Category Archives: Archives

Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt / Andrew (Andrew G.) Simon

Media of the Masses” investigates the social life of an everyday technology—the cassette tape—to offer a multisensory history of modern Egypt. Over the 1970s and 1980s, cassettes became a ubiquitous presence in Egyptian homes and stores. Audiocassette technology gave an opening to ordinary individuals, from singers to smugglers, to challenge state-controlled Egyptian media. Enabling an unprecedented number of people to participate in the creation of culture and circulation of content, cassette players and tapes soon informed broader cultural, political, and economic developments and defined “modern” Egyptian households.

Drawing on a wide array of audio, visual, and textual sources that exist outside the Egyptian National Archives, Andrew Simon provides a new entry point into understanding everyday life and culture. Cassettes and cassette players, he demonstrates, did not simply join other twentieth century mass media, like records and radio; they were the media of the masses. Comprised of little more than magnetic reels in plastic cases, cassettes empowered cultural consumers to become cultural producers long before the advent of the Internet. Positioned at the productive crossroads of social history, cultural anthropology, and media and sound studies, “Media of the Masses” ultimately shows how the most ordinary things may yield the most surprising insights.

  • Andrew Simon received his Ph.D. in the field of Near Eastern studies from Cornell’s Graduate School in 2017. He is Lecturer and Research Associate in Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth College.
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Stanford University Press; 1st edition (April 19, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1503629430
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1503629431

17 bin Laden documents / Combating Terrorism Center (CTC)

وثائق بن لادن

Seventeen of the of the 6,000 documents seized from the compound of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 were released May 3, 2012. The documents – provided by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC), and totalling 175 pages in the original Arabic and 197 pages in the English translation:

* Original Arabic (.zip) باللغة العربية

* English Translations (.zip) باللغة الانجليزية

نشرت يوم الخميس، 3 أيار/مايو، 17 وثيقة من أصل آلاف الوثائق التي عثر عليها في مجمع أسامة بن لادن في أيار/مايو 2011، بعد يوم على الذكرى الأولى لمقتل زعيم القاعدة

وتصف الوثائق التي نشرها مركز مكافحة الارهاب، ويبلغ عددها 175 صفحة باللغة العربية و197 صفحة مترجمة إلى الانجليزية، آليات عمل التنظيم الداخلية ومنها خلافات داخلية ونصائح للجماعات المرتبطة بالتنظيم ومخاوف لقادة بارزين فيه

The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point website has provided the following summary:

This report is a study of 17 de-classified documents captured during the Abbottabad raid and released to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). They consist of electronic letters or draft letters, totaling 175 pages in the original Arabic and 197 pages in the English translation. The earliest is dated September 2006 and the latest April 2011. These internal al-Qa`ida communications were authored by several leaders, most prominently Usama bin Ladin. In contrast to his public statements that focused on the injustice of those he believed to be the “enemies” of Muslims, namely corrupt “apostate” Muslim rulers and their Western “overseers,” the focus of Bin Ladin’s private letters is Muslims’ suffering at the hands of his jihadi “brothers”. He is at pain advising them to abort domestic attacks that cause Muslim civilian casualties and focus on the United States, “our desired goal.” Bin Ladin’s frustration with regional jihadi groups and his seeming inability to exercise control over their actions and public statements is the most compelling story to be told on the basis of the 17 de-classified documents. “Letters from Abbottabad” is an initial exploration and contextualization of 17 documents that will be the grist for future academic debate and discussion.

 

The 17 documents totaled nearly 200 pages in their English translation. The earliest one is dated 2006. The latest is from 2011, according to the center. Here are the 17 documents and summaries, which were based on a CTC document that accompanied the release of the bin Laden letters.

Text of Document 1

Summary: Bin Laden asks for a lengthy version of Anwar al-Awlaqi’s resume.

Text of Document 2

Summary: American Qaida spokesman Adam Gadahn writes on a media strategy for the anniversary of 9/11.

Text of Document 3 

Summary: Bin Laden declines al-Shababa’s request for unity with al-Qaida.

Text of Document 4

Summary: This letter suggests that al-Qaida’s relationship with other terror groups was the subject of internal debate.

Text of Document 5

Summary: This letter is written by Mahmud al-Hasan (Atiyya) and criticizes the tactics of Pakistan’s Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Text of Document 6

Summary: Jaysh al-Islam and Atiyya write back and forth on financial matters and legal advice.

Text of Document 7

Summary: This letter is part of another that was not released to CTC, but the author is concerned about al-Qaida’s image. The author was also concerned that because the name al-Qaida lacks religious overtones, the U.S. is able to wage war against the group without offending all Muslims.

Text of Document 8

Summary: Bin Laden lays out his views of the Arab Spring. The letter is dated a week before the raid that killed him.

Text of Document 9

Summary: This letter is addressed to a legal scholar who is alarmed with the conduct of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Text of Document 10

Summary: Atiyya wrote this letter addressed to the sheik, possibly bin Laden. The letter addresses the release of jihadi “brothers” from Iran.

Text of Document 11

Summary: The CTC summary says this document shows al-Qaida’s editing process: An unknown editor (possibly bin Laden) marks up statements form Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Text of Document 12

Summary: This document has two letters that, according to CTC, “read very much like an intelligence assessment, designed to provide Atiyya with some perspective on al-Qaida generally and the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) more specifically.”

Text of Document 13

Summary: This letter focuses on issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan but also mentions the organization’s media plan for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Text of Document 14

Summary: The author of this letter, possibly bin Laden, Atiyya, or both of them, advises al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to focus attacks on the U.S., not Yemen’s government.

Text of Document 15

Summary: This letter focuses on strategy and the need for the group to attack the United States.

Text of Document 16

Summary: This letter is critical of bin Laden and urges him to change al-Qaida’s policy. The author says that people are now repulsed by the term jihad.

Text of Document 17

Summary: This is a long letter written by bin Laden in which he discusses his concern over the mistakes that regional jihadi groups have made.

*****

RELATED:

Key Documents — Al Qaeda & Jihadi Movements Worldwide (volumes 1-50)

Reference Corporation’s on-going Al Qaeda & Jihadi Movements Worldwide (AQJM) reference series, in early 2011, in 50 volumes, has several built-in finding guides to assist researchers. One finding guide is the Key Documents list, a bibliography with extensive cross references and scope notes. However, Key Documents is a large document and cannot be reprinted in every new incremental set of AQJM reference books. For example, the Key Documents list in the cumulative index to the first twenty volumes of AQJM is over 120 pages long. AQJM for volumes 1-50 is 332 pages long.

To make Key Documents more useful, this downloadable Key Documents list is cumulative for all AQJM volumes and will always be current.

This Key Documents edition is a cumulative finding aid for AQJM volumes 1-50

Timbuktu’s Manuscripts, Archives and Patrimony Under Threat

Citizens of Timbuktu, Mali’s historic city and the legendary UNESCO World Heritage Site, are rallying to protect ancient documents dating back to the Golden Age of the 12th and 15th centuries that officials fear may be looted or trafficked under the current occupation by Tuareg groups. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova on Tuesday (April 17th) appealed to Mali’s neighbours to help prevent any looting or destruction of Timbuktu’s centuries-old cultural heritage:  “Reports about the rebel takeover of Timbuktu’s Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Islamic Studies and Research (IHERI-AB) and other cultural institutions are cause for great alarm.”  “These centres contain ancient documents, written or copied locally, and others written in Morocco, Andalusia or some African countries, or sent to Timbuktu by pilgrims from distant Islamic lands hundreds of years ago,” Bokova added.  These documents, she said, date back to “Timbuktu’s golden period of glory between the 12th and 15th centuries” and cover subjects “from religious studies to mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and music”.

Moussa Ag Hamta, owner of a private library, told Magharebia that the concerns of the UNESCO Director-General were shared by the residents of Timbuktu who link their history to these historical centres.

“I’m proud of the documents I own because they contain many sciences,” he said. “However, the takeover of the city by the extremist Islamic groups has put an end to the arrival of European tourists and made me hide these documents lest I should be forced to destroy or turn them in to them.”  “They consider these documents to be a heresy and believe that preserving them is some sort of worship, which contradicts the Islamic Sharia in their opinion,” he concluded.

Local resident Ibrahim Ag Nita described the scene: “Two days ago, some Ansar al-Din and al-Qaeda elements entered the Documents Centre at Ahmed Baba Institute and told the attendees that the Islamic Sharia only approves of Islamic religious books because they help boost doctrine, and that books of other sciences, such as math, astronomy and other sciences, are not useful to Muslims and must be removed.”

“After that, they took away rubber bags containing some documents and went to an unknown place,” he said.

“People here fear a repetition of what the Taliban did when it destroyed some Buddha statues as idols worshipped by people,” he added. “This is the same view that these extremists have of human heritage, as they say that this entire heritage is nothing but a heresy that must be disposed of.”

Timbuktu has been a destination for cultural tourism in recent years, as it contains between 60,000 and 100,000 manuscripts. This is in addition to mosques and shrines of the kings of Sudanese empires that inhabited the Sahara and West Africa, together with buildings dating back to several centuries.

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MaliAncient Books Stolen – NYTimes.com

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Even people who have never heard of Mali have usually heard of Timbuktu, or at least have heard phrases like “from here to Timbuktu.” Founded between the 5th and 11th centuries by Tuareg desert nomads, Timbuktu became a meeting point between north, south and west Africa and a melting pot of black Africans, Berber, Arab and Tuareg desert nomads. The trade of gold, salt, ivory and books made it the richest region in west Africa and it attracted scholars, engineers and architects from around Africa, growing into a major centre of Islamic culture by the 14th century. Timbuktu is home to nearly 100,000 ancient manuscripts, some dating to the 12th century, written in Arabic or Africanized versions of the Arabic alphabets, and preserved in family homes and private libraries under the care of religious scholars. However, the city is poor now, and is at the center of attacks by Tuareg rebels and al-Qaeda linked jihadists, while Mali itself is being governed by the head of a botched military coup. It’s feared that the violence will lead to the destruction of the manuscripts and Timbuktu’s great earthen architectural wonders.

Source:AFP

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More about the Timbuktu manuscripts [with different figures: “700,000 medieval African documents”] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu_Manuscripts

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The Tombouctou Manuscripts Project

The Tombouctou Manuscripts Project at the University of Cape Town (UCT) is dedicated to research various aspects of writing and reading the handwritten works of Timbuktu and beyond. Training young researchers is an integral part of its work.

Sauvegarde et Valorisation des Manuscrits pour la Défense de la Culture Islamique

NEWS:

– TF1 News (12 avril 2012) : http://lci.tf1.fr/filnews/monde/nord-mali-les-islamistes-controlent-le-plus-grand-centre-de-manuscrits-7129513.html

– Jeune Afrique (11 avril 2012) :http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAWEB20120411115235/culture-rebelle-tombouctou-manuscritmali-d-importants-manuscrits-anciens-de-tombouctou-sauves-de-la-destruction.html

– Rue89 (Le Nouvel observateur) (10 avril 2012) http://www.rue89.com/2012/04/10/tombouctou-un-tresor-culturel-de-lhumanite-en-peril-231031

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Tuareg rebellion (2012) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interest in ancient books could restore Timbuktu

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010403161.html?hpid=artslot

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 5, 2010; A07

TIMBUKTU, MALI — From a dented metal trunk, Abdoul Wahim Abdarahim Tahar pulled out something sure to make a preservationist’s heart race — or break: a leather-bound book written by hand in the 14th century, containing key verses of the prophet Muhammad, and crumbling at the edge of each yellowed page.

“Every time I touch it, it falls apart,” he said, paging through the book. “Little by little.”

But Tahar saw promise in the brittle volume — for himself, his family and this legendary but now tumbledown town. He is not the only one. A sort of ancient-book fever has gripped Timbuktu in recent years, and residents hope to lure the world to a place known as the end of the Earth by establishing libraries for visitors to see their centuries-old collections of manuscripts.

In a West African town where nomads and traders eke out livings, a revival of world attention to hundreds of thousands of privately held manuscripts — which survived fire, rain, sand and termites — represents an economic opportunity. But researchers and residents say the restoration of the books, most written in Arabic on fragile paper or lambskin, is also vital to showcasing Timbuktu’s — and, by extension, sub-Saharan Africa’s — more glorious past as a vibrant hub of scholarship.

[MORE] … http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/04/AR2010010403161.html?hpid=artslot

 

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On Apr 10, 2012, at 9:42 PM, “Jennifer Yanco” <1989.wara@gmail.com> wrote:

I am writing to alert you to the situation in Mali, which is increasingly volatile. The conflict has spread to Timbuktu, home of thousands of manuscripts documenting the rich heritage of West Africa through the ages.

I write as a member of the scholarly community, which is concerned for the safety of this cultural and intellectual heritage housed in the many libraries and private collections in Timbuktu. I know that this will be of concern to your institution. Our West African colleagues, Drs. Habib Sy and Ibrahima Lo prepared a petition, urging the parties to the conflict to be mindful of the value of the heritage in these manuscripts and to spare them. We were sent a copy of the petition and were able to make an online petition, which you can now find on the WARA website home page (www.bu.edu/wara) and at the link copied below.

We are pleased to be able to work in solidarity with our West African colleagues on this and hope that you will be able to post the link to the petition or otherwise pass it along to your colleagues. A major treasure of the world is at stake.

http://bit.ly/TIMBUKTU
thanking you in advance for joining this effort.

Jennifer

 

Jennifer J. Yanco, PhD

US Director

West African Research Association

232 Bay State Road

Boston, MA  02215

617-353-8902

www.bu.edu/wara

World Book and Copyright Day Celebrations in Arab Countries

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature, since 23 April 1616 was the date of death of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 23 April is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.This year, Tunis lit the candle for UNESCO’s World Book Day.

The theme of this year’s book day is translation. Since 1979, UNESCO member states have logged more than 2 million translations in their translation index, which is available online.

Five days before the annual UNESCO-sponsored World Book and Copyright Day, hundreds of Tunisian readers took over iconic Habib Bourguiba Avenue with an event called “L’avenue taqra” or “The avenue reads.” Children and adults sat in cafes, on steps, and on the sidewalks to read a variety of books. As the day wore on, many held candles in order to continue reading into the night.

The invitation to the April 18th event in Tunis explained that everyone would bring their own books or magazines to cafés or other public places where they would sit and read silently together for an hour.”  Nas Décaméron, an artistic and literary group based at Ibn Khaldoun Cultural Centre in Tunis called for the initiative. It also organises a salon every week to discuss a world novel. The group’s Kamel Riyahi headed the “Read” initiative.  According to a 2010 Tunisian reading survey, more than 20% of respondents hadn’t read a book in their entire life and of those who did read, 60% read fewer than five books per year.

In Cairo, Shorouk Bookstores is offering the best WB & CD discount, at 20%, but other stores (BookSpot), chains (Alef), and government entities (GEBO) are also offering money-off deals. The Cervantes Institute in Dokki (Cairo) today offers readings of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” in its original Spanish and in Arabic translation. The novel will be read continuously from noon until 7:45 pm.

In Sharjah or Dubai, the children’s reading festival opened today. Moroccans are going to read books before the parliament. The theme is: “Culture in the face of absurdity.” If you’re in Lebanon, Antoine Bookstore is having an exhibition of Spanish books and books about Spain in collaboration with Cervantes Institute in Downtown Beirut.

Tunisia’s ‘Second Republic’ تونس الجمهورية الثانية

 Inaugural Session of Tunisia’s Constituent Assembly

الجلسة الافتتاحية للمجلس الوطني التأسيسي

The newly elected Constituent Assembly held its inaugural meeting Tuesday, 22 November, 2011 and began the yearlong process of shaping the constitution and the democratic future of the country that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

Hundreds of people protested outside Parliament, demanding everything from women’s rights and reforms to limits on foreign influence over Tunisia’s affairs.  Within the body’s chambers the new opposition attempted to flex its wings and challenge the majority coalition.

The assembly elected Mustapha Ben Jaafar, Ettakatol party president, as its speaker and in future sessions he will nominate a president who will appoint a prime minister to form a new government. Maya Jribi, leader of the left of center Progressive Democratic Party, ran against him, but was beaten 145 votes to 67.

Tunisia’s new assembly holds “historic” first session

Tue, Nov 22 2011

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) – Tunisia’s constitutional assembly, elected after a revolution that inspired the “Arab Spring” uprisings, held its opening session on Tuesday, described by officials as an historic step toward democracy.

The assembly, which will sit for a year to draft a new constitution, is dominated by a moderate Islamist party whose election win last month resonated in other countries in the region where Islamists are gaining ground after the popular protests which swept three Arab heads of state from power.

Members of the assembly, senior officials in the incoming coalition government, and ministers in the outgoing cabinet stood for the Tunisian national anthem in a ceremony to open the 217-seat assembly.

“This is an historic moment .. for the transition to democracy,” Fouad Mebazza, the outgoing interim president, said at the ceremony, in the same building where the previous rubber-stamp parliament sat before the revolution.

There was a reminder of the challenges facing Tunisia’s new rulers, when about 1,000 protesters gathered outside the building.

Among them were relatives of people killed in the revolt that ousted veteran president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who are now demanding compensation from the state.

The protesters included the mother of Mohamed Bouazizi, the young vegetable seller who set himself on fire last December in an act of protest that triggered the revolution.

Demonstrators held up placards saying “We want justice!” and “The people want a new revolution.”

A man called Slim Hamdi, 28, said he and the other protesters were there to send a message to the new authorities. “We are not going to leave you in peace if you do not take the right path,” he said.

Tunisia’s government will be dominated by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which emerged from the election with the biggest contingent in the assembly, but short of a majority.

Its victory was the first for Islamists in the Arab world since the Hamas faction won an election in the Palestinian Territories in 2006.

Tunisian secularists say their liberal values are under threat, but Ennahda has assured them it is not planning any radical changes.

Ennahda has shared out the top three state posts with two smaller, secularist parties. Hamadi Jbeli, Ennahda’s secretary general, will be prime minister, the most powerful role.

Moncef Marzouki, head of coalition partner the Congress for the Republic, will have the largely ceremonial post of Tunisian president. Mustafa Ben Jaafar, leader of the Ettakatol party, was nominated as speaker of the new assembly.

A new cabinet line-up, with posts shared out between the three coalition partners, is to be announced soon.

In its first act, the assembly voted to confirm Ben Jaafar as speaker.

He received 145 votes, four members abstained, and 68 voted for the rival candidacy of Maya Jribi, of the secularist PDP party. Her party warned Islamist rule will undermine Tunisia but performed poorly in the election.

Mohamed Abbou, an official with Marzouki’s party, said the new government was aware of the weight of expectation from Tunisians who want to see their new democratic freedoms matched by more jobs and higher wages.

“This moment is the dream of all Tunisians,” he said. “We say to the protesters: ‘Do not worry, we are not going to neglect your demands’.”