Hi friends! As summer begins to wind down it seemed appropriate to announce a new subject guide dedicated to South Asian studies. The guide was specifically designed for students studying Islam in South Asia though is a good starting point for students of South Asian studies in general.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please send them along!
The McGill Rare Books and Special Collections’ 17th cent. manuscript of Kalilah wa-Dimnah is now available online.
Originally authored in Sanskrit, Kalilah wa-Dimnah is a collection of animal fables in verse and prose, taken from the Indian oral tradition. It was translated into Arabic by Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa around 750 A.D.
As the bookplate below indicates, McGill copy was presented to the Library by the Quebecer philanthropist John R. Redpath (1796-1869).
This Arabic version of the text is written in an Egyptian or Syrian Hand. On the 130 folios in laid European paper, the attentive eye might be able to see the three crescents watermark. 95 beautiful miniatures illustrate the numerous fables*.
*Description based on Adam Gacek’s Arabic Manuscripts in the Libraries of McGill University Union Catalogue
The Bibliothèque Nationale de France and Université Paris-Sorbonne are currently collaborating on a research project aiming to identify, locate, and describe worlwide manuscript copies of this important text, in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. McGill Library has now joined the list of partners, along with prestigious institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Chester Beatty Library (Dublin) or the Cambridge University Library (Cambridge UK). A full description (in French) of the project is available here.
The Arab World Institute’s website provides access to 15 online interactive exhibits on various topics.
Covering a wide span of topics from the Arts of Islam to Andalusia passing by Pharaos, these virtual 360° exhibits are great opportunities for both beginners and specialists to learn more about the Arab World, and to discover Islamic Art Collections held in France.
The website is accessible in French and Arabic.
Hi friends!
The recent uprisings in Gezi Park have peeked people’s interest in Turkey and the various uprisings across the Middle East, particularly those of the 2011 Arab Spring. Our colleague, John Eilts at Stanford University wrote an informative post on sources on and about Gezi. And our friend Rifat Bali of Libra Books has listed the following websites and resources:
http://taksimdayanisma.org/?lang=en
http://www.geziparki.org/english/
https://www.facebook.com/geziparkidirenisi
http://www.geziparkiguncesi.com/#
http://revoltinturkey.tumblr.com/
http://resisttaksim.blogspot.com/?zx=3f097ebe37b5a5dc
http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/
http://occupygezi.blogspot.com/
However, most interesting (to me!) is today’s al-Jazeera photo essay “In Pictures: The Taksim Square Book Club” which depicts numerous people reading in the park. And a couple of weeks ago the Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet, had an article on “Publishing houses to unite in Gezi Park to distribute major resistance material: Books.”
For those curious to read more about reading habits and the evolution of reading in Ottoman Turkey and the early Republic take a look at:
Şahbaz, Namık Kemal. 2009. Türkiye’de ilkokuma ve yazma öğretiminin tarihsel gelişimi. Ankara: MEB.
Fortna, Benjamin C. 2011. Learning to read in the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish republic. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
A warm congratulations to Dr. Khalid Medani on his most recent publication:Teaching the “New Middle East”: Beyond Authoritarianism
Khalid Mustafa Medani April 2013
Hi friends! At last night’s gala celebrating the achievements of McGill’s Tehran Branch and the work and dedication of Dr. Mehdi Mohaghegh a new website was unveiled. The Tehran Branch website provides a brief history of the TB and includes some of its publications with more to come…
Check out the current list of freely accessible publications here.
Hi friends!
We have a trial with Arab e-Marefa (EBSCO) for the following 30 days.
This is a new database that includes “Arab e-Marefa is the leading Arabic language research database providing full text for 950 academic journals and statistical reports issued by various bodies in the Arabic world including universities, research centers, public statistical departments, central banks, scientific associations and regional organizations. The database provides international standard bibliographic records for almost 70,000 articles plus the access to these articles. Additional content includes thousands of dissertations and over 7,000 book reviews.”
Please take a look at this resource and consider its value to the research you and your students conduct. Is it easy to navigate? Can you find sought after materials?
Any and all feedback is welcome!
The French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo) is making the works of its researchers online and open access on the HAL-SHS website. Check it out!