Decolonizing the Page A Forgotten Golden Age of Arabic Book Arts (1950s–1980s)

 

Decolonizing the Page : A Forgotten Golden Age of Arabic Book Arts  - (1950s–1980s)

"This online exhibition sheds light on a remarkable era when Arabic book arts flourished, capturing the artistic, political, and intellectual fervour of decolonization. During this period, books played a vital role in reshaping knowledge, imagination, and aesthetic sensibilities, reaching an expanding Arabic readership and global networks of solidarity..."

"The bilingual Arabic and English website is the output for an AHRC-funded research project—for which the British Library was a partner—by Dr Zeina Maasri (University of Bristol) investigating the visual culture of Arabic books during processes of decolonisation. You can read more about the project in the About section: https://www.decolonizingthepage.com/en/about "

Digital Toolbox for Iranian Studies

 Digital Toolbox for Iranian Studies

"The toolbox aims at collecting all available digital resources that are relevant to Iranian Studies & related fields of study. It may help you to find:

• primary sources & academic literature
• manuscripts & objects in digital archives & collections
• historic maps, coinage, linguistic corpora
• academic publications & institutions
• podcasts, blogs & academic communities
• and useful apps for your research"

Three Open Access Books on the Silk Roads: by UNESCO

 

"The most astonishing innovations and fusions of the world’s religions, beliefs, and material cultures have occurred along the trade and communication networks between Asia, Africa, and Europe, known today as the Silk Roads. The empires and dynasties, fluctuating like ebbs and flows, triggered waves of cultural interchange across time and space, connected by caravans of knowledge and technological transfers crossing vast distances over barren steppes, impenetrable deserts, and unsurmountable ranges. This three-part volume on Architecture, Monuments and Urbanism explores cities and ports from Nanjing to Seville and Karakorum to Mumbai as individual pearls in a long string of historical vicissitudes and cultural exchanges across the overland Silk Roads and maritime Silk Routes." 

Architecture, monuments and urbanism, Part I: Architectural influences along the Silk Roads

Editors: Paskaleva, Elena; Turner, Michael 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54678/JNRQ3162

ISBN: 978-92-3-100738-5

Collation: 343 pages : illustrations, maps

Language: English

Year of publication: 2025

Licence type: CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Architecture, monuments and urbanism, Part II: Cities on the overland Silk Roads

Editors: Paskaleva, Elena; Turner, Michael 

Series title and vol / issues: Thematic collection of the cultural exchanges along the Silk Roads 

DOI:https://doi.org/10.54678/VMIH5884

ISBN: 978-92-3-100738-5

Collation: 375 pages : illustrations, maps

Language: English

Year of publication: 2025

Licence type: CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO 

Architecture, monuments and urbanism, Part III: Cultural networks and sea ports on the maritime Silk Routes

Editors: Paskaleva, Elena; Turner, Michael 

Series title and vol / issues: Thematic collection of the cultural exchanges along the Silk Roads

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54678/RUOM2593

ISBN: 978-92-3-100738-5

Collation: 347 pages : illustrations, maps

Language: English

Year of publication: 2025

Licence type: CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO [14411]

The Analytical Database of Arabic Poetry

 "The Analytical Database of Arabic Poetry provides an innovative digital platform for research on the semantics of the Arabic language and the history of Arabic poetic tradition from late antiquity onwards. The development of the database was initiated in the research project “Language–Philology–Culture. Arab Cultural Semantics in Transition” 

The database includes:

Text corpus

Fully searchable texts of Arabic poetry in TEI/XML are provided with analytical data on authors, chronological periodisation, literary classification, geographical specification and semantic categorisation.

Dictionary

The historical dictionary implements comprehensive analytical tools and provides detailed information on the historical development of the vocabulary used in Arabic poetry and its various genres. Since there is neither a historical dictionary of Arabic nor a complete dictionary of classical Arabic in any European language, the database creates a unique and indispensable research tool on the semantics of Arabic.

Research data

Additional information tags and notes, a semantic register crosslinked with the Intercontinental Dictionary Series and detailed bibliographical information on sources used in the project provide research data making the database useful not just as an innovative literary and lexical source, but also as a reference work for wider research on Arabic literature, history and culture." 

Principal Investigator: Dr Kirill Dmitriev

Research project: Language–Philology–Culture. Arab Cultural Semantics in Transition.

OA Book: Tıflî Hikâyeleri

 Tıflî Hikâyeleri by David Selim Sayers 

"IV. Murad İstanbul’unda geçen ve cinsellik, para, aşk ve şiddet gibi konuları işleyen Tıflî hikâyeleri, 19. yüzyıl Osmanlı düzyazı edebiyatının önemli bir türünü oluşturur. Bu edebî türle ilgili ilk ve tek kapsamlı çalışma olan Tıfli Hikâyeleri, 19. yüzyıl Osmanlı kültürünün de çarpıcı bir panoramasını sunuyor. Kitap, hikâyelere ilişkin inceleme dışında eski yazıdan çeviri yazısı yapılan hikâye metinlerini de içeriyor. 

The Tifli Stories are a genre of Ottoman prose literature set in Istanbul during the reign of Murad IV (r. 1623-1640) and revolving around themes such as sex, money, passion, and violence. The first and only comprehensive study of this literary genre, Tifli Hikayeleri (The Tifli Stories) analyzes the stories to offer a vivid panorama of 19th-century Ottoman culture. The book further includes a comprehensive corpus of stories transliterated from Ottoman into modern Turkish."

URL, Paris Institute: https://parisinstitute.org/tifli-hikayeleri/ 

OA Journal مجلة الأزهر للعام

 

Open Access to the Journal of Al-Azhar (مجلة الأزهر للعام) from 1349 AH to 1435 AH. 

URL: https://azhar.gov.eg/Materials/magazine/index.htm

Open Access Book: The Library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār : Book Culture in Late Ottoman Palestine

 

Title: The Library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār : Book Culture in Late Ottoman Palestine
Series: Islamic History and Civilization, Volume: 219

Volume Editors: Said Aljoumani, Guy Burak, and Konrad Hirschler

Published:  Brill, 2025
ISBN: 9789004720527

"This study is the first to examine the history and composition of the library of Aḥmad Pasha al-Jazzār (d. 1804), the famous governor of northern Palestine in the late eighteenth century, on the basis of the inventory of the library’s holdings..."

Open Access Book: Muḥammad and His Followers in Context

Author:  Lindstedt, Ilkka.

Title: Muḥammad and His Followers in Context : The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia.

Series: Islamic History and Civilization, Volume: 209
Published : Brill, 2024

"The book surveys and analyzes changes in religious groups and identities in late antique Arabia, ca. 300-700 CE. It engages with contemporary and material evidence: for example, inscriptions, archaeological remains, Arabic poetry, the Qurʾān, and the so-called Constitution of Medina. Also, it suggests ways to deal with the later Arabic historiographical and other literary texts. The issue of social identities and their processes are central to the study. For instance, how did Arabian ethnic and religious identities intersect on the eve of Islam? The book suggests that the changes in social groups were more piecemeal than previously thought."

OA-Book: Mechanisms of Social Dependency in the Early Islamic Empire

Mechanisms of Social Dependency in the Early Islamic Empire

Editors: Edmund Hayes and Petra M. Sijpesteijn

Date Published: November 2024

Hardback isbn: 9781009384261

Available in Open Access (gold)

" The success of Islamic imperialism in the period from the conquests to the Ayyubid dynasty has traditionally been explained as purely the result of military might. This book, however, adopts a bottom-up approach which puts social relationships and local power dynamics at the centre of the Islamic empire's cohesion. Its chapters draw on sources in diverse languages: not just Arabic, but also Greek, Coptic, Syriac, Hebrew, and Bactrian, showing how different linguistic communities intersected and contributed to a connected yet diverse empire. They highlight how not just literary and historical texts, but also physical documents and archaeological evidence should be incorporated into writing histories of the late antique and early medieval Middle East. Social institutions and relationships explored include oaths; petitions, decrees, and begging letters; and financial frameworks such as debt and taxation. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Provides a new framework for understanding how the early Islamic empire, and pre-modern empires more broadly, worked together through cooperation and interdependence as well as through coercion

Shows how different linguistic communities intersected and contributed to a connected yet diverse empire

Uses physical documents and archaeological evidence as well as literary and historical texts in order to produce a broader picture"