Syrian writer Khalil Sweileh received this year’s Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his novel “Warrak Al-Hub” (The Scribe of Love) in an awards ceremony at the American University in Cairo in the presence of the jury, AUC Press President Mark Linz, the AUC Provost and an audience of journalists, writers and artists.
For the full story, see http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=26438
[posted to MELANET-L 14 December 2009 by A. Riedlmayer]
Although one might not guess from its LC catalog record, recent issues of the Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies (ISSN: 1881-8323), published twice a year since 2007, are largely in English–and full text of all articles and reviews in current and past issues is available and searchable online at no charge through the Kyoto University Research Information Repository.
You can check out the current issue, vol. 3 no. 1 (July 2009)–it’s a theme issue: “Nakba after Sixty Years: Memories and Histories in Palestine and East Asia,” at http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bulletin/kias
Clicking on the article title in the TOC will bring up a citation page, which gives options to download the text in .pdf or .html format.
Past issues of the Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies have featured articles on a wide variety of subjects. A few randomly chosen examples:
If you’re tracking free online journals, consider adding this title to your library’s OPAC.
Season’s greetings and a happy new year to all,
Andras J. Riedlmayer, Bibliographer
Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture Fine Arts Library – Harvard University
http://www.h-net.org/people/person_view.php?id=124286
[The Virtual Iraq Museum has been initiated with the cooperation of Google and YouTube, consisting of 14,000 photos with text in Arabic, English, and French. It will be officially inaugurated in early 2010.]
http://www.virtualmuseumiraq.cnr.it/homeENG.htm
تم افتتاح موقع متحف العراق الوطني السمعي المرئي
هذا مشروع ضخم تم اطلاقه بالتعاون مع شركة قوقل واليوتيوب لانشاء موقع الكتروني كامل تستطيع زيارة متحف العراق الوطني ..وشارك في دعم هذا المشروع وزارة الخارجية الامريكية التي قامت بطرح هذه الفكرة بعد زيارتهم للعراق في ابريل الماضي
يحتوي الموقع على 14 الف صورة رقمية لمحتويات المتحف …وقام بتصويرها وتصميم المشروع شركة قوقل واليوتيوب وسوف يتم التعديل عليه الى ان يطلق بشكل رسمي في بداية 2010
الموقع مصمم بالعربي والانجليزي والفرنسي والان فقط الانجليزي يعمل والباقي تحت التجربة
shared on MELANET-L by
Aseel Nasir Dyck
A Benedictine monk, the Rev. Columba Stewart of St. John’s Abbey and University (Collegeville, Minn.)–executive director of the abbey’s Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, and a historian of the early monastic period–leads the museum’s ambitious and longstanding effort to find and digitize manuscripts held in monastic communities in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. “Our primary focus is Christian traditions, because that’s our expertise,” Father Stewart says.
The work began in the 1960s, when a monk at St. John’s decided to microfilm manuscripts fading away in Austrian monasteries.
The project is currently active at more than 20 sites, but most of the museum’s current activity focuses in and around the Middle East, including Lebanon, Malta, Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. The museum also does intermittent work in Ethiopia.
slightly abridged & edited from the full article by Jennifer Howard
appearing in the Chronicle of Higher Education
29 November 2009
[the following press release has been abridged; the entire text can be read here]
CAMBRIDGE, MA (Nov. 20)–Amidst an audience of colleagues and well-wishers, Jonathan Rodgers, Head of the Near East Division at Hatcher Graduate Library, University of Michigan, received the 2009 David H. Partington Award. The award was presented at the 38th annual conference of the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA), held this month in Cambridge.
The David H. Partington Award was established to recognize MELA members who have displayed a high standard of excellence and accomplishments in and contributions to the field of Middle East librarianship, librarianship in general, and scholarship, and who have given outstanding service to MELA itself.
Jonathan Rodgers serves as Head of the Near East Division and Coordinator of Area Programs at Hatcher Graduate Library, University of Michigan.
Dr. Rodgers has been an active member of MELA for over 20 years. In particular, he has given diligent and outstanding service as Editor of MELA Notes from 1997 to 2007.
In the words of Jonathan’s references, he “shows his serious commitment to the advancement of research and learning across the field of contemporary Middle Eastern and ancient Near Eastern Studies. His office is always open for students and faculty to come and consult on matters of research.”
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Meryle Gaston
University of California, Santa Barbara
gaston@library.ucsb.edu
Leila Lalami writes about one of her favorite bookstores in Rabat, with a nice photo of what real bookstores used to look like – and some still do: http://lailalalami.com/2009/support-your-bookstore/
Also check out Lalami’s timely review of Christopher Caldwell’s book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West, in the Dec. 14, 2009, issue of The Nation, available online at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091214/lalami/single
Andras Riedlmayer
Harvard University
The Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI), a project of the University of Texas Libraries, has launched its website: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/hrdi
Among its resources, the website provides archived web sites of “at-risk” human-rights organizations in Arabic-speaking countries. In addition, it highlights human rights related archival materials at UT, informs the public on HRDI’s current documentation partnerships, and promotes human rights events and research occurring at The University of Texas at Austin.
The deadline (end December 2009) for submitting paper proposals for the MELCOM conference in Cordoba, Spain, in April 2010 is fast approaching.
Further details about the conference’s themes & instructions for where to send abstracts can be found here:
http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/ext/melcomintl/melconfCordob10.shtml
A team of archaeologists from UCLA, USC, Israel and Palestinian territories has developed the first map detailing Israeli archaeological activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem – much of it never publicly disclosed.
“The fully searchable online map, which serves as a window into thousands of years worth of archaeological sites in the Holy Lands, has won the 2009 Open Archaeology Prize from American Schools of Oriental Research, the main organization for archaeologists working in the Middle East.”
Between Revolution and State: the Path to Fatimid Statehood: Qadi al-Nuʿman and the Construction of Fatimid Legitimacy. Ismaili Heritage Series, 11. By Sumaiya A. Hamdani. London; New York: I. B. Tauris Publishers in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2006. Pp. xxvi, 210, including bibliographical references and index. $45.00 (hardback). ISBN: 9781850438823.
The dust jacket states that this work examines the most important works of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, an influential Islamic theologian and jurist under the Fatimids. The introduction states that the author will examine the significance of the Fatimid revolution and state during its own time, based on already known sources. The work goes on to describe how the Fatimids separated from other Shiʿite sects and expanded into North Africa. It also summarizes descriptions of the Fatimids from a variety of works written in the tenth century C.E., discusses the Fatimid religious policy, sessions, and public ceremonies intended to garner support from the variety of Islamic sects under their rule, and discusses the place of the Fatimid imams within Fatimid society.
The material discussed in Between Revolution and State is weighted more towards the general than towards an analysis of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s works. Each chapter provides a general summary to set some aspect of the Fatimid state in relation to the rest of the Islamic world. The rest of each chapter summarizes some content from one of al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān’s works. The general summaries do not fully identify all the individuals mentioned in them, nor do they spell out background information in detail. This information is considerably more specialized than what is taught in introductory courses on the Middle East. Many undergraduates will not be prepared to fill in the background for themselves. Each chapter also has some discussion of al-Nuʿmān’s works. However, the works are not quoted and their overall structure is not described. Only some important points are presented. This method does not provide enough information about the works for graduate level work. On the positive side, Between Revolution and State is carefully footnoted and has an index. The bibliography includes the full range of well-known scholars on the Fatimids and Shiʿism. Unfortunately, the only diacritics used are alif and ʿayn.
This book should not be a high priority purchase. Although it does present some new material, it is a little too complex for many undergraduates and at the same time too general for advanced work.
Mary St. Germain
University of Washington Libraries