Abstracta Iranica
http://abstractairanica.revues.org/
Abstracta Iranica is a bibliographical journal of Iranian Studies, published by the Institut français de recherche en Iran. It publishes abstracts and reviews of selected works published over the past year related to Iran, Central Asia and Iranian civilisation. It covers work in a variety of disciplines, from the origins of Iranian civilisation to the present day. Disciplines include: linguistics; archaeology; history; art history; history of science; religion; Islam; philosophy; literature; and the arts. Works are selected and presented by research scholars.
The website for the journal gives full-text access to issues since 2002, accessible by issue or through browsing lists of authors, keywords, subjects or proper names. A search function is also available. The interface is available in English and French, though the reviews are primarily in French. The site's extensive bibliographic resources will be of interest to students and researchers looking for recent work in Iranian Studies.
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African and Asian visual arts archive (AAVAA)
http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/AAVAA.html
This collection of images, held at the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS), is drawn from the African and Asian Visual Artists' Archive (AAVAA). Established in 1989 in Bristol as a national arts organisation, the archive is currently housed at the University of East London and curated by the photographer David A. Bailey and the artist Sonia Bryce. The archive comprises over 1,946 images of contemporary art and exhibitions including work by over 200 artists of African and Asian descent working in the UK since 1945, ranging from recent graduates to early modernist pioneers. The archive includes works by recent graduates, such as Amanda Francis, to the early modernist sculptures of Ronald Moody, who arrived in England in the 1920s. The exhibition slide collection contains key thematic shows such as The Other Story, which was curated by Rasheed Araeen at the Hayward Gallery in 1989, as well as slides of shows curated at the Black Art Gallery in London, a gallery space that closed in the early 1990s. The collection is accessed via VADS' powerful interface (with advanced search, browse and lightbox functions).
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Al Jadid : a review and record of Arab culture and arts
http://www.aljadid.com/
Al Jadid is a quarterly magazine of Arab arts and culture published in the United States. The magazine's website gives access to a selection of articles from back issues and the table of contents of the current issue, though it does not publish issues in their entirety. The magazine, published since 1995, focuses on contemporary Arab arts and culture in the Arab world and the United States, publishing original articles in English as well as translations of essays and interviews by Arab intellectuals. The website provides articles on a variety of topics, including: arts; book reviews; essays and features; fiction; film; interviews; music and dance; poetry; and theatre. It is highly accessible and a good source for writing in English on the contemporary cultural scene in the Arab world and the Arab diaspora, with a consistent focus on key intellectuals and debates. The book reviews section will be of particular interest for those looking for reviews of recent books in both Arabic and English.
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al-Bab
http://www.al-bab.com/
The al-Bab website, 'an open door to the Arab world', provides a collection of articles and outside links on a wide range of topics related to Middle East studies. It is run by Brian Whitaker, former Middle East editor for The Guardian, though the site has no relationship to the newspaper. The content is a combination of annotated links to websites, links to previously published articles or book excerpts, and original articles and commentary. It provides a large variety of reliable content appropriate for students and researchers at all levels.
The site's sections include: country briefings for the 22 members of the Arab League; news; reference; and collections of links and articles on specific topics. Along with coverage of political and economic issues, these topics include a number of subjects of interest to arts and humanities students, including: Arabic language; media; architecture; art; cinema; literature; and music. A section of articles on diversity in the Arab world also provides information about ethnic minorities like the Kurds, Berbers and Turkmen, and coverage of special topics like women in the Arab world or gay and lesbian issues. Al-Bab is an excellent source of background information for the general public and a good first stop for preliminary research for students, but even experienced researchers are likely to find useful resources on many topics.
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American Institute for Maghrib Studies
http://aimsnorthafrica.org/
The American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS) is the main professional association in the United States for academics with research interests in North Africa. It also organises programmes and collaborations with institutions in North Africa. The AIMS website provides information about membership and programmes, including: research grants; Arabic language programmes; the activities of overseas research centres in Tunis, Tangier and Oran; and the association's annual conferences. The site also gives access to copies of current and past newsletters and information about the association's publication, the Journal of North African Studies. The site will be of interest to postgraduate students and academics in North African studies.
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Annales islamologiques
http://www.ifao.egnet.net/anisl/
Annales islamologiques is a journal published by the Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire. It is devoted to research on Arab and Islamic civilization, primarily in Egypt. The website makes available full-text PDF versions of all issues of the journal from 1954 to 1996, many of which are out of print or difficult to find. Tables of contents are provided for more recent issues. Articles are accessible through tables of contents for each issue or for the entire collection, and a full-text search function is also available. The website and most articles are in French, though some articles are in English or Arabic. The site will be of interest to researchers in Middle Eastern history and Islamic Studies.
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Bibenligne
http://www.bibenligne.org/
The website Bibenligne is a directory of online resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities for the field of Mediterranean Studies. It is a collaborative project of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Université de Provence and the Maison Méditerranéenne des sciences de l'Homme. The site consists of links and brief descriptions of resources related to Mediterranean Studies in a variety of disciplines. Types of resource include: methodology; portals; library catalogues; theses and university research; and online journals. Sites can also be found by browsing by keyword, place, or time period, or through a search engine. There is also a facility to suggest relevant links to the editors of the site. The list of websites range from the Institute of Arabic Literature, to an image bank of Provence, to an index of articles on Jewish Studies. This is an extremely varied site of use to anyone with an interest in the areas around the Mediterranean and their cultures.
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Bibliotheca Alexandrina : center for documentation of cultural and natural heritage
http://www.cultnat.org/
The website of the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage, part of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, provides information on a variety of projects undertaken by the centre. The work of the centre is divided into the following programmes: Archaeological Map of Egypt; Architectural and Urban Heritage; Natural Heritage; Photographic Memory; Egyptian Folklore; Arts Documentation; Eternal Egypt; Manuscripts Heritage; and International Relations. The first two sections combine GIS mapping projects with photographic galleries of ancient monuments and urban architecture. The other sections provide images and information related to Egyptian heritage, though coverage is a bit uneven and not all aspects of the site were working at the time of review. The website may be of most use for its imagery bank, which could be used for lectures or essays on ancient Egypt, environmental archaeology, Islamic art and architecture, Egyptian folklore and modern history.
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Black Sea currents : migration and cosmopolitan dynamics in two post-Imperial cities, Odessa and Istanbul
http://www.diasporas.ac.uk/assets/Humphrey.pdf
This Web page offers a very brief description of an AHRC-funded research based at the University of Cambridges Department of Social Anthropology. Through focussing on two cosmopolitan port cities (Odessa and Istanbul) both associated with long histories of imperialism and migration - the project aims to unpick "facets of cosmopolitanism created by the authoritarian state".
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British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS)
http://www.bips.ac.uk/
The website of the British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS) provides information about a series of research projects on ancient and modern Iran, and about the various grants and awards it offers to researchers at postgraduate level and beyond. The BIPS is an academic body promoting scholarship and research in all aspects of Iranian studies, and is associated with the British Academy. The tables of contents of the Institute's journal 'Iran' can be browsed and a calendar of upcoming events and conferences, information on Persian language courses and recent publications are also on offer as well as an index of archaeological sites of the Persian empire and a database of images from Iran (via the photo sharing website 'flickr').
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Cahiers d'études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde Turco-Iranien
http://cemoti.revues.org/
The French journal Cahiers d'études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde Turco-Iranien (CEMOTI) publishes research on a broad geographical area that includes Southern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. The journal also publishes articles related to immigration and the Greek, Turkish and Cypriot diasporas in Europe. Each issue is devoted to a particular theme, with a focus on contemporary history, culture and social questions. The CEMOTI website gives access to tables of contents and abstracts for all issues published since 1985. It also provides full-text versions of selected issues. Disciplinary coverage is broad, including humanities and social sciences disciplines. The journal will be of interest to researchers in Middle East and Central Asian history and cultural studies.
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Cahiers de la méditerranée
http://cdlm.revues.org/
The website of the journal Cahiers de la Méditerranée makes available full-text versions of all articles published in the journal after a six-month delay. The journal is interdisciplinary and covers the modern Mediterranean world as a whole, with a special emphasis on history from the 16th to the 21st centuries, as well as contemporary society, mobility, and cities. It is published twice a year by the Centre de la Méditerranée Moderne et Contemporaine (CMMC) at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis. Each issue is organised around a particular theme, and the journal also publishes brief summaries of recent research and book reviews. Most of the articles are available only in French. The journal will be of interest to historians and others interested in the history and cultures of the Mediterranean world.
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Catnaps : Islamic design
http://www.catnaps.org/islamic/design.html
The Arabic/Islamic design section of the Catnaps website provides an impressively detailed set of 'notes' on Arab and Islamic architecture, design and urban planning, with a particular focus on Qatar. The site is the homepage of John Lockerbie, an architect, urban designer and planner whose primary professional interest and experience has been in the Middle East, particularly the Gulf. He presents a series of well-organised and insightful writings based on this experience that cover a wide range of topics, including: gardens; the perception of space; urban planning and design; Islamic architecture; Gulf architecture; geometry and pattern; environmental control; and new approaches to design. The site also includes information about the geography, population, history and society of Qatar and other parts of the Middle East that will be of broad interest. Despite the acknowledged dangers of generalising about 'Arab/Islamic' versus 'Western' society and design, the author has many fascinating observations and is sensitive to issues of recent social change. The site is appropriate for students and researchers at all levels interested in architecture, urban planning, or Middle Eastern studies more generally.
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Centre de Recherche Berbère
http://www.inalco.fr/crb/
The Centre de Recherche Berbère, under the direction of the well-known Berber linguist Salem Chaker, is part of the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations, INALCO) in Paris. Their website provides information on teaching, degree courses and research groups at the institute as well as general information and previously published articles on the Berber language and linguistics. The content is provided only in French.
Previously published articles and other documents on the following themes are available: general history and information on the Berber language; Berber linguistics (descriptive, historical and sociolinguistics); the 'Berber question' and issues of identity; the Berber alphabet; and a recommended system of transcription. The site also makes available several articles from the Encyclopédie Berbère and a searchable database of publications on Berber language and literature. For those interested in a more general overview of the Berber language in different regions of North Africa, an interactive map connects users to a number of articles about different regional varieties. The website provides excellent quality information based on thorough linguistic research and is appropriate for students and researchers at all levels interested in the Berber language and culture.
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Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW)
http://www.casaw.ac.uk/
The website of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), based at the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and Durham, offers information about: its aims and goals; the courses and programmes in Arab Studies it offers; the various studentships and grants available at postgraduate level and beyond; conferences and events in the field; and its publications and e-learning materials in Arabic. The Centre is part of the Language-Based Area Studies Initiative, a major initiative funded by all major funding bodies (AHRC, ESRC, HEFCE and SFC). It seeks to substantially enhance the UK's capacity in Arabic and Arab studies. It is also possible to register as an interactive member of the site and to subscribe to CASAW's newsletter.
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Communist nations since 1917
http://web.ku.edu/~eceurope/communistnationssince1917/
The website The Communist Nations Since 1917 is an online version of a work by the much-respected Professor Anna Cienciala of the University of Kansas. This is a useful site for students of History, Politics, or regional studies. It explains the nature of the Communist regimes in East and Central Europe in comparison with those of China, North Korea, the Caribbean, Central America, Africa and the Middle East. The aim of the text, as the author points out, is to provide "a historical background" to the communist states before 1917, and then to trace their development throughout the twentieth century. The work was born out of lecture outlines and has been updated as events have merited it. The website is, in reality a book placed online, and therefore employs a similar format. Chapters address subjects such as: Marxism; the Russian Revolutions; Soviet Russia; Polish-Soviet War; Cold War; China since 1949; and Nationalism and Communism in Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan. The themes pertinent to the examination of Communism are woven into individual national narratives.
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Égypte / monde arabe
http://ema.revues.org/
The website of the journal Égypte / Monde arabe makes available full-text versions of all articles published in the journal one year after publication and abstracts from the most recent issue. The journal is published by the Centre d'études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales (CEDEJ), a French research institute in Cairo. The journal is multidisciplinary, with a focus on contemporary Egyptian and Arab society, including much coverage of recent history and contemporary culture. Each issue is organised around a particular theme, and the journal also publishes book reviews, interviews and other material. Most of the content is in French. The journal will be of interest to all those interested in contemporary Egyptian, Arab and Muslim society.
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Images of daily life in Morocco
http://geogweb.berkeley.edu/GeoImages/Miller/millerone.html
The Images of Daily Life in Morocco website is part of the Geo-Images project at the University of California at Berkeley. It provides around 80 photographs of daily life from across Morocco, covering rural, urban and semi-urban areas. Each image is accompanied by a brief paragraph that provides further details on the image and on life in Morocco in general.
Themes include: daily activities; markets; farming; houses and other architecture; geographic features; and families. The geographic coverage is broad, including Arab and Berber rural areas like the Draa valley, the High and Middle Atlas, and the Tafilalt oasis, as well as cities like Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakesh and towns like Ouarzazate, Zagora and Essaouira. The site also includes a fairly detailed map of Morocco. The images were taken by James Miller, Professor of Geography at Clemson University, in the early 1990s. The captions, many of which include questions for discussion, make this an excellent resource for teaching about Morocco, daily life in the Middle East, or geography more generally. The site could also be used by students at all levels for independent study and research.
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Iran Heritage Foundation
http://www.iranheritage.org/
This is the website of the Iran Heritage Foundation, which is a UK charity that was founded in 1995 to "increase awareness about, promote and preserve the history, languages and cultures of Iran". The Foundation does this by supporting research and publishing books, establishing fellowships at academic institutions, and encouraging activities of cultural or scholarly merit in a variety of related fields. The website provides information about the Foundation and includes links to current and past exhibitions; publications; conferences and seminars; film, theatre and performing arts; publications; and lecture series and poetry readings. There is also information about the grants that the Foundation offers for the promotion of the Persian language outside of Iran and other aspects of Persian culture, or for the study of Iranian history, art, architecture, archaeology and cultures.
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Iraq : conflict in context
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/recent/iraq/
The website "Iraq: Conflict in Context" was put together by the BBC History team as a portfolio of content to place the current Iraqi conflict in its broader historical context. In addition to the news and current affairs pages, the resource includes articles such as : 'Lost palaces of Iraq' by Dan Cruickshank, based on his November 2002 television documentary on the subject; 'Crusades and jihads in postcolonial times' by Dr D. Sayyid; and 'Return to the Iraq Museum: The Cost of War' also by Dan Cruickshank. The excellent multimedia Mesopotamia galley provides a cache of attractive illustrations of Near Eastern antiquities with accompanying commentaries by leading expert Dr Dominique Collon, plus bibliographic references and web links to sites concerned with archaeological and heritage matters. This website will interest a wide range of individuals interested in the contemporary Middle East, particularly in view of the on-going military and political crisis in the region. It will also provide useful and up-to-date material for university-level students and researchers working on the archaeology and history of Mesopotamia, particularly on the relationship between politics, archaeology and heritage management.
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Islam
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ISLAM/ISLAM.HTM
This website describes Islam and its historical origins. Some of the central qualities and assumptions of the religion are outlined, generally accompanied by comparisons with Christianity. The historical part of the site begins with pre-Islamic Arabic culture. It then introduces the prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an (or Koran), and goes on to describe the Caliphate under Abu Bakr, the Civil war and Umayyad Dynasty, the Shi'a schism, and finally the Abassid Dynasty. A separate section on the Arabic language emphasises its centrality to the Islamic faith. An 'Islam reader' consists of sections of the Qur'an translated into English. There is also a glossary of terms and a list of links to other sites. This site forms part of an online courseware unit from Washington State University's 'World Civilizations' project. It is targeted at students about to begin university and first year undergraduates.
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Islam online
http://www.islamonline.com/
The Islam Online website, run by Al Jazeera Publishing in Dubai, provides news and other content related to Islam for a Muslim and non-Muslim audience. The majority of the site is devoted to news articles on the Muslim world and the Middle East, with particular sections focused on Islamic banking and other business news. The site also includes some news in Arabic. The Spotlight on Islam section provides content related more directly to Islam and Islamic practice, including: commentaries on specific verses from the Qur'an and the Hadith; explanations of fatwas on various topics; and articles on the hajj and other topics like prayer, fasting, and the position of women. This section also includes over 80 brief profiles of prominent Muslims, from the time of the Prophet through medieval Islam and to the present day. The sections on Islam unfortunately do not include a topic index or clear indications of the authors of the articles, but still provide information that will be of interest to students as introductory sources on Islam and Islamic practice.
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Islamic world
http://folk.uio.no/albrech/CybIslamLinks.html
The Islamic world website, maintained by Dr. Albrecht Hofheinz of the University of Oslo, is a thorough and well-annotated list of links for Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. It covers a wide array of subjects and a broad geographical area, and will be a good first stop for students and researchers looking for online resources. The links are well-organised and can be divided into the following broad subject areas: general reference; internet and communications technology (including search engines, directories, portals, e-lists, discussion forums, chat rooms, and blogs in the Muslim world); countries, regions and peoples (with extensive coverage of Egypt, Morocco, Palestine and the Sudan but including the broader Muslim world in Asia, Africa and the diaspora); languages (especially Arabic); history; religion (especially Islam); culture; social issues; politics and economics; and research (universities and research centres, societies, think tanks, libraries, journals and e-books).
Although the site has not been updated since November 2005 and lacks a navigable contents page, it remains a valuable collection of online resources. Users should note that there were a number of broken links in this directory at the time of cataloguing, but the vast majority were fine. This is one of the few websites to provide links to Middle Eastern search engines and internet directories, and to websites for countries in Muslim regions outside of the Middle East. The section devoted to Islam is especially rich, with links to general information as well as specific subjects like the Qur'an, the Hadith, tafsir, fiqh, Islamic practice, Sufism, South Asian traditions, and religious organisations. An excellent resource for students and researchers of all levels.
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IslamiCity
http://www.islamicity.com/
The IslamiCity - Islam and the Global Muslim eCommunity - website is an Islamic portal that provides information on Islam and the Muslim world appropriate for a wide range of audiences. General introductory pages on understanding Islam, the hajj, the pillars of Islam, and Islamic history will be useful for students and others with little or no previous background in the study of Islam. The site also provides more in-depth articles on the Qur'an and other Islamic texts; access to the text of the Qur'an in Arabic and in translation; and an English translation of an important collection of Hadith (the Sahih Bukhari). Search functions for the Qur'an and Hadith include a search of the Qur'an in six languages and in phonetic Arabic. The site also serves as a resource for the Muslim community, with features like prayer times calculators, a mosque finder, a question and answer section (Ask the Imam), and members-only content. More general news and a host of other content (multimedia, shopping, travel services) will be of less academic interest, but the site's resources, especially the texts provided, remain a useful tool for students and researchers in Islamic studies.
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Mediterranean yearbook
http://www.iemed.org/anuari/
'Mediterranean Yearbook' (Med) is a full-text scholarly ejournal. The bulk of the articles here are not relevant to the arts and humanities, but there are occasional themed sections on cultural and media issues. Of particular note is the themed section 'The Role of the Media in the Mediterranean' (four articles in the 2003/2004 issue). Other articles of interest include: 'Summer Festivals in Morocco: International Influence and a Factor of Social Cohesion'; 'The Influence of Arab Information Channels on Arab Identity'; 'The Difficult Construction of a Mediterranean Cinematic Area'; and 'Partnerships' Failure to Effectively Improve Press Freedom in North Africa', among others. This is a useful resource for those seeking academic papers on contemporary media and cultural issues in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The journal is published in English by the Institut Europeu de la Mediterrania, based in Barcelona, Spain.
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