BRILL
Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics; v.3: Lat-Pu.
The third volume of this magisterial series presents entries that span the alphabet from Latin America to Punctuation written by specialists at research institutions worldwide. Where appropriate, the entries contain detailed historical and sociocultural material describing the larger context of the speakers' lives and situations. Entry topics include theoretical terms such as "leveling", but most entries are on topics directly pertinent to Arabic, for example, locatives, Middle Arabic, modal verbs, morphology, negation, and passive syntax. Other entry topics are those for countries and dialects — Mali, Najdi Arabic, and Northwest Semitic languages among them. Two entries discuss lexicography, one is on bilingual dictionaries. Lists of bibliography divided into primary and secondary sources conclude each entry. As it is an encyclopedia, it is not further indexed. Versteegh is at the U. of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Encyclopedia of canonical hadith.
Juynboll, a scholar associated with Leiden U. whose work is often cited in scholarly discussions of hadith, treats this oral tradition second only to the Qur'an as a basis for Islamic beliefs, practices, and law. In his expansive introduction to this compilation of English translations of the major collections of canonical hadith, he explains the strands of these traditions and technical terms and methods he employs in analysis of their sometimes disputed chain of transmission (isnad), while avoiding repetitive texts. The volume includes an alphabetical list of persons ('common links') traced as associated with each tradition, a glossary of names and concepts, and selected Qur' — anic passages. Among his previous notable contributions is Muslim Tradition: Studies in Chronology, Provenance, and Authorship of Early Hadith, 1983. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Encyclopedia of religious and philosophical writings in late antiquity; pagan, Judaic, Christian.
Scholars mostly from the US describe religious and philosophical writing in the Mediterranean region from the fourth century BCE to the sixth century CE. They present the current consensus on each document's authorship, provenance, and importance to understanding the religious community from which it emerged and to which it contributed. Many of the texts are germane to mature Greco-Roman paganism and early Judaism and Christianity. Where relevant, modern translations are identified. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Encyclopedia of women & Islamic cultures; v.6: Supplement & index.
A large number of supplemental articles are to be found in this volume, as well as both subject and name indexes for the entire six- volume series. The supplemental articles are grouped according to the subject volume in which they were to have appeared, and alphabetically within each subject. Among the topics are a full series specific to the Caucasus; among them, jihad, mental health, courtship, drug use, NGO development, and film. Other topics include Adab literature from the 9th-13th centuries, modesty discourses in Canada, patronage and clientage in East Africa, and cottage industries in Turkey. Each of the articles is signed and concludes with a list of bibliography. This is the final volume of an impressive body of scholarship that began with Volume One in 2003. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Ephesians; empowerment to walk in love for the unity of all in Christ.
How does the structure of this letter, whether it is personal or encyclical, support its admonitions to the faithful for unity? Using literary-rhetorical and audience-oriented methods, Heil shows how this letter's structure works to convince the faithful that divine and human love combine in diverse ways to build and maintain unity. He concentrates on the chiastic structures of the letter at the micro and macro levels, showing how St. Paul builds from concepts of divine/human love to assertions that Christ's love makes him head over all the church and that the faithful should emulate that love in their relations with each other. Thanks to Heil's comprehensive bibliography and scripture index this could serve as a thorough study guide as well as a satisfying analysis. Society for Biblical Literature publishes the paperbound edition; Brill, the hardbound. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Essays on Halakhah in the New Testament.
Jewish law specialist Jackson (modern Jewish studies, U. of Manchester) has added three new essays to five reprinted slightly revised from publication where New Testament scholars were unlikely ever to see them. They explore the appearance of Jewish law or references to it in the New Testament. Topics include the trials of Jesus and Jeremiah, the Jewish background to the Prodigal Son, and risk-taking shepherds. The series continues its high-quality scholarship to match the high quality of the publisher's volumes. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The European Community and marine environmental protection in the international law of the sea; implementing global obligations at the regional level.
This text provides an account of how the European Community and its member states implement, in terms of standard setting (not enforcement), the international ocean regime established by the Law of the Sea Convention and marine environmental agreements, focusing on the joint participation of the Community and the member states in the work and activities of the decision making bodies set out by the Conventions, the main political forums which are competent for ocean issues, and the adoption by the Community of implementing legislation. The scope is limited to the implementation of the international rules governing vessel-source pollution, ocean dumping, and the protection of marine habitats through the establishment and management of marine protected areas, the three of which are chosen for examination because of the manner in which they illustrate different approaches to marine environmental issues by the Community. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The European Convention on Human Rights; collected essays.
A judge of the European Court of Human Rights and former member of the European Commission on Human Rights, Loucaides assembles 13 articles, each written to provide an exposition and analysis of a specific topic of human rights. Many of the topics have not been addressed previously or that he approaches from a novel direction. Among them are the continuing violations of human rights, the protection of the right to property in occupied territories, and the right of return. Some articles have been published previously in international legal periodicals. Martinus Nijhoff is an imprint of Brill. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Explaining Christian origins and early Judaism; contributions from cognitive and social science.
The general exchange of ideas between historians and cognitive scientists has been particularly intense between scholars of comparative religion and biblical scholars in Finland. Other patrons of the bars began complaining, so an international symposium was held during August-September 2005 in Helsinki. The invitations included a challenge for scholars to write outside their area of expertise. The 13 essays, translated from Finnish, explore such topics as the mystery of the stolen body, conceptual blending and early Christian imagination, and social identity in the Qumran movement. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Extradition to and from the United States, rev. ed.
Abbell is the former director of the Office of International Affairs, Criminal Division, US Department of Justice. This reference begins with a brief history of the subject and discussion of its evolution and reasons for the rapid increase in activity. Following are details of statutes pertaining to extradition from and to the US, treaties and other agreements, and operation in practice. Release Number 3 is dated February 2007. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
French vernacular books; books published in the French language before 1601; 2v.
This two-volume reference results from a research project begun in 1995 at the U. of St. Andrews (UK) in order to identify surviving copies of all known editions of works published in the French vernacular language "during the first great age of print" (i.e. prior to 1601), including works published outside of France. Any work wholly are largely printed with movable type, including single-sheet broadsheets, have been included for listing (this definition excludes manuscript books), as have books known to be published even if a surviving copy has not been located and bilingual or multilingual works that have French as a component. The project investigated Parisian libraries, French municipal libraries outside the capital, and collections outside of France as the main sources of information, but other sources were employed as well. Altogether, 51,753 books are listed in the reference. Listings are organized alphabetically by author name and include information on the work's title (in French), year and place of publication, and current location(s) identified by library codes found at the start of the reference. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Future matters; action, knowledge, ethics.
Adam (sociology) and Groves (social sciences, both Cardiff U., Wales) explore the relationship between worldviews inspired by modern science and their influence on contemporary societies' attitudes to the future. They trace the collective cultural history of the west to compare but also connect the contemporary ways of taming the unknown with those of predecessors. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
God's acting, man's acting; tradition and philosophy in Philo of Alexandria.
In the Biblical model, God first creates the world, then intervenes often in it; in the Platonic model, God is a distant and unchanging abstraction. Calabi (philosophy in late antiquity, U. of Pavia) argues that Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo (20BC-50AD) drew from both, and celebrated the contradiction between them as fertile and complex, and a model for humans. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The Greater Middle East in global politics; social science perspectives on the changing geography of the world politics.
The Greater Middle East includes North Africa, the Arab and non-Arab Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Central Asia. Though most of the countries were part of the last three great Islamic civilizations, the definition is said to be based on external analysis in internal relations rather than on religion. Political and other social scientists from Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, and Australia offer a historical-comparative study of state and society complexes in selected countries from 1798 to the present. In the greater number of countries, they find that the failure to establish democracy has resulted in a chronic development crisis. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Hague yearbook of international law 2006; v.19.
This yearbook contains four articles and a summary of activities of international law institutions at The Hague, including cases before the court during 2005 and 2006. Articles discuss environmental dispute settlement; the Barbados/Trinidad and Tobago Maritime Delimitation (Jurisdiction and Merits) Award, which related to compulsory jurisdiction and equitable maritime boundary delimitation; international responsibility and liability for damage control caused by environmental interferences; and Sudan's peace agreements. Also provided are reports of the International Criminal Court, the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia Since 1991, the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, and work of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The yearbook is a continuation of the Yearbook of the Association of Attenders and Alumni of the Hague Academy of International Law of which the last volume is vol. 54/55/56 covering the years 1984/1985/1986. There is no index. Nijhoff is an imprint of Brill. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Handbook of WTO-GATT dispute settlement; 3v.
Originating in the work of Professor Pierre Pescatore, who analyzed the complete set of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade decisions in the field of dispute settlement and established the secondary law on dispute settlement, the formal data on the panel reports, the summaries, the key-words, and the excerpts (as well as a number of different indexes), the work of the Handbook now includes World Trade Organization decisions and is in the editorial hands of Stewart and Stewart, a Washington, DC law firm focusing on international trade, customs, international transactions, and administrative law. The three-volumes of the Handbook provide an overview of the dispute settlement system and discuss the drafting and analysis of decisions on dispute settlement. By far the bulk of the volumes, however, is taken up with presentation of the repertory, which includes a chronological list of GATT and WTO dispute settlement decisions, decision summaries, and the above mentioned indices, including a key word index that groups decisions by legal concept and subject. Each decision has been assigned an identification number that remains consistent throughout the repertory. Also included are the texts of governing documents. Post binder. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Heaven and earth in the Gospel of Matthew.
St. Matthew's gospel contains frequent references, often ignored, to the tension that exists between heaven and earth, or God and humanity. Pennington (New Testament interpretation, Southern Seminary, Louisville) considers the role these images play in St. Matthew's project, especially his eschatology, as he first describes the gospel's historical backgrounds and contexts, examining the meanings of "heaven" in the Old Testament and Second temple texts. He surveys the use of the term within the gospel and places the concepts of heaven and earth within the context of Matthean studies and theology. He then compares St. Matthew's use of heaven language in his theme of heaven and earth with that common to the Septuagint and Second Temple literature, examines the concept of God as Father in the gospel, and fully explores St. Matthew's ideas about the kingdom of heaven. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Historic cities of the Islamic world.
Assembled as a clear, one-stop supplement to the authoritative but more unwieldy Encyclopedia of Islam, 2d ed., where the articles first appeared in shorter form, this volume presents concise histories and descriptions of major cities of Islam. Cities in the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, Spain, India, and Southeast Asia are included. The entry for each city is divided into two sections: the city's history and its monuments, concluding with a list of bibliography. Many of the entries are authored or co-authored by Bosworth (emeritus, Arabic studies, Manchester U., the UK). Concluding the volume are a series of b&w plates containing historic views of monuments, often with details of their architecture, and ground plans, arranged alphabetically by city. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
A history of contemporary Chinese literature.
Here presented for the first time in English translation, Hong's (contemporary Chinese literature, Beijing U., China) thorough survey of Chinese fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction was first published in Chinese in 1999. The works discussed were written between 1949-1999. The text proceeds chronologically, with a focus on stylistic trends and literary themes. The depth of scholarship is impressive. Readers may find the constant use of quotation marks surrounding common words and phrases (perhaps a result of the translation) a tiresome impediment to the author's otherwise cogent discussion. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Housing in late antiquity; from palaces to shops.
Two 2003 colloquia are the source of the 19 selected papers: of architectural historians in Denver during April and of late antique archaeologists in Padova during May. They survey developments in Mediterranean housing from the fourth to sixth centuries AD, with some addressing later and less well known periods. Among the topics are episcopal residences in northern Italy, the architecture of spatial control for public use and privacy in Asia Minor, Carthage and its territory, and an Umayyad period house at Pella in Jordan. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
