Monthly Archives: March 2015

New e-resource: Oxford language dictionaries online. Arabic : Arabic-English.

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The ISL has acquired the Oxford language dictionaries online. Arabic : Arabic-English. This dictionary, akin to an online version of the great Hans Wehr dictionary of modern Arabic has a total of 330, 000 words and more than 70, 000 examples of sentences.

A comprehensive dictionary that also offers grammar tips, it will surely be of great benefit to learners of Arabic.

The Oxford English-Arabic dictionary is accessible here as well as via the Islamic Studies and Middle East Studies Subject Guide.

 

Film screening: the Dupes (1972)

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The Islamic Studies Library will hold its last film screening of the academic year on Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5 p.m. in the Tuesday Night Cafe (Morrice Hall, room 017).

the_dupesThe Dupes is a stark, beautifully photographed black and white film tracing the destinies of three palestinian refugees brought together by dispossession, despair and hope for a better future.

The setting is Iraq in the 1950s and the protagonists,concealed in the steel tank of a truck, are trying to make their way across the border into Kuwait, the “promised land.”

The Dupes is considered a masterful adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani’s acclaimed novella, Men Under the Sun, The Dupes is also one of the first Arab films to address the Palestinian predicament.

Professor Malek Abisaab, McGill History Department and Institute of Islamic Studies, will moderate the post screening discussion.

Come on come all!

Database trial: ATLA Historical Monographs Collection

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The American Theological Library Association Historical Monographs Collection gives acces to no less than 29.000 titles focusing on religion, dating mostly from 1850 to 1922.

ATLA Monographs Featured Archives Digital Archives EBSCOhost(1)To give you a chance to try this new resource, the Islamic Studies Library setup a trial running from March 9th to April 9th 2015. The collection is available in two comprehensive series:

Check them out, and let us know what you think!

 

In the news: Perso-Indica

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“Perso-Indica is a research and publishing project that will produce a comprehensive Analytical Survey of Persian Works on Indian Learned Traditions, encompassing the treatises and translations produced in India between the 13th and the 19th century.”

9/03/2015 – Research
McGill University Library

Indo-Persian Manuscripts at McGill University Library

Following the request of Perso-Indica at the Library of McGill University in Montreal, the Library has decided to digitize a selection of rare Persian manuscripts dealing with Indic cultures. These manuscripts were chiefly produced in South Asia during the 18th and the 19th centuries. They are kept in the Blacker-Wood Collection and the Osler Library of McGill University in Montreal.
They have been digitized thanks to the contribution of the Institute of Islamic Studies and the Islamic Studies Library of McGill University. The following manuscripts are now available on line:
-Ṭilism-i i‘jaz, a work on amulets translated by Kishan Singh, Ms. BWL 129, copied in 1804.Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128702

– Tarjama-yi Satganā wa Basant rāḥ, anonymous translation from Hindi made in 1789, Ms. Bib. Osl. 7785/74. Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128693

– Qānūn-i ‘ishrat tarjama-yi Kūk shastr, a Persian adaptation of the materials of the Kokaśāstra, on sexology, Ms. BWL 166.Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128700

– Majmū‘a, a collection dealing with siyāq, Hindu mythology and castes, Ms. BWL 168. Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128699

– Faras nāma, tarjama-yi Sālūtar, a Persian adaptation of the teachings of the Śālihotra, a treatise on the horse and its treatment. The translation was made at Gulbarga by ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ṣafī seemingly at the request of sultan Aḥmad Walī Bahmanī (r. 1422-1435), Ms. BWL W55, illustrated manuscript, copied in 1793.
Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128701

-Faras nāma, tarjama-yi Sālhūtar, an anonymous Persian version of the Śālihotra, Ms. BWL W31, copied in 1839.
Available at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/webclient/DeliveryManager?&pid=128694

For more information see: Adam Gacek, 2005, Persian Manuscripts in the Libraries of McGill University: Brief Union Catalogue, Montreal, McGill University Libraries.
More manuscripts are in the process of being digitized, so stay tuned.

NEW: Arabic literature subject guide

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The Islamic Studies Library launched a new subject guide focusing on Classical and contemporary Arabic literature. This selection of sources comprises encyclopedias and dictionnaries, databases, journals (print and electronic), and internet sites.

Classical and contemporary Arabic literature McGill Library - McGill UniversityThe Classical and contemporary Arabic literature subject guide can be accessed in two ways:

1. Via the Islamic Studies Library website
Islamic Studies Library McGill Library - McGill University2. Via the list of subject guides (under Islamic and Middle East Studies)
Subject guides McGill Library - McGill University

Check it out and let us know what you think!