Tuesday 23 October 2012

Ottoman History Podcast



A history podcast dedicated to presenting accessible and relevant information about the  Ottoman Empire, the Mediterranean and Middle East. If you would like to come on the podcast to contribute a topic or discuss a recent publication, please email chrisgratien[at]gmail.com.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

e-Médiathèque: a new online plateform of e-books and archives on Arabic and Islamic studies


e-Médiathèque is a multilingual (Arabic, Berber, French,...) digital library that gives open access to scientific and documentary collections (archives, images, manuscripts and prints) in humanities and social sciences studies of the Mediterranean region. 

Those collections are tied to the research activities of the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme (MMSH) in Aix-en-Provence (France) in the fields of law, linguistics, ethnology, political and religious history, architecture, oral traditions, and religion, etc.  These studies geographically encompass the northern shores of the Mediterranean and the Arabic and Muslim world.

See the website (only in French so far) for more information: 

NB. Access to the digital contents is through the little (auto-hiding) blue icon on the left top corner of the item.

Friday 13 July 2012

Afghanistan in 2011



Afghanistan in 2011: A Survey of the Afghan People

"The Asia Foundation has released findings from Afghanistan in 2011: A Survey of the Afghan People – the broadest public opinion poll in the country. Conducted by The Asia Foundation's office in Afghanistan, the 2011 survey polled 6,348 Afghan citizens across all 34 provinces in the country on security, reconciliation, economy, and governance to assess the mood and direction of the country."


Thursday 21 June 2012

Arabic Manuscripts Digital Library of Jerusalem

A collaborative project between the main libraries of East Jerusalem

A collaborative project between the main libraries of East Jerusalem

The First Virtual Library of Collections of Arabic Manuscripts in Jerusalem

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Developed within the framework of project Manumed, financed by the European Union and the region Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, “The Arabic Manuscripts Digital Library of Jerusalem” aims to promote the written heritage of East Jerusalem and to make this heritage accessible to all with the sole caveat of an internet connection. It relies on the latest technology to provide access which is simple, multimedia and multilingual. More than 6600 documents are searchable online.
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Partners Libraries: the Khalidi Library, the Budeiri Library, the Al-Aqsa Library and Islamic Museum, the Al Ansari Library and The Waqf Restoration Center.


See their website: http://digital-library.alquds-manuscripts.org/


Wednesday 20 June 2012

Open City Documentary Film Festival - Focus on the Middle East


OPEN CITY DOCS FEST  - 21-24 JUNE 2012


UCL/TORRINGTON PLACE, LONDON WC1

**Special student discount tickets and free drinks!**

Celebrating the best of documentary film in the heart of London, Open City Docs Fest is a live festival devoted to exploring the world we live in through the vision of documentary film. Between 21-24 June the festival will challenge, explore and expand ideas of what documentary can be and do, provoking debate and opening minds. 



The Afghan Nightmare Fri 22 June, 12:00 (54 mins)
The Afghan Nightmare gives a unique insight into the Western forces’ military tasks and possibilities in Afghanistan. Norwegian Colonel Rune Solberg is trying to fulfill his task as military commander of the NATO in Faryab province, while the Taliban is increasing its activity and the handover to Afghan forces is supposed to be taking place. “The Afghan Nightmare” depicts vividly and with dark humour the manifold obstacles to Solberg’s mission, yet the story is told as close to the subjects as one can possibly get, and the film keeps you gripped from start until end.
 

5 Broken Cameras Thurs 21 June, 19:30 (90 mins)
Nominated for Grand Jury Award
The extraordinary story of a Palestinian village’s resistance to encroaching Israeli settlements is brought to life powerfully, eloquently and personally, through the footage from Emad Burnat’s five bullet ridden and broken cameras. It makes for an intensely powerful personal document about one village’s struggle against oppression.



Strains of Resistance Sat 23 June, 12:00 (95 mins)
Three Syrian documentaries from '78, '03 and '11 show the arduous road that has led from indoctrination to defection from the Ruling Baath Party.


When Egyptians woke up on January 25th, 2011, they never expected the one day demonstration planned for that public holiday to evolve into a full out revolution aimed at overthrowing the regime’s 30 year long grip on power. Three talented young directors decided to tell their story of the revolution from their unique cinematic point of view, choosing to focus not only on the politics, but on a handful of individuals whose actions would determine their fate and forever change the future of their country. Followed by Director Q&A.

Rouge Parole Fri 22 June, 19:45 (94 mins)
The Arab Revolution erupted in a country that no one would expect: a political earthquake that shook the whole world. Tunisia appeared to be a quiet and stable country: until a young man set himself on fire, and began the fight for freedom and dignity. Capturing the emotional complexity of a revolutionary resistance, Rouge Parole is the story of a popular revolution told by its heroes through both their silence and their clamour.


  



The festival has diverse programme of more than 100 films from around the world, innovative live events and filmmaker-led workshops will take place over four mid-summer days and nights in venues around central London and across University College London’s (UCL) WC1 campus. Search www.opencitydocsfest.com or download the festival schedule to find out what's on offer making use of our handily organised festival strands  - including Science FrictionsProtest Works, Sound WavesStill LivesArtists’ DocumentaryThe Image of the Engineer, City Scope and World Visions, alongside a showcase of the winners of our nationwide online film-making competition, MyStreet, various shorts programmes and a number of special events

For full festival information: www.opencitydocsfest.com

Tickets are bookable online, from £5 screening tickets for everyone through to a variety of day and festival passes so you can truly immerse yourself in the full festival experience. 
**STUDENTS: WE ARE OFFERING DAY PASSES AT A CONCESSION RATE OF £12 OR £5 FOR ANY FILM.**
Facebook: OpenCityDocsFest
Twitter: @OpenCityDocs

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Qajar Iran Digital Archive

Afsaneh Najmabadi (Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University) has launched today a new site on Qajar Women:

This site explores the lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925) through a wide array of materials from private family holdings and participating institutions. Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran provides bilingual access to thousands of personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, publications, everyday objects, works of art and audio materials, making it a unique online resource for social and cultural histories of the Qajar world.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

World Bank - Open Knowledge Repository


World Bank - Open Knowledge Repository

"The World Bank today announced that it will implement a new Open Access policy for its research outputs and knowledge products, effective July 1, 2012. The new policy builds on recent efforts to increase access to information at the World Bank and to make its research as widely available as possible. As the first phase of this policy, the Bank launched today a new Open Knowledge Repository and adopted a set of Creative Commons copyright licenses".
The Open Knowledge Repository is freely available at openknowledge.worldbank.org

Sample reports of interest for Middle East and Islamic studies:
MENA Development Reports
Finance and Financial Sector Development :: Islamic Finance

Wednesday 2 May 2012

SemArch : a corpus of Semitic languages recordings


This online archive created by the University of Heidelberg (Germany) contains audio recordings for Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Ethiopian and Neo-South Arabic languages and dialects, divided into:

1960 Audio-documents / 502 Speakers 

20 Countries
/ 60 Regions / 219 Places

43 Editors
and 51 Types of documents.


Friday 23 March 2012

The Online Bibliography of Ottoman Turkish Literature

Professor Hatice Aynur, the chair of the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Istanbul Sehir University, has been publishing "Üniversitelerde Eski Türk Edebiyati Çalismalari: Tezler, Yayinlar, Haberler" (Studies on Old Turkish Literature Prepared at Universities: Theses and Dissertations, Publications and News) continually since 1990.

Based on the record created by this publication, Professor Aynur launched "The Online Bibliography of Ottoman Turkish Literature" in November 2010.

The bibliography has an English interface http://www.ottomanliterature.com as well as a Turkish one: http://www.osmanliedebiyati.com You can easily search for articles, books, papers, projects, and theses by keywords. Perhaps more importantly, this database allows for pdf and word documents that contain a particular work to be displayed together with the bibliographical entry about that work.  Last but not least, you can suggest the addition of your own work (or someone else's) to the database by using the "Add Entry" button on the main "Bibliography"
page. During the approval process of your submission over e-mail, you could also add the actual text of the work you would like to be included in the bibliography database.

Happy Norouz!


Persian New Year Norouz Celebrations at SOAS

Goldfish Image
Date: 24 March 2012Time: 7:00 PM
Finishes: 24 March 2012Time: 10:30 PM
Venue: Brunei GalleryRoom: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre
Type of Event: Celebration
The Programme includes:
Persian instrumental music by Parvaz Ensemble with Arash Moradi, Niloufar Habibian and Fariborz Kiannejad
Sanaz Sotoudeh (Pianist, Royal Academy of Music) performing Schubert, Schumann and Brahms (inspired by Goethe’s West-Östlicher Divan and the Divan of Hafez)
Hafez animation by Jila Peacock
Afghan music played and sung by Professor John Baily and Veronica Doubleday
Works by British contemporary composer Sally Beamish (inspired by Hafez) sung by Rónan Busfield (Tenor) and accompanied by Sharon Griffiths (Harpist, Scottish Symphony Orchestra)
For further information see the attached PDF file
Raffle Prize:Unique embossed Calligraphy by Jila Peacock
£25 and £15 (Concessions: Students and Senior Citizens) includes refreshments and Persian canapés. To book tickets please visit the SOAS Online Store.
Organiser: Centre for Iranian Studies and the British Institute of Persian Studies
Contact email: lh2@soas.ac.uk
Contact Tel: 020 7898 4330
Sponsor: The Hinduja Brothers

Wednesday 7 March 2012

BRISMES Conference 2012


BRISMES Annual Conference 2012

Revolution and Revolt: Understanding the Forms and Causes of Change

26-28 March 2012, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

The Middle East Centre at LSE will host the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) annual conference on 26-28 March 2012. The conference will be held in association with the European Association for Middle Eastern Studies (EURAMES) and the Asian Federation of Middle East Associations.
The unprecedented uprisings in the Middle East over the past year have drawn comparisons with a wide scope of revolts from the French Revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall. This conference seeks to place the focus on a multi-disciplinary consideration of the local and regional sources and forces which have fuelled the uprisings, as well as the narratives of the events. In addition to an emphasis on dynamics within and interpretations of the uprisings, presenters are encouraged to reflect on what the events may mean for the study of the region.
The conference will also highlight the areas of research undertaken by the BRISMES research networks:
  • Clerical Authority in Shiite Islam
  • Critical Middle East Studies
  • Faith, Politics and Society
  • Liberation, Domination and Expression
  • Resistance, Representation and Identity
And an additional sub-theme organised by LLAS Centre for languages, linguistics and area studies with the sponsorship of the Higher Education Academy Islamic Studies Network:
  • Teaching and learning about Islam and Muslims in UK higher education
As in previous BRISMES conferences, panels on topics not covered by the overall theme or the research networks maybe also be proposed. Individual papers, however, will not be accepted unless they are relevant to the overall theme, relevant to the research network sessions, or integral to a panel proposed on the topic.
Non-presenting conference participants are warmly welcomed.

http://brismes2012.com/


Tuesday 6 March 2012

Free Online Access to ALL Palgrave Macmillan Journals in March!


Palgrave Macmillan is offering FREE online access to their complete journals portfolio during March 2012.
Access Palgrave Macmillan Journals Online
On-campus access:  http://www.palgrave-journals.com/pal/jnlindex.html Off-campus access: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/nams/svc/institutelogin?target=/pal/jnlindex.html [login via your institution]
Palgrave Macmillan publish high quality, scholarly journals across the core disciplines of the humanities, the social sciences and business and management.
From March 1st to 31st we are providing free online access to the current content and archives of more than 60 Palgrave Macmillan journals – including Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of International Business Studies, IMF Economic Review and Feminist Review.