect.

Readership: Academics and post-graduate/advanced students of international human rights law, Islamic law and related areas. Human Rights Lawyers, Practitioners, Judges, and NGO's will also find the book useful.

Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Preface
Table of Cases
Table of Treaties and Declarations
Glossary
1. Introduction
2. Human Rights and Islamic Law
3. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in the Light of Islamic Law
4. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in the Light of Islamic Law
5. Conclusion
Annex: The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam
Bibliography

Authors, editors, and contributors

Mashood A. Baderin, Reader in Law, School of Law, University of the West of England, Bristol