muhammad ibn jarir al-tabari (839-923) was a moslem historian and religious scholar whose annals are the most important source for the early history of islam. he is also a renowned author of a monumental commentary on the koran. at tabari wrote history, theology and qur'anic commentary. his legal writings were published first and then continued to appear throughout his life. next were his ...

This chapter pertains to exploring the political resurgence of religion, seeking to answer the pressing question of first, what accounts for religious revival in the age of globalization and second, what accounts for the political success or failure of religious movements, mostly in terms of exerting political influence on their domestic spheres and arenas. In order to answer these questions, t...

Calendrical calculations are ubiquitous. Banks need to calculate interest on a daily basis. Operating systems need to switch to and from daylight savings time. Dates of secular and religious holidays need to be computed for consideration in planning events. Paychecks need to be issued on weekly, biweekly, or monthly schedules. Bills and statements must be generated periodically. Most of these c...

Between late 2003 and mid 2004, young Moslem women in France engaged in a series of demonstrations against the French government’s recent decision to legislate to ban the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in French state schools. These young women typically articulated their demands in terms not of a call for their religious or ethnic difference to be shown greater tolerance but rather on the ba...

This study explores the therapeutic implications of including culturally adapted spiritual ceremonies in the process of testimonial therapy for torture survivors in India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Data were collected through an action research process with Asian mental health and human rights organizations, during which the testimonial method was reconceptualized and modified t...

High-resolution Y chromosome haplotype analysis was performed in 143 paternally unrelated Israeli and Palestinian Moslem Arabs (I&P Arabs) by screening for 11 binary polymorphisms and six microsatellite loci. Two frequent haplotypes were found among the 83 detected: the modal haplotype of the I&P Arabs (~14%) was spread throughout the region, while its one-step microsatellite neighbor, the moda...

The detailed information on the chemical and nutritional content is essential for consumers in choosing meat-derived food products. For moslem communities, it is prohibited to consume pork-contained or other pig derivatives foods. Unfortunately, meat adulteration by means of mixing beef and chicken with pork or other pig derivatives frequently occurs in the market. This habits cause difficult i...

Mitochondrial DNA analysis of Atlantic European samples has detected significant latitudinal clines for several clusters with Paleolithic (H) and Neolithic (J, U4, U5a1, and U5a1a) coalescence ages in Europe. These gradients may be explained as the result of Neolithic influence on a rather homogeneous Paleolithic background. There is also evidence that some Neolithic clusters reached this borde...

GH secretion and release are complex phenomena depending on activation of several genes, including those encoding GH, GHRH, and its receptor (GHRH-R). The GH gene, which is the most extensively analyzed sequence in patients with familial GH deficiency (GHD), represents the main known target of mutations. To test the involvement of the GHRH-R gene in this disease phenotype, we investigated one c...