Rabith Shaikh

Nagmeh Sohrabi writes this piece on Qajar era Iranian travelogues at a time of intense scrutiny into geopolitical aspirations of the revolutionary Islamic Iran. She has tried to bring out the unexpected and inconceivable motives behind these travelogues: the promotion of Iran as a land distinct to the West with its own grandiose characteristics and Qajar propaganda at home. Sohrabi investigates four travelogues and the extensive practice of travel writing during the Qajar era to point to this project, which probably was undertaken and promoted by the Qajar imperial court. Two of these travelogues were written by members of the Qajar court who were sent on separate diplomatic missions to Europe: Mirza Abul Hasan Khan Ilchi and Mirza Fattah Khan Garmrudi. One was written by the Qajar monarch Nasir al – Din Shah himself throughout his multiple travels within his empire and to Europe. The last of these was written by Hajj Mirza Muhammad ‘Ali Na’ini (Haaji Pirzadah). Pirzadah as Sohrabi points out, spends much time in composing a prose to compare Persia and the West. She categorizes Pirzadah’s travelogue to that of a trend in existence during the Nasiri period, emanating from Nasir al – Din Shah’s travels and travelogues.  Ibrahim Sahhafbashi and Hajj Sayyah Mahallati, as Sohrabi puts, were the other two most well-known bearers of this trend.

In 'Impossible Exodus' Orit Bashkin brings to light a new facet of Jewish Migration to the Holy land. The pioneers of Zionism saw in migration of Jews to Ottoman Palestine an escape from their life in indignity in Europe. The pioneers had no reason to include the Jews of the Arab world living at the time under Ottoman suzerainty in this grand scheme which was aimed at salvaging the European Jews. The scenario changed dramatically after Israel declared its independence in 1948 and the resultant exodus of Palestinians form the erstwhile Mandatory Palestine. Fraternal emotions for Palestinian Arabs from across the border surmounted the interreligious relation Arab Muslims and Arab Jews shared for centuries in the Arab world. These emotional ruptures and subsequent public wrath at the Jews led to the mass migration of Jews in the Arab world to Israel. In this piece Orit Bashkin tells the story of Iraqi Jews in their first years as migrants in Israel. She relies on testimonies of Iraqi Jewish writers in Arabic language newspapers like Al – Ittihad, Al – Mirsad and Al – Huriya. She taps into the archives of Knesset discussion minutes to shed light on the Israeli state policy on migration and perception of Israeli leadership on Iraqi Jewish migrants. Bashkin uses literary works of Iraqi Jews with hints to the Iraqi Jewish experiences in the transit camps in their early years in Israel to reify the story she tells.

Mohammad Reza Shah initiated a process to modernize Iran on the lines of his father once he assumed direct control over Iran, after the fall of Mosaddegh. The land reforms initiated in 1962, the nation building projects under the five-year plans fueled by the oil revenues and the subsequent increase in literacy rate set up the stage for a pre – revolutionary psyche in the Iranian people. This psyche was an amalgamation of discontents towards Shah’s policies and his rule. The land reforms liberated a lot of peasants from the clutches of land-owning families; however, the reforms fell short of providing these peasants with strong means to maintain livelihoods in the aftermath of these reforms’ implementation. The oil boom allowed the Shah’s government to undertake and encourage industrialization of the country on a massive scale centering the monarchy’s cities. This catalyzed an urban migration at an unprecedented scale. The increase in literacy rate created skilled workers for Shah’s modernization projects. However, their supply could not keep up with the demand for skilled workers necessary for these projects. And, all these jobs were concentrated in the cities. The demand for housing and subsequent increase in rents, degradation in quality of lives in the cities (traffic jam, pollution), hiring of foreign skilled workers with higher pay; among other reasons led to discontent. The literate class got subscribed to the ideas of intellectuals speaking adversely of Shah’s reforms. I argue that the land reforms, modernization projects facilitated by the oil boom and increase in literacy rate along with certain other factors created a set of circumstances in Iran; which drove Iranians into a confrontation with the Shah (in the aftermath of the dramatic increase in oil revenues after 1973 and resultant inflation) and led to his eventual downfall.

When we measure the successes of the partition plans in British India and Mandatory Palestine, partition of British India comes out as a success story. I have argued, in this paper, why I think partition in British India succeeded. Drawing in the major components of the British Partition plan of India, which turned it into a success; I try to argue, had the same approach been taken in Mandatory Palestine, probably UN partition plan in Mandatory Palestine would also be successful. The lack in political action on part of the Palestinian leadership, left the mandate authority with little idea, on the type of settlement, Palestinian Arabs expected or would agree to. The Palestinian leadership were outright in their demand for formation of one state in Palestine. This was a demand, which was unacceptable to Jewish leadership, and one that Britain could not deliver. The UN partition plan on Mandatory Palestine had serious fallacies, at the same time Palestinian Arab leadership showed little political acumen. Both of these contributed to the failure of UN partition plan in Mandatory Palestine.

Invasive species on islands rarely occur in isolation, and their removal will affect other species, both natives and invasives. Hence, conservation interventions must proceed carefully to avoid unintended consequences. A common invaded ecosystem motif consists of an invasive apex predator, an invasive mesopredator, and a native prey species—for example feral cats, rats and native seabirds. Eradication programs that specifically target apex predators can lead to mesopredator release, which may (and paradoxically) increase negative impacts on native species. We seek to develop management strategies that can remove both invasive predators, while allowing for the best recovery scenario for the native species. Specifically, we use systems of differential equations to model interacting species, and we seek to understand whether the two invasive species should be eradicated sequentially or simultaneously, when the latter option means that scarce management resources must be shared between the species. We find that (1) simultaneous eradication of both invasive species provides the greatest benefit for the native species, but (2) a sequential approach can be cheaper. Importantly, cheaper strategies incur the risk of poor native species recovery. Whether the cheaper option is to remove the apex predator first or the mesopredator first depends primarily on whether the mesopredator prefers the native species or alternative food sources. Hence, with limited knowledge of prey preferences, the simulations predator eradication strategy has the best chance of minimising unintended negative effects for native prey species.