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Archives, Islam, Primary Sources, Uncategorized

Western books: the Middle East from the rise of Islam

“Western books: the Middle East from the rise of Islam” is a collection of 10,000 microfiche containing over 2,500 pre-1921 Western-language titles, selected from the collections of the Harvard University library. 

Scope of the Collection:  Western books on the Middle East and North Africa since the emergence of Islam in the seventh century constitute a large and remarkably varied corpus. Over the centuries, European diplomats, soldiers, merchants, travelers, pilgrims, missionaries, and scholars have produced a rich legacy of works which, for all the interpretive shortcomings and cultural biases they may have in the eyes of contemporary readers, remain valuable sources for the continuing study of Islam and this region, as well as for the investigation of the West’s own evolving perspectives and assumptions concerning them. Drawing on the world-renowned resources of Harvard University Libraries, this collection makes readily available to students, researchers, and other interested readers a substantial part of this corpus. It contains rare material of value to specialists in a wide range of disciplines, while more generally complementing and enhancing library collections with strength in more recently published works and in non-Western language materials. The collection includes a comprehensive selection of travel literature, published documents, memoirs, reference works, and scholarly studies in numerous academic disciplines, such as philosophy, history, literature, sociology, art and architecture, international relations and religion. It also contains many texts in translation, which makes accessible to readers unfamiliar with the languages of the region a substantial number of important works produced by Middle Eastern and North African authors since the early Middle Ages. Approximately half of the works selected are in English, with the remainder being in other Western languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and Russian. These works continue to be invaluable as rich sources of historical information and as cultural artifacts significant for the evidence they contain concerning the methods and cultural assumptions which shaped European and American perceptions and writing on Islam and the region over the centuries. At the same time, they include an abundance of material useful for reflecting on the history and cultural values of their Western authors.

Subjects available include the following:

  • Art and architecture
  • Bibliography
  • Economy and society
  • History
  • Language and literature
  • Politics, government and law
  • Religion and thought
  • Science, technology and medicine
  • Social life and custom
  • Travel and description

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Databases & Database Trials, eBooks

Encyclopaedia of Islam Three (EI3)

The Third Edition is an entirely new work  that maintains the previous editions’ comprehensiveness. EI3 draws on a wider range of disciplines and methodologies and exploits recent technological advances to offer optimal accessibility to the most up-to-date scholarship on all aspects of Islam. 
 
Publisher’s Introduction: In the Spring of 2007 the first instalment of EI3 will appear, exactly 100 years after the first printed articles of EI1 were presented to the international scholarly community. The Third Edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam will maintain the high standard of scholarship of its predecessor by inviting leading scholars to contribute state-of-the-art material, along with up-to-date bibliographies. At the same time the Encyclopaedia of Islam three will also offer more a comprehensive coverage of Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa than before. Entries on Muslim minorities all over the world will be included, and the entire 20th century will be taken into account. The wider scope of EI3 requires a different organisational structure than before. The Editorial Board of the Third Edition consists of four Executive Editors, all specialists, who have divided the encyclopaedia in 18 interconnected sections. Each section is coordinated by a Sectional Editor, who is a specialist in the field. The Sectional Editors are responsible for compiling preliminary lists of entries for EI3, finding and communicating with authors, and evaluating and editing their submissions. Some of the sections are thematic – e.g. art & architecture, music, and science –, while others cover a certain region in a specific period of time – for example, the history of Iran from 1500. The Executive Editors maintain a global overview of the project. Part of their role is to harmonize the lists of entries suggested by the sectional editors to avoid doublets and balance the various sections. The question of why EI3 starts so soon after the English version of the Second Edition was finished, is relevant here. The answer lies not in the moment EI2 was completed, but when it began. This happened in the mid-1950s, the first volume appearing in 1960. Since that time Western scholarship concerning the Islamic world has changed considerably. The social sciences have entered the field and Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) has sparked a fierce scholarly debate about Western (re)presentations of Islam and Muslim societies – to mention only two factors. As a result of such developments in the course of the second half of the 20th century, significant parts of the first volumes of EI2 have become outdated. The texts speak for themselves. This Preview offers the entries on the Arabian Nights (‘Alf laila wa-laila’), from the three successive editions of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. This topic seems appropriate, because “the Arabian Nights [constitute] the Islamic world’s major contribution to world literature and an icon that has permeated literary imagery around the world” (Marzolph, infra, p. 30). Placed side by side these articles shed light on the evolution of Western scholarship in general. More specifically they address aspects of the oral and textual traditions in the Islamic world which continue to be relevant today. For EI1 the article ‘Alf laila wa-laila’, was written by J. Oestrup, whose monograph on the subject had appeared in Copenhagen in 1891. The opening paragraph includes the following sentences, which illustrate the scholarly discourse of the period: Like all Orientals the Arabs from the earliest times enjoyed imaginative stories. But the intellectual horizon of the true Arabs being rather narrow, the material for these entertainments was borrowed mainly from elsewhere […] The article offers a survey of the discussion among scholars about the composition and origins of the Arabian Nights during the second half of the nineteenth century, ending with a brief paragraph on the manuscript tradition. Oestrop principally addressed questions of authorship and textual analysis, devoting little attention to the stories themselves. In addition to the eight-column entry by Oestrop, the Supplement volume to the first edition has another entry on ‘Alf laila wa-laila’ too. In its 11 extra columns D.B. MacDonald described the manuscripts kept in Western libraries, providing a great number of additional bibliographical references. Information about the stories is only given when it is relevant for the manuscripts. Enno Littman’s contribution to EI2 on the Arabian Nights draws heavily on the two entries of the earlier edition. Oestrop’s questionable observations about the intellectual horizons of the Arabs, for example, were retained by Littmann. At the same time the author added important new elements, like a discussion of the various genres of stories. The entry on the Arabian Nights for EI3 has been written by Ulrich Marzolph, today’s leading scholar on the subject. This new text offers a balanced survey of all the important aspects of the Arabian Nights today, including the stories themselves, their origins, existing manuscripts, and cultural and literary impact. The article thus reflects the standard of scholarship both the Editorial Board and Brill endeavour to maintain for the Encyclopaedia of Islam Three.
Databases & Database Trials, News & Current Events, Translated News from the Middle East

Mideastwire

Mideastwire.com

 Even if you don’t speak Arabic or other Mideastern languages, you can follow the news and key opinion pieces from more than 500 media outlets in. All members of the Cornell community can read daily updates from Mideastwire.com. It offers daily translated briefs covering some of the key political, cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing in the Arab media. The site includes a fully searchable archive containing thousands of briefs coded by subject categories (women’s issues, judicial rulings, energy policy, and more), specific news outlets (such as Al Hayat, Al Jazeera, and Al Quds Al Arabi), specific countries, keywords, and more.

Faculty & Researchers

NES faculty Meeting, Monday, 26 October 2009.

Meeting with Dept. of Near Eastern Studies faculty, Monday, 26 October 2009. [Lounge, 410 White Hall; 12:10-1:05]

This meeting was initially scheduled several months ago but postponed due to other urgent issues NES needed to address in its last periodic meeting, related to NES own financial predicament. Attending was the majority of faculty (13)* in addition to Ali Houissa, Mid-East and Islamic Studies; Patrick J. Stevens, Jewish Studies. The entire meeting was dedicated to library issues. The atmosphere was very collegial and cordial, and all present showed keen interest in the wellbeing of the library collections.

Ali initiated our discussion based on the agenda distributed to faculty. In the event, we covered topics not always in the order of the agenda because of questions faculty members raised.

There was a fair amount of interest in 2CUL and the implications of the project for library operations and department needs. A question arose about this collaborative concept’s being limited to Columbia and Cornell. Patrick replied that the collaborative model attempted to avoid potentially unwieldy management issues that could come into play in attempts to coordinate among multiple institutions. Collocation in New York State, relative proximity, infrastructure, similar educational missions and philosophical compatibility seem all to be factors drawing the 2CUL participants together, at least at the higher administrative levels. (There were a couple of questions regarding the level of Mellon Foundation involvement and representation at the development phases).

Enrollment in Middle East studies and Arabic-language programs continue to grow on campus (Ali). Due to the budget situation there was substantial downgrade of Syrian/ Lebanese acquisitions (we dropped the approval plan for these with Sulaiman’s Bookshop). The main suppliers of Arabic material are now LC-Cairo and Laila Books. There will be more targeted firm-ordering to partially remedy this situation. An endemic problem has been the existence of long-standing gaps and weaknesses in some core areas of the collection. Ali explained that filling collection gaps, however, will not remain a constant priority for the foreseeable future.

Ali underscored some of these themes in remarking that the era of open-ended collection-building in our areas is at an end. The funds available cannot sustain this kind of growth. Therefore our purchasing, while capable of meeting current and projected exigencies in teaching and research, will necessarily be selective.

Specifically for Jewish Studies, Patrick mentioned the Middle-Eastern/Islamic Studies and Jewish Studies collection development programs were operating at roughly the same order of magnitude in terms of overall funding. He implied the considerable range of coverage for which Jewish Studies are responsible (e.g. archaeology, Biblical studies, Jewish history, Israeli social sciences). Serial cancellations and abrogation of monographic series standing orders are two realities requiring us to focus on cost savings, and we are no different from other selection initiatives in the library in this regard. We intend to review all new titles incoming that would formerly have been under MSSO aegis, and to query faculty frequently regarding the need for specific titles. In general, faculty input on selection is more crucial now than ever, as fewer monies necessitate greater precision based on projected course and research needs.

We were able to promote the Cornell Open-Access Publication (COAP) Fund (and its incentives) as part of our presentation. Handouts containing details were distributed.

*NES Enrollment Fall  ca. 700

Current NES Majors: 34

Permanent Faculty: 15

Visiting Faculty: 5

The Curator’s Blog about the collections, updates, and comments on issues of interest / A. Houissa

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