Textual representations of the socio-urban history of Baghdad : critical approaches to the historiography of Baghdad in the 18th and 19th centuries

This thesis focuses on historiography, which is the study of history and methodology of the discipline of history. The problems of historical theory and the role of critical theory in historical understanding are the main objectives of this study. The thesis explores the urban history of Baghdad in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to posit alternative historiographical methods that involve non-conventional textual representations as historical evidence. These textual representations include poetry, travelogues and narratives around non-monumental everyday urban places, all of which are often ignored in conventional history writing. Conventional approaches to historiography are normally single-layered and limited, and contain gaps or ‘absences’ of distinctive local historical themes and spaces that are smoothed over by grand narratives. The alternative method in historiography suggested in this thesis emphasises the need for closer ties between history and literary criticism. It interprets literature in relation to knowledge, and it discloses their philosophical connections to the ‘overlooked’ meanings in urban history. Although the alternative method comprises strong links to literary analysis, the thesis seeks a combination of both scientific and speculative philosophies, and an addition of extra concepts, towards the generation of specific historiographical concepts and themes. Baghdad provides an excellent vehicle to investigate the general problem of historiography, with its complex history of conquest and colonisation, its long history of creative writings and the vague representation of its urban spaces in current historiographical studies. Although this thesis explored the entire history of Baghdad, the period of interest is the Mamluk period between mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. In addition to the transformation and change that shaped Baghdad’s urban history, this period significantly produced rich poetry and historical narratives that embraced plentiful themes of the urban development of the city, which have been overlooked in conventional historiography. These themes include the measures of beauty of Baghdad, the attractive and interlocking qualities of the Tigris River, Karkh region and markets, the multiple meanings of gardens and learning centres, and the social and leisure significance of houses. The thesis focuses on the poetry of the prominent scholar and poet Sheikh Kadhem Al-Uzari, the historian and religious scholar Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Al-Suwaidi, and the poet and chief of the writing bureau in Baghdad Sheikh Saleh Al-Tamimi, in addition to a number of texts by other scholars in that period. The thesis also focuses on the travelogues of mainly four travelers who wrote significant observations of Baghdad during this period, namely; the surveyor Carsten Niebuhr, the entomologist Guillaume Antoine Olivier, the British resident Claudius Rich and the traveler and writer James Silk Buckingham.The thesis also refers to the writings of philosophers such as Edward Said, Hans Georg Gadamer and Michel Foucault for philosophical frameworks to outline the alternative method of interpretation of these texts. The analysis of poetry and narratives composed by Baghdadis in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and of travelogues of the same period, is ‘another’ method in historiography that is intended to support and complement the existing understanding of the city’s history, and to attain a more dialogical interface with the past. In this way, historiography becomes a more critical influential discipline in historical studies

Particle relabelling transformations in elastodynamics

The motion of a self-gravitating hyperelastic body is described through a time-dependent mapping from a reference body into physical space, and its material properties are determined by a referential density and strain-energy function defined relative to the reference body. Points within the reference body do not have a direct physical meaning, but instead act as particle labels that could be assigned in different ways. We use Hamilton’s principle to determine how the referential density and strain-energy functions transform when the particle labels are changed, and describe an associated “particle relabelling symmetry”. We apply these results to linearised elastic wave propagation, and discuss their implications for seismological inverse problems. In particular, we show that the effects of boundary topography on elastic wave propagation can be mapped exactly into volumetric heterogeneity while preserving the form of the equations of motion. Several numerical calculations are presented to illustrate our results.O.C. is supported through a NERC PhD studentship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Oxford University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggw03

Particle relabelling transformations in elastodynamics

The motion of a self-gravitating hyperelastic body is described through a time-dependent mapping from a reference body into physical space, and its material properties are determined by a referential density and strain-energy function defined relative to the reference body. Points within the reference body do not have a direct physical meaning, but instead act as particle labels that could be assigned in different ways. We use Hamilton's principle to determine how the referential density and strain-energy functions transform when the particle labels are changed, and describe an associated ‘particle relabelling symmetry’. We apply these results to linearized elastic wave propagation and discuss their implications for seismological inverse problems. In particular, we show that the effects of boundary topography on elastic wave propagation can be mapped exactly into volumetric heterogeneity while preserving the form of the equations of motion. Several numerical calculations are presented to illustrate our results

Introductory editorial: drug-eluting stents or drug-eluting grafts? Insights from proteomic analysis

No abstract available

Calculation of seismic displacement fields in self-gravitating earth models—applications of minors vectors and symplectic structure

An account is given of the minor vector method that allows for the stable numerical integration of the systems of linear ordinary differential equations occurring in a number of geophysical problems. In particular, new results are presented that allow for the application of the method to the solution of 6-D inhomogeneous boundary value problems, such as those encountered in the calculation of seismic displacement fields in spherically symmetric, self-gravitating earth models. In addition, the symplectic structure possessed by many of the ordinary differential equations of interest is described. It is shown how this structure can be used to simplify the numerical implementation of the minor vector method and also to concisely derive a number of theoretical results about the eigenfrequencies and eigenfunctions of a linearly anelastic earth model

'A boy would be friends with boys... and a girl... with girls' : gender norms in early adolescent friendships in Egypt and Belgium

Purpose: A gender analysis was conducted to illuminate the key elements of friendships highlighted by early adolescent girls and boys in two sites for the purpose of better understanding the impact of gender norms on adolescent friendships in different contexts. Methods: Narrative interviews with early adolescents were conducted in two sites: Assiut, Egypt (n = 37) and Ghent, Belgium (n = 30). The interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated into English, and coded using Atlas.ti for analysis. Results: In both Assiut and Ghent, early adolescents reported some similarities in defining key characteristics of their same-sex friends as well as in the activities they share. However, differences were noticed among boys and girls within each site. In addition, the scope of shared activity was broader in Ghent than in Assiut. In both sites, few opposite-sex friendships were reported. Gender norms influenced choice of friends as well as the type and place of shared activities. Conclusions: Building on knowledge that adolescent friendships guide and reinforce attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that impact immediate and long-term health, our findings indicate that gender norms inform early adolescent friendships, which may impact healthy development

Global dynamic topography observations reveal limited influence of large-scale mantle flow

Convective circulation of the Earth’s mantle maintains some fraction of surface topography that varies with space and time. Most predictive models show that this dynamic topography has peak amplitudes of about ±2km, dominated by wavelengths of 10⁴km. Here, we test these models against our comprehensive observational database of 2,120 spot measurements of dynamic topography that were determined by analysing oceanic seismic surveys. These accurate measurements have typical peak amplitudes of ±1km and wavelengths of approximately 10³km, and are combined with limited continental constraints to generate a global spherical harmonic model whose robustness has been carefully tested and benchmarked. Our power spectral analysis reveals significant discrepancies between observed and predicted dynamic topography. At longer wavelengths (such as 10⁴km), observed dynamic topography has peak amplitudes of about ±500m. At shorter wavelengths (such as 10³km), significant dynamic topography is still observed. We show that these discrepancies can be explained if short-wavelength dynamic topography is generated by temperature-driven density anomalies within a sub-plate asthenospheric channel. Stratigraphic observations from adjacent continental margins show that these dynamic topographic signals evolve quickly with time. More rapid temporal and spatial changes in vertical displacement of the Earth’s surface have direct consequences for fields as diverse as mantle flow, oceanic circulation and long-term climate change

Forward and inverse modelling of post-seismic deformation

We consider a new approach to both the forward and inverse problems in post-seismic deformation. We present a method for forward modelling post-seismic deformation in a self-gravitating, heterogeneous and compressible earth with a variety of linear and nonlinear rheologies. We further demonstrate how the adjoint method can be applied to the inverse problem both to invert for rheological structure and to calculate the sensitivity of a given surface measurement to changes in rheology or time-dependence of the source. Both the forward and inverse aspects are illustrated with several numerical examples implemented in a spherically symmetric earth model.Natural Environment Research Council, British Antarctic Surve