This study seeks to identify the major trends that have shaped the past history and present development of Shari'a ("Islamic Law") approaches to criminal justice and penology. It further attempts to show how the record of Islamic legal thought contrasts to the simplistic Western image of "Islamic law" as characterized by, or even limited to, harsh public punishments for minor offenses or sexual conduct of a sort no longer criminalized in the West. / The history and intellectual development of Muslim thought in the areas of criminal justice and penology are traced from early Islamicate times to the present day.$\sp1$ The extensive development of Shari'a family, business, and other "civil" law through Islamicate history is contrasted to the general nonapplication of Shari'a criminal law by Muslim rulers who judged it overly lenient and procedurally demanding for their needs, or even their subjects' protection. Only with the advent of the Western challenge--which was felt in some parts of the Muslim world as early as the eighteenth century--was renewed attention given to the study of Islamic criminology and penology. At the present date, no serious effort to codify and systematize Islamic criminal law has yet been made. The future development of an Islamic legal code, and the West's response, will be an important element in shaping the future relations of the Muslim world and the West. This study has been aimed at bringing the Islamic World into the literature of criminology and criminal justice--it fills a gap in the literature in this field. ftn$\sp1$This usage, borrowed from Hodgson (1974) distinguishes features of Islam as a faith (called here "Islamic") from those which are characteristic of predominantly Muslim cultures, but are not part of Islam per se, which will be called here "Islamicate." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: A, page: 0691. / Major Professor: Frederic L. Faust. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study, first, looks at the underlying causes of the housing problem in Iran, and second, examines the relationships of the number of housing co-ops in a region with the level of economic development and the need for decent and affordable housing in that region. / The census data on all 24 ostans (provinces) and 496 cities in Iran are used in this study. The results indicate that in more developed ostans, greater number of housing co-ops can be expected. However, other indicators such as the ostans' housing costs and the populations' incomes are also influential factors in explaining the variations in the number of housing co-ops. The less aggregate, city-level data also show that the presence of higher education institution in cities affects the mean number of housing co-ops in the city. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: A, page: 4607. / Major Professor: Charles E. Connerly. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Imam Musa al-Sadr (1347 AH, 1928 CE), is an Iranian Shi'i Imam with Lebanese ancestry. He became the leader of the Shi'i community in Lebanon in 1959 after the death of the local leader. He lived in Lebanon for about nineteen years before his sudden disappearance during an official visit to Libya in 1978. His stay in Lebanon marked a major transformation in the political, social, religious, and economic life of the Shi'i community. It also marked a major change in the history of Lebanon and the Lebanese as a whole. His work and accomplishments touched all the Lebanese no matter what religion, region, or political affiliation they belonged to. This dissertation will discuss and analyze the life of Imam Musa, as he was known by his followers; his numerous writings, speeches, and manifestos; the contributions he made to the advancement of the Shi'i community in Lebanon. It will also analyze his appeal for Muslim unity around the world and religious tolerance between the various religious communities in Lebanon. Finally this dissertation will look at the legacy he left and the future of the Shi'ah in Lebanon. This study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is about the Shi'i community in Lebanon, its history, numbers and political and socio-economic status at the time of Imam Musa's arrival to Lebanon. The second chapter looks at the life of Imam Musa al-Sadr, his accomplishments, the changes he was able to affect for and within the Shi'i community, and his untimely disappearance in 1978. Chapter two also discusses the Imam by looking at him from three different points of view: the man, his political thought and his role as a religious reformer. "Imam Musa: The man" is a personal look at the Imam and views of people who lived and dealt with him throughout the nineteen years he spent in Lebanon. "Imam Musa: His Political Thought" discusses his dealings with the Lebanese government, the Christian parties, the Leftist Muslim parties and the Palestinians. "Imam Musa: Religious Reformer" analyzes his views on religion and relations between religions. As a reformer Imam Musa advocated unity between Muslims around the world, a more active role for women in Islamic society, and tolerance for other religions. The third chapter analyzes Imam Musa's literary output (books, speeches, and manifestos) during his tenure in Lebanon. These will be analyzed in their relation to Imam Musa's life and accomplishments in Lebanon. The fourth chapter looks at the legacy of the Imam, the fate of the Shi'i community since his disappearance, and the future of the community in Lebanon.

<p> This cultural study critically investigates the mechanics of the revolutionary posters that were used for mobilizing the Iranian masses and later incorporated by the Islamic propaganda machinery to mark the continuity of the Iranian Revolution. The posters are organized thematically: The initial posters incorporate the religious/secular symbolism of coffeehouse-style poster paintings from the Qajar-era and are followed by posters showcasing the means and spaces of mobilization including the influence of the mosque, religious seminaries, cassette tapes and city walls. The posters in the middle of the thesis try to showcase how influential the rhetoric of Shi'ite Ideology was as projected by the revolutionary ideologues in appealing to the different religious minorities and classes under the Pahlavi state for the resistance movement. The photographic posters follow these national cohesion posters and bridge history and memory, thus situating these posters in the realm of sites of memory, mourning and commemoration. The posters in the last segment include the following themes: gender, commemoration of national and international events including the Iran-Iraq War, and the Gathering of the Liberation Movements of the World. Contrary to the argument portraying posters as insignificant to the Iranian Revolution, this study locates the propaganda images in the milieu of "small media" sparking a "big revolution." Simultaneously, this study reveals the inescapability faced by the ideologues in utilizing abstract, grotesque and profane themes to mobilize and mark the continuity of Anti-Western, Anti-Modern Islamist Revolution.</p>

<p> The purpose of this phenomenological study is to investigate how expatriate Persian women, living in the United States, experience the damaging influence of traditional patriarchy. The resulting alienation from the self and this alienation&rsquo;s attendant psychological symptoms have been investigated under the conceptual heading of psychological exile, which has been treated by many preeminent schools in the psychotherapeutic tradition. The contemporary dynamic of exile has been set within a historical context, in which the rise of monotheism led to the destruction of matriarchal power structures. </p><p> In order to focus on how psychological exile is experienced by Persian women in diaspora, a phenomenological method was adopted: Persian women from three different age groups were interviewed, and their interviews were revised through a collaborative process between the interviewer and participants. The psychological essence of these related experiences was then distilled through the Giorgi method of interview data analysis (Giorgi &amp; Giorgi, 2003), combined with Robert Romanyshyn&rsquo;s method of Portrait Analysis (Romanyshyn, personal communications, 2010, 2011). From each of the three groups, emergent common themes were extracted and compared. </p><p> The patriarchal system has favored males and devalued females for centuries; each generation transmits its conceptual framework and cultural practices to the next generation, a process in which women are themselves complicit. This patriarchal system has not just limited the role of women in society, but has also actively damaged them by marring their identities, compromising their feminine natures, hiding them behind the veil of <i>abroo</i>, and robbing them of their natural language. These wounds manifest themselves through sexual repression, depression, and various other psychological symptoms. </p><p> The elucidation of how these women experience hierarchy&rsquo;s damaging effects will have many implications for therapists treating Persians. This research project was undertaken with the goal of providing a roadmap for therapists treating Persian clients.</p>

A multidisciplinary approach is utilized to assess the organization and use of ancient and medieval Near Eastern textual deposits. An elaborate survey of the published material in ancient Near Eastern studies and library and archival studies indicates a general and pervasive insensitivity to and misuse of key terminological constructs. The indistinct portrayal of the nature of ancient libraries and archives is identified as of particular concern; as well as a widespread disregard for the recognition of textual collections older than the famed Library of Alexandria. This dissertation endeavours to indicate the presence of distinct textual collective units in the ancient Near Eastern context on equal footing with their much later counterparts and more broadly defined than the traditional library and archive, to include entities such as the geniza, building and foundation deposits, and so forth. Furthermore, the ancient temple library, as a restricted and well-regulated collective entity, is suggested as representative of literary standardization in the Near East, and the canonization process of the Hebrew Bible, in particular. Ancient archives are attested as equally prevalent textual units, clearly distinguishable from adjunct textual deposits, often loosely, but incorrectly, termed "archives" in modern scholarly discourse. In conclusion, this dissertation reconsiders the status of the two traditionally most valued ancient textual entities, the Library of Assurbanipal and the Library of Alexandria, and concludes that these entities are atypical examples of ancient textual collections. As closest claimants to the improbable and often religiously imbued ideal of universal collection of information, these libraries erroneously became the impossible standards by which all ancient collections were measured and found wanting. As alternate, the applicability of the theoretical constructs proposed in the earlier part of this dissertation, such as the introduction of an in

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Eurasian Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 19, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0695. Adviser: Christopher I. Beckwith.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4328. Adviser: Paul F. Diehl. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-269) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> This dissertation investigates the coterminous emergence of imperial documentary operations and modernization programs in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s. It argues that the period saw a governing investment in documentary format and documentary "value," and that this was a response to the containment strategy of cultural diplomacy at the onset of the Cold War. It's focus is a mixed group of governmental and non-governmental entities. The project makes evident how a group of events and practices involved in foreign diplomacy campaigns of knowledge/intelligence and large scale overseas modernization programs give rise to a discourse of documentary diplomacy. The output of these projects was varied: locally-made rural training films; newsmagazine newsreel; travelogues, and the exported nontheatrical American documentaries. As the dissertation demonstrates, they were influenced by a weaponized ethnographic documentary experience, first formulated in Asia by Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson in the late 1930s. The subsequent rise of governing investment in culture for imperial planning during the 1940s, large scale government experiment with training films during World War II, and governing investment in grassroots audiovisual movement of educational film in the United States all bear the marks of these knowledge/intelligence campaigns. The path to freedom, accordingly, became a bifurcating atomized process that ultimately reconceptualized geopolitically sensitive nation-states as people, as audiences, and eventually as individuals available to be freed from their own "hostile" and "uncooperative" governments on their way toward building bottom-up democratic movements. </p><p> Containment campaigns of defending American capitalism against Soviet communism in postcolonial nation-states led to a proliferation of instructional films throughout the world. These missions invested in local filmmaking and established pockets of documentary infrastructure that inevitably played some roles in the making and transformation of national cinemas. As a case study of the emerging discourse of documentary diplomacy, this dissertation also investigates American documentary operations in Iran during the 1940s and 1950s and demonstrates how US-Iranian media projects institutionalized documentary, audiovisual modernization, and media governance in Iran. The Syracuse documentary mission to Iran emerged as among the most important sites of such campaigns. For instance, the first generation of localizing newsmagazine series were made in Iran for Iranians by Iranian crew, using American planning, infrastructure and capital. With this convenient "usage," however, also came subscribing to an ideological package. Media producers and advisors from thirty-five American universities, under Syracuse University's binational contract with American and Iranian governments, participated in this work by 1959. </p><p> As this research project demonstrates, documentary diplomacy in this era brings into contact and coherence film and legal discourse, diplomatic policymaking, film practice, and applied social scientific research and intelligence production. In this respect, documentary diplomacy encompasses a set of events that include making documentary, mobile screening, expert viewing, national character research, applied anthropology intelligence work, survey trips, public opinion projects, courses of audiovisual and documentary training, and nation-building projects of central documentary infrastructure and media governance. </p><p> This dissertation argues that localized missions of overseas audiovisual training and documentary filmmaking and infrastructure during the 1950s operate through a propaganda facade of apolitical modernization by building on the governing strategy of welfare imperialism via invitation. In some cases, this went to extent of sponsoring anti-leftist localized newsreel campaigns of crushing local journalism and a wide range of objectifying practices. The village how-to films enforced a rapid modernization campaign while audiovisual training facilitated central education and governing. The dissertation also argues that the apolitical facade of the imperial documentary campaign in Iran is an expression of claiming fakery and manipulation in the name of the real. </p><p> The project draws from a wealth of declassified archival sources in the United States National Archives at College Park, the Library of Congress, the Archives of Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and other sources including individual memoirs and interviews. The archival sources include memoranda of film scripts, film receipts, correspondence, embassy notes, university and government contract, cultural manuals, immigrant interviews and a documentary bible of administrative film theory and production. </p><p> Following the case study of Iran, the dissertation extrapolates that researching the genealogical course of postwar imperial campaigns of documentary diplomacy in the Middle East and Asia can contribute to understanding of the transformation of modernization programs of central education, media cultures and media governance.</p><p>

The subject of this dissertation is the awareness of linguistic diversity in the Hebrew Bible—that is, the recognition evident in certain biblical texts that the world’s languages differ from one another. Given the frequent role of language in conceptions of identity, the biblical authors’ reflections on language are important to examine. Of the biblical texts that explicitly address the subject of linguistic diversity, some are specific, as in references to particular languages (e.g., “Aramaic”), while others refer to linguistic multiplicity generally, as in the Tower of Babel episode (Gen 11:1–9). Linguistic difference is also indicated implicitly, as when the speech of Laban in Gen 29–31 exhibits Aramaic-like features that emphasize his foreignness. Building on previous studies of limited scope, my approach is to collect and analyse the evidence for awareness of linguistic diversity in the biblical books comprehensively. Drawing on concepts from sociolinguistics, including style-switching, code-switching, and language ideology, I categorize such evidence and explain its significance with respect to its literary and historical contexts. I thus contribute to wider debates on the sociolinguistics of ancient Hebrew, the development of the concept of the “holy language” in Judaism, and the topic of linguistic diversity in the broader ancient Near East. I find that the notion of linguistic diversity is used in the Hebrew Bible to set up, and also to challenge, boundaries of various kinds, be they territorial, as in the Shibboleth test (Judg 12:5–6), ethnic, as with the Judaean-Ashdodite children (Neh 13:23–4), or theological, as in Jeremiah’s Aramaic oracle against idols (Jer 10:11). My analysis shows that references to linguistic diversity are concentrated in texts of the Achaemenid Persian period and later, reflecting changes in the sociolinguistic circumstances of Judaeans. Yet in all periods Israel and Judah’s encounters with the empires Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia influenced attitudes towards linguistic diversity, whether this influence be manifested in fear (Jer 5:15) or ridicule (Esth 8:9). Overall, linguistic difference is not the primary means by which the biblical authors distinguish Israel from the nations, nor do they attribute a unique religious function to their own language. / Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations