One Off Journal Issues: Progressive Librarian Issue #48, Spring 2021: Palestinian Libraries

 One Off Journal Issues: Progressive Librarian Issue #48, Spring 2021: Palestinian Libraries

Download complete issue [.pdf file]

EDITORIAL

Libraries, Archives, and Palestine: The Struggle Continues, page 3 [.pdf file]

ARTICLES

History of Palestinian Libraries and Archives Under Israeli Occupation
by Anan Hamad, page 7 [.pdf file]

The International Board on Books for Young People In Palestine
by Mary Fasheh, page 31 [.pdf file]

Libraries in Gaza: Between Despair and Hope
by Mosab Abu Toha, page 53 [.pdf file]

Interview with Mosab Abu Toha, Founder of the Edward Said Public Library, page 67 [.pdf file]

Private Libraries in Nablus Have a Bright Past and an Uncertain Future
by Lara Kanaan, page 75 [.pdf file]

DOCUMENTS

MELA Statement on Collection Development, Access, and Equity in the Time of COVID-19, page 81 [.pdf file]

Resolution in Defense of the Free Speech of Supporters of the Movement for Palestinian Rights, page 84 [.pdf file]

Communications of the SRRT Action Council and ALA Resolution Review Task Force, page 86 [.pdf file]

Progressive Librarians Guild Resources on Black Lives Matter, page 106 [.pdf file]

REPORT

Union Library Workers Blog: The Years 2019-2020 in Review
by Craig M. Guild, page 110 [.pdf file]

 

 

Open Access E-Book: The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi Sufism through the Eyes of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311)

The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi. Sufism through the Eyes of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311)

Author: Arjan Post

"The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi explores the life and teachings of ʿImād al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Wāsiṭī (d. 711/1311), a little-known Ḥanbalī Sufi master from the circle of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). The first part of this book follows al-Wāsiṭī’s physical journey in search of spiritual guidance through a critical study of his autobiographical writings. This provides unique insights into the Rifāʿiyya, the Shādhiliyya, and the school of Ibn ʿArabī, several manifestations of Sufism that he encountered as he travelled from Wāsiṭ to Baghdad, Alexandria, and Cairo. Part I closes with his final destination, Damascus, where his membership of Ibn Taymiyya’s circle and his role as a Sufi teacher is closely examined. The second part focuses on al-Wāsiṭī’s spiritual journey through a study of his Sufi writings, which convey the distinct type of traditionalist Sufism that he taught in early eighth/fourteenth-century Damascus. Besides providing an overview of the spiritual path unto God from beginning to end as he formulated it, this reveals an exceptional interplay between Sufi theory and traditionalist theology."

DOI:10.1163/9789004377554

ISBN:9789004431294

Publisher: Brill, 2020

Open Access E-Book: Conquered Populations in Early Islam Non-Arabs, Slaves and the Sons of Slave Mothers

 Conquered Populations in Early Islam Non-Arabs, Slaves and the Sons of Slave Mothers

    Author: Elizabeth Urban
    ISBN: 9781474423229
    Edinburgh University Press
    Publication year:2020

This book traces the journey of new Muslims as they joined the early Islamic community and articulated their identities within it. It focuses on Muslims of slave origins, who belonged to the society in which they lived but whose slave background rendered them somehow alien. How did these Muslims at the crossroads of insider and outsider find their place in early Islamic society? How did Islamic society itself change to accommodate these new members? By analysing how these liminal Muslims resolved the tension between belonging and otherness, Conquered Populations in Early Islam reveals the shifting boundaries of the early Islamic community and celebrates the dynamism of Islamic history.

Open Access E-book: New Readings in Arabic Historiography from Late Medieval Egypt and Syria

New Readings in Arabic Historiography from Late Medieval Egypt and Syria. Proceedings of the themed day of the Fifth Conference of the School of Mamluk Studies

Editors: Jo van Steenbergen and Maya Termonia
Series: Islamic History and Civilization, Volume: 179
ISBN: 978-90-04-45890-1 (e-book)

ISBN: 978-90-04-44702-8 (hardback)
Publication Date: 19 Apr 2021

"The present volume contributes to research on historic Arabic texts from late medieval Egypt and Syria. Departing from dominant understandings of these texts through the prisms of authenticity and “literarization,” it engages with questions of textual constructedness and authorial agency. 

It consists of 13 contributions by a new generation of scholars in three parts. Each part represents a different aspect of their new readings of particular texts. Part one looks at concrete instances of textual interdependencies, part two at the creativity of authorial agencies, and part three at the relationship between texts and social practice. New Readings thus participates in the revaluation of late medieval Arabic historiography as a critical field of inquiry."

Contributors: Rasmus Bech Olsen, Víctor de Castro León, Mohammad Gharaibeh, Kenneth A. Goudie, Christian Mauder, Evan Metzger, Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont, Clément Onimus, Tarek Sabraa, Iria Santás de Arcos, Gowaart Van Den Bossche, Koby Yosef.

Open Access Portal: ShariaSource

ShariaSource Online Portal (at Harvard Law School)

ShariaSource provides Country Profiles that give a basic overview of the legal history, institutional structures, and role (or lack thereof) of Islamic law in every country of the world: both member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which includes some non-Muslim majority countries, and non-members. The Country Profiles draw, in substantial part, on research produced by the Library of Congress, GlobaLex  at NYU, and The Constitute Project at the University of Chicago. The portal is now available as a beta-version.

Open Access E-Book: Sufi Masters and the Creation of Saintly Spheres in Medieval Syria

Sufi Masters and the Creation of Saintly Spheres in Medieval Syria

Author: Ephrat, Daphna

Publisher: Arc Humanities Press

DOI: 10.17302/MIW-9781641892094

ISBN: 9781641892087

"This book explores the lives of Sufi masters who functioned as embodiments of Islamic sainthood and left a lasting mark on the land. These figures lived in the ancient cities of Syria and their surrounding towns and villages during a formative period in the social history of Syrian Sufism and the spiritual tradition of Islam."

 

HAZINE - Call For Pitches: Open Access Series

Hazine - an online guide to researching the Middle East is calling for contributions of articles on Open Access issues related to archives and resources for the study of the Middle East. 

"How do you employ open access technologies in building community archives?
What principles do you take to consideration when building accessible resources for communities, including for those with disabilities?
Hazine is seeking 4 pieces on the open access movement concerning archives and resources from or pertaining to the Mashriq, Maghreb, East Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Turkey, or Iran. If you’re a researcher, an archivist, a librarian, an artist, an editor or any other interested party, tell us how open access policies have affected you and your work.   What technologies have you used to build open access materials? What is the role of social media in the open access movement? What are the limitations of open access?"

More at: https://hazine.info/call-for-pitches-open-access-series/