Number 15 ISSN: 1361-9144 Registered Charity No. 1003272 2010 £5.00

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The Society for Arabian Studies President Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies Miss Beatrice de Cardi OBE FBA FSA Editor Dr Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis Chairman Ms Sarah Searight Book Reviews Editor Mr William Facey Vice Chairman Dr St John Simpson Treasurer Col Douglas Stobie Honorary Secretary Mrs Ionis Thompson Grants Sub-Committee Prof. Dionisius A. Agius Honorary Secretary Dr St John Simpson Dr Lucy Blue Ms Sarah Searight Dr Robert Carter Dr Nelida Fuccaro Dr Harriet Crawford Dr Nadia Durrani Dr Nadia Durrani Dr Derek Kennet Mr William Facey Dr Nelida Fuccaro British Archaeological Mission in Yemen Dr Noel Guckian (BAMY) Dr Derek Kennet Chairman Prof. Tony Wilkinson Dr James Onley Dr Lloyd Weeks Prof. Tony Wilkinson

Notes for contributors to the Bulletin The Bulletin depends on the good will of Society members and correspondents to provide contributions. News, items of general interest, ongoing and details of completed postgraduate research, forthcoming conferences, meetings and special events are welcome. Please contact the Honorary Secretary, Ionis Thompson. Email [email protected]

Applications to conduct research in Yemen Applications to conduct research in Yemen should be made to the Society’s sub-committee, the British Archaeological Mission in Yemen (BAMY). Contact Professor Tony Wilkinson, Durham University, Department of Archaeology, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE. Tel. 0191 334 1111. Email [email protected]

Grants in aid of research Applicants are advised to apply well ahead of the May and October deadlines. Full details on p. 3.

Applications for official sponsorship Expeditions and individuals may apply for official sponsorship from the Society for research projects if helpful in obtaining funds from other sources or permission from foreign governments. Sponsorship signifies the Society’s approval of academic content but not financial support. Applications should be submitted on the relevant form, available from the Hon. Secretary at the address below, and sent to the Grants Sub-Committee: Dr St John Simpson, Middle East Department, The British Museum, London, WC1B 3DG, UK. Email [email protected]

Membership Membership details are available from Ionis Thompson, the Honorary Secretary, at the address below or on the Society’s website. For membership renewals contact the Treasurer, Douglas Stobie, at the address below, or email: [email protected]

The Honorary Secretary, Society for Arabian Studies c/o The London Middle East Institute School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG, UK Email: [email protected] Web: www.societyforarabianstudies.org

Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies ISSN: 1361-9144 Registered Charity No. 100327

CONTENTS

CONTENTS ...... 1! QATAR ...... 29!

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN 2! UNITED ARAB EMIRATES...... 30!

EDITOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... 2! SAUDI ARABIA ...... 32!

SOCIETY FOR ARABIAN STUDIES YEMEN...... 34!

NEWS...... 3! AWARDS AND PRIZES...... 36!

MONOGRAPH SERIES ...... 3! AVAILABLE GRANTS AND PRIZES 37!

SOCIETY GRANTS-IN-AID 2009 ...... 3! CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

GRANT-IN-AID REPORTS...... 3! 2009–10 ...... 41! BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION IN COMPLETED CONFERENCES ...... 41! YEMEN (BAMY) ...... 8! UPCOMING CONFERENCES 2010 ...... 42! LECTURE REPORTS 2009...... 9! BOOK REVIEWS ...... 45! LECTURE PROGRAMME 2010 ...... 14! NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ARABIA .. 63! ARABIAN NEWS AND RESEARCH.. 15! NEW BOOKS 2009–10 ...... 63! ARTS ...... 15! OTHER SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS WILDLIFE ...... 19! OF INTEREST...... 64! OTHER GENERAL NEWS...... 20! JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES ...... 64! NEWS AND RESEARCH BY COUNTRY .... 20! SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS BAHRAIN...... 20! AND OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES 66! KUWAIT...... 23!

OMAN...... 25! OBITUARIES ...... 67!

Front Cover: Detail of the Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi, photograph by George Lewis

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A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN After twenty years of occasional confusion communities to the dangers and to raise funds between Society for Arabian Studies and the to combat the trade; one spin-off has been a Arabian Seminar, the two organisations are non-governmental organisation in Yemen to finally hoping to merge into one organisation. save the Arabian leopard. On the cultural The move is intended to heighten the profile /historical side the trade in stolen or looted of Arabian studies in the academic world, archaeological and historical artefacts is also mainly in Britain, but also internationally. We flourishing. This is particularly so in Yemen hope thereby more satisfactorily to raise funds where the difficulties of maintaining law and for the expanding field of Arabian studies in order and the resulting economic downturn this country. A working party is at present have encouraged wholesale looting of looking into the constitutional implications – I archaeological sites that are a crucial part of hope some of these can be presented at the the country’s history. As much to blame is an Society’s next AGM. ever-more avaricious art market. The problem Improved funding would enable the exists across Arabia, and British learned Society to meet a growing number of requests societies such as ours should be playing a for grants that it receives every year. We limit more visible role in supporting moves to grants to a total on each occasion of £500. tackle it more forcefully. Every little helps, however, and this issue of Sarah Searight the Bulletin includes two excellent grant Chairman reports, one by Toby Mathiesen on The State, Communalism and Trans-nationalism in EDITOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Saudi Arabia since the 1980s and by Farah al- Naqib on Speaking the Past, on collecting oral As always, many thanks indeed to all our history in Kuwait. Both these scholars are contributors, and to Ionis Thompson, Sarah lecturing to the Society in the spring, and Searight and Robert Carter for providing reports on their research are included under additional material. Their assistance has made ‘Grant-In-Aid Reports’ below. Another grant my first year as editor incredibly smooth. The recipient, Dr Harriet Nash, gave an excellent Bulletin would not exist without them. Thanks lecture last December on Star-Gazing in too to all those who read and commented on Oman. The grants committee would dearly the manuscript. like to help more researchers. The Emirates I and the committee would like to know if Natural History Group in Abu Dhabi (see pp. there is any interest in receiving the Bulletin 30–1, 39) has generously helped to fund solely in an electronic format. Many academic research by Sabrina Righetti into the Wadi journals are moving towards this form of Suq period in Ras al-Khaimah and Oman delivery, as it is better for the environment which is much appreciated. and more cost-effective. The executive I would like to draw everyone’s attention committee is considering a slightly higher to two major illegal trades practised across the subscription rate for those wishing to receive peninsula, one environmental the other hard copies of the Bulletin. Funds used to cultural/historical. You will find under publish the Bulletin could instead be put to ‘Wildlife’ a reference to the trade in use to support more research in the form of endangered species. Arabian flora and fauna society grants. have been threatened for a long time by the Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis speed of urban, agricultural and social Editor development in Arabia. A Dubai veterinary [email protected] organisation has set up Wild Life Middle East, with an excellent website, to alert

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SOCIETY FOR ARABIAN STUDIES NEWS

The Society was founded in 1987 with the at SOAS, who was awarded a grant in July purpose of encouraging interest and research 2008 to research The State, Communalism into the archaeology, history, culture and and Trans-nationalism in Saudi Arabia since environment of the Arabian Peninsula – the 1950s. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Moreover, we are also very pleased to the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The report that another application by Sabrina Society publishes this annual Bulletin, Righetti, a Paris student of the late Professor organises regular lectures and a biennial Serge Cleuziou (whose obituary is included conference, and supports field projects in and on pp. 67–68), has been very generously publications on this region. Full details of the accepted on our behalf by the Emirates Society’s aims and activities can be found on Natural History Society, as her proposal was its website: www.societyforarabianstudies.org to study archaeological material of the Wadi

MONOGRAPH SERIES Suq period held in the Ras al-Khaimah In 2004, the Society launched a Monograph museum of the United Arab Emirates. We are Series with the aim of publishing peer- very grateful to Peter Hellyer and his reviewed research-based studies, conference colleagues for their offer to support this proceedings, archaeological excavation or application and it is a very good illustration of survey reports, and theses comprising an how Societies can collaborate. important synthesis or a significant addition to We should add here that the Society for knowledge. The scope encompasses the Arabian Studies normally has two rounds of archaeology, early history, ethnography, applications, with deadlines of 31 May and 31 epigraphy and numismatics of the Arabian October of each year, and we support research Peninsula and related matters. The Series now on all aspects of the archaeology, history, has seven titles, published by Archaeopress culture and environment of the Arabian (B.A.R. International Series); these are listed peninsula. Applications should be submitted on the back cover of the Bulletin. to Dr St John Simpson at [email protected] and further SOCIETY GRANTS-IN-AID 2009 details can be found on the Grants page of the 2009 has been a record year both in terms of Society for Arabian Studies website: the number of applications received and the http://www.societyforarabianstudies.org/grants.sht number of grants the Society has been able to ml. Applicants will normally be informed of award. Many of these have been from PhD the Society’s decision within six weeks of students studying in this country or in those dates. The grant will be held for twelve mainland Europe and it is very satisfying to months from the date of receipt of the award. be able to support high-quality research by a Recipients will be required to provide a wide range of nationalities. written report on their research with an The range of research supported by the account of the expenditure, to be submitted Society is aptly illustrated by this year’s within six months of the expiry of the period awards to Farah al-Naqib (SOAS) for her for which the grant was made. Successful work on Speaking the Past, Thanos Petouris applicants will also be required to submit a (SOAS) on The Anti-colonial Movement in summary of their research for publication in Aden and the Protectorates of South Arabia, the next issue of the Society’s Bulletin and 1937-1967, Harriet Nash (Exeter) on may be asked to lecture to the Society on the Stargazing in Wadi Beni Kharous and Wadi subject of their research. Beni Jaber, Northern Oman, Matthias St John Simpson Determann (SOAS) on Contemporary GRANT-IN-AID REPORTS Historiography in Saudi Arabia and Eleanor A grant in aid of research was awarded in Scerri (Southampton) on Early Lithic 2006 to Vânia Carvalho-Pinto to support her Assemblages in Saudi Arabia. A report from PhD research, Nation-building, State and the the first recipient has already been received Genderframing of Women’s Rights in the and we are delighted to include it here in this United Arab Emirates (1971–2009). Her Bulletin. We are also pleased to include a doctoral thesis was submitted in 2009 to the report from Toby Mathiesen, again a student

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University of Hildesheim in Germany. and opportunities for education, employment and will be published in 2010 by Ithaca Press. political rights that were made available by The grant awarded by the Society for the state. Arabian Studies was used to partially fund The concepts of ‘Genderframe’ and three research stays in the United Arab ‘genderframing’ are presented as a means to Emirates from January 2007 to May 2008. explain these mechanisms and also to account During that period, I travelled extensively for the successes and failures of the state’s across the seven Emirates conducting gender policies in terms of mobilisation and interviews with a wide range of individuals. implementation. They both refer to the These were mostly females engaged in strategic work of re-interpretation of the women-related activities and organisations, changing roles of women, conducted by the either in a volunteer or professional capacity. UAE state, so as to portray these changes as They included, among others, academics, necessary and desirable for reasons variously prominent citizens, public servants and liberal associated with nation building, religious professionals. conformity, promotion of family values and During this period, I also visited numerous indigenous cultural preservation. women’s associations across the country, By examining the creation, deployment ladies’ clubs and bodies oriented towards and modifications to the Emirati family issues. These trips, along with the Genderframe, this work seeks to highlight the various social events I had the opportunity to profound intertwining between gender, nation attend, offered a wealth of information and building, and socio-political dynamics in a insights about the country and Emirati culture country that, while seeking to establish its in general. What emerged from all these modernising credentials, is still struggling for experiences was the realisation that a ‘history’ self-definition and empowerment. of women and of the changes that their lives Vânia Carvalho-Pinto had undergone since the foundation of the Farah Al-Nakib received a grant that country in 1971 was not only still lacking, but supported her doctoral research, entitled, was also increasingly necessary given the Speaking the Past: A Report on the Collection profound social changes that are continuing to and Use of Oral Reminiscences about Pre-oil affect women’s lives. Kuwait. My doctoral dissertation is thus an attempt My ongoing doctoral research in history at the to begin to sketch these dynamics by School of Oriental and African Studies favouring a historical perspective organised examines the transformation of urban space around key events such as the foundation of and urban life in Kuwait City between the the country, the so-called Islamisation of the pre-oil and oil periods, through an analysis of area and recent official programmes for the the economic, political, social and spatial preservation of indigenous culture. As such, development and organisation of the city the general argument unfolds throughout five (covering a century of urbanisation from the chapters, each falling within a specific time 1880s to the 1980s). Within the context of this frame. It starts in 1971, the year the UAE kind of historical research on urban Kuwait, state was founded, and finishes in 2009. the availability and accessibility of relevant Its departure point is the realisation that primary sources is quite different for the pre- perhaps one of the most visible trans- oil and oil periods. For the latter I have been formations taking place in the UAE able to gather and draw on an abundance of throughout its almost forty years of modern materials such as official state planning history has been the extensive changes to documents, government reports, municipal Emirati women’s traditional rights and roles. minutes of meetings, state-sponsored social My work thus tries to show why and how surveys and a vast archive of newspaper and these modifications came about. The chief magazine articles, all produced between the perspective adopted in this investigation is 1950s and 1980s. that there was no direct or easy link between For the pre-oil period, however, historians the state’s ‘offer of rights’ for women, and on the social and cultural history of Kuwait society’s acceptance of them. My objective, remain generally confined to four main types therefore, was to explore the mechanisms that of sources: local histories written in the late induced women to take advantage of the th th 19 and early 20 centuries, British Foreign

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and India Office records, a large body of immigrated to Kuwait, no later than 1940. As European travel literature and a collection of it was not until the mid- to late-1950s that the American missionary writings. While all of general population began to directly these sources are indeed useful in writing experience the transformations that oil was certain aspects of the urban history of Kuwait bringing to the country, anyone born in or City in the pre-oil period, they are collectively before 1940 would have workable memories lacking in sufficient local knowledge of the of what it was like to live in Kuwait Town town’s socio-spatial organisation. Further- before these changes. Being able to locate more, the few locally produced records that people to interview is always a difficult task do exist – such as nakhoda logbooks and for any researcher. My first advantage was merchant family trading documents – do not being Kuwaiti myself, and I was able to start shed much light on the daily patterns and with personal contacts: grandparents of practices of everyday urban life, nor do they friends or colleagues, for example. But once I tell us about the worlds of those members of took this first step I was able to throw my net Kuwaiti urban society who traditionally did much farther and wider. By the end of my not leave any written records behind. month in Kuwait I had collected twenty-five One type of source that can be used to fill oral histories with a diverse range of people: in such gaping voids in the historic record is men and women, merchants and labourers, oral history. Testimonies from people who Sunnis and Shi‘is. Some had been children in lived in pre-oil Kuwait Town who are still the 1940s and others had been fully grown; alive today can not only supplement, some came from long-established urban corroborate, refute or expand upon evidence families while others had immigrated to the found in written sources; they can also town themselves. Among my informants was provide an entirely new perspective on a Kuwaiti woman who married a Palestinian aspects of Kuwait’s past that written records teacher in the 1930s at a time when such a simply cannot provide. In particular, oral thing was relatively unheard of; a Zubairi man histories raise the volume on the previously who came to Kuwait alone as a teenager in silenced voices of groups that have been search of temporary employment on his way largely left out of history writing, such as to work for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia (a women, labourers and children. By speaking dream he never achieved as he ended up their own pasts, such marginalized groups can settling permanently in Kuwait); a house obtain a stronger and more visible presence in builder who worked his way up the ranks to local historiography. become a foreman; a member of one of the Thanks to a generous research grant town’s most prominent merchant families; the awarded by the Society for Arabian Studies, son of a former slave of the ruling family; a between March and April 2008 I was able to woman whose family was among the first conduct a series of such oral histories with Persian immigrants to the town in the members of the urban population of Kuwait eighteenth century; and a man who had been who were alive in the pre-oil period. By actively involved in the political opposition providing a vividly detailed and first-hand movements of the 1930s. account of what life was actually like in My first challenge was that many Kuwait before oil, these oral reminiscences individuals, particularly women, could not have served as an invaluable supplement to understand why I was interested in my existing sources. As I will be sharing interviewing them. To them such historical some of the content of my interviews in my interviews should have been directed at lecture at the S.A.S. in January, I will focus decision-makers, people of power and this report more on the actual process of influence or other local historians who had conducting oral histories in Kuwait: on the done research on Kuwait’s past. The idea of people I met, the challenges I faced, the seeking out the life histories of normal unique experience of the interview process “unimportant” people was a strange concept. and my overall impression on using oral However, once each interview got started they histories as a source for the writing of usually warmed to the idea and ended up Kuwait’s history. sharing stories and memories of their lives in My sole criterion in identifying potential the pre-oil town with a remarkable degree of interviewees was that they were born, or had honesty, openness and candour. Most told me

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that nobody had ever asked them about or never having met me before, viewed me as a been interested in their stories and memories sort of granddaughter more than a researcher of the past – memories that, it became clear as despite the presence of my tape recorder. I am each interview progressed, they cherished and sure the fact that I am Kuwaiti and was able to were indeed eager to share. speak colloquially with them had a significant Although I had a list of general questions impact on how comfortable my interviewees that I wanted to ask each person – on the felt speaking about their past and their socio-spatial organization of the town, feelings of the past. On several occasions they relationships with neighbours, daily routines, would compare life before oil with life today, and so on – I tended to keep interviews open- and inevitably would begin sentences with, ended and relatively informal and used these “You young people today…,” – thereby questions as a guide to sometimes steer our fixing my presence in generational terms. But conversation in new directions. I wanted to then my existing knowledge of Kuwait’s maintain a degree of flexibility to ensure that history often pleasantly surprised them and each person felt comfortable speaking with they would realize that my interest in their me, while simultaneously allowing the version and experiences of the past was interview to go in the direction that the deeper than mere curiosity, once again individual chose. Oftentimes they would share reinforcing my role as a historian. In other wonderful stories that might not have words, throughout the interviewing process I answered my questions directly but that were constantly found myself oscillating between nonetheless interesting and unexpectedly the roles of granddaughter and researcher, of relevant to my research. For example, one fellow Kuwaiti and independent enquirer, of man told me that whenever someone in the subjective participant and objective observer. town was sick their family would put fruit This duality, coupled with the eagerness of peels outside the front door to let their my interviewees to share their stories, yielded neighbours know to both call in and bring a valuable collection of oral histories that are more fruit (this being a time when fruit was proving indispensable in my analysis of urban scarce in Kuwait). Several other interviewees life in old Kuwait Town. On the one hand, the corroborated this story, and being entirely repetition of certain key issues in multiple new to me it told me a lot about the ingenious interviews – such as the fact that households and informal modes of communication that were collectively responsible for maintaining existed within each individual neighbourhood the hygiene, cleanliness, and security of their at that time. neighbourhoods before the establishment of No two interviews were the same. The the Municipality in 1930 – have helped me shortest was only 45 minutes; the longest draw some solid conclusions about the lasted for more than four hours. One was patterns, practices, networks, and institutions divided up over three separate sessions, the of everyday urban life in Kuwait Town before last of which involved driving and walking oil. On the other hand, each individual, and around Kuwait City with the man pointing out therefore each testimony, was wonderfully the location of historic sites that no longer unique and the diversity of their stories and exist. A few interviews were quite formal, but life experiences serve as a reminder that life others were much more conversational. Some was as variable, unpredictable, and dynamic were politically charged, while some others in the pre-oil period as it was after the advent spoke more about childhood memories and of oil urbanisation. These interviews also play activities. Several interviewees spoke at a significant role in dispelling several length about different topics that they chose; a previously held assumptions on urban life in couple preferred only to answer my specific pre-oil Kuwait – such as the view that women questions. had very little freedom in urban space and But the one similarity between them was therefore played only a minimal role in public the level to which each person I interviewed life, which the testimonies of the women of opened up to me – some even telling me various socio-economic background collect- stories of lost loves and political intrigues – ively refute. which made me think about my own role as Despite these tremendous advantages in the researcher. I knew that many of the men using oral histories as a source for writing the and women I was speaking with, although history of pre-oil Kuwait, as a historian I am

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also acutely aware that such sources are no both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. However, I more unproblematic or unbiased than written realised that it would be more fruitful to focus sources. The stories, experiences and routines on one country, Saudi Arabia. of everyday life that people share in their My PhD starts with an analysis of the local testimonies are recounted from remembrance Shia notable families and their role in the and are therefore subject to a whole range of Ottoman period and after the integration into distorting human realities: the luxury of the Saudi kingdom in 1913. In many ways, hindsight, the tug of nostalgia, the faltering of these local notables shared similarities with memory, the resurfacing of emotional residue, their counterparts in other parts of the Middle the romanticising of an idealised version of an East such as Iraq. Their strength was based on imperfect past and a general reading back of a mix of landownership, Shia religious history through the lens of everything that has credentials and access to the central authority. happened since (namely, oil modernisation). In the Saudi context, the existence of a local As such, the same methods of source criticism Shia leadership is almost unknown and my that apply to written sources must also be PhD tries to outline the political sociology of skilfully applied to oral testimonies; but when some of these families. Members of the used carefully and critically these sources notable families generally profited from the become crucial for balancing out the evidence oil boom and widening education, and some provided in sources like travel writings, became active in leftist movements. missionary reports, and local histories. In the late 1970s and the 1980s Shia Furthermore, oftentimes the distortions Islamist political parties emerged in Saudi mentioned above can actually tell us Arabia that were attached to Iraqi political something interesting and important about the parties. These parties were also opposed to construction of historical memory and how their local tradition leadership, whom they the past is remembered in the present, a saw as too quietist. process that is extremely relevant in a country After an uprising in 1979/1980, many that has undergone as rapid and sudden a Saudi Shia went into exile. During that time, transformation as Kuwait. Iran as well as the Shrine city of Sayyida Overall, the project was a success and I Zeinab outside of Damascus played an thank the Society for Arabian Studies for important role for the Saudi Shia. Many Saudi sponsoring and supporting me in this essential Shia clerics were educated in a religious part of my ongoing research. school (hawza) in Sayyida Zeinab and the Farah Al-Nakib political movements used the area as a logistical base. After this period of resistance Toby Matthiesen, a PhD-candidate in the Saudi Shia brokered a deal with the Saudi Department of Politics and International state in 1993 and tried to be accepted as Saudi Studies, SOAS, received a grant towards his citizens. Shia intellectuals championed Saudi doctoral research, The State, Communalism nationalism and later engaged in the National and Trans-nationalism in Saudi Arabia since Dialogue with other social forces. Yet, these the 1950s. attempts to integrate the Shia have been My PhD studies the relationship between the hindered by two obstacles. Firstly, they have Shia community in the Eastern Province of been hindered by the unwillingness and Saudi Arabia and the Saudi state in the inability of many Saudi political forces and twentieth century, with a special emphasis on institutions to ease the discrimination against the post-1979 era. This relationship has been the Shia. This goes hand in hand with the difficult for various reasons, most importantly inability of Saudi nationalism based on the close relationship between Wahhabism Wahhabism, tribalism and the royal family to and the Saudi regime. For many Wahhabi serve as the binding element amongst diverse religious scholars, the Shia are rejectionists, social groups. and this legitimises discriminatory practices This is related to the social structures and against them. The Twelver Shia are mainly dynamics within the Shia community that located in the Eastern Province, where they undermine a better integration of the Saudi constitute a slight majority of the citizen Shia. Indeed, Shia activists have tried to population. Initially, I wanted to study the create a new “grand narrative” to undermine relationship between the Shia and the state in Saudi nationalism. This historical myth tries

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to portray a suppressed Saudi Shia community BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL with deep historical roots in the Eastern MISSION IN YEMEN (BAMY) Province that has been conquered by Saudi forces. The orientation of Shia clerical leaders BAMY operates under the auspices of the and many Saudi Shia towards the marjaiyya Society for Arabian Studies and is responsible in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon is also undermining for screening all British research carried out integration. The absence of a Saudi Shia in Yemen in the fields of archaeology, marja al-taqlid (source of emulation) has history, epigraphy, numismatics, pre-Islamic added to the importance of these transnational and Islamic architecture and all manuscript ties. In addition, the ascent of Shia political and museum-based studies. parties in Iraq has raised the expectations of From the outside the situation for the Saudi Shia. My thesis will look at the archaeologists in Yemen may appear gloomy, preconditions and the outcomes of these archaeological work continues, although but different forms of interaction between the on a lesser scale than before. Ed Keall, Shia and the state. The political and social director of the Royal Ontario Museum team, structures inside the Shia community have is planning a field season at Zabid on the changed in the last years, as has the Saudi Tihama coast for December–January 2009– state. The Shia political parties, for example, 10. Paul Yule expects to have another field have undermined the role of the Shia notables. season in Zafar in December–January, and a And the institutional expansion of the Saudi German team continues to work at Sirwah. state has allowed many Shia to join the lower In October and November this year an ranks of the bureaucracy. Therefore, it is too Italian team worked at Baynun, to the easy to portray the “Shia” and the “state” as northeast of Dhamar. Also on the plateau, two distinct entities. Dan Mahony of the Oriental Institute As part of my research, I travelled to the continues his research on Islamic ceramics in Levant and to Saudi Arabia. Many Dhamar, and an Italian team is working on publications on Saudi Arabia as well as inscriptions and related artefacts in the Sana‘a journals and books published by Saudi Shia Museum. are printed in Beirut. There, I was able to However, because of the somewhat acquire a substantial amount of primary and unsettled conditions some teams have left secondary literature for my thesis. I was also Yemen to work in neighbouring countries, able to conduct various interviews. In autumn and there are varying degrees of optimism and and winter 2008 I carried out fieldwork in pessimism amongst the heads of missions. Saudi Arabia. I received the visa for my Clearly the situation in Saada is not helping fieldwork in Saudi Arabia through the King matters; in fact the situation there has spilled Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic over into neighbouring areas of Saudi Arabia Studies (KFCRIS), which is part of the King so that work at the coastal site of Sihi is now Faisal Foundation in Riyadh. I was able to use interrupted. Overall the situation in Saada has the library of the Foundation and several other made matters worse for foreign archaeologists libraries in Riyadh, including the King Fahd and there are now more government National Library. In Riyadh, I also restrictions on foreign archaeologists for interviewed academics and government reasons of security so that getting through officials. Although fieldwork in Saudi Arabia check points continues to be difficult. can sometimes be rather difficult, I was able UK applications for permission to carry to travel around the country, conduct more out research in Yemen should be referred to interviews and collect the relevant material the BAMY Committee. The applications it for my thesis. I made several research trips to approves will become official BAMY projects Jeddah and to the Eastern Province. At the and BAMY will apply for permits from the end of my research I gave a talk on my General Organisation of Antiquities and findings at the King Faisal Foundation. See Museums (GOAM), Ministry of Culture, http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff49796.php for Sana‘a on behalf of applicants. Application more information. deadlines are 30 April and 30 September each Toby Matthiesen year. Further details can be obtained from: BAMY, Professor Tony Wilkinson, Durham

University, Department of Archaeology,

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South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE. Tel. 0191 steadily increasing population, water-scarcity 334 1111. Email [email protected] will become more severe year after year. I am very grateful to Carl Phillips and Dan Mahony for supplying news although the above is entirely my responsibility. Tony Wilkinson Chairman of the British Archaeological Mission to Yemen

(Durham University)

LECTURE REPORTS 2009

20 May 2009: Water in Yemen: changing views on a rapidly changing resource

Dr Jac van der Gun The author is a water resources specialist Figure 1. Yemen – a dry country with variable who has been actively involved in the water and locally important water resources. sector in Yemen during the 1980s and 1990s. Yemen is a dry country made up of large Yemenis have lived with water-scarcity areas of barren rocks and desert and scattered since time immemorial. Adaptation to the oasis-like locations or zones where water is natural conditions, technical interventions and relatively abundant. Rainfall is seasonal and appropriate attitudes have helped them cope. only the western and southern slopes of the Adaptation is very clearly reflected in the Yemen Mountain Massif (less than 10% of population density of the country’s different the national territory) enjoy a mean annual regions. People have preferred to settle where total over 250 mm, including a few zones water is more or less readily available. Hence, (less than 2% of the territory) where 500 the great majority of Yemen’s population mm/year is exceeded. Mean annual rainfall is lives in or near the Yemen Mountain Massif less than 100 mm in more than half of the region, where orographic conditions cause country. Combining rainfall with other rainfall to be significantly higher than climate data results in the qualification elsewhere in the country. The eastern two- ‘hyper-arid’ for about two-thirds of the thirds of the national territory – including country’s territory, ‘arid’ for more than a inland deserts (Ramlat al-Sabatayn and part of quarter and ‘semi-arid or sub-humid’ for the Rub‘ al-Khali), the wide canyon of Wadi remainder. Occasionally there are surface Hadramaut and the vast Eastern Plateaus – are water flows running through the wadis, but sparsely populated. except for a few short flood events each year, It is no surprise that most towns and other the wadi beds remain dry or convey only a major settlements are found at locations that minor trickle of water, the so-called base are or used to be relatively richly endowed flow. Year-round availability of water is only with water. Outside the urban centres, water there where natural conditions or human availability and its reliability is reflected in efforts allow water to be stored for later use the selection of the agricultural crops grown. during dry periods. Technical interventions are testified to by Yemen thus can be called a dry country, the numerous terraces on mountain slopes all but is it water-scarce as well? Scarcity of over western Yemen; by many other water water would imply that its availability is less harvesting sites where surface runoff from the than desired to satisfy all wants and needs. surroundings is concentrated; by cisterns This is certainly the case almost everywhere spread over the country to collect and store in Yemen, where lack of water severely limits surface runoff water; by the diversion of agricultural development and endangers flows from wadis and springs; by qanats and sustainable domestic water supply. Using numerous wells tapping groundwater; by ‘annual renewable blue water per capita’ as a dams constructed across wadis to store water criterion, Yemen ranks among the 10% most or to flatten the flow regime; and by the water-scarce countries in the world. With a irrigation of agricultural crops. All these

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technical interventions have contributed very much larger well yields to be obtained than significantly to water supply and food ever before. They have resulted in both many production in a generally water-scarce more hectares irrigated and increased profits environment. from irrigated agriculture. Especially during Islamic culture, tradition and law the 1970s and 1980s, these observed positive contribute positively to coping with water impacts made many Yemenis believe that scarcity. They highlight the special status of money and technology could solve all water water, and consider water as a common problems. property, not as a commercial good. One of Gradually, however, negative impacts the direct consequences is that well-owners became apparent as well, such as conflicts by cannot refuse to share water with those who violation of traditional water rights, reduction really need it for their vital needs or those of of flows in the downstream zones of wadis, their animals. In remote areas, it is not springs drying up, loss of traditional water uncommon to see wells or water-filled jars harvesting systems and related skills, and just outside the villages, meant to quench the quickly declining groundwater levels, leading thirst of travellers without running the risk to the loss of valuable groundwater resources. that they would disturb village life. Existing Another significant phenomenon in the legal frameworks of water rights and water water sector since the 1970s is the servitude rights help to prevent conflicts by implementation by the government of sharing scarce surface water resources numerous water supply and sanitation between competitive water users. projects. In Sana‘a and other urban centres In recent years development has quickly declining public water supply well accelerated, with drastic consequences for yields – partly because of interference with daily life. Education levels started increasing, irrigation wells – caused several times a state modern technology and consumer goods from of emergency, especially during the late all over the world became widely available, 1980s. Emergency measures were taken, but the predominantly subsistence economy so far only to buy time. There is competition transformed into a more market-oriented one, between urban water wells and irrigation consumer demands grew steadily and wells, and the combined impact of all pumped population density increased quickly, both by wells is a steady depletion of the groundwater natural growth and by the return of Yemeni resources, threatening the sustainability of the emigrants after the first Gulf war. Finally, urban water supply, as well as of irrigated external conditions have become very agriculture. No unused water resources are different from those in the past through around, which means that more than just globalization and predicted climate change. money and technology is needed to solve the These and other changes are reflected in problems, since the limited water resources the water sector in Yemen. First of all, in the form the bottle-neck. This has become form of technical innovation. Modern drilling understood gradually by many Yemeni rigs entered the country, enabling the stakeholders. Consequently, solutions that construction of wells that are much deeper include the dimension of water resources than the traditional dug wells. This caused – management are being looked for. in combination with the introduction and A third remarkable change in the Yemeni proliferation of powerful power-driven pumps water sector is the recognition of the need for – an enormous boom in groundwater water resources investigations and abstraction, in the short run very profitable for monitoring. Numerous water resources farmers. In relation to surface water, modern studies have been carried out over the last hydraulic engineering techniques were three decades, resulting in considerable applied to implement so-called ‘wadi information on the nation’s water resources improvement’ projects and to construct dams, (see Figure 2). Simultaneously, Yemen has including the new Marib Dam in 1987. These made major efforts to develop an adequate technical innovations have contributed in institutional infrastructure and to educate general to much better access to water, better water specialists as required to carry out water control of water and more efficient water use. resources assessment studies, to understand As far as groundwater is concerned, they water resources and to monitor relevant enabled deep groundwater to be tapped and

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Figure 2. Hydrogeological map of Yemen; it is an example of how studies have resulted in better knowledge of the nation’s water resources systems. Figure 3. Arabic version of NWSSIP 2005-20. variations and changes in hydrological But there is hope. In spite of much scepticism conditions. of the government’s activities, a large Since the mid-1980s, problems related to proportion of the Yemeni population now water have become so prominent and understands the urgency of addressing the widespread that people have started talking country’s water-related problems. The about a national water crisis. In the domestic Yemeni government has taken major steps to water sector, the percentage of households trigger, initiate and facilitate transition to new connected to a public water system seemed to attitudes and measures. These major steps decrease rather than to increase in several include several water resources management urban centres, while the services to the studies, the establishment of the National connected households were often Water Resources Authority (NWRA) and a characterized by intermittent supplies at dedicated Ministry of Water and the progressively larger time intervals and with Environment (NWE), the development of a frequent system failures. The lack of adequate new Water Law, raising public awareness of sanitation and wastewater treatment came to water scarcity, and the National Water Sector be reflected in serious environmental Strategy and Implementation Plan (NWSSIP). pollution, with adverse impacts on ecosystems Furthermore, the government and technical and health. Farmers scattered over the country professionals have learned in the meantime experienced a steady reduction in spring and that effective management of water resources wadi flows, as well as rapidly declining as envisaged is impossible without the groundwater levels, which caused their involvement and commitment of the main irrigation water to become scarce and more stakeholders. Implementing the NWSSIP and expensive, and eventually made their wells its future updates, with continuous strong run dry. This affected the livelihoods of these government priority and support, and co- farmers enormously and reduced the already operation with all relevant groups of limited food production in the country. In stakeholders, seems currently the most some areas it even caused an exodus of poor promising approach towards getting the farmers who had become unable to earn a country’s water resources under control. It living in agriculture under these adverse should be accompanied by significant efforts conditions. A high population growth rate and to put the economy of Yemen on a less water- the threat of predicted climate change added consuming footing. urgency to solutions to the water crisis. Jac van der Gun The water crisis changed the views of many Yemenis to water. They realise now 3 December 2009: that their water resources are not only scarce, Stargazing in Oman: a dying art but finite as well; which means that water Dr Harriet Nash resources management should be a priority. Dr Harriet Nash is an Honorary University Yemen’s future in terms of water may look Fellow Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, gloomy. University of Exeter

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Harriet Nash talked about her research on Several of the names do not appear in modern stars used in Oman to time water shares for Arabic astronomy, but come from the pre- irrigation at night. This practice only survives Islamic tradition, an indication that the system in about nine of the three thousand of stargazing may date from even earlier communities using the traditional irrigation times. systems called afl!j, s..falaj. In many places, The stars may be watched setting below or light pollution means that stars cannot be used rising above the natural horizon. In this case and, elsewhere, most people prefer to use many divider stars are needed to obtain wristwatches. Until this research, carried out shorter time intervals: some dividers are under the supervision of Dionisius Agius, bright, such as Betelgeuse in Orion and Pollux only a few lists of stars had been collected in Gemini, but they are not usually given from different villages, but now I have names. A second method uses a man-made identified many of the stars used and methods horizon, such as a wall, moving towards the of stargazing. It is an oral tradition, and the wall watching the same star rise at a later information was collected by watching the time, allowing divisions as short as a few stars with the farmers, returning at different minutes. Divider stars are not needed. times of year to see all of the stars used. Another method uses indicator stars to the The falaj systems are found in Northern time of rise and divisions between several Oman, where the rainfall in the mountains is main stars. In this case, it is only necessary to high enough to give surface flow and know six or seven bright stars, which makes it replenish groundwater. This water is tapped easier for farm workers to use unaided. by the falaj for irrigation. Each falaj serves Today, few young people are learning the one village or community, and the villagers system of stargazing, and it is only a matter of share the costs of building and maintaining time before this practice is lost forever. them, which both needs and generates a high degree of social cohesion. The falaj once provided all the water needs of the community: everyone has the right to use water for domestic purposes, such as washing clothes and dishes, regardless of the share they may own for irrigation. People own or rent water shares, which are based on the time the water flows to the fields. The falaj water flows under gravity, so it is used for the full 24 hours and usually there is a need to time the distribution. The main channel is divided to serve the cultivated area, where date palms are the most important Stargazers in Barzaman, Al Fath and Zahib crop, and flow in the channels is controlled by movable dams. Traditionally, the sundial was The author would like to thank the Society used by day and the stars by night to time the for a research grant in 2009, the opportunity shares; the sundial, usually an upright pole to present some of the findings, and the with time markers on the ground, is still used audience for their enthusiasm, feedback and in many places. suggestions. The time difference between (eg, rising) Harriet Nash stars from any one point on earth is the same every night. However, they rise four minutes 11 November 2009: earlier each night, so different stars are used Windtowers of Dubai at different times: 21 to 25 main stars, Dr Anne Coles depending on the village, are used in the In 1975 Anne Coles and Peter Jackson course of one year, usually with about one produced a monograph on a Dubai windtower hour between them. The names of these main house. The much extended research which led stars vary from village to village: sometimes to the publication of ‘Windtower’ was different stars are used under the same name undertaken between 2004 and 2007 and or the same star but with a different name. benefitted from the input of Vipac, an

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Australian engineering firm, which led to a Many houses also had a first floor built in a fuller understanding of how windtowers lighter, airier style. The set of rooms used by worked. each nuclear family would then be replicated In the mid twentieth century windtowers at ground– and first–floor levels, and a defined the skyline of the trading port of downstairs–upstairs migration practised, the Dubai; today those that remain (the largest household moving upstairs in summer to a cluster are in the Bastakiya, now a heritage breezier environment, typically sleeping on area) are dwarfed by high-rise modern the roof at night. However as time passed and buildings. Yet before widespread use of air families grew, crowding tended to modify this conditioning, in the mid-1970s, these wind- practice. towers played an important role in amelior- Windtowers, which fed into summer living ating the harsh summer weather. rooms, rose high and into a cooler, faster Dubai has a hot, humid, marine desert airstream compared with the hotter, dustier, climate. From May to September average built environment below. Because of their daily maximum temperatures exceed 37.5 multi-directional design, windtowers ‘capture’ degrees. The land and sea breezes which dom- the breeze from whichever direction it comes. inate the airflow in summer had great im- Dubai’s windtowers, square in cross-section, portance for the design of traditional houses. were divided vertically into four triangular Windtowers rose above roofs, catching the vents. The base of the towers descended to wind and funneling it into the rooms below, just above head height in the rooms below, where the increased air movement made the concentrating the air flow in the occupied occupants feel comfortable. area. When air descended down a vent or Windtowers are an elegant form of vents, some returned directly up the opposite windcatcher, which is a vent rising above vent(s), but some flowed into the whole room, house level to capture the breeze. Early swirling around the walls before returning, or, windcatchers, which possibly originated in the depending on openings, moving out into the nd 2 millennium BC, were unidirectional. On courtyard. The brisk afternoon sea breeze was the Persian plateau some date from about the particularly important in providing comfort. fourteenth century, but multi-directional Families typically rested after lunch wind-catchers, notably the classic windtowers immediately below the windtower where the of Yazd, were mostly built in the eighteenth airflow was concentrated, but might sit back and nineteenth centuries. They seemingly against the wall elsewhere in the room if a spread along trade routes down to the shores gentler draught was preferred. of the Gulf. They still exist in old houses in Windtowers were not confined to grand Lingeh. The peoples bordering the Gulf had a masonry houses. In Dubai, they were common common maritime economy based on fishing, on the ‘areesh or palm-frond houses where, pearling and regional trade; many on the until the late 1960s, the majority of the Persian littoral were Sunnis of Arab origin. townspeople, including most immigrants, When, from the end of the nineteenth century, lived. Many of these were permanent homes, Persia’s central government extended its for, as regular employment increased, authority to the coastlands, imposing a seasonal migration to the nearby coastal modern customs system, there was emigration dunes, which some had practised earlier, to the Arab side, particularly to the became impracticable. Inside compound commercial ports of Bahrain and Dubai. walls, rooms for winter use had waterproof, Initially businesses moved. Gradually families pitched roofs and thick ‘areesh walls lined followed, bringing with them their own with mats, while summer rooms had airy distinctive windtower architecture. walls of stripped fronds, flat roofs and Theirs were courtyard dwellings, inward- windtowers. These windtowers were erected facing, and housing an extended family. Thick seasonally as the hot weather approached. bare external walls at street level were set off Four tall poles provided the framework; a by imposing entrance porches. Inside, matting roof was added; the tower itself was balconies, screens and perforated openings, made of gunny sacks or sturdy canvas. The often of carved gypsum, were beautifully cloth billowed sail-like in the wind, and decorated with Persian flowers and birds, as despite their lightweight construction these well as the geometric patterns of Arab Islam. windtowers were remarkably effective.

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Today it is hard to find a ‘working’ Arabia; it examines the models of migration windtower except in museums and heritage vs indigenous development in the origins of sites. Yet perhaps because of their earlier, the ancient South Arabian civilisation, the widespread significance they have become a role of the incense trade in the rise of the symbol of Dubai, featuring on the South Arabian kingdoms, and the various Municipality logo, and adorning modern influences reflected in ancient South Arabian buildings, hiding the roof-top hardware. art. This lecture is held in conjunction with However, they need not be merely decorative the Council for British Research in the Levant anachronisms. Vipac’s work revealed the and the Palestine Exploration Fund. scientific principles that underlie the effectiveness of traditional windtowers and 17 February 2010: our study points to how they might be used in ‘That was how we lived’: reconstructing a more energy conscious future. Undoubtedly urban space and everyday life in pre-oil they have a role in warm environments where Kuwait energy supplies are erratic, expensive or Farah Al-Nakib, SOAS. absent, for example in remote, isolated 5:30pm in the Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS. settlements, or where a gentle amelioration of From the time of its settlement in the early the climate is preferred, for example where eighteenth century until the advent of oil activities take place both inside and outside or urbanization in the 1950s, Kuwait grew into a people move fluidly between these spaces. thriving maritime urban centre serving as a Anne Coles gateway between the Gulf littoral, southern Iraq and the hinterlands of Najd. Most English-language histories of pre-oil Kuwait have focused on the port town’s economic and political developments in relation to its various external links. Less attention is given in the historiographic discourse to the internal dynamics and patterns of urban life in Kuwait before oil. This talk attempts to close this gap in both the historic record and the historiographic discourse by using a number of oral histories conducted with members of Kuwait town’s early inhabitants who are still alive today to trace the socio-spatial growth, layout, and organization of urban space and to analyse the patterns and practice of everyday life in Kuwait before the advent of oil.

17 March 2010: Between notables and revolutionaries: a political sociology of Shia communities in Figure 1. A windtower descends into a eastern Saudi Arabia groundfloor room of a recently renovated Toby Matthiesen, SOAS house in the Bastakiya Heritage Area (Photo 5:30pm in room B102, Brunei Building SOAS P. Jackson). This paper outlines how and why the Shaikhi school of Shi‘i Islam spread in al-Ahsa (the LECTURE PROGRAMME 2010 Eastern Province of present-day Saudi 21 January 2010: Arabia) and examines the life of the school’s Ancient South Arabia and the Near East founder, Ahmad al-Ahsa’i (1753–1826), who Alexandra Porter of the British Museum, was born in a village in al-Ahsa, and the Department of Middle East. nature of the Shaikhi community from the 6:00pm in the Stevenson Lecture Theatre, 19th century to the present day. British Museum. This lecture outlines the history of interaction between the Fertile Crescent and South

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26 May 2010: almost entirely on pearls, and the crash in How pearl fishing shaped the societies of the global pearl markets, prompted by the advent Gulf, from the Neolithic to the twentieth of Japanese cultured pearls in the 1920s and century 30s, brought both an end to the industry and Dr Rob Carter, Oxford Brookes University the onset of great hardship. Dr Carter has 5:30pm in the Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS been researching the historic and prehistoric The pearling industry of the Persian Gulf is of pearl fishery since 2005, and is currently immense antiquity, going back over 7,000 completing a book on the subject, to be years to the Stone Age. The peoples of the produced by Arabian Publishing. Gulf then gathered and wore pearls, along with other elaborate combinations of shell Note from the Honorary Secretary jewellery, and may even have traded them by In addition to the Society’s own lecture sea with their neighbours in southern Iraq. In programme, Society members are sometimes later centuries, the pearls of the Gulf were invited to attend lectures and talks organised well known to the Achaemenids, the Greeks by other societies. Members with email and the Romans, and the industry continued to addresses can be sent notice of these lectures thrive after the coming of Islam. Gulf pearls as they arise, often at very short notice. It is flowed in increasing quantities into the impractical to send notices to those with only international markets from China to Europe, postal addresses. Any members who are not by the 18th century AD the settlement receiving such notices but who would like to patterns of the Gulf had begun to change in do so are asked to send a current email order to accommodate a voracious global address to me at: [email protected] demand. The cash economies of the Arab Ionis Thompson states along the Gulf littoral soon depended

ARABIAN NEWS AND RESEARCH

The first parts of this section give general South Asia) region. The result of this, in the coverage of activities throughout the Arabian first year, was some spectacular work by the Peninsula, while archaeological activities are Algerian artist Zoulikha Boabdellah, Turkish covered in a following country-by-country artist Kutlu! Ataman and the Iranian Nazgol section. Ansarinia, all showcased at Art Dubai 2009 and now forming part of the Abraaj Capital ARTS collection. On the back of this artistic boom, it Contemporary Middle Eastern art – where seemed that every single empty warehouse to now? was being taken over by a budding new Writing in this same Bulletin two years ago, it gallery wishing to ‘get in on the act’. seemed that nothing at that time could stop Down the road in Abu Dhabi, the ArtParis the exponential growth in interest in Abu Dhabi Fair had entered its second contemporary Middle Eastern art both in the edition; the Emirates Palace Hotel had hosted region and in London. As noted then, Dubai an exhibition of the Khalili collection, as well had become the magnet for the auction as a Picasso retrospective, and the Saadiyat houses, with both Christie’s and Bonhams Island Project was expanding to include the holding regular sales there, typically bringing Foster + Partners-designed Zayed National in over $10 million dollars per sale. The Gulf Museum. Art Fair had reinvented itself as Art Dubai But then the crash happened, and and was going from strength to strength with, everything seemingly changed. The DIFC in at one time, more than three times the number Dubai, which had been building up its own of galleries applying for stands than were collection, stopped buying, and in November available. The finance house Abraaj Capital 2009 the Governor Dr Omar Bin Sulaiman even took the bold step of offering the largest was reputedly sacked from his position and cash prize previously available to artists ever, stepped down. Funding that had been readily in the total sum of $600,000 to be split available to Art Dubai was pulled back between three artists living and working in the (although the Abraaj Art Prize continues in a MENASA (Middle East, North Africa and slightly amended form) and several Dubai

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galleries were forced to close. Abu Dhabi, by capital. A number of user-friendly and well- contrast, was and is keen to continue the illustrated books on the subject have recently momentum and not appear to be reneging on been published in London, which whilst not its promise to become the cultural capital of entirely comprehensive, are nonetheless the world. Having suffered from bad reports invaluable reference works on hitherto on the behaviour of various members of the unknown artists and the field in general. ruling family at the last edition of ArtParis More significant, however, has been the Abu Dhabi in 2008 (namely putting reserves much-hyped Saatchi Exhibition in Spring on major pieces for the duration of the fair, 2009 at its newly refurbished venue in and then pulling out of the purchase on the Chelsea. Bringing together twenty-one artists last day), the TDIC (Tourist Development & from both Iran and the Arab world, it received Investment Company), the official govern- mixed reviews, not least due to the blatant ment body responsible for culture in Abu haste with which the collection had been Dhabi, decided at short notice to organise a formed (roughly fifty percent of the work had new Abu Dhabi Art Fair, which took place in been purchased from Dubai and the Art Basel November 2009. An altogether different Fair, less than six months previously) and the animal, the TDIC offered generous terms to quality of the works on display. This was top international galleries, including Gagosian unfortunate as it gave a false impression of and White Cube, enticing them to bring their the calibre of the artists in the show and from best pieces to the Fair. One work which the region as a whole. Take, for example, the Gagosian brought, a sculpture by Calder, critically acclaimed Algerian Kadia Attia reputedly cost $100,000 just to ship (and went (who is also one of this year’s Abraaj Art unsold). Prize winners). Working on an existential But how have these events affected the level, Attia’s ‘Ghost’ piece, a series of large contemporary Middle Eastern art scene in silver foil installations of a serried group of London? An over-simplistic and immediate Muslim women in prayer, sensitively evokes response might be to say, probably not at all contemplation of the human condition as or at least to no greater degree than the market vulnerable and mortal. Yet, symptomatic of as a whole has been affected. Market the reception of the exhibition in general, conditions in London after all have been quite many critics unfamiliar with contemporary different to those of the UAE. Whilst Dubai Middle Eastern sensibilities took this work and Abu Dhabi were busily overheating, instead simply to represent the downtrodden London in contrast was surely and steadily status of Muslim women today. building up its interest in the region. Not all the initiatives taken in London, Admittedly, the emphasis from a commercial however, have had the mark of apparent viewpoint, seems to have been on the Iranian personal aggrandisement or attention seeking. rather than the Arab market, with numerous A key player in the development of exhibitions of Iranian exhibitions taking place contemporary Middle Eastern art has been both in newly established galleries such as the Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, President Iranian-run Xerxes Gallery, as well as in a and CEO of the Saudi-based Abdul Latif number of Western Galleries including Jameel Group. Primarily known for his gift of Ronnie Wood’s Scream and Osborne Samuel, £5.4 million to fund the renovation of the which showed works by five Iranian artists in Islamic Galleries at the V&A, which opened June last year. Initiatives created by the Iran in 2006 (now known as the Jameel Gallery), Heritage Foundation, Candlestar and Magic of he went on to support the contemporary arts Persia, have also helped raise the profile of through his generous patronage of the ground- Iranian art, not least in the case of the latter in breaking exhibition of Saudi artists at the the form of the MOPCAP prize awarded to Brunei Gallery at SOAS in October 2008. the young artist Mahmoud Bakhshi Moakhar, Entitled ‘Edge of Arabia’, the exhibition who as a result will be having a solo showcased the work of seventeen artists from exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in the Jeddah, Makkah, Riyadh, Dhahran, Abha and autumn. Khamis Mushait and was the culmination of a From a non-commercial perspective, creative journey that the curator, Stephen however, both Iranian and contemporary Arab Stapleton of the Off Screen Education art have continued to be supported in the Programme, had started five years previously.

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A huge success, it reportedly attracted 600 positive and continued healthy growth in this people to the opening event and 12,000 area for many years to come. visitors over the course of the exhibition. The Janet Rady show went on to feature in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009 and plans are now afoot to tour the works internationally. Continuing his support of contemporary Middle Eastern art in the capital, Mr Abdul Latif Jameel returned to the V&A in 2009 to back a new international art prize for contemporary artists and designers inspired by Islamic traditions of art, craft and design. Inviting the renowned Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid to be the Patron of the Prize, the Museum launched the biannual initiative to explore the cultural dialogue between the Islamic artistic tradition and contemporary practice, and to contribute to a broader, most timely debate about Islamic culture. Out of nominations of over one hundred artists from across the Muslim world, nine were shortlisted to show their work at the V&A over the summer and on 7 July 2009, the £25,000 prize was awarded to the Iranian- born New York artist Afruz Amighi for her work entitled ‘1001 Pages (2008)’. The piece, constructed from a thin, porous Jameel Prize exhibition at the V&A sheet of plastic, such as those used for refugee (Courtesy, V&A images). tents, was hand cut in the form of all-over pattern inspired by Persian carpet, miniature Edge of Arabia: and architectural designs. The plastic was From Riyadh to Berlin: Saudi Artists then suspended vertically from the ceiling, launch World Tour at the Global with an overhead projector employed to Competitiveness Forum 2010 illuminate it, casting a shadow of the intricate This report was adapted from an Edge of pattern against a wall. Like Kader Attia’s Arabia press release. ‘Ghost’, Amighi’s work is visually Edge of Arabia, a groundbreaking cultural challenging and brilliantly tackles the initiative, promoting and empowering ambiguities of the religious and secular contemporary artists from Saudi Arabia, tensions evidenced in the globalised, Middle launched today its world tour at the Global East society of the 21st century. Competitiveness Forum (GCF), held in There are, of course, many other con- Riyadh’s iconic Kingdom Tower under the temporary Middle Eastern art events taking patronage of The Custodian of the Two Holy place in London and the rest of the UK on a Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. regular basis, and this brief summary is in no Edge of Arabia’s participation at the GCF way intended to be a comprehensive picture from 23–26 January represents the launch of or critical analysis of all of these activities. an historic world tour that builds on landmark However, the writer hopes that it will show exhibitions in London (2008) and Venice there is no doubt, from a Western perspective, (2009). The tour aims to create positive and that interest in and a desire to understand sustainable cultural dialogue between Saudi more about contemporary Arab and Iranian Arabia and the rest of the world while art is here to stay. Despite financial upheavals investing in the Kingdom’s creative potential in the art market and the still heavy reliance in at a crucial moment in the region’s recent the UK on external sources of funding, the history. This significant moment opens a fresh foundations have surely been laid for a chapter in the history of Saudi art, allowing a new generation of creative voices to deepen

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understanding of the Kingdom’s cultural The exhibition will take place at the achievements, while celebrating artistic Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS), practice at the centre of the Islamic world. University of Exeter, which is a beautifully Following the GCF event, 2010 will see located and light building of a distinctive Edge of Arabia travel to Dubai in March (for architectural style evocative of the Middle Art Dubai 2010), Berlin in June (to coincide East region. The exhibition will include an with the Berlin Biennale), and Istanbul in active community involvement component, November (as a part of Istanbul Capital of such as a range of visits and talks, bringing Culture). This will be the start of an Edge of the people of the South-west of England Arabia World Tour that will run up to 2014 together to explore the world of dhows. We and take in many of the world’s cultural would like to make this event successful and centres. memorable, possibly even encouraging Stephen Stapleton, Director of Edge of visitors to discover for themselves some of Arabia says: “What started off as a grass roots the wonders of the world of dhows during group of artists coming together in the their travels. mountains of southern Saudi Arabia, has We are currently collecting old photo- developed into a project of international graphs, paintings and other representations of significance. In launching this world tour in dhows, in particular those related to both the the capital of Saudi Arabia, we aim to amplify African and Arabian costs of the Red Sea (i.e. the moderate voices of a new generation of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan, artists, and send a powerful and positive and Djibouti). We are also looking for people message to audiences around the world.” who have or are in the process of making Edge of Arabia’s world tour launch at the dhow models of the Red Sea area or are in GCF, which is sponsored by the Abdul Latif possession of marine paintings depicting Jameel Co. Ltd, will include an art exhibition, dhows. press conference and book signings with We are especially interested in exhibiting curators and artists. Edge of Arabia will also ‘hidden treasures’, i.e. items that have never deliver a series of dedicated art workshops before been shown in public. with local school children. Our long-term plan is to have all the The GCF 2010 will see international exhibits digitised and accessible to the general cultural leaders, top business figures, political public online by 2012/2013. influencers, renowned academics, artists and For an informal talk about the Dhow journalists brought together under the Exhibition 2010 please contact Beata Faracik, umbrella of the Saudi Arabian General The MARES Project Research Support Investment Authority (SAGIA). The theme Officer, either by email at exhibition.mares for this year’s conference will be ‘sustainable @exeter.ac.uk or by phone on +44 (0) 1392 competitiveness’, highlighting the contri- 72 52 51. bution of creative industries towards innov- ative economic development. Discussion All paper correspondence should be sent to: panels at the Forum will include sessions on MARES Project Dhow Exhibition design, architecture and art with confirmed University of Exeter panellists including Michael Govan of Los School of Humanities and Social Sciences Angles County Museum of Contemporary Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies Art, and Glen Lowry, of the Museum of IAIS Building Modern Art in New York. Stocker Road Exeter, EX4 4ND The MARES Project: Dhow Exhibition 16 September – 17 December 2010 Silver Legend Exhibition: The history of Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the Maria Theresa thaler University of Exeter University of Exeter The MARES Project will be organising a The Silver Leg Dhow Exhibition to be launched in September 0.end Exhibition focuses on the story of a 2010 during the Red Sea V Conference, remarkable silver coin, the Maria Theresa celebrating the first ten years of the Red Sea thaler, described by John Maynard Keynes as Studies conferences. “A Coin of Cosmopolitan Importance”.

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In 1741, a year after Empress Maria The Abu Dhabi Book Fair Theresa inherited the Habsburg lands, The fair was organized by Kitab, a joint imperial mints first struck thalers bearing her venture between ADACH and the Frankfurt image. By the time of her death (1780) the Book Fair. It was held in Abu Dhabi in March Empress had already coined a silver legend. 2009. It gathered exhibitors from across the The thaler, which lends itself to the word Arab world. There was a strong presence of dollar, became a much desired and US, UK, German, Indian and French indispensable trade coin throughout the publishers. The fair aims to promote the trade Middle East and Africa and a currency that of rights between Arab and world publishers. funded wars, ransoms and the slave trade. The fair coincided with both the Sheikh Over 400 million Maria Theresa thalers have Zayed Award and the Arab Man Booker, or been struck to date, and it is still minted in IPAF. Vienna today. The exhibition displays thalers including Sheikh Zayed Book Awards and new overstrikes from Arabia and various fakes and lecture forgeries. Also on show are decorative items The awards are presented every year to incorporating the coin as well as unique and outstanding Arab writers, intellectuals and spectacular jewellery from the Arab world publishers as well as young talent whose made of silver from melted down thalers. writings and translations of humanities have The exhibition is held at the Institute of enriched Arab cultural, literary and social life. Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS), University Jamal Al Ghitani was the winner of the 2009 of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4ND, UK. It is open Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature, for 9am–5pm; 1 February–30 April 2010. his book, Ran: Dafater Al-Tadween. A Telephone 01392 264040 for more details. complete list of winners can be found at http:/ /www.zayedaward.com/en/CycleDetails.aspx International Prize for Arabic Fiction ?cycleID=23. (IPAF) or Arab Man Booker Prize St Antony's College, Oxford hosted the Youssef Ziedan of Egypt won the inaugural Sheikh Zayed Book Award Lecture International Prize for Arabic Fiction for his on 5 November 2009, in the presence of Saif novel Azazeel. The book’s English title is Al Shamsi, UAE Consul in the United Beelzebub. Kingdom, and Hatim Saif Al Nasr, Egyptian A nine-day workshop, which was Ambassador to London. Dr Abdulla Al coordinated by the IPAF, was held in Ghadami, member of the Sheikh Zayed Book November 2009 on Sir Bani Yas. The prize Award Advisory Council, and novelist Jamal planned to have a workshop – although the Al Ghitani, winner of the 2009 Sheikh Zayed preferred word was nadwa, suggesting a less Book Award for Literature, spoke at this event. hierarchical seminar – involving talented younger writers and two more established WILDLIFE authors. It was to be located in the UAE at a venue that would provide seclusion. Sheikha The flora and fauna of Arabia are under Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Ruler’s severe threat from the agricultural and urban Representative in the Western Region, heard developments of the last thirty years. At a of the proposal and offerred to be patron and recent biodiversity conference in Jordan, a to cover the costs of the nadwa at Sir Bani Dubai ecologist described such an accelerated Yas. rate of development along the Gulf coast that The writers invited to join the nadwa had only ‘baseline’ ecological date could be all submitted novels during the first two years collected before the habitats were concreted of the Prize and the judges had nominated over. Trade in endangered species, for them as promising Arab writers of the medicine or decoration, is as active as ever; emerging generation. The mentors were two there is growing demand for exotic animals older novelists – Jabbour Douahily of for private menageries (many dying from Lebanon and the Iraqi Inaan Kachachi. Both mishandling before they even reach the had had novels shortlisted for the Prize in market); and such imports bring the risk of 2008 and 2009. exotic diseases. Peter Clark

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An extremely useful quarterly bulletin of languages, primarily Arabic, Persian, and wildlife news, Wild Life Middle East Ottoman Turkish; also Urdu, Chagatai, (www.wmenews.com) keeps abreast of the Malay, Gujarati, Indic languages, and several situation and also reviews new publications. Western languages; and subjects, including More preservation groups have been set up religious texts and commentaries; Sufism; within the peninsula, an important remit being history, geography, law, and the sciences education as well as preservation. Two turtle (astronomy, astrology, mathematics, medic- conservation groups have been established, in ine); poetry and literature; rhetoric, logic, and Kuwait and on Masirah Island in Oman, both philosophy; calligraphy, dictionaries and sponsored by Total. A Yemeni group works to grammar, as well as biographies and motivate the preservation of the Arabian autobiographical works. leopard. For flora preservation UNESCO is See http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ihp/. helping with the establishment of a network of botanic gardens, including plans for NEWS AND RESEARCH BY Qur’anic gardens in Doha and Sharjah. A new COUNTRY emphasis is being placed on botanic research, education and conservation of Arabian flora. BAHRAIN For more information go to the website above. Thanks to Rob Carter, Clare Reeler and Sarah Searight Nabiel Al Shaikh who contributed to the following report. There has been much activity connected to OTHER GENERAL NEWS cultural heritage and archaeology in the Kingdom of Bahrain during 2009. The Jewel of Muscat project Under the Auspices of Her Excellency The Jewel of Muscat is a 9th-century Arab Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, the sailing ship being built in Oman. Due to have Minister of Culture and Information in the been finished in 2009, it will embark on an Kingdom of Bahrain, a programme of historic voyage from Oman to Singapore in nominating important historical and early 2010. archaeological sites to the UNESCO World She completed her first sea trial in early Heritage List has been started. “Qal‘at Al 2010 off the shore of Muscat. The Bahrain” was successfully nominated as a construction and voyage can be followed at World Heritage site in 2005 and a nomination http://www.jewelofmuscat.tv/. entitled “Pearling, Testimony of an Island

Economy” is currently being prepared. The Islamic Heritage Project at Harvard project is coordinated by Dr Britta Rudolff. University Several heritage properties associated with the Through the Islamic Heritage Project historic pearling industry on the island of (IHP), Harvard University has catalogued, Muharraq in Bahrain will be nominated. conserved, and digitised hundreds of Islamic Pearling has an ancient history in the Gulf, manuscripts, maps, and published texts from dating back thousands of years and historic- Harvard’s renowned library and museum ally it was recognised that Bahrain’s pearl collections. These rare – and frequently beds were some of the richest in the world. unique – materials are now freely available to For many years the pearling industry was the Internet users worldwide. mainstay of Bahrain’s economy. This lasted For the IHP, Harvard’s Open Collections right up until the early 20th century. Many of Program (OCP) has produced digital copies of the historic buildings associated with a broad over 260 manuscripts, 270 printed texts, and range of pearling activities, such as houses of 50 maps, totalling over 145,000 pages – with pearl merchants and divers, boatbuilding more items to be added in coming months. yards, shops and markets where the pearls Users can search or browse online materials were traded and warehouses where they were that date from the 13th to the 20th centuries stored, can still be found in Muharraq today. CE and represent many regions, including This nomination will therefore preserve a Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, slice across all the parts of a once vital section Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and of Bahrain’s economy, from the humblest to South, Southeast, and Central Asia; the most magnificent. Archaeological

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excavations, by a team under Dr Robert about twenty buttons, some of steatite and Carter, will also examine the material culture some possibly ivory. She also had a wooden associated with these buildings. A pathway spindle indicating that she was possibly a will be laid out connecting the properties, and weaver by trade. One interesting feature of the a museum and visitors’ centre will be built, burials in this mound was that two burials of thus allowing visitors to understand the children were found, but not in the jars typical context of the historic buildings and the of child burials of this period, but rather people and families associated with the buried in small chambers near the top of the pearling industry. mound. It is possible that they belong to a Bahrain National Museum has a new slightly later period than the lower burials. Acting Director of Archaeology, Salman Below the Tylos graves in the mound, two Almahari, who has been extremely active Dilmun period graves were found, cut into the over a short period. As well as supporting an bedrock, but these had been robbed in extensive programme of local and antiquity and were empty. The team international fieldwork, he was instrumental excavating these burials was headed by Abbas in arranging for the donation of some unique Ahmad al-Aradi and included Marzouq al- Dilmun period finds rescued from a A’fu (surveyor), Saleh Ali (photographer), construction site by keen amateur and archaeologists Ali Jaffer, Mohammed archaeologist, Olga Ali Akbar Hasan, to the Jaffer and Abdulwahed Mansour. Museum. These include clay sealings and A scattered Islamic settlement (Helat al some unusual objects with Dilmun glyptics Abd as Saleh) was also excavated by this and cuneiform script. These objects are team. Part of the settlement was on a large currently under study. tell, below which the burials were found (see Figure 2, below). The settlement possibly dates to the early Islamic period. Walls and pottery were among the more common finds, but in one area an unusual artefact, thought to be a ceramic pen, was found. Close to the settlement, the team dug more than thirty test trenches across a wide area due for development, but with only a few minor finds. Brownish soil suggests that the area might have been used for farming or gardens. The second Tylos-period burial mound was at Abu Saiba and contained forty-eight graves centred around one main burial, most Figure 1. Tylos burials at Shakhura. Note the robbed. Here there were some burials of small chamber for the child burial at a higher children in big jars. Grave goods included level near the centre of the picture. glazed pots, incense burners, bronze bracelets,

Bahraini archaeologists from the Bahrain beads, some bronze coins and a gold ring with National Museum conducted fieldwork an engraved red stone. The team was headed throughout the year, excavating two Tylos- by Ali al-Ibrahim and included Khamis Ali period burials, a large tell containing two (surveyor), Saleh Ali (photographer) and burials, an adult and a child in a jar (these are Abdulwahed Abdulhussein (archaeologist). probably Hellenistic in date) and an Islamic At Qal‘at al Bahrain World Heritage Site, settlement. The first Tylos burial was in two underwater archaeologists, Eric Staples Shakhura, consisting of a large mound with and Luca Belfioretti, associated with Tom about thirty-four burials, in which about ten Vosmer in the “Jewel of Muscat” project in skeletons were found (see Figure 1). In the Oman, were brought in by the Ministry of centre of the mound were two burials of a Culture to conduct a two-day underwater man and a woman. The man had a complete survey in the World Heritage protected zone. skeleton with some grave goods, including They collected a large quantity of Islamic two bronze knives and a small statue of a pottery from close to the remains of found- rooster. The woman was buried with two plates, one of glass and one of bronze, also

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heritage of the region, in the face of rapid and often uncontrolled development. Oxford Brookes’ excavation in Bahrain involves several properties relating to a proposed heritage trail based around Bahrain's historic pearl fishery. These include a coastal. partially collapsed warehouse or ‘amara on the island of Muharraq, dating to the 19th and early 20th century AD, known as the Fakhro ‘Amara. No such building has previously been excavated, and the results of this excavation will be of considerable value to Figure 2. The Dilmun burial below the current and future generations of scholars who Islamic settlement in the tell at Helat al Abd have interests in economic history and the as Saleh. vernacular achitecture of Bahrain. Traditional architecture of this sort is rarely, if ever, ions of a lighthouse that once marked the en- recorded prior to demolition, and very little of trance to the channel leading to Qal‘at al it remains. Despite its recent date it is Bahrain. The archaeologists concluded that effectively already part of Bahrain's the colour of the sea bed in this area indicates archaeological record. the likelihood that many old shipwrecks have Other Oxford Brookes excavations degraded there, changing the colour of the sea scheduled to take place in Bahrain include bed. This area could therefore be a very exploration of the Bu Maher fort, a small important site for old shipwrecks in the Gulf, coastal fortification on Muharraq positioned especially given its proximity to the important to defend the straits between Muharraq and trade centre spanning thousands of years at the main island of Bahrain. This was the Qal‘at al Bahrain, and further surveys are location of considerable activity during the planned. 19th century, but Portuguese maps indicate Bahrain looks forward to more active that its history goes back at least to the 16th seasons in 2010, with many projects ongoing. century AD. Claire Reeler and Nabiel Al Shaikh A second season is also planned at the Fakhro ‘Amara. This will target an older Activities by Oxford Brookes University horizon which was identified beneath remains (excavations in Bahrain and the UAE) relating to the modern town of Muharraq, A new archaeological consultancy service has which was founded at the very start of the 19th been set up at Oxford Brookes University century, according to historical sources. There (Oxford Brookes Archaeology & Heritage, or is insufficient material to date the earlier OBAH; website: http://heritage.brookes.ac.uk/). horizon precisely, but the pottery indicates This specialises in the archaeology of the that it falls somewhere between the 5th and the Arabian Gulf and also provides geoarchaeo- mid 7th century AD, ie the Sasanian Period. logical services. It is headed by Dr Robert Muharraq Island is known to have been a Carter and Professor Adrian Parker, with the Christian centre at that time. Comparatively geoarchaeological component led by Dr Mike little is known of the occupation of the Morley. OBAH has several contracts Bahrain islands during the Sasanian Period, underway in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Ras al- and it is hoped that this work will Khaimah and Lesotho. It is the first and only significantly expand our understanding. commercial archaeological consultancy, Spring 2010 should also see Oxford specialising in the archaeology, material Brookes undertaking rescue excavations at the culture and history of Arabia and the Gulf site of Julfar, Ras al-Khaimah, UAE. Julfar region, and is backed by a depth of expertise was the major seaport in the Lower Gulf which is not available to other organisations. between the 14th and late 16th century, and It is hoped that the establishment of OBAH was subjected to excavations by international will go some way towards encouraging teams during the 1980s, which have only been responsible treatment of the archaeological partially published. A new power station is due to be built on the southern fringe of the

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site, in an area known as Ma‘arid or al- almost all of the explored areas. An almost Nudud. This part of Julfar appears to have complete lack of fish bones seems surprising been occupied in the 15th and 16th century, in this context. and it has not been systematically explored. Further work on SBH 38 is vital. Bearing Rob Carter in mind that the other Ubaid-period site in Kuwait, H3 excavated by a British team, lies KUWAIT only c. 6–7 kilometres to the south-east, we Many thanks to Rob Carter, Khalid Mahmoud are inclined to suppose that during the 5th Farhat, Derek Kennet, Sarah Searight and millennium BC, the region of al-Subiyyou "ukasz Wojnarowicz who contributed to the played an important role in spreading Ubaid following report. influences in the Arabian Gulf area. Three graves were explored this year: The Third Season of Fieldwork of KPAM SMQ 48, SMQ 49 and SM 18. Only SMQ 49 to al-Subiyyou: New Ubaid Settlement in appeared to be almost undisturbed. Inside the Kuwait grave chamber of this tumulus, remains of The joint Kuwaiti–Polish Archaeological four, probably adult, individuals were Mission continued field activities in al- unearthed. The bones were not found in an Subiyyou from 26 October to 2 December anatomical order due to the subsequent adding 2009, co-directed by professor Piotr Bielinski, of new burials and putting the older skeletons director of The Polish Centre of Med- aside. Below the oldest of these skeletons, iterranean Archaeology. This year, the animal bones, possibly of a camel primary aim of our work concerned a newly (Hryniewicka K., pers. comm.), were found. opened site containing remains of an Ubaid Further anthropological studies will surely settlement. Apart from it, investigations of provide significant information about the stone grave mounds in the Mugheira sub- kinship of the buried individuals. region as well as of the Muheita Well Well Complex SM 12, which had also Complex were continued. Part of our team been explored last year, was finally cleaned was also involved in an intensive survey of and the well’s bottom was reached. The well the Bahra and Radha sub-regions of al- shaft turned out to be 3.3 m deep, with a Subiyyou. diameter from c. 3.2 m at the top and c. 1.2 at The Ubaid settlement (discovered a few the bottom. Careful examinations of the years ago by Mr Sultan ad-Duweish and well’s stratigraphy revealed two periods of labelled as SBH 38) is located in Bahra, in usage of this construction. northern Kuwait. Walls made of roughly The survey provided us with information shaped stones were visible even on the about the over hundred sites in al-Subiyyou, surface of the ground, at the foot of a small which were recorded and catalogued. The prominence. The crescent-shape site spans c. majority of them had already been known to 130 x 35 m. Thirteen aligned rooms, which Kuwaiti archaeologists, who had explored form a complex labelled as House 1, were some of them. Our aim was to gather the investigated this season. All of them had information once again in order to prepare a rectilinear outlines and in some of them partly set of statistical analyses on the sites and preserved stone pavements were uncovered. choose features for future exploration. In both As subsequent layers of floor levels were the investigated areas – Bahra and Radha – a found in three different loci, it was possible to variety of sepulchral features was recorded. distinguish for this structure at least two Most were stone tumuli set at the edges of phases of usage. It seems certain that the rocky terraces and prominences. Some of typical plan of Ubaid culture houses, known them were accompanied by small stone from Mesopotamia, was used here. A large features, perhaps of a cultic character, or by part of the recorded ceramics can be other graves. A considerable number of connected with the Ubaid 3 phase, with some elongated stone structures was also present in examples attributed more probably to the the area. All were mapped and will be Ubaid 2/3 phase (Bielinski, P., pers. comm.). presented in the form of an easily accessible Some stone hammers and a modest number of database. flint tools were also found. A considerable This third season turned out to be very quantity of mollusc shells was present in fruitful. Doubling and dividing our efforts

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between the different projects will be needed the site in cooperation with the Kuwaiti due to the growing amount of data received government. from a variety of archaeological horizons dis- The head of the six-week-old mission, covered in northern Kuwait. Angeliki Kottaridis, reported that Greek "ukasz Wojnarowicz colonists in the region arrived with Alexander the Great, with their presence on the island Archaeology of the Early Islamic Period in evident for at least two centuries. According Kuwait at Kadhma. to ancient sources, Alexander the Great A joint research project was initiated this year himself had named the island Icarus, while his between the National Council for Culture, Seleucid successors continued to regard the Arts and Letters (Kuwait) and Durham island as a strategic asset due to its position at University (UK). The project is aimed at the mouth of today’s Shatt al-Arab, formed by investigating the Early Islamic period on the the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris mainland of Kuwait. It began in December Rivers in southern Mesopotamia. The island 2009 with survey and preliminary excavation was later named Failaka after the fort built on of the site of Kadhma, a toponym well known the island, with one possibility being that it from Early Islamic historical sources. The was derived from the Greek word “filakio” Early Islamic sites at Kadhma were for outpost. discovered in 2002 by Sultan al-Duwish of The temple and the entire eastern section the Kuwait National Museum. Further of the Hellenistic fort were discovered exploration this year has shown them to be following earlier excavations by Danish, small settlement sites of considerable American and French archaeologists (see importance, given the relative lack of sites of below for their recent work). The Greek this period in Eastern Arabia. They consist of mission systematically excavated the western a number of small stone buildings surrounded section of the complex, discovering a part of by scatters of pottery, glass, chlorite and shell. the western wall, a workshop processing stone Large quantities of pottery, glass and chlorite offerings and a chamber that was part of a were recovered from the site. A detailed field Hellenistic era building. survey of more than five square km was Greek archaeologists also helped in the undertaken. This has demonstrated the preservation work done on the noted stele of presence of a thin scatter of contemporary Icarus bearing a large Greek inscription, on pottery over much of the coastal plain that display at the Museum of Kuwait, which itself probably results from nomadic activity around suffered serious damage during the Iraqi the sites. invasion. A five-year agreement is expected to be Other archaeological projects in 2009–10 in signed between NCCAL and Durham to allow Kuwait: Failaka and other sites further investigation of this and other sites in There has been considerable archaeological the region so that a full picture of the Early activity on Failaka in 2009 and more work is Islamic landscape can be reconstructed. planned for 2010. A Danish team worked at Derek Kennet the temple site during October–December University of Durham 2009. A French team also excavated the

Hellenistic Fort and at the Qosoor site on Greek excavations on Kuwait’s Failaka Failaka Island, from early November to mid island reveal Hellenistic period findings December 2009, while an Italian team will be Archaeological excavations on Failaka Island, working at Quraniya, from 10 January to 11 located twenty km off the coast of Kuwait February 2010. City have brought to light a series of Khalid Mahmoud Farhat significant Hellenistic period findings, beginning roughly during the period Kuwaiti collection in Hungary immediately following the death of Alexander Plans are afoot for a permanent Islamic Art the Great. Museum in the splendid eighteenth century Remains of a fort, temple, shrine and palace at Keszthely on Lake Balaton, thanks ancient Greek inscriptions have been to the generosity of the Tareq Rajab family of unearthed by Greek archaeologists working at Kuwait. Mr Rajab and his Scottish wife Jehan have been developing a collection of Islamic

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art in Kuwait for many years, which has been The Programme is funded by the Kuwait on display in the Tareq Rajab Museum and in Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. the Dar Jehan Museum of Islamic LSE Director Howard Davies notes: “We are Calligraphy. Both were curated from 1995 to very grateful to the Kuwait Foundation for 1998 by Professor Geza Fehervari, a former this generous pledge. It is an opportunity for Hungarian diplomat and before that of SOAS. the School, our staff and students to broaden Through Professor Fehervari and his and deepen knowledge about Kuwait and the Hungarian links, Mr Rajab lent 300 objects Gulf States.” More information can be found from his art collection in 2002, exhibited at at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEKP. Keszthely, which will serve as the foundation for the planned permanent exhibition. Sarah Searight OMAN Nasser al-Jahwari, Rob Carter and Harriet The Kuwait Programme on Development, Nash kindly provide the following reports on Governance and Globalisation in the Gulf archaeological activities in Oman States at the LSE Archaeological teams in Oman under the The Kuwait Research Programme on supervision of His Majesty Advisor Office Development, Governance and Globalisation for Cultural Affairs in the Gulf States is a ten year multi- Since 2008, an Italian team has been carrying disciplinary global programme at The London out the restoration of a mudbrick tower School of Economics. It focuses on topics building (Husin Salut) recovered and such as globalisation, economic development, excavated in previous seasons at the site of diversification of and challenges facing Salut in the area of Bahla. Based on the resource rich economies, trade relations recovery of a number of archaeological between the Gulf States and major trading materials, particularly pottery, the mudbrick partners, energy trading, security and tower is dated to the Iron Age. During this year’s fieldwork season (November– migration. rd The Programme generally focuses on the December 2009) the team recovered a 3 - states that comprise the Gulf Cooperation millennium BC tomb on the top of Salut Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, rocky hill. Iron Age structural remains were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. also recovered near this tomb. Moreover, the However, occasionally the interests of team recovered traces of a falaj channel, research require a more flexible and broader which will be excavated in the next season. conception. Fieldwork will commence again during The Programme is hosted by LSE’s January–March 2010. interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of An American team has been excavating Global Governance, and led by Professor the site of Al-Balid in Dhofar, and in this David Held, co-director of the Centre. It year’s season (November–December 2009) supports post-doctoral researchers and PhD the team excavated the site’s medieval students, develops academic networks southern wall located close to the sea. The between LSE and Gulf institutions, and hosts team is intending to restore the wall during public lectures and a regular seminar series as the next season of fieldwork. The team also well as five major biennial conferences. The recovered an Iron Age structure close to the first conference on the theme of small mosque excavated by Sultan Qaboos ‘Globalisation and the Gulf’ took place in University in 1998. The Advisory Office is Kuwait City in March 2009. The next planning to add an extra exhibition hall to Al- conference will take place in March 2011 Balid Museum and to construct a restoration with a focus of “The Transformation of the lab for artifacts. Gulf States: Economy, Culture and Society”. An Italian team working at the Iron Age The Programme commissions cutting-edge site of Khor Rori in Dhofar has continued its research papers from academics and experts excavation during the period from on the Gulf States, a number of which will November–December 2009 and work will inform a collected volume provisionally continue during January–March 2010. entitled “Transformation of the Gulf” set to be published in 2010/11.

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Archaeological teams in Oman under the study and to benefit from their experience in supervision of the Ministry of Heritage and this field. Culture To evaluate the current situation of the In November 2009, a local archaeological Omani archaeological heritage and to gather team from the Department of Archaeological data available from related institutions and Studies and Excavations at the Ministry of bodies participating in this workshop, and to Heritage and Culture carried out a rescue exchange views with them. excavation of two tombs in the area of Sohar To reach these aims, a large number of Port. The tombs had been disturbed by institutions and bodies was invited to digging activities in the area. They were participate in this workshop that included tentatively dated to the Wadi Suq period, three sessions: based on structural comparisons with the The first session, held on 5 April 2009, Wadi Suq tombs in the same area excavated was designated to discuss archaeological by the Danish expedition in 1970s. One of the heritage threats and legislation as well as tombs is circular while the other is oval in ways of preserving, protecting and shape. Apart from two beads and tiny human documenting it. bone fragments, no archaeological materials The second session, held on 6 April, was were recovered due to the fact that both tombs designated to deal with financial support, were badly disturbed. Further excavation is archaeological research, restoration, training intended for other nearby tombs that might be and rehabilitating national cadres and threatened by digging activities. teaching archaeology. The third session, held on 7 April, was Activities of the Technical Committee for designated to explore ways of presenting the the Study of Archaeological Affairs in the archaeological heritage and educating people Sultanate of Oman in its importance. It also dealt with A workshop and symposium were held in relationships between organizations and Muscat as part of activities carried out by The regional and international bodies concerned Technical Committee for the Study of with archaeology, and the relationship Archaeological Affairs in the Sultanate of between development and archaeology in Oman, which was set up in response to a royal Oman, as well as how to make use of this directive issued by His Majesty Sultan archaeological heritage. At the end of this Qaboos bin Said. The main aim of this session a round-table discussion was made in committee is to study the Sultanate’s order to provide future recommendations. archaeological affairs by monitoring and evaluating all efforts that have so far been Symposium made in this sector, as well as defining all Another important activity of the Technical challenges that encounter bodies and Committee was the holding of a three-day organisations related to this field. In other symposium entitled “The Archaeological words, the committee is expected to evaluate Heritage in the Sultanate of Oman: Present past and present theories and practices, and to Situation and the Future”, which took place at investigate the adequacy of current the Al Bandar Hotel at Barr Al-Jissah Resort archaeological heritage management within 26–29, October. The opening ceremony was the current framework of Omani society. It is under the auspices of His Highness Sayyid hoped that it will develop some future Haitham bin Tareq al Said, Minister of strategies that can be adopted in order to Heritage and Culture. A number of national manage and protect the Sultanate's archaeo- and international experts were invited to logical heritage. participate in this event. Workshop The symposium aimed at developing a In order to achieve its aims, the Technical national strategy for the Sultanate's Committee held a three-day workshop in archaeological heritage by exploring the ideal Crown Plaza Hotel at Muscat, 5–7 April and best means of maintaining, protecting, 2009. The aim of this workshop was: conserving and developing this heritage in To involve all institutions and bodies accordance with the most up-to-date related to the Sultanate’s archaeology in this international standards, trends and legislation. Additionally, one of the main aims for this

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symposium was to make appropriate understanding and awareness of the rare recommendations for the present and future of practice of stargazing in agriculture in Arabia. the Sultanate’s archaeological heritage. For this visit, it was planned to complete, as The symposium programme started on 26 far as possible, recording and documenting October 2009 with a reception at Shangri-La’s the current use of stars and to provide my Barr Al-Jissah Resort and Spa-Al Bandar. The PhD thesis (supervised by Dionisius Agius, opening ceremony was held on 27 October University of Exeter), completed in March and included an audio-visual presentation of 2009, to those who had helped me. While Oman’s Archaeological Heritage and the visiting the villages included in the thesis, I launching of a website (www.oman also collected signatures giving permission to archaeology.com) dedicated to this heritage as publish materials such as letters that I had well as an online database of archaeological photographed, and enquired about stars used sites’ management systems based on a digital by the Bedu, pastoralists and fishermen. map of Oman. The symposium divided into three themes: the first entitled “Archaeo- Falaj stars logical Heritage in the Sultanate of Oman: the The main stars used in Tayma (59o21’E 22o Present Situation” was held on 27 October; 31’N), at the mouth of Wadi Manqal, about the second and third were held on 28 October. half way between Sur and Al Kamil, and in The second was designed to deal with Hajeer (57o31’E 23o12’N) in Wadi Beni “International Experiences in Management of Kharous were identified, with the help of Archaeological Heritage”, while the third was someone from each village knowing the stars dedicated to “Proposed Models for the well, pointing them out either in the sky or on Management of Archaeological Heritage in StarryNight software. In Tayma, 25 stars are the Sultanate of Oman”. On 29 October, there used for timing falaj water, and they are was an international experts’ and committee watched setting (ie in the west). There are members’ round-table discussion, which some parallels with stars used by fishermen – provided some conclusions and recommen- more than in other villages studied to date: dations. Arcturus is called al-Haymer (the Red), and Nasser al-Jahwari Muphrid is al-Kaydhib (the Liar). At present Assistant Professor, Department of there are two possible explanations for the Archaeology, College of Arts and Social name al-Kaydhib: 1) when rising it can, for a Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University moment, be mistaken for Arcturus; 2) it can be a false harbinger of storms. In Hajeer, 24 University of Pennsylvania excavations at main stars, generally the same as in nearby Bat, Oman Stall, and several divider stars are watched Recent excavations by a team led by Prof. setting. Gregory L. Possehl has revealed that some of I was told that stars are also still used for the well-known Bronze Age (Umm an-Nar the falaj in Ab"t, and possibly in Iftah, both in Period) tower sites were built on Hafit Period the area of Tayma. Iftah has two main falaj mounds. These excavations, by the University channels, unusually sharing a single sundial, of Pennsylvania, promise to reveal a great which has two sets of markings, one for each deal about the transition between the Hafit main channel. and the Umm an-Nar periods, and the development of complexity in the region. For Bedu stars more information, visit http://www.penn. Officers in Sur Municipality echoed what I museum/research-near-east-section/302-bat- had been told by a Bedu family in Sudayra: archaeological-project.html. that the Bedu no longer use stars for desert

Rob Carter navigation. However, I am sure that there is a Oman Stargazing research wealth of star lore that has not yet been With grants from the Society and the Seven recorded. Apart from those living in Pillars of Wisdom Trust, I returned to Oman settlements in the Mudaybi/Sinaw area, as in to continue my research on the use of stars in Sudayra, the Bedu owning date palms only timing the allocation of falaj water shares in come there in July and August for the harvest, September–October 2009. The aim of the not the pleasantest weather for field project as a whole is to improve the 0.work. The falaj officials do not admit to

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knowing any personally, but the son of one of grounds, focusing on documentation of the the falaj officials in Barzaman says that he stars and star use. Altogether some 85 has telephone numbers for some Bedu living interviews have been carried out in c. 50 in Mahut (opposite Masirah Island), and will settlements. The initial focus was on use of put me in touch with them on my next visit. stars by fishermen to predict storms. They also looked at other pointers to good fishing Pastoralist stars grounds such as land markers or poles. The Contacts in Qaryat Beni Subh did not think second stage included identification of the that the pastoralists living directly above stars, but this was not totally successful as Qarya would know any star lore, and instead put me in contact with Humaid bin Saeed, the head of the Hattali living in Dar Al Qull (57o 24’E 23o7’N) in the mountains nearby. Kuw# is the first star to rise at night at the beginning of date growth (qayr); its heliacal rise brings cold weather, as does that of Canopus, while Aldebaran’s evening rise brings very cold weather, and Al-Adam brings weather so cold that children urinate blood and young animals die. Several stars in the Plough are associated with winds. Perhaps surprisingly, since the pastoralists once depended on catching rain in cisterns for their water supply, no stars are associated with rain. Unsurprisingly, since both communities depend on animal husbandry for a living, some sayings associating stars with cold weather and animal deaths are similar to those from a Bedu family in Sudayra.

Above, Humaid bin Saeed Al Hattali, Dar Al Qull, 5 October 2009.

Tayma: above, waiting for the water auction 8 October 2009; right, stargazing 10 October 2009.

Stars used by fishermen During the visit, I met Saleh Al-Shidhani, a physicist and astronomer at Sultan Qaboos University, to enquire about the progress of people with knowledge are old and have poor his star project for the Ministry of Fisheries. eyesight. The project report for the Ministry The overall aim is to develop a procedure for of Fisheries is not ready, and it would protection of coral reefs, and hence fishing therefore be premature for me to meet anyone

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in the Ministry. in any way possible. Help has also been Said Ahmed Said Al Yahayi from Bahla is promised, with a possibility of accommo- a lawyer with the Navy and is looking at a 40- dation, by the Director of the Agricultural year old case study of a Sharia Court ruling Centre, Nizwa, who is co-ordinating the on fishing rights near Fort Jelali, which survey of star lore mentioned above. involved stars: From the evening rise of The current star projects under the Suhayl (Canopus) to the setting of Al-Haymer Ministries of Fisheries and Agriculture (usually Arcturus), there are 50 days of good provide a good basis for the type of future fishing, and the ruling concerned the fair research on community star use and lore division of this time among the fishermen. He envisaged for the Exeter team, building on promised to send me a copy of the ruling. what has already been done, holding On a trip with the Royal Astronomers to independent interviews and going into more sight the crescent moon for the beginning of detail in selected settlements. the month, Nasr Mubarak Al-Wahaybi told Harriet Nash me something about fishing stars used in his village – Sadab, near Muscat – and thought QATAR that the court ruling described above could be Frances Gillespie kindly provides the from there. On my next visit to Oman, I am following information on activities in Qatar invited to Sadab to find out more. The Archaeology of Qatar highlighted at the British Museum Agricultural stars In a “first” for Qatar, a special session A few more sayings were collected in the PhD devoted solely to the archaeology of Qatar study villages, and corrections made to one or was held at the British Museum on Friday 24 two in my thesis. Suleiman Al-Alawi, July, as part of the Seminar for Arabian Director of the Agricultural Centre, Nizwa Studies which takes place annually, when (Ministry of Agriculture) is in charge of a recent research into such diverse topics as country-wide survey, collecting information archaeology, history and ancient languages on stars related to animals, fish, weather and and epigraphy is presented and discussed. plants. Approximately 9,000 forms have been Archaeologists working in Qatar this year distributed and are now being collected. The gave half-hour presentations on their findings, information will be assessed and reported by on sites ranging from the Iron Age graves at Salh Al-Shidhani. This work forms an Umm al-Maa to the old trading and pearling excellent basis for the more detailed town of Al Zubara. assessment proposed by Dionisius Agius and A team from the Visual and Spatial myself. Technology Centre (VISTA) at the University Saleh Al Khalifa (met at the Planetarium), of Birmingham, UK, led by Dr Richard who runs a planetarium in Saudi Arabia will Cuttler, has been reconstructing the ancient send a copy of a book written by his father palaeogeography of Qatar using remotely including information about star calendars. In sensed datasets, and the data resulting from central Saudi Arabia, Aldebaran is known as their research will be integrated into the at-Twayba, also meaning the follower. National Monument Record for Qatar. Approximately 18,000 years ago the Arabian Future research Gulf was dry. The area would certainly have It was suggested by staff of the Sur been populated, but until recently research on Municipality that I should tackle a whole terrain that now lies deep beneath the sea was section of the Hajar Sharqi, rather than perceived as being beyond the reach of individual villages, from the hills to the sea. archaeologists. This would include star use for the falaj, by In her presentation a member of the pastoralists and fishermen but not Bedu, and VISTA team, Rebecca Beardmore, explained the idea is close to that already put forward that as a result of recent developments in for research grants with Dionisius Agius. To remote sensing, this is no longer the case. assist and provide accommodation for what Countries such as Qatar are in a unique would be at least one week’s work, the Sur position in that oil exploration has provided office needs an official letter from Head extensive datasets that can be used to model Office in Muscat, which has promised to help past landscapes and inform future research

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within the region. However, the true value of of surface pottery samples taken for analysis, such datasets can only be achieved if they are this is the first time it has been investigated integrated as part of a larger inventory of through archaeological excavation and heritage resources, and over the past year topographic survey. Qatar has developed a new National Dr Petersen said that preliminary findings Monument Record for this purpose. This has indicate that the main site was inhabited from involved the development of data standards the medieval to the early modern period (c. for recording and archiving currently known 11th–18th centuries) although this dating is and new archaeological sites. The integration subject to modification based on further of both marine and terrestrial data into the analysis of the finds and other dating National Monument Record will ultimately materials. Excavation so far has concentrated facilitate pro-active management and on the most visible feature of the site, which monument protection. is a fortress divided into four separate A small team working on behalf of Qatar courtyards. The principal aim of this season’s Museums Authority has been excavating for excavation was to identify the building the last two seasons at the vast prehistoric sequence of the fort and also get some idea of cairnfield at Umm al-Maa, located on the its foundation date. The team from Wales north-west coast. The director, Dr Juergen hope to return later this year to continue their Schreiber, presented its findings to date. This excavations. site was first excavated by the Danish The northern pre-oil-era walled town of expedition in the late 1950s, and again in the Al-Zubara has been excavated by the late 1980s and early 1990s by a Japanese Department of Antiquities at various periods team. The graves are thought to date from over the last thirty years, and some of the between 100 BC and 100 AD. buildings have been partially reconstructed. The Mission Francaise Archéologique à The most recent work on the archaeology and Qatar from Lyons, headed by Dr Alexandrine environment of this extensive site has been Guerin, has been working in Qatar for a conducted this year, at the invitation of the number of years, first at the small fort beside QMA, by a team of thirteen from the the village of Bir Zekrit on the west coast and University of Copenhagen in Denmark, led by more recently at the Abbasid (9th-century) Dr Alan Walmsley [excavations] and Dr village at Murwab in the north-west. Dr Ingolf Thuesen [heritage]. The intention this Guerin gave a presentation last year at the season was to complete a preliminary Seminar for Arabian Studies, and this year she assessment, recording and survey of Al- returned to present the team’s most recent Zubarah and its hinterland, as well as making research on the ceramics discovered in an initial reconnaissance of other sites in the stratigraphic contexts at Murwab. The north of Qatar. Dr Walmsley’s presentation combination of various studies makes it focused on the results of the work in and possible to assign particular functions to around Al-Zubarah, including the mapping of spatial units, ie habitation and artisanal zones. the site, the geomorphological and archaeo- Newcomers to Qatar in 2009 are logical investigation of its hinterland include- archaeologists from the Department of ing associated sites, and two areas of invest- Archaeology and Anthropology at the igative open-area excavations within the town University of Wales based in Lampeter. This itself. season, directed by Dr Andrew Petersen, they Frances Gillespie conducted a first season of excavations at Qal’at al-Ruwaydah sponsored by the Qatar UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Museums Authority (QMA). Thanks to Nasser Bin Hashim, Rob Carter, Al-Ruwaydah is a large Islamic-period site Peter Magee and Johanna Olafsdotter for stretching over an area of more than two km/h supplying news from the UAE. along the beach of a shallow bay on the northern tip of Qatar. The site comprises at Studies on the collection of Wadi Suq least seven distinct areas including an material extensive prehistoric component. Although The Emirates Natural History Group (Abu the site was recorded in 1972–73 by Beatrice Dhabi) supported a request from the Society de Cardi’s team from the UK and a selection to support an application from Sabrina

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Righetti for a £500 grant to study the collection of Wadi Suq material in Ras al- Khaimah’s National Museum, as part of her doctoral research into the Wadi Suq period in the UAE and Oman. See below in Available Grants, for application information.

For Oxford Brookes University’s excavations at Julfar, Ras al-Khaimah see above, pp. 22–3.

Sharjah Archaeology Museum 2009 was another successful year for the Sharjah Archaeology Museum with a large increase in visitor numbers through the hard work of the museum staff and Sharjah Museums Marketing Department. The museum also continued its long and successful collaboration with Dr Sabah and Figure 1. Incense burner, 900–700 BC. the Sharjah Antiquities Department.

Exhibition: After over two years’

research and preparations, the museum was able to complete an upgrade of the collection on display in the main galleries, including new graphic panels with more extensive information about the objects on display. The upgrade introduced several new objects and amongst them a beautiful incense burner found in the middle of the remains of a columned building at Muweilah (see below, figure 1). It dates to between 900 and 700 BC and is the most complete example of its type yet discovered in the UAE.

Education: The museum continued its successful educational programmes with family and children workshops holding Figure 2. The cover of Hamdan and Alia. different themes every month, such as “following the pottery trade” and “making Conservation and research: Through the house model replicas”, as well as adult gallery generous support of His Highness Sheikh talks. Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, Ruler A new book was published in September of Sharjah and Member of the Supreme called Hamdan and Alia, written by the Council of the United Arab Emirates, the museum tour guide, Khalid Hussain Mansoor. museum was able to significantly improve its The book invites young readers to use their conservation laboratory. The museum is imagination to make a connection between proud to announce that it is the first in the objects in the showcases and the story of the region to receive and operate a digital X-ray ancient past. It was written for the age group machine. The machine will be used to 7–12. One of the main aims of the book is to document, record and research the give children an appreciation and respect for Archaeology Museum’s collection, as well as ancient objects and the local history of the the other Sharjah museum collections. The UAE. The book was published in both Arabic museum also welcomes collaboration with and English. other museums in the region in support of further projects and discussion.

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Moreover, the museum established a continued, with excavations by the French- collaboration with the Physics Department at Saudi team at Madain Salih, the German- the University of Sharjah (UOS), where the Saudi team at Tayma and the British-Saudi museum provided samples for XRF analysis team at the Farasan Islands. Local fieldwork and testing performed by the UOS in the has also continued and a new volume of the United States. The results will later be used Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, Atlal, for the setting up and calibration of UOS’s (Vol. 20) is in press. Physics Department’s own XRF equipment. Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in Nasser Bin Hashim the region, is planning a bold new museum in Curator, Sharjah Archaeology Museum Dhahran. Known as the King Abdulaziz Centre for Knowledge and Culture, this new The Bryn Mawr College excavations at the museum aims to incorporate natural and Iron Age settlement of Muweilah, Sharjah cultural history into a sweeping vision The team concluded their sixteenth year of covering 80 million years in the Arabian Peninsula, through to the discovery of oil in research in the winter of 2009/10. This work th is co-sponsored by Bryn Mawr College and the 20 century. A panel of local and the Directorate of Archaeology, Government international experts has been put together to of Sharjah. Research this year focused on collaborate on this project, under guidance determining the extent and date of the large from the Natural History Museum in London, fortification systems that surround the centre UK. of the ancient settlement (Area C). The new museum will demonstrate the At the conclusion of our excavations, it diversity of landscapes within Saudi Arabia as was determined that a sequence of well as the important trade routes crossing fortifications were constructed which initially this region throughout human history. The comprised deep, wall-constructed ditches. central role of Islam for the region will be These were replaced by large fortification highlighted and visitors will be encouraged to walls which were still in place when the interact with and contribute towards the settlement was destroyed. The artifactual cultural history of the nation. The website can evidence suggests that all these features date be found at http://en.culturerocks.com/. to the local Iron Age II period (1100/1000– Clare Reeler 600 BC). These dates will be tested with a Report on Fieldwork in the Farasan series of C14 assays to be processed in the Islands, 2009 coming year. In addition to excavations, A joint Saudi–UK team took part in fieldwork geochemical analysis of ceramics from the on the Farasan Islands as part of the ongoing site continues to focus on the evidence for southern Red Sea Project under the direction foreign exchange and trade. This has shown of Geoff Bailey, University of York, and conclusively that the settlement engaged in Abdullah Alsharekh, King Saud University. trade with both Bahrain and Mesopotamia in The fieldwork took place over a three-week the Iron Age II period. We are planning to period in March 2009, under the auspices of return to the site in the winter of 2010/11 to the Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, resume our excavations and continue to Riyadh, with the participation of a twelve- investigate the extent and organization of the strong team of Saudi and British settlement. archaeologists including a specialist team of Peter Magee divers. Fieldwork this year focused on SAUDI ARABIA continued excavation of the Janaba 4 shell mound on the main island of Farasan, on Many thanks to Geoff Bailey, Arnulf survey and sampling of shell mounds on the Hausleiter, Clare Reeler and Ionis Thompson extensive inlet of Janaba West on Farasan and for compiling the following reports, and to all on the island of Qumah, and on exploratory their informants. underwater investigation of a number of

inshore underwater locations associated with Museums and Archaeology palaeoshorelines in water depths of 5–10 m. The Saudi Commission for Tourism and The aim of the Janaba excavation was to Antiquities has been active during 2009. open up additional areas of the site, to achieve Collaboration with international teams has

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a stratigraphic section through the full depth the site. Work is funded by the German of the mound at its deepest point, and to Research Foundation (DFG). The logistic recover more charcoal samples for base for the project is the Tayma Museum of radiocarbon dating and larger samples of Archaeology and Ethnography. artefacts, shell and bone material for faunal As to the earlier history of permanent analyses. The excavations revealed new data settlement at the oasis, a second series of on the spatial organisation of the site, with scientific dating by optically stimulated extensive hearth areas used in food luminiscence (OSL) seems to confirm a c. preparation and consumption, and distinctive mid-3rd millennium BC date for the areas of shell dumping. Fish bones were construction of parts of the outer city wall. recovered in and around the hearth areas of Aeolian sands as well as organic remains the site, and a small number of gazelle bones. from these deposits have been analysed (the Two human burials associated with the latter by C14). prehistoric deposits were also excavated. Whereas stratified remains from the early Preliminary radiocarbon dates from the 2008 to mid-2nd millennium BC have not been excavations indicate a date for the mound in reached yet by excavations, an early Iron Age the time range 2600–3300 BC (calibrated (12th to 9th cent. BC) public building radiocarbon years), and additional dating between the outer and inner city wall was samples are expected to provide greater further investigated. Among the objects which precision on the time depth and frequency of can be characterised as prestige goods are an use of the site and the pattern of mound Egyptian scaraboid of faïence and several growth. gaming stones, some of them made of ivory. The diving work was carried out with the The latter are similar to Assyrian specimens cooperation and assistance of the Saudi from the north-west palace at Nimrud (Iraq). Border Guard in Farasan and included The objects from Tayma may constitute the exploration of seabed features and sediments first evidence for the well known Assyrian- in a variety of inshore locations. The aim of Arab contacts of the 1st millennium BC at the diving work was to explore patterns of Tayma. Painted pottery similar to the so- underwater erosion and sedimentation in called Qurayyah Painted Ware and remains of order to better understand the processes of wooden objects have been discovered as well. landscape modification that take place when a The building was destroyed by fire; terrestrial land surface undergoes inundation afterwards, the area was used as cemetery during a period of sustained sea-level rise. In during the Lihyanite period. the Qumah location, two phases of Excavations in the large temple building in palaeoshoreline development with deeply the northeastern part of the central mound notched and undercut coral terraces were (Area E) revealed an imitation of a late identi 4th/early 3rd century BC Athena coin from a floor preparatory level dated to the pre- fied, and preliminary excavations were carried Nabataean period. Thus, the general dating of out of sediments accumulated beneath the the last building level and its phases to a time- overhangs. span covering the reign of the dynasty of Geoff Bailey Lihyan and the post-Nabataean periods has University of York been confirmed. An elaborated system of Madain Salih water transport from the temple to one of two The Madain Salih Archaeological Project led large basins at the entrance has been by Dr Laila Nehme will undertake its third excavated. The entrance to a tunnel, field season in early 2010. discovered in 2008, was investigated. It was well built, as is the case with the tunnel itself. Tayma Only the corridor leading under the external In 2009 the multidisciplinary Saudi-German wall of the building appears too narrow to joint archaeological project conducted by the have served for regular use by individuals. German Archaeological Institute’s Orient In the debris south of the building, a Department (DAI Orient-Abteilung) and the further fragment of a disk shaped object with Saudi Commission for Tourism and cuneiform characters has been found. The Antiquities (SCTA) continued excavations at inscription on both fragments mentions an

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“image/statue of Nabonidus, king of care and enjoys great popularity as Babylon”. Not only it is the first mention of complementary or alternative medicine. Yet, king Nabonidus’s name in cuneiform at at the same time, plant resources are Tayma, but the shape and inscription of this threatened in Yemen. object may indicate its former function as part The topic is suited to overcome the usually of the base of a stele of the king found nearby competitive relationship between the in 2004. humanities and the natural sciences and Further excavations were carried out in a instead to benefit from their complementary pre-Islamic dwelling quarter as well as in potential. The workshop provided an ideal public buildings of the Islamic period. forum for discussion across boundaries of The systematic investigation of the wall disciplines such as history, social system of Tayma has been completed for anthropology, oriental studies, biology, now. Further research focused on bioarchaeo- pharmacology and pharmacy. Scholars from logy, hydrology and geoarchaeology. North America, Europe, Russia, Israel and For further information, see www.dainst. Yemen participated with contributions that org/index_3258_en.html. were based on textual analysis, as well as on Dr. Arnulf Hausleiter empirical and experimental research, and DAI Orient-Abteilung which covered both historical and contemporary aspects. The traditional YEMEN pharmacological basics, their reflection in Due to the unstable political situation in literature, the development of everyday Yemen, conducting archaeological and other practices in their socio-political and economic historical work has been challenging and will contexts, as well as their global pragmatic remain so. See Tony Wilkinson’s report aspects, constituted the most prominent above (pp. 8–9). However, work and themes. The quality of the papers encourage conferences on Yemen have continued. the organisers to publish the proceedings. ! In her introductory paper, Ingrid Traditional medicine in Yemen: an Hehmeyer used examples of traditional interdisciplinary workshop at Halle medicine from Yemen, both substances and University (Germany) practices, and explored their historical and On 25–26 September 2009, the workshop, cultural dimensions, as well as the validity of “The use of herbs in Yemeni healing their uses in today’s society. (“The validity of practices: an interdisciplinary workshop on traditional medicine as an effective tool in traditional knowledge and cultural concepts in issues of human health”). scientific perspective”, took place at the Amin Al Hakimi (Yemeni Association for Centre for Interdisciplinary Area Studies – Sustainable Agriculture Development, and Middle East, Africa, Asia (ZIRS), Martin Faculty of Agriculture, Sana‘a University) Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Ger- demonstrated that there is a key link between many, organized by Prof. Dr Ingrid Hehmeyer local traditional knowledge and experience in (Department of History, Ryerson University, Yemeni society and agro-biodiversity. Toronto, Canada), Dr Anne Regourd (CNRS, (“Traditional farmers’ knowledge of plant Paris, France), and Dr Hanne Schönig (ZIRS uses as the key point for preservation of Halle, Germany). biodiversity in the high mountain areas of Herbal medicine constitutes the main body Yemen”). of traditional medicine in Yemen and survives The study carried out by Abdul Wali in our time. It is used by practitioners, namely Ahmed Al Khulaidi (Agricultural Research druggists and healers, whose knowledge is and Extension Authority, Regional Station, derived from the study of classical Arabic Taizz) has revealed the importance of the sources as well as from oral transmission. In Wadi Rijaf districts in the Jabal Bura addition to imported medicinal plants, the rich protected area, where unique plant species are local vegetation has resulted in mostly plant- known to occur, in terms of plant biodiversity, based products. Modern biomedicine is and particularly of species valuable for beginning to dominate, a process that started economic use (eg, medicinal, aromatic). (“The several decades ago. However, traditional main vegetation types and the important medicine still plays a significant role in health

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values of plants in the Jabal Bura' protected Mainz/ Germany) has gained significant data area”). from Old South Arabian inscriptions and Mohammed Al-Duais (Institut für mainly the recently discovered Sabaean Ökologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena/ inscribed sticks, where herbs are mentioned in Germany, now Department of Biology, Ibb the use of medical plants (“Healthcare and University, Ibb) presented his research on the healing methods in pre-Islamic Yemen”). plant Halka (Cyphostemma digitatum) a Miranda Morris (School of History, St species which is very toxic in nature, but has Andrews/ United Kingdom) examined the been treated by traditional processing attitudes towards aloes and frankincense in methods to become an important constituent southern Arabia, and the very different uses to of many Yemeni dishes, in addition to its which they have been put as well as their diverse medicinal applications. (“The contemporary usage (“Aloes and miraculous plant “Halka”, Cyphostemma frankincense: changing attitudes and uses in digitatum, – from grandmother’s kitchen in southern Arabia: mainland Yemen, Soqotra Yemen’s south-western highlands to modern and Dhufar”). medicinal and culinary applications”.) Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper (Department Jacques Fleurentin (Société Française of Judaica and Jewish Ethnography, The d’Ethnopharmacologie, Metz/ France) stress- Israel Museum, Jerusalem) observed that in ed that the biodiversity is extraordinary, not modern Israel some of the Jews who from a quantitative point of view (1,750 immigrated from Yemen, and even second- plants), but in the quality and genetic generation Yemenites, still practise traditional properties of some plants like frankincense healing methods using herbs of which some (Boswellia sacra), aloe (Aloe vera, which is were imported from Yemen at the time of the the indigenous Aloe barbadensis) and coffee immigration. (“Healing through medicinal (Coffea arabica). (“From traditional medicinal plants: Old Yemeni therapeutic traditions plants of Yemen to therapeutic herbal drugs: applied in Jerusalem of today”.) the valorisation of natural resources, an Mikhail Rodionov (South Western and applied ethnopharmacological program”.) Southern Department, Peter-the-Great Dinah Jung (Forschungsstelle 619 – Museum of Anthropology & Ethnology, Ritualdynamik, Universität Heidelberg/ Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg) Germany) gave an overview of the manifold has evaluated his field data, as well as local uses of the imported agarwood which is poetry, to discuss the symbolic roles and mainly known as a precious ingredient of health-giving properties of honey, coffee and perfumes and incenses (“The Use of tea, including the rivalry/competition of the Agarwood in Yemen”). latter two (“Honey, coffee and tea in the ritual Efraim Lev (Department of Eretz Israel and healing practices of Hadramawt”.) Studies, University of Haifa) gave insight into Petra G. Schmidl (Institut für Orient- und his research on the numerous fragments of the Asienwissenschaften, Rheinische Friedrich- Cairo Genizah corpus that deal with medical Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn/ Germany) and health-related issues (“Medieval medicine analysed the magical and medical information and pharmacology: evidence from the Cairo given in Sultan al-Ashraf $Umar’s Tab%ira and Genizah”). showed possible reasons to include them in a Ulrike Lindequist (Institute of Pharmacy, treatise on the science of the stars. (“Magic Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald/ and Medicine in a 13th century Treatise on the Germany), who is collaborating with Yemeni science of the stars. The Kit"b al-Tab%ira f# universities, confirmed the great potential of $ilm al-nuj&m of the Rasulid Sultan al-Ashraf Yemeni medicinal plants and fungi for the $Umar”.) development of new drugs, though only a few Daniel Martin Varisco (Department of species from Yemeni natural sources have Sociology/Anthropology, Hofstra University been scientifically investigated for their Hempstead, New York) focused on the biological activity and for their chemical proposed medical or “mystical” benefits of constituents (“The potential of Yemeni qât chewing in traditional Yemeni culture, medicinal plants from a pharmaceutical point with a focus on the issue of sexual of view”). Mohammed Maraqten (Institut für performance and libido based on relevant Orientkunde, Johannes Gutenberg Universität historical sources, ethnographic accounts,

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poetry and contemporary scientific analysis. address at the beginning of the workshop, but (“Qât, Sex and Traditional Healing”.) participated together with his wife during the In his closing paper, Wade Pickren whole two days. (Department of Psychology, Ryerson The last discussion was followed by a visit University, Toronto) took up the topic of to the Botanic Garden of Halle. The guided transmission of knowledge and practices tour was conducted by Dr Heike Heklau, a which had been the subject of papers and lecturer in Botany of the University. The discussion throughout the two workshop days garden possesses some plants known in and gave examples to illustrate the reciprocal, Yemen, and, surprisingly, one of Yemeni transformative nature of cultural contact origin! zones. (“Crossing borders: Knowledge and Hanne Schönig & Anne Regourd practice in transitional spaces”.) At the end of the session, the general Arabia Felix Website discussion stressed that the preservation of In 2009, a new website, Arabia Felix, was biodiversity in Yemen is at least politic and developed (http://arabiafelix.humnet.unipi.it). depends from the highest level of the country. Arabia Felix is a portal entirely dedicated to The participants showed an interest in making the ancient culture of Yemen. With beautiful a database on plants in the country. The graphics and easily comprehensible content, organisers as well as the participants and Arabia Felix intends to spread at a wider guests were pleased that the cultural attaché in public the historical, environmental and the Yemeni embassy in Berlin, Prof. Dr cultural heritage of this fascinating country. Sheikh Bawazir, not only gave a welcome

AWARDS AND PRIZES

Arab-British Culture and Society Award: Subsequent medallists have been Professor The Winners Seton Lloyd (1979), Professor David Oates The winner of the award in 2009 was Zaytoun (1997) and Dr Roger Moorey (2003). Only one CIC for the inspirational way it has marketed of the original six minted medals now remains Palestinian olive oil and olives in the UK. in the keeping of BISI. In making the Through the background briefings, informative presentation to Dr Lamia al-Gailani Werr, the promotions and exchange visits it has current Chairman of BISI, Professor Roger organised, it has very effectively raised Matthews, cited in particular her unceasing awareness in the UK of the life, problems and efforts and invaluable advice and energy in potential of Palestinian farmers. The publisher sustaining academic and personal links between of academic books on the Arab and Islamic scholars in the UK and Iraq. Her input into worlds, IB Tauris, the writer and academic, BISI’s highly active Visiting Scholars Professor Tim Niblock, and the Palestinian programme has been fundamental to its great author, Raja Shehadeh, were also success in recent years, providing training and speciallycommended in 2009. experience to a broad range of Iraqi colleagues who have taken their enhanced skills back to Gertrude Bell Memorial Gold Medal Iraq. Dr Lamia al-Gailani Werr has been, and At the 76th Annual General Meeting on 10 continues to be, a ray of intense and brave light December 10 2009, the British Institute for the in an age of darkness and difficulty. Study of Iraq awarded the Gertrude Bell Memorial Gold Medal “for outstanding Rawabi Holding Awards services to Mesopotamian archaeology” to Dr The 2010 awards, for making a significant Lamia al-Gailani Werr, Honorary Research contribution to Saudi-British cultural relations, Associate of the Institute of Archaeology, were presented to Col. Nigel Bromage and UCL. Dr al-Gailani Werr is only the fifth Prof. Nigel Heaton. recipient of this medal since the first award in 1976 to Professor Sir Max Mallowan.

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AVAILABLE GRANTS AND PRIZES

Arab-British Culture and Society Award grants. For full details visit the British 2010 Academy website. The Arab-British Centre (ABC) awards an www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide. annual prize of £5,000. The prize, which is open to candidates of any nationality and British Institute of Persian Studies working in any field, recognises and celebrates BIPS welcomes applications from scholars those who have made an outstanding wishing to pursue research in Persian Studies. contribution to the British public’s Further information is at www.bips.ac.uk. understanding of the life, society and culture of Research Programmes. Most of BIPS’ the Arab people. In addition to the £5,000 research income is set aside for collaborative prize, the ABC provides the winner with research programmes. BIPS is currently opportunities to promote his or her work more seeking to attract applications from scholars in widely. three ‘umbrella’ programmes: Socio-Economic Details of last year’s winners are given in Transformations in the Later Prehistory of Iran; the section above. The shortlist of this year’s Kingship in Persian Cultural History; Modern applicants will be published in April 2010, Iran: National Identities – History, Myth and followed by the announcement of the winner Literature. and presentation of the award by Sir Marrack Individual Grants. A small part of BIPS’ Goulding at a ceremony shortly thereafter. research budget is set aside to support the www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk. research of individual students and scholars rather than programmes. Grants are awarded Barakat Trust mainly to cover travel and research within Iran. The Trust awards a number of scholarships and Undergraduate Bursaries. BIPS offers a grants to students of Islamic art and limited number of bursaries in 2009–10 to archaeology including conservation and post- encourage visits by undergraduates to Iran. The doctoral fellowships. Grants have covered deadline is 1 May 2009. conservation programmes; documentation of All applicants for grants must be members archives; events; exhibitions and museums; of the British Institute of Persian Studies. lectures; colloquia and conferences; Membership forms are available to download scholarships towards a Master of Studies from www.bips.ac.uk/join/join-us. Please send course in Islamic Art History and Architecture grant application and membership forms to The at the University of Oxford; scholarships and Secretary, BIPS, The British Academy, 10 grants for post-graduate and post-doctoral study Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH. and research fellowships; travel and field trips; Application forms can be obtained from archaeological projects; and prizes to students www.bips.ac.uk/story/awards-grants-2009-10 at accredited schools and universities. The Email [email protected] Barakat Trust does not support the applied arts. The Salahuddin Y. H. Abduljawad British Institute for the Study of Iraq Award is also administered by the Barakat BISI Research Grants. Applications are Trust and offers grants up to £10,000 to a welcomed twice a year to support research or Muslim scholar doing a postgraduate degree in conferences on Iraq and neighbouring countries the field of Islamic Art History at a British not covered by other BASIS-sponsored university. institutions, in any field of the humanities or Contact the Barakat Trust, The Oriental social sciences, concerned with any time period Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford, OX1 2LE. from prehistory to the present day. Awards will [email protected]; further inform- normally fall within a limit of £4,000, though ation on the grants at www.barakat.org more substantial awards may be made. /grants.php. The Institute welcomes funding applications for pilot projects, especially on the British Academy theme of Exile and Return. Funding of up to The Academy offers a number of academic, £8,000 is available for one such project a year. research and travel fellowships and other The Institute offers assistance to the award-

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holder in drafting a full research proposal to Eastern Studies, which is also funded by an submit jointly to other funding bodies. endowment from the Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al- Applicants must be residents of the UK or, Sabah Charitable Foundation. In each of the exceptionally, other individuals whose years since the prize commenced, it has academic research closely coincides with that attracted around 30 nominations from some 15 of the BISI. Two academic references are publishers and the overall standard of entries required. All applications and references must has been extremely high. The prize is awarded be received by 31 January and 31 October. for the best scholarly work on the Middle East BISI Development Grants. Grants are each year. available to support development events and The deadline for entries for this year's prize projects, such as lectures, study days, and was February 10, 2010. Application forms and popular publications that relate to Iraq and further information can be found at neighbouring countries and to the areas of www.dur.ac.uk/brismes/book_prize.htm. interest covered by BISI. A Development Grant application should normally be for an amount British-Yemeni Society Annual Academic up to £500. Conditions are as above, but Grant deadlines are 15 April and 15 October. Applications are invited from anyone carrying Please see the website for full details and out research in Yemen or on a Yemen-related conditions of BISI’s grants: www.britac.ac.uk/ subject at a British or Yemeni University. institutes/iraq/grants.htm or contact the Applicants’ nationality is irrelevant. administrator: [email protected]. Applications may be made to assist with study in any subject or field, so long as it is British Society for Middle Eastern Studies concerned with the Yemen and is for a specific (BRISMES) qualification (eg BA, MA, PhD etc.) Post- BRISMES administers several scholarships and doctoral researchers may apply, but will only prizes each year: be considered should no more junior applicant MA Scholarship. BRISMES offers an approach the Committee. Applications must annual Master’s scholarship for taught Master’s follow normal academic procedures, ie an study at a UK institution. The Master’s abstract supported by a recommendation from programme can be in any discipline but should the applicant’s supervisor. include a majority component specifically Applications are to reach the Secretary to relating to the Middle East. Preference will be the Committee by October 31 each year. The given to candidates resident in the European Committee will consider the applications and Union, and to institutions who are members of make the grant by 1 January. As a condition of BRISMES. the grant, the successful applicant will be Research Student Awards. For research required to make an acknowledgement of the students based in the UK working on a Middle grant in their thesis or dissertation. The Eastern studies topic. The annually available applicant will also be expected to make a ceiling of £1,000 will either be given as a single presentation to the Society (to be summarised award or divided (max. three). in the Society’s Journal) on the results of the Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah Foundation research assisted by the grant. BRISMES Scholarships. The purpose of the Submission and any queries are to be scholarships is to encourage more people to addressed to the Honorary Secretary, The pursue postgraduate studies in disciplines British-Yemeni Society, 2 Lisgar Terrace, related to the Middle East in British London W14 8SJ, email 1.rebeccajohnson universities. The scholarships will be for one @gmail.com. For full details see website academic year. The value of each scholarship www.al-bab.com/bys. will be £2,000. Two scholarships will be awarded. British-Yemeni Society Annual Essay For full details, deadlines and conditions of Competition all the above see the website http://www. Submissions are invited from anyone carrying dur.ac.uk/brismes/scholarships07.htm or email out research in or on Yemen. Essays may be on [email protected]. any subject or field related to Yemen and BRISMES administers the British-Kuwait should be about 1,500 to 1,600 words, and may Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle be written in English or Arabic. Submissions

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are to reach the Hon. Secretary to the The Emirates Natural History group Committee by 30 September each year. The The ENHG, the oldest NGO in the UAE winner’s essay will be published in the dealing with archaeology and natural history, Society’s Journal. The winner will receive has previously provided several other grants for £250, and a year’s free membership of the relevant research ad excavations. It has also Society, and the runner-up will receive £150 given grants for conservation projects and a year’s free membership. elsewhere in Arabia, including, most recently, a Any questions should be addressed to the grant to the Yemen Arabian Leopard Project. Honorary Secretary, The British-Yemeni The Group’s Conservation Fund generally Society, 2 Lisgar Terrace, London W14 8SJ 1. provides grants of up to £500, Applications Email [email protected] or see the may be sent either via the Society for Arabian website: www.al-bab.com/bys. Studies or direct to the ENHG: http://www.enhg.org/. Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World Gerald Avery Wainwright Fund for Near CASAW, a Language-based Area Studies Eastern Archaeology Initiative funded by the AHRC, ESRC, HEFCE The Fund aims to encourage the study of non- and SFC, offers funding for postgraduate classical archaeology and the general history of studentships and postdoctoral fellowships at the the countries of the Middle East. It holds an Universities of Edinburgh, Durham and annual Schools Essay Prize, awards Research Manchester. Grants to mature scholars and also sponsors a post-doctoral Fellowship. Council for British Research in the Levant Research Grant deadlines are on 1 May and (CBRL) 1 December. Visit the website for application CBRL currently offers Research Awards (up to forms and guidelines: www.krc.ox.ac.uk £10,000), Travel Grants, Conference Funding, /gawainwright.htm. Pilot Study/Pump-priming, Visiting Research For further information contact: The Gerald Fellowships and Project Affiliation for research Avery Wainwright Near Eastern that comes under the following themes: the Archaeological Fund, Khalili Research Centre, spread of early humans through the Near East University of Oxford, 3 St. John Street, Oxford from Africa; the origins, development and OX1 2LG. Tel: 01865 278222. Email: practice of economic and social strategies in the [email protected] Middle East from earliest times to the modern day; the development and workings of complex International Prize for Arabic Fiction societies and their products; long-term (IPAF) landscape and settlement studies; the The ‘Arabic Booker Prize’ is covered above in relationship between people, past and present, the ARTS news. For further details, see and their built and natural environment; www.arabicfiction.org/en. synthetic studies of key historical periods; the interface between East and West; the The Kuwait Programme on Development, investigation of multiple identities in the Governance and Globalisation in the Gulf Middle East; the diachronic and synchronic States at the London School of Economics study of the use of language, music and the and Political Science (LSE): short-term written record in Middle Eastern society. Research Fellowships. Further details, application forms and These will be based at the Centre for the Study conditions of the grant schemes are available of Global Governance at the LSE, and will last from the UK Secretary, CBRL, British up to three months. The Research Fellowships Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London, will enable successful candidates to pursue SW1Y 5AH, or see: www.cbrl.org.uk research into specific projects relevant to the /funding_opportunities.shtm. Queries regarding Kuwait Programme. Applications are invited the next deadlines should be addressed to from Gulf States nationals who are post- [email protected] doctoral fellows and above or practitioners engaged in relevant short-000000 and long- term research projects. Successful candidates will have access to research facilities at the

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LSE, will receive a return flight to London, MBI Al Jaber Foundation accommodation near the LSE and assistance The Foundation has a long-standing scholarship with daily expenses, and be expected to programme, and is currently offering the participate in the Kuwait Programme. following scholarship programmes: For more details, see http://www.lse.ac.uk Postgraduate Scholarships for Masters’ /collections/LSEKP/jobs.htm. Degrees in the UK, open to Yemeni nationals. Undergraduate Scholarships for the Leigh Douglas Memorial Fund Bachelors in Business Administration (Tourism The fund was established with donations from and Hospitality Management) at MODUL Leigh Douglas’s family and friends to support University, Vienna. This scholarship pro- continued scholarship on the Middle East. It is gramme is open to all Arab residents of the a charity, and has distributed more than Middle East and North Africa. £18,000 since 1990 to assist scholars and You are eligible to apply if you can experts pursuing research, mostly on Yemen, in demonstrate financial need; if you intend to fields as varied as archaeology, social return to your country of residence and anthropology, folk tales, history, geography, contribute to its future development; if you linguistics, public health, and marine have applied for, and already been accepted archaeology. Small grants have enabled onto a post-graduate Master’s degree scholars to travel, conduct field research or programme at one of our partner institutions. attend conferences, which otherwise would not Email [email protected] or see have been possible. Grants include: www.mbifoundation.com/scholarships. The Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize. This is awarded annually to the writer of the best PhD Palestine Exploration Fund dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic in the The PEF awards small grants to students and Social Sciences or Humanities. The current others pursuing research into topics relevant to value of the prize is £500. Anyone wishing to its general aims. The deadline is 31 January submit his/her dissertation for consideration each year. Please address applications to Grants should send a copy, together with an Manager, Palestine Exploration Fund, 2 Hinde accompanying letter or recommendation from Mews, Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2AA. their supervisor to Professor Charles Tripp, Enquiries can be addressed to the Executive S.O.A.S., Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, Secretary, Felicity Cobbing. Email ExecSec London, WC1X 0XG, U.K. @PEF.org.uk. The deadline for submission of entries for Further details and application forms can be the 2009 award was 31 January 2010. found at http://www.pef.org.uk/grants/ Grants for Yemeni Studies. Each year the applicationsforgrants. Leigh Douglas Memorial Fund offers two or three small grants (in the region of £300) to Royal Asiatic Society assist scholars of any nationality whose The Society offers several prizes for research involves the study of Yemeni history, outstanding research in Asian studies, including culture, economics, politics or society. the Professor Mary Boyce Prize for an article Applications should include a brief curriculum relating to the study of religion in Asia, and the vitae, an outline of the relevant research project Sir George Staunton Prize for an article by a and a letter of reference. There are two annual young scholar, both for articles submitted to the deadlines for applications: 1 November and 1 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. May. Further enquiries and applications should The Society moreover welcomes be sent by post to Dr Venetia Porter, Fellowship applications from anyone with a Department of the Middle East, The British serious interest in Asian studies. For more Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B information contact Alison Ohta, Curator, 3DG, United Kingdom. Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Way, Email [email protected]. London W1 2HD. Tel: +44 (0)20 7388 4539. For further information on Leigh Douglas Email [email protected] and the Fund’s work see www.al-bab.com See also www.royalasiaticsociety.org. /bys/articles/douglas06.htm.

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Sir William Luce Fellowship www.soas.ac.uk/soasnet/adminservices/registry The Fellowship is awarded annually to a /scholarships or contact The Scholarships scholar working on those parts of the Middle Officer, Registry, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, East to which Sir William Luce devoted his Russell Square, London, WC1H 0XG, UK. Tel: working life (chiefly Sudan and Arabia) and is + 44 (0)20 7074 5094/5091. Email: hosted by Durham University for a period of [email protected] three months from the beginning of May. The Fellowship, tenable jointly in the Institute for Thesiger-Oman Fellowships Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies and The Royal Geographical Society offers two Trevelyan College, will entitle the holder to full annual fellowships of up to £8,000 for access to departmental and other University geographical research in the arid regions of the facilities. The Fellow is expected to deliver The world, as a memorial to Sir Wilfred Thesiger. Sir William Luce Lecture, which will form the The annual fellowships reflect Thesiger’s basis of a paper to be published in the Durham interest in the peoples and environments of the Middle East Papers series. desert. One fellowship will focus on the For further information see www.dur.ac.uk/ physical aspects and the other on the human sgia/imeis/lucefund. Contact Mrs Jane Hogan, dimension of arid environments. Honorary Secretary, Sir William Luce The fellowship funds two researchers with Memorial fund, Durham University Library, outstanding research proposals including Palace Green, Durham DH1 3RN, UK. Tel. periods of arid environment fieldwork. To +44 (0)191 334 1218. Email reflect Thesiger’s interests, research within the [email protected] Middle East and other arid regions he visited will be given priority, but applications for work SOAS Scholarships and Studentships in the world’s other arid regions is also The School of Oriental and African Studies, welcomed. University of London, offers numerous For more information see www.rgs.org scholarship schemes with relevance to Arabian /OurWork/Grants/Research/Thesiger- studies. For further information see Oman+Fellowships.htm.

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS 2009–10

Freie Universität, Berlin) discussed “Religious COMPLETED CONFERENCES and secular education in pre-Islamic al-Hira: Multiculturalism in Late Antique Iraq” in her Christianity in Iraq VI Seminar Day paper. The final paper by Dr Dan King (Cardiff The Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre at SOAS in University, Wales), “Without Aristotle there is London was the venue for the Christianity in no understanding of the scriptures: The nature Iraq VI Seminar Day held on 25 April 2009. and purpose of higher education in Syriac in The role of Christian education in Iraq was Late Antiquity”, probed the impact of explored in both its historical (Late Antique – Aristotelian philosophy upon Christian Abbassid) and modern contexts. The day was exegesis. held under the aegis of the Centre for Eastern The afternoon session focused on education and Orthodox Christianity, Dept. for the Study in Iraq during the 20th and 21st centuries. All of Religions, SOAS where Dr Erica C.D. papers and contributions came from various Hunter is Lecturer in Eastern Christianity. Prof. denominations within the Iraqi community. Dr. Adam Becker’s (New York University) paper, Joe Seferta’s paper, “A survey of education in “Christian institutions of learning in Late Iraq: from 1970 to the present: challenge and Antique and Early Islamic Iraq”, focused on the change”, provided an excellent coverage of the differences between the classical and Christian educational system in Iraq following the institutions of learning. The rivalry between the Ba’athist nationalising of schools in 1974. institutions of Ctesiphon and Nisibis, as Robin Bet Shmuel, “The role of Iraqi Assyrian depicted in the Chronicle of Seert, which was th schools in promoting the national identity”, written in Arabic in the 10 century, was the highlighted the Assyrian contribution. Dr Suha subject of the talk by Dr Philip Wood (Oxford Rassam showed a video of the activities of Iraq and SOAS). Moving to southern Mesopotamia, Christians in need, a charity whose Dr Isabel Toral-Niedhoff (Arabistik Seminar,

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programmes include computer lessons and Western art and culture (including Orientalist English instruction. art) and contemporary art-making and collecting. We are keen to obtain proposals The use of herbs in Yemeni healing which cover the whole chronological span from practices: An interdisciplinary workshop on the pre-Islamic to the very contemporary, thus traditional knowledge and cultural concepts encouraging scholarship to range more widely in scientific perspective than the 19th century, the heyday of Western This conference was held during 25–26 Orientalism. September 2009 at the Centre for This is a deliberately broad call for papers Interdisciplinary Area Studies – Middle East, with the intention of identifying the key areas Africa, Asia, Martin Luther University Halle- of current scholarship and opening them to a Wittenberg, Germany. broader Western audience. The session will See the report above under YEMEN, pp. both assess the state of this scholarship and 34–6, for a list of the papers given. identify priorities for new avenues of research in what is emerging as a vibrant field. The 2009 Seminar for Arabian Studies Session Organizer: Christine Riding, Tate The seminar was held at the British Museum in Britain, [email protected].; for more London 23–25 July 2009. Numerous members general information about the conference and of the Society for Arabian Studies presented the AAH, see www.aah.org.uk. their work or chaired sessions. The programme from the seminar is available online: Christianity in Iraq VII Seminar Day http://www.arabianseminar.org.uk/seminar2009 24 April 2010, Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, .html. SOAS

The Christianity in Iraq VII Seminar Day will UPCOMING CONFERENCES 2010 take place on Saturday 24 April at the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS, 10am–5pm. The 36th Association of Art Historians The theme will be the liturgical heritage of the Annual Conference: New Perspectives on the Iraqi Churches. Speakers include Dr Sebastian Art of the Middle East: From Ancient Brock (Oxford), Father Baby Varghese (Kerala, History to the Contemporary India), Mr Steven Ring (independent scholar, 15–17 April 2010, University of Glasgow UK). Tala Jarjour (Cambridge) will discuss the Since the publication of Edward Said’s musical traditions of the West Syrian Orientalism in 1978, a substantial literature has churches. Tickets (which include lunch, grown up taking as its critical object western morning and afternoon tea/coffee) are £30 (£24 perspectives on “the East”. This session seeks for members of the British Institute for the to widen this focus and venture beyond Study of Iraq and for Members of the Society “western Orientalism” to a more representative for Arabian Studies). understanding of the visual culture of the Middle East. The 21st Century Gulf: the Challenge of There is a strong scholarly literature on the Identity art of the Middle East, generated by Middle 30 June–3 July 2010, Exeter University Eastern scholars over the last few decades, The annual Gulf conference at the Institute of which is relatively unknown in the West. There Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, is important work on the art of the Ottoman will examine the multifarious challenges of Empire, contemporary art and visual culture, “identity” at all levels – political, economic, socio- and the art of the Holy Qur’an; while the cultural, and international – as the GCC states, Iran, question of Middle Eastern appropriation of Iraq and Yemen undergo paradigm-shifting but Orientalist discourse, Ottoman Orientalism or highly contrasting changes. Papers and alternative contemporary collecting is a live issue of panel proposals are invited. Abstracts or panel debate. proposals with abstracts must be received by 1 March 2010 (full papers are also accepted as a basis Proposals are encouraged on any aspect of for selection). For information, or to submit an historical and contemporary art of the Middle abstract/paper by electronic means only (in Word East from perspectives originating from the format, 1.5-spaced, 12-point, with footnotes and region itself. These may include, but are not bibliography), contact Prof. Gerd Nonneman (Al- limited to, the reception and consumption of

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Qasimi Chair of Gulf Studies): Government of Catalonia will organize the [email protected]. WOCMES Barcelona 2010, after the two successful previous events held in Mainz, The 2010 Gulf Research Meeting Germany in 2002 and in Amman, Jordan in 7–10 July 2010, Robinson College, University 2006. http://wocmes.iemed.org/. of Cambridge The first annual conference of the Gulf The 2010 Seminar for Arabian Studies Research Foundation at the University of 22–24 July 2010, The British Museum Cambridge seeks to provide an academic The Steering Committee is delighted to environment to foster Gulf studies and to acknowledge the continued support and promote scholarly and academic exchange generosity of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation and among scholars working and/or having the British Museum. familiarity with the Gulf region: Kuwait, Saudi http://www.arabianseminar.org.uk/ Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq. The Red Sea V: Navigated spaces, connected Gulf Research Meeting aims to identify issues places of importance to the Gulf region and provide a The Fifth International Conference on the basis for academic and empirical research into Peoples of the Red Sea region those fields. Particular emphasis is given to 16–19 September 2010, Institute of Arab & encourage young scholars to engage in the Islamic Studies, University of Exeter debate and take part in research collaboration. Celebrating ten years of Red Sea scholarship For details, see http://grcevent.net/cambridge The MARES Project at the Institute of Arab & /index.php. Islamic Studies (IAIS), University of Exeter, is

delighted to host the tenth anniversary The Sixth Islamic Manuscript Conference: conference of the Red Sea Project series, Central Asian Islamic Manuscripts & founded by the Society for Arabian Studies. Manuscript Collections The conference will be held in the beautiful 8–10 July 2010, Queen’s College, University of surroundings of the IAIS and city of Exeter, Cambridge and will coincide with a Dhow Exhibition to be The Islamic Manuscript Association is pleased held at the Institute. to announce that the Sixth Islamic Manuscript Interested scholars are invited to submit Conference will be held at Queen’s College, abstracts of up to 500 words to the Organising University of Cambridge, 8–10 July 2010. The Committee on the archaeology, anthropology, Conference will be hosted by the Thesaurus ethnography, history and language of the Islamicus Foundation, the Cambridge Central peoples of the Red Sea region from the earliest Asia Forum, and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal times to the present day. The organisers Centre of Islamic Studies, University of particularly encourage papers addressing Cambridge. The theme of the Conference will movement, navigation and land/seascape on the be Central Asian Islamic manuscripts and Red Sea, including maritime networks, manuscript collection. seafaring, navigation and ports; boatbuilding http://www.islamicmanuscript.org/conferences/ traditions and technologies; trade and material 2010conference/SixthIslamicManuscriptConfer contact across the sea; sacred space and ence.html. pilgrimage and identity among maritime

communities; however, submissions reflecting World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies other aspects of humanities research in the 19–24 July 2010, Barcelona region are welcome. Proposals for themed Over 2,000 researchers and experts on the panels of four papers are also welcome. Middle East, coming from a large number of Abstracts for individual papers should be universities, research centres and other 250-500 words in length. Proposals for themed organizations from all over the world, will panels should comprise four individual gather in Barcelona in 2010 at the World abstracts plus a panel proposal of 300 words. Congress for Middle Eastern Studies All abstracts and proposals should be sent to (WOCMES). The European Institute of the [email protected] or the following postal Mediterranean (IEMed), the Universitat address: Red Sea V Committee, The MARES Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Project, Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies,

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University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, 2010 Annual Meeting of the American EX4 4ND, United Kingdom Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Please note the extended deadline for 17–20 November 2010, Atlanta, GA submission: 15 May 2010. The annual meeting is ASOR’s and its The organising committee comprises affiliated research centres’ focal event of the Professor Dionisius Agius, Dr John Cooper, Dr year. Approximately 750 scholars, students, Chiara Zazzaro, Julian Jansen van Rensburg, and interested members of the public will come Lucy Semaan and Ms Beata Faracik (general together for three intensive days of academic support). lectures, poster presentations, business For futher information about the conference meetings, evening receptions, and general please go to the MARES Project website: conversation. For more information, see http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/mares/conferences.h http://www.asor.org/am/index.html. tm or write to us on [email protected].

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BOOK REVIEWS Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia and on the modern vernaculars has shown that M. C. A. Macdonald the gap between these two is wider than was Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2009. Variorum originally assumed, and that the modern Collected Studies Series, CS906. 432 pp. Hard- languages Mehri, Jibbali, and Soqotri are not back. 21 b/w illustrations; 6 maps. Notes, Bibl- direct descendants of the languages of the iography. £75.00. ISBN: 978-0-7546-5965-5 inscriptions, Sabaic, Minaic/Madhabic, In the mid-19th century it became clear to the Qatabanic and Hadramitic. The ancestors of the learned world of orientalism that there existed former are not documented and the latter died hitherto unknown languages in South Arabia. out without leaving any progeny. Some were spoken along the coast of Dhufar As for “North Arabic”, it too is a most and on the island of Soqotra. Others were variegated collection of dialects and/or documented by a large number of inscriptions languages. The complex encompasses not only written in an alphabet related to the one used in the “Classical” Arabic literary language but Ethiopia, originating in pre-Islamic times. also the bewildering mass of modern spoken Since these languages were found in Arabia dialects in the entire Arab world, and a they were labelled “Arabian”, or even considerable corpus of inscriptions from pre- “Arabic”. In this, scholars in fact were Islamic times. Even if most of the “North following a venerable tradition, going back to Arabic” inscriptions are much shorter and not the ancient Greeks, to whom Arabia was as informative on history, religion and social originally the area between Palestine, Sinai and structures as the South Arabian ones, their the Nile Delta. When they discovered the number is very great and there is no lack of existence of the immense peninsula south-east material for the languages of central and of this area during the campaigns of Alexander northern Arabia before the rise of Islam. the Great, they extended the designation and The historical relationship between all the called the new continent “Arabia” and its varieties of “North Arabic” has been the subject inhabitants “Arabs” (árabes, arábioi). of prolonged and heated discussion among The languages discovered in South Arabia scholars. The debate has evolved chiefly during the 19th century were designated South around the connection between “Classical” Arabian or even South Arabic, since the general Arabic and the modern spoken forms. For a view was that they were some kind of Arabic. It long time the general opinion has been that (to soon became evident, however, that these simplify the argumentation somewhat) the languages, despite many similarities to classical latter are developments from and more or less Arabic, still differed from it in many respects. direct descendants of the former, the bone of The result was that the “Arabic” language was contention being the precise time at which the divided into two branches, North Arabic and dialects began to develop: before or after the South Arabic. rise of Islam. The documentation of phenomena The view reflected by this terminology was found in the modern vernaculars appears very common opinion for more than a century. early on in Arabic documents, at least from the During the 20th, however, it became second half of the 7th century. increasingly obvious that “South Arabic” was a In many of the basic textbooks on the group of languages independent of “North history of Arabic it is stated that the Arabic”, in fact a branch on its own among the language(s) documented in the pre-Islamic Semitic languages. Unfortunately, no other inscriptions from central and northern Arabia is acceptable term for these languages has been a pre-stage of “Classical” Arabic. In an found so far and South Arabian is still with us, authoritative statement such as the article although North Arabic nowadays is used “‘Arabiyya” in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, mostly without the geographical epithet. We New Edition (1960), the early development of thus have two major linguistic complexes on Arabic is divided into “Old Arabic” (or Proto- the peninsula: Arabic and South Arabian. Arabic), represented by the inscriptions from The South Arabian group has long since ca. 700 BCE to 300 CE, and “Early Arabic” turned out to be more multifarious than was from the period 300 to 600 CE, represented by a originally supposed. Modern research on the few inscriptions and the information given by language of the epigraphic pre-Islamic texts the early Arab grammarians. As late as 1982, a

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great authority like W. W. Müller, professor of millennium BCE, the only area in the world Semitic languages in Marburg, could write in where it is still in use. They are the Safaitic, a his seminal contribution to the Grundriss der vast corpus of texts (ca. 20,000) mainly from arabischen Philologie (Wiesbaden 1982), “Das southern Syria and northern Jordan, dated to Frühnordarabische” (vol. 1, pp. 17–29), that between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd there is no doubt that the language of the century CE; the Lihyanite, found in a much inscriptions “eine Vorstufe des Altarabischen more limited area, viz. the oasis of al-‘Ula bildet” (“is a pre-stage of Early Arabic”). In the north of Medina, dated to between the 4th latest standard work on the history of Arabic, century BC and the 1st century CE; the Hasaitic, The Arabic Language by K. Versteegh a small number of texts from eastern Arabia, rd (Edinburgh 1997), it is evident that the perhaps datable to the 3 –1st centuries BCE; epigraphically documented languages of central and, finally, the “Thamudic” inscriptions, and northern Arabia are still considered to be which are found all over northern, north- the earliest documented stage of Arabic proper western and central Arabia, and which were (cf. pp. 26, 30). Finally, in the most recent divided into five subgroups – Thamudic A, B, survey of Arabic studies, E. A. Knauf still C, D and E – and dated to between the 6th alleges that Old Arabic (by which he means century BCE and the 3rd century CE. “Early Arabic” above) is the successor of The two other groups are written in the “Ancient Arabic”, i.e. the languages of the North Semitic script, viz. the Aramaic variant. epigraphic texts (E. A. Knauf, “Thamudic”, in The largest one is the Nabataean corpus, a Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and considerable number of texts datable to Linguistics, vol. IV (2008), pp. 477–83). between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd The volume under review presents a century CE, most of them coming from Mada’in collection of nine articles by Michael Salih just north of al-‘Ula in the Hijaz and the Macdonald, of Wolfson College and The Sinai peninsula. Astonishingly few are found in Oriental Institute, Oxford, which together Petra in Jordan, the ancient capital of the constitute a major revision of the earlier views, Nabataean kingdom. Finally, there is a handful in presenting a new picture of linguistic of texts from the last two centuries before Islam conditions in pre-Islamic Arabia. Macdonald is and found in Syria, which use a developed form perhaps the world’s leading expert on the of Nabataean writing which is on its way to epigraphic documents from this period and the become the classical Arabic script. articles, published between 1991 and 2005 in There are also texts which earlier scholars various journals and congress volumes, were unable to fit into the main divisions – or document his revision of the earlier views on did not realize that they did not fit in. This the subject. One should mention here the main holds especially for some texts from locations summary of his findings, the article “Ancient in north-western Arabia like Tayma, Dedan North Arabian” in The Cambridge (between al-‘Ula and Mada’in Salih) and a few Encyclopaedia of the World’s Ancient others. Languages (ed. R. Woodard, Cambridge 2004, Even if Macdonald’s main field is pp. 488–533), which is not included in this epigraphy, the articles in the volume also deal Variorum collection, and which summarizes with other questions relevant to the Macdonald’s views on the linguistic situation, understanding of the inscriptions. A central giving thorough descriptions of the languages issue, thoroughly discussed by Macdonald, is in documented in the inscriptions. Article no. III fact the relationship between script, language in these Variorum Collected Studies, and ethnicity, which could be seen as the main “Reflexions on the linguistic map of pre- theme of this volume. This makes it relevant Islamic Arabia”, is a condensed version of this for people who are not professional Semitic larger article. epigraphers. This problem is, in fact, crucial for The epigraphic documents from central and anyone working with ancient (and perhaps even northern Arabia have traditionally been modern) history. According to Macdonald most classified into at least six groups. Four of these scholars who have worked in the field of pre- are made up of inscriptions in the South Islamic epigraphy have failed to draw a clear Semitic script, i.e. the same writing system as distinction between these three concepts, employed by the kingdoms in South Arabia and sometimes with disastrous consequences not introduced into Ethiopia during the 1st

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only for linguistic history, but for the history of The ANA languages have h- or no article at all. pre-Islamic Arabia in general. Both Arabic and ANA thus use a prefixed Macdonald’s work thus contains two main definite article whereas Ancient South Arabian strata: one dealing with the purely linguistic uses a suffix (-n or -hn). Another important and epigraphic issues, and another with the isogloss is the verbs from roots where the last relationship between the three concepts just consonant is a -y. In the third person singular mentioned. As far as the linguistic issues are masculine, ANA like Ancient South Arabian concerned, Macdonald, in article no. III, keeps the consonant, thus BNY, most likely “Reflexions on the linguistic map of pre- pronounced banaya as in Ethiopic, “he built”, Islamic Arabia” (2000), suggests a new whereas Arabic instead has a long -a: ban!. It classification of the inscriptions and languages cannot be denied that the picture we have of the of pre-Islamic Arabia that differs from the ANA-languages is rather sketchy, since the earlier scheme. The material from the northern texts are short and formulaic, which means that oases like Duma, Tayma and Dedan is grouped many grammatical features in the languages do together under the label “Oasis North Arabian” not show up in the texts. To this may be added (ONA). The texts from al-‘Ula, earlier divided the absence of vowels in the writing. The South into Dedanitic and Lihyanic, according to Semitic script, like the North Semitic one, Macdonald should be seen as more or less contains only consonantal signs. Despite this, identical. The term Lihyanic is abandoned and these isoglosses are sufficiently basic and Macdonald uses the term Dadanitic. To the interesting to serve as criteria for classifying ONA-group also belong the so-called the material. Chaldaean inscriptions from southern The characteristic differences just Mesopotamia dated to the 7th century BCE. The mentioned enable us, according to Macdonald, ONA complex would thus basically comprise to distinguish the earliest testimonies of Arabic the earliest epigraphic texts from Arabia from the ANA languages on the peninsula. outside Yemen. Arabic in its earliest documented form, Old Another chief revision of the terminology Arabic in Macdonald’s terminology, would concerns Thamudic. This term, ultimately have existed in parallel with ANA, and thus derived from the name of an entity around al- one conclusion from Macdonald’s statements ‘Ula well documented from the 8th century BCE and analysis would be that (Old) Arabic is not a and onwards and also mentioned in the Qur’an, development from any of the documented ANA was used as a portmanteau term for at least five languages. This is also clearly stated in his different variants of the script. Macdonald and contribution to the Encyclopedia of Arabic his colleague Geraldine King have argued that Language and Linguistics, not included in this Thamudic E, represented by more than 5,000 Variorum collection (M. Macdonald, “Old specimens mostly from the Hisma area just Arabic”, EALL vol. III (2008), pp. 464–75). south of Jordan, should be called Hismaic (M. The traditional term for the ANA languages, Macdonald and G. King, “Thamudic”, in “Proto-Arabic”, should thus, according to Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, vol. X Macdonald, be discarded. (2000), pp. 436–8). Furthermore, Thamudic A, One remarkable fact is that Old Arabic has a group of texts from the region around Tayma, no writing system of its own. The South should be included in the ONA group. The Semitic script seems to have been employed remaining three groups should perhaps also primarily for the ANA languages. According to receive other designations, since their Macdonald, there are only two inscriptions in connection with the historical Thamud are South Semitic script which are pure Old uncertain or non-existent. Arabic: the ’GL BN HF’M text from Qaryat al- According to Macdonald, these documents Faw in Central Arabia written with Sabaic represent a large complex of closely related letters, and the “Lihyanitic”, i.e. ONA languages written in different varieties of the Dadanitic, inscription JS Lih 384. To these are South Semitic script. His cover term for these added five inscriptions in Nabataean script languages is Ancient North Arabian, ANA, from Syria and one from the Negev. Old Arabic thus distinguishing it from Ancient South is, however, documented by a fairly large Arabian – and from Arabic proper. A main number of inscriptions belonging to the other dividing isogloss between ANA and Arabic is ANA scripts. The texts are in ANA languages the use of the definite article (a)l- in the latter. but contain elements from Old Arabic. Article

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no. III in this volume, “Reflexions on the vernacular is fragile, to say the least. This is linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia”, contains actually supported by evidence not discussed a very useful listing and analysis of these texts. by Macdonald, viz. the information about This is an article which from now on should be “Arabic” in the Rabbinic literature. It turns out obligatory reading for students of Arabic, that most of the ca. 40 words labelled Arabic giving as it does a most useful perspective on by the Jewish rabbis in the 1st to the 6th the emergence of this language. century CE do not appear in later Arabic The remaining articles are, to a large extent, dictionaries. Instead they give the impression of Macdonald’s discussion with and criticism of a language standing somewhere between other scholars. These articles are undeniably Aramaic and Arabic. Interestingly, Macdonald polemical despite the author’s consistently points out in his article on Nomads and the gentlemanly tone, even when his critique is Hawran (no. II) that the language in his Safaitic devastating. In article no. II, “Nomads and the inscriptions points in a similar direction. Hawran in the late Hellenistic and Roman Article no. V, “Arabians, Arabias, and the periods” (2005), the concept of Safaitic tribes Greeks: contacts and perceptions” (2001), is a constituting some kind of ethnic unit is survey of the word “Arab” and its derivations completely discarded. The study of Safaitic in the ancient Greek sources. The survey is texts is Macdonald’s speciality and his useful but does not take the problems of the arguments must be regarded as decisive. The sources into account. Using the literary sources term Safaitic has been imposed on the material in general, and especially the Greek and Latin by modern scholars, but nothing in the texts ones, demands thorough sifting of the evidence themselves indicates that it corresponds to any and taking source criticism into account. This ethnic unity. An amusing paradox results: there was actually attempted by the present writer (J. are no “Safaitic” texts found in the region Retsö: The Arabs in Antiquity: their history south-east of Damascus named as-Safa! from the Assyrians to the Umayyads, London This kind of argument has already been 2003) with results quite divergent from presented in the article entitled “Some previous opinion. reflections on epigraphy and ethnicity in the Article VI, “ ‘Les arabes en Syrie’ or ‘La Roman Near East” (1998), no. IV in the pénetration des arabes en Syrie’” (2003), collection. Macdonald issues a warning against discusses two classic works by R. Dussaud ethnic concepts. “Ethnicity is how one with these titles, the first published in 1907 and perceives oneself and how one is perceived by the other in 1955. Macdonald displays great others”, thus not a self-evident objective fact. reverence for his older colleague but his polite One might add here that ethnicity is also how criticism of Dussaud’s basic concepts is again modern scholars perceive the peoples in devastating and, needless to say, correct. He question and that this perception tends to be shows clearly that Dussaud, like so many of his taken as objective fact. This latter method predecessors as well as almost all his creates what Macdonald calls “ghost- successors, neither had any clear concept of communities” in history, a rather appropriate what Arabs might have been, nor at the same term. Our history books are full of such time was at all conscious that there was a “peoples” who have never existed. A warning problem, an attitude which has been shared by is also issued against taking the concept of most of his successors. Macdonald deconstructs Nabataeans as unproblematic: Nabataean = a Dussaud’s whole synthesis, which now should people = a kind of pottery = a kind of script = a be considered completely and definitively state = Arabic-speakers. This chain of concepts, superseded. Sadly, Macdonald remains a which is fundamental to almost everything nihilist to the end, concluding that we can know written about the “Nabataeans”, falls apart on nothing about what the word “Arab” stood for closer inspection. The connection between in antiquity. He claims that the literary sources them is far from self-evident and in some cases we have, all written by non-“Arabs”, use the demonstrably wrong. Macdonald provides a term as a designation for all kinds of people. A most interesting correction of the common writer like Josephus is said to use the terms opinion that the “Nabataeans” in fact spoke Nabataean and Arab indiscriminately, which Arabic. Some form of Arabic may have been a means that we cannot extract any information status language in certain circles but the about the precise meaning of either. This evidence adduced for Arabic being the main reviewer is of another opinion on this issue. It

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may be the case that Josephus himself made no a small Roman temple in the northern Hijaz. It distinction between Arabs and Nabataeans, but mentions in the Nabataean version the ShRKT his sources did! The same holds true for other of Thamud, in parallel with the éthnos of the principal sources like Diodorus and Strabo. It Thamoudenoi in the Greek text. Macdonald can be convincingly shown that their sources argues that the Greek word stands for military were not indiscriminate in their reports. From units in the Roman army which were drafted them it is possible to arrive at a new picture. from ethnically defined entities, in this case the One must, however, agree wholeheartedly with Thamud. ShRKT in the Nabataean version of Macdonald’s critique of the basic concepts used the inscription thus has nothing to do with a by scholars in dealing with these questions. “federation of Thamudic tribes” which has been With Macdonald now having done the basic a popular interpretation, originally launched by tidying up, we can start thinking in fresh terms, J. Milik. Macdonald shows that there is no liberated from antiquated concepts of “peoples” evidence at all for the existence of a Thamudic ultimately founded on European nationalist confederation even if an entity named Thamud thinking in the Romantic period. is well documented. The word ShRKT Article VII, “Was the Nabataean kingdom a probably means “ally”, “partner” or the like, a ‘bedouin state’?” (1991), is a critical meaning which accords well with the meaning assessment of the concepts of W. Dostal and E. of ShRK in Qur’anic, not to mention modern, A. Knauf on the structure of the entity which Arabic. should be called the Arabo-Nabataean Article IX, “Trade routes and trade goods at kingdom. According to this view, the the northern end of the ‘incense road’ in the Nabataeans were basically “bedouin Arabs” first millennium BC” (1997), discusses the whose military power was founded to a large picture in the sources of the trade routes extent on their ability to handle the camel in through western Arabia. There were clearly two battle. According to Macdonald the evidence main routes branching off from Yathrib, for this is non-existent. Again, he is correct present-day Medina: one to Syria via Dedan (= here. The camel was used as a means of al-‘Ula) and Tabuk, and another to Mesopo- transporting warriors to battle, i.e. a pack tamia via Tayma and Duma (= Dumat al- animal, but was (and is) unusable in fighting. Jandal). From Duma, one route led to The Nabataeans were basically farmers and Babylonia, another through Wadi Sirhan to tribesmen, not bedouin. In general, bedouin- southern Syria. This is reflected in the Old romanticism has played a disastrous role in the Testament, where in the genealogy of Cush and study of Middle Eastern history, and all Qeturah Sheba and Dedan are brothers (Genesis adjustments to reality, such as this one, are 10:6–7, 25:1–4), indicating the crucial role of welcome. Dedan for the connections between Pale- In article VIII, “On Saracens, the Rawwafa stine/Syria and South Arabia. In Assyrian texts, inscription and the Roman army” (1995), though, Saba is connected with Duma. Accord- Macdonald tackles the old problem of the ing to Macdonald (and several other scholars) meaning of the term “Saracen” and also the this reflects the tight commercial links between meaning of the word ShRKT in the inscription the Fertile Crescent and South Arabia, which, on the small temple at Rawwafa in north- of course, is also attested to by the story of the western Saudi Arabia. As regards “Saracen”, Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. It is worth Macdonald opts for an etymology with the mentioning, however, that not everybody is Arabic ShRQ, “east”, which actually has been convinced about all the details here. Macdonald suggested before. But he adduces additional has to admit the curious fact that among all the evidence from his Safaitic material, where a goods mentioned as being transported along derivation of this root seems to mean “go into these routes, not one is typical of South Arabia. the desert” regardless of cardinal point. Saracen The most characteristic export from that area, would thus mean “desert-dweller” or the like. frankincense, is mostly absent. This has led This reviewer is not quite convinced although some scholars to suppose that Sheba /Saba in one must agree with Macdonald’s rejection of the sources refers not to the South Arabian other suggestions by various scholars, all of kingdom but to some other entity in the central them improbable. More interesting is the or northern Hijaz. Macdonald does not discuss discussion of the Rawwafa inscription. This is a this, since he does not share this view, but the bilingual inscription, Greek and Nabataean, on problem exists and deserves a comment.

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Finally, the first article in this collection, The Evolution of Human Populations in “Literacy in an oral environment” (2005), Arabia: Palaeoenvironments, Prehistory and discusses the function of writing in societies Genetics where oral transmission is still paramount. This Michael Petraglia and Jeffrey Rose (eds.) is perhaps the most original contribution in the Heidelberg: Springer, 2009. xii + 312 pp. volume. The fundamental conclusion, drawn Hardback. 129 b/w photographs, drawings and from comparisons between various different tables. Notes, References and Index. #94.95. societies – Sweden in the 17th–18th centuries, ISBN: 978-90-481-2718-4 medieval Scotland, the Vai people in Liberia, The archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula, and the Tuareg – is that writing may be quite formerly poorly explored with just travellers’ widely spread in societies where the basic reports noting the presents of surface artifacts, functions still are linked to orality. Writing is has become of considerable interest in recent often used as a toy or as a prompt for memory. years. General survey work in the 1970s and For Macdonald this is, of course, relevant for 1980s developed the travel accounts into his own field, pre-Islamic Arabia with its accurate records, providing tantalizing evidence immense corpus of inscriptions produced of human activity in the Peninsula during the despite their primarily oral cultural context. Pleistocene and Early Holocene. New The use of writing as a support for memorizing palaeoclimatic evidence has indicated that it and aiding the oral performance of texts of experienced considerable climatic change in the varying degrees of comprehensibility is applied past, rendering a number of areas considerably inter alia to one of the most discussed texts in more favourable to human occupation than Arabic, the fragment of Psalm 78 found a previously thought. Finally, recent genetic century ago in the great mosque of Damascus. studies concerning the likely timing of This text, a Biblical psalm in Greek translated hominins from Africa, and especially of into an Arabic vernacular transcribed with anatomically modern human populations, and Greek letters, is usually dated to the 7th or 8th dates for their colonization of southern Asia century. Macdonald launches the bold thesis and Australasia, have raised the possibility that that this text is, in fact, pre-Islamic, perhaps the Arabian Peninsula offered a potential route from before 500 CE. His arguments are far from out of Africa across the Bab al-Mandab at the wayward but the thesis remains controversial. southern end of the Red Sea for a rapid Were it to prove true, it would force most movement of hominins perhaps 70,000 years Arabists into a thorough reappraisal of the ago, in addition to the more regularly cited picture usually given of the history of Arabic. northerly route into the Levant. As a result, It may have appeared from this article that there has been a dramatic expansion of the reviewer agrees with most of Macdonald’s archaeological interest in the Peninsula, such basic conclusions. Naturally, there are details that a detailed synthesis and examination of this with which one might take issue. But on the evidence is now required if we are to address whole this volume is a most valuable example the central questions about hominin of the kind of scholarship that generates far- movements. This volume provides just such a reaching revisions of hitherto commonly synthesis. accepted views. As a collection of work by an Although many of the papers originate from active scholar, it affords even the layman a special session organized by Petraglia and fascinating insights into how scholarship Rose at the Arabian Seminar in 2007, which works. Even if the content of some of the attempted to define the Palaeolithic of Arabia, articles may appear fairly technical at first this final published set expands significantly sight, a thorough reading pays off. Even the beyond that initial purpose to add significant more technical discussions are accessible to context to what is admittedly still a largely someone with only a basic knowledge of some Palaeolithic focus. In detail, there are four Semitic language. Macdonald is an accomp- thematic sections. “Quaternary environments lished communicator. Plenty of common sense and demographic response” has papers that combined with a thorough knowledge of a vast cover changing sea levels, coastal landscapes of corpus of data is what creates good scholarship. the Red Sea, a synthesis of the information The volume is a shining example of this. about the Pleistocene climate, and an Jan Retsö investigation of long-term population trends. “Genetics and migration” comprises a review

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of the Mt DNA structure of the contemporary periods of hyper-aridity, refugia remained Yemeni population; a discussion of the Mt along this Red Sea coast. Parker offers a first DNA evidence for a possible bottleneck synthesis of the available palaeoclimatic data, Pleistocene archaeology, and the Early exploring the complex oscillations between arid Holocene; and interestingly a comparative and pluvial conditions and the changing Indian paper on the DNA of baboon populations that Ocean Monsoon track as it moved into the we believe also moved into Arabia from Africa. southern part of the Peninsula. He shows nicely Papers devoted to the archaeology make up the that a simple oscillation between wet and dry latter two-thirds of the volume by size. A large periods is inadequate to understand the section explores the Palaeolithic evidence from palaeoenvironment of Arabia. Working back the Acheulean through to the “Upper from the recent historical period to the Palaeolithic”, and a smaller section looks at the Palaeolithic, Wilkinson explores our archaeology of the Early Holocene. These knowledge of south-western Arabian papers build significantly on summary papers populations. He identifies the highland areas as of the 1970s and 1980s archaeological survey a consistently attractive region for human evidence that have appeared elsewhere. They settlement, but also makes a strong case for include interim reports on new fieldwork from constant demographic pulses in response to all around the Peninsula, and detailed studies of wetter conditions along river valleys. previously excavated material. The quality of The papers on Palaeolithic archaeology the papers contained within the volume is very reveal the true potential for future work in high indeed. A number of them will be standard Arabia. Petraglia et al. re-analyse Whalen’s references for years to come on their particular archaeological sites from Dawadmi and the topic, whilst others start the discussion on key Wadi Fatimah, using comparative data on aspects of the archaeology of this area. Acheulean collections from East Africa and Overall, the editors must be commended for India. They show that there is real potential for the coherence of this volume. Even though it the study of tool manufacture and tool use has taken just two years to reach publication, it across landscapes in both these areas. Similar is more than a mere collection of papers; it “factory sites” are also described by Jagher in forms a coherent treatment of the archaeology, Oman. Scott-Jackson et al. provide a nice human populations and environments of the summary of their survey work in the UAE region. This coherence takes its lead from a (Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah), showing that succinct introduction by the editors that sets out the lithic assemblages here can be attributed the key questions that inform the papers inside, (technologically) to a period spanning the while an excellent discussion chapter by Lower to the Early Upper Palaeolithic. Anthony Marks, comparing the knowledge Crassard’s discussion of the Middle presented on Arabia to the much more Palaeolithic from Hadramawt includes a extensively studied Levantine record, locates detailed discussion of the nature of the the work superbly. Coherence is also apparent Levallois techniques in use. He argues for between papers, where numerous cross- technical similarities to Mousterian techniques citations show that individual contributors have observed in the Levant, but not to any in East had time to read and digest the work of fellow Africa. He also highlights the “absence” of any contributors. Upper Palaeolithic in southern Arabia. This is Looking at the contents in detail, the first taken up again by Rose and Usik with a report three synthetic papers on Quaternary on their work in central Oman. They present environments and the demographic response evidence from their excavations at Al-Hatab stand out. Bailey provides detailed maps, using rock shelter, Ras Ain Noor and Dhanaqr, of the available bathymetric data, which reveal Upper Palaeolithic assemblages as defined by that during glacial peaks the Red Sea, whilst the presence of laminar technologies. Whilst significantly reduced in size, would always there are similarities in blade production here to have remained open to the Indian Ocean; a sea the Levant, there are also a number of crossing was always necessary for the significantly original features. Moving “southern corridor” route out of Africa. forwards to the Early Holocene, Uerpmann et However, the reduced sea level almost certainly al. suggest that there is no continuity between revealed productive coastal environments Pleistocene and Early Holocene populations in attractive to hominin groups and, during south-eastern Arabia; sterile deposits separate

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the archaeological levels. By way of contrast, these papers highlight how much we have to and perhaps confirming the earlier paper by learn about this large region. For example, at Wilkinson, Fedele’s discussion of the times of climate change we need to think in archaeology of the Yemen highlands suggests terms of human and animal populations that such continuity may have been present. contracting into and expanding out of a number Finally, McCorriston and Martin describe their of refugia. Until we can understand the likely work on the appearance of domesticates and the population movements that this process caused, development of pastoral economies in the Wadi then the genetic data will be problematic. Sana. Domesticated animals are present by the Moreover, in order to make sense of the late 7th millennium BC, but there is no clear archaeological data we still have a long way to evidence that these domesticates were brought go in building up regional sequences and the in from the Levant. associated classificatory schemes that will Returning to the original research questions allow us to describe materials from this region posed by the editors about the timing, nature in their own terms and not by reference to other and direction of hominin expansion out of schemes at some significant distance away. Africa, and the character of hominin life within There is, however, an archaeological record of the Peninsula and its relationship to the wider sufficient quality to justify exploration and Near Eastern region, the sense that emerges analysis. from this volume is that such questions are still This volume provides an excellent statement not easy to answer on the basis of the current of our current state of knowledge of the evidence. For example, it certainly would have Pleistocene and Early Holocene occupation of been possible to cross the Bab al-Mandab from the Arabian Peninsula, whilst also setting the East Africa into Arabia at time of reduced sea scene for future research to address the new- level, so long as hominins possessed some form found archaeological complexity of this region. of water transport; and, furthermore, within the Anthony Sinclair Arabian Peninsula, both the Red Sea coastal margin and the Indian Ocean coastal area In the Shadow of the Ancestors: The provided suitable, possibly exceptional, Prehistoric Foundations of the Early environments in which to live. However, Arabian Civilization in Oman genetic evidence shows similarities between Serge Cleuziou and Maurizio Tosi eastern, and not western, Arabian populations Oman: Ministry of Information & Culture, and African populations; there is no clear trend 2007. 334 pp. 262 colour and 7 b/w photo- from west to east. The same counterintuitive graphs. 20 maps, 62 line drawings, 6 tables. pattern is also present in the archaeological Select Bibliography. No price. No ISBN (lithic) evidence, with archaeological material The Oman peninsula is blessed with an in south-east Arabia showing more similarity to enviable combination of some of the most that in East Africa. Yet there are some aesthetic, important and well-preserved similarities between the Levantine archaeology prehistoric archaeology in Arabia. The varied of the Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic and opportunities provided by the region’s that in the Red Sea and southern Arabian environments and resources, shaped by desert, coastal margins. Finally, the recognition of an mountain and sea, have supported complex Upper Palaeolithic remains highly problematic; societies which at times left the rest of Arabia blade technologies suggest its existence, but lagging behind. Omani archaeology may be a there is nothing that really looks clearly like relatively young discipline, having begun only what we find elsewhere at this time. As Marks half a century ago, but a sizable quantity of notes in his conclusion, the archaeological well-executed research has now been carried evidence presented in these papers is neither out. Despite this, the prehistory of the Oman what we might reasonably have expected in a Peninsula lacks a focused synthesis, the zone of transition between Africa, South Asia products of research being confined (where and the Near East, nor is it the same as we can published) to specific site reports and journal see elsewhere. articles. A general readership may find these Rather than presenting the Arabian sources dry and inaccessible, while the Peninsula as a difficult, and usually arid, place academic community’s failure to bring together in which to attempt to live, or as a southern the now extensive data from multiple sites is corridor from eastern Africa into South Asia, hindering a better understanding of wider

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society and long-term change. As a result, the in the world. The collapse of this “zenith” of prehistory of Oman remains undeservedly prehistoric civilization is considered in Chapter hidden from the eyes of the Arabian people and 9’s treatment of the Wadi Suq period, broadly the wider world of scholarship. the 2nd millennium BC. Chapter 10 completes It is this troubling failure which In the this chronological progression around the mid- Shadow of the Ancestors, produced with the 1st millennium with the end of the Iron Age, a support of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture period that many readers will be surprised to of the Sultanate of Oman, and aimed at find almost completely without the production academia and general readers alike, seeks to or use of objects of iron. address. The assembled cast is well-chosen for In Chapter 11, the authors wisely give a masterly treatment of this topic: the authors separate consideration to Dhofar, from the Serge Cleuziou and Maurizio Tosi have palaeolithic to the Iron Age. Geographically published widely on Arabian archaeology for segregated from northern Oman by extensive more than 30 years, with contributions from desert, the archaeology of this region is Margerethe and Hans-Peter Uerpmann, Sandro culturally distinct from it. Furthermore, from Salvatori, Herve Guy, Olivia Munoz, Sophie the 1st millennium BC Dhofar enjoyed Méry, Gerd Weisgerber, Tom Vosmer, Olivier international connections through its Blin, Anne Benoist and Oscar Nalesini further involvement in the frankincense trade. broadening the pool of specialized knowledge. The supplementary “windows” found at the The approach is broadly chronological. end of related chapters deal with, among other Divided into eleven chapters and eighteen things, 5th-millennium herding at Jebel al- “windows”, In the Shadow of the Ancestors Buhais (Margerethe and Hans-Peter covers Omani prehistory from the arrival of Uerpmann), the appearance of pottery in Oman Homo erectus until the late Iron Age, a period (Sophie Méry) and the production of copper of two million years. Wisely, modern from the Bronze to the Iron Age (Gerd geopolitical boundaries are not strictly Weisgerber). Particularly enjoyable is Tom respected, with complementary evidence drawn Vosmer’s reconstruction of an Early Bronze from the United Arab Emirates, and Age boat based on discoveries at Ra’s al-Jinz, occasionally from Saudi Arabia and the followed immediately by a discussion of the Yemen. Chapter 1 places the archaeological routes those mariners may have taken. discussion within a geographic context, On the whole In the Shadow of the focusing on the challenges and opportunities Ancestors is an attractive and well-produced offered by the variety of environments found volume. The text is large and clear, the pages within the Oman peninsula – namely the glossy and lavishly illustrated with diagrams, interaction between desert, mountains and sea. maps and colour plates. For the most part, the Chapters 2 and 3 reconstruct the lives and text seems to have made the transition from habitats of early man through a synthesis of French and Italian to English reasonably well. palaeoclimatic, palaeofaunal and artifactual The book is a breath of fresh air in bringing (lithic) evidence. In Chapter 4 the authors together, for the first time, much of the explore the social and economic changes lying evidence and ideas within it. In this respect, it behind the adoption of large-scale marine is good to see the inclusion of the authors’ own fishing, oasis cultivation, metal working and major work – the Joint Hadd Project – which new burial traditions in the 5th and 4th since 1985 has explored several sites in the millennia BC, a time they clearly consider as UAE and Oman. It is however the eighteen the key formative period for subsequent “windows” which are perhaps the book’s developments in Oman. In Chapters 5 to 8, the highlight; these bite-size chunks offer insights reader is taken through the consecutive Hafit into prehistoric life at a level of detail which and Umm an-Nar cultures of the 3rd contrasts appropriately with the more general millennium, with individual chapters focusing coverage of the main chapters. on their burials, agricultural economy, trading Yet there are problems with this volume that relationships and material culture. The will inevitably discourage much of its intended emphasis on this period reflects the region’s readership. The text is made inaccessible incorporation, at this time, within the system of through the absence of a detailed contents page, interaction between the Indus Valley and a problem exacerbated by the lack of sensible Mesopotamia, then the most complex societies chapter names. Titles like “The Great

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Transformation” and “A Greater Society Indo-Roman Trade: From Pots to Pepper Looms Under the Eyes of the Ancestors” have Roberta Tomber obviously been designed to entice readers, yet London: Duckworth, 2008. 216 pp. Paperback. in doing so obfuscate the chapter contents, 21 b/w illustrations. £12.99. ISBN: 978-0-7156 making it hard to be selective – a disadvantage 3696-1 when the greatest value of a book of this size Imagine the scenario. Emerging from a period and scope is often realized through dipping in of devastating internal conflict, the West’s and out. A more significant problem for the post-war economy booms as political stability student and scholar will be the lack of in-text takes hold and confidence returns to the referencing. While it was noted above that international trading system. Increasingly much of the book’s contents have been prosperous domestic consumers look to luxury discussed together for the first time, the goods in order to enjoy their new-found wealth absence of references makes it difficult to and project their social status. Asian nations follow the authors’ ideas through. The select discover that Western consumers have a bibliography is insufficient for this purpose. voracious appetite for their products, and are Furthermore, that the book ends without a willing to pay handsomely for them – although concluding chapter is more than a little it is unlikely that the poor workers receive disappointing. Not only is there a need for a anything like the prices these goods fetch in the summarizing overview of the vast period West. Before long, Western commentators are covered, but an opportunity to discuss general bemoaning the growing trade deficit with Asian themes has been missed, particularly the nations, and its effect on the home economy. changing human relationship with the While the above might be a description of environment and a long-term perspective on modern Europe’s economic relationship with cultural continuity and change. The ideas and Asia, it could equally apply, albeit on a smaller evidence are clouded not only by somewhat scale, to the early Roman Empire’s emergent deficient organization, but by a mire of flowery relationship with Asia, and with India in and inappropriately emotive language. As a particular. A disapproving Pliny says of the final point, as a government-sponsored eastern trade: “In no year does India absorb less publication the book lacks an ISBN and price, than fifty million sesterces of our empire’s which suggests that it has not benefited from a wealth, sending back merchandise to be sold publisher’s input and distribution network, so with us at a hundred times its prime cost.” that it will not be available through the Before Sir Mortimer Wheeler rubbed “a international book trade, and perhaps only sweaty forearm” across the dusty glass of a haphazardly in Gulf bookshops. display case in Pondicherry, India, in the Hence this weighty and glossy tome fits 1940s, revealing fragments of Graeco-Roman neither of its target markets very well, failing in amphorae, our knowledge of Rome’s trade this precisely because it is trying to do too relationship with India and other Indian Ocean much. To produce for the first time a synthetic nations had been limited to textual sources such volume appealing to both general reader and as Pliny’s Natural History and the almost- specialist alike is a difficult challenge, contemporary Periplus Maris Erythraei. Since particularly on a topic as broad as this. Perhaps then excavations, including those at Berenike then, with this in mind, In the Shadow of the and Myos Hormos in Egypt, Barygaza, Muziris Ancestors must be considered a positive and Arikamedu in India, Qana in Yemen, and contribution to Arabian studies. While Adulis in Eritrea, have introduced a plethora of imperfect in various respects, this wide-ranging archaeological data into our growing scholarly discussion of prehistoric Oman represents a understanding of Rome’s Indian Ocean step in the right direction academically, and a commercial relationships. recognition of the important prehistoric The declared objective of Roberta Tomber’s heritage of a rapidly developing state. book is to re-evaluate Indo-Roman trade in the Andrew C. Blair, Durham University light of this seven-decades’ worth of archaeological inquiry. The result is both an excellent synthesis of the story so far, and an insightful reappraisal of Rome’s place within the Indian Ocean economy. While Wheeler, an imperialist of his time, saw Rome as

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controlling this trade, and the Indian port of Tomber concludes by attempting a Arikamedu as a Roman colonial possession chronology of Roman involvement in Indian through which it was prosecuted, Tomber Ocean trade, charting its changing nature over reinterprets the contemporary Indian Ocean time. The division is broad – Early Roman trading scene – and the Roman empire’s place versus Late – but nevertheless instructive. In within it – as a multi-polar and multi-ethnic particular, the role of Christianity in providing network of maritime trading relationships. a unity among Indian Ocean trading comm.- “Rome” itself is unpacked as no monolith, but unities in the later period is enlightening. As rather an umbrella term for a set of diverse Tomber herself points out, the archaeological ethnicities – and as just one, albeit prominent, data is more successful in identifying the routes participant in the trading schema. of trade than its volume. Her restrained Tomber poses a number of questions in characterization of Indo-Roman trade as “a creating this new characterization. What goods small episode” within Indian Ocean economic were exchanged? Who controlled, and who history indicates the extent to which a sense of conducted, the trade? Where did these traders proportion has been maintained. live? What routes did they follow? How long In sum, Tomber creates an accessible did this trade last? And how far did it reach? reference text for any reader seeking an entrée As a ceramics specialist, the grist to into or a considered overview of the subject of Tomber’s narrative is inevitably the pottery Indo-Roman trade. The text is clear, the finds of archaeological surveys and excavations illustrations simple but effective. The work is around the African, Arabian and Indian littoral produced by an expert in the field, yet does not of the Indian Ocean, and occasionally beyond. lose sight of the needs of a wider readership. Here the data-set incorporates the amphorae Placed within Duckworth’s paperback Debates that constituted, in part, the direct containers by in Archaeology series, the book is also priced at which the trade was conducted, and also the a level affordable to most individuals, making fine Roman and Indian wares that may have it a valuable companion for those with an been traded items or the possessions of traders, ongoing interest in the subject. as well as the coarse wares that accompanied John P. Cooper travellers and indicate the presence of diverse groups within the same port community. Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Yet Tomber ventures far beyond her Found the Hidden Gospels immediate specialism, neatly incorporating a Janet Soskice broad and complementary range of data London: Chatto & Windus, 2009. xiv + 338 pp. sources, from Latin, Greek and Indian-language Hardback, jacketed. 1 map, 31 b/w texts and epigraphy, through cartography and photographs. Notes, Bibliography, Index. numismatics, to archaeobotanical data, using £18.99. ISBN: 978-0-7011734-1-8 the strengths of one discipline to address, where This is the remarkable story of how two possible, the shortcomings of another. devoutly Presbyterian twins, Agnes Lewis and On the basis of this data, Tomber goes on to Margaret Gibson, discovered in the 1890s one build a picture of the emergence of Rome in the of the earliest known copies of the Gospels of Indian Ocean trade, through the annexation first the New Testament. They were well educated of Egypt, and then of the Nabataean lands, and wealthy, their fortune inherited from their exploring, as far as is possible, the relative roles father who had also bequeathed not only a of the Red Sea ports that constituted the pleasure in travel but also the dictum that they Empire’s window on the East, and should learn the language of any country they incorporating the material remains of such key travelled to. This inspired in later years the locations as Berenike, Myos Hormos, Clysma astonishing diligence they brought to their and Aila. study of the languages of the ancient biblical From there, the focus shifts to the foreign world, in particular the various forms of Syriac lands with which these Roman ports interacted – not so difficult, said Agnes, if you already – the Axumite kingdom, the South Arabian knew Hebrew and Arabic. They married late, kingdoms, the “Far Side” ports of the Horn of Agnes to Samuel Lewis, librarian to the famous Africa and Azania, the relatively obscure Parker Library in Cambridge’s Corpus Christi connections with the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and College (giving them both the vital introduction the Indian polities themselves. to Cambridge academia); and Margaret to

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James Gibson, a Scottish Presbyterian minister journeys to St Catherine’s, their innumerable who had travelled in the Near East and Greece scholarly publications, the development of their (encouraging the twins to add modern Greek to personal scholarship, and their (often reluctant) their knowledge of ancient). Widowed within a acceptance by the male-dominated academic few years of each other, their wealth facilitated world, Soskice has woven a superb background their travel. And how they travelled, of late 19th-century biblical studies, Cambridge indomitably and learnedly: Greece, Palestine, society, and the Presbyterian world (the sisters up the Nile (poor editing has them going founded the Westminster Presbyterian College “down” the Nile, as per the atlas), and in due in Cambridge). Elements of academic rivalry, course taking a nine-day camel ride to the near vitriol and jealousy inevitably creep in; as Orthodox monastery of St Catherine’s in Professor of Philosophical Theology at southern Sinai. Cambridge, Soskice herself is doubtless The late 19th century was deeply concerned familiar, as the twins perforce became, with the about the integrity of the New Testament, in ways and wiles of academia. She develops the particular the Greek text forming the basis of story brilliantly and faultlessly. the King James Bible, which was known to be One intriguing result of the twins’ scholarly imperfect. In 1859, Constantin von Tischendorf ferreting relates directly to Arabian studies. In tracked down a mid-4th-century biblical these days of an insatiable antiquities market, manuscript in St Catherine’s. This was the the eagerness with which holders of manuscript celebrated Codex Sinaiticus. Von Tischendorf riches fed the demands of the twins’ persuaded the monks to “lend” him the contemporaries is notable. They themselves document, which he then presented to the Tsar bought manuscripts wherever they could as (to the great frustration of the monastic well as directing concerned scholars to community), and it was sold on to the British potential treasure. In 1896 they passed a “tatty Museum/Library by Stalin when he was short fragment” from Cairo to their Jewish friend of cash in 1933. Samuel Lewis introduced the Solomon Schechter, thus leading him to the twins to this expanding world of biblical famous deposit in Cairo’s Ben Ezra synagogue scholarship and suspicions that the monks were of mostly 11th- and 12th-century Geniza sitting on other priceless manuscripts. documents, the bulk of them now in the Encouraged by scholarly friends, the ladies University Library of Cambridge. For the early became convinced of the existence of another medieval historian of Egypt, the Red Sea, document in St Catherine’s possibly con- Yemen and India, this has proved every bit as temporary with the Codex Sinaiticus. dramatic a source of knowledge as the biblical Thus, on Lewis’ death in 1891, Sinai discoveries of Agnes Lewis and Margaret beckoned. The twins had established good Gibson. relations with Orthodox monks in Greece, and Sarah Searight this greatly facilitated their acceptance by the Orthodox monks of St Catherine’s. In 1892 A Photographer on the Hajj: The Travels of they duly set off across the Sinai desert. Muhammad ‘Ali Effendi Sa‘udi (1904/1908) This is the background to Agnes’s discovery Farid Kioumgi and Robert Graham of a palimpsest tucked away in a dark closet in Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, St Catherine’s. The Greek palimpsestos means 2009. xx + 124 pp. Hardback, jacketed. 81 b/w “wiped clean again”, like a slate: when vellum and sepia photographs, 5 colour. $34.95. 7 was scarce it was customary to scrape away the maps and plans. Glossary and Further writing on a page and use the new surface to Reading. ISBN 978-977-416-290-9 write anew; sometimes, over the years and To students of the history of Mecca and the centuries, the old words “popped up again”. Hajj, the name of Muhammad ‘Ali Sa‘udi The document now in Agnes’s hands turned out (1865–1955) has been familiar, if at all, only as to have been over-written in AD 697; the one of several Muslim photographers whose underwriting, which she and Margaret coaxed pictures appeared in the important work on the out with foul-smelling chemicals, was probably holy cities by Ibrahim Rif‘at Pasha, Mir’at al- written two hundred years earlier, one of the Haramain, published in Arabic in Cairo in earliest copies of the Gospels in ancient Syriac. 1925. Gen. Rif‘at served as Amir al-Hajj on the To supply the context for the intricate annual Egyptian pilgrim caravans in the early narrative of the sisters’ discoveries, their return years of the 20th century, and was accompanied

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in 1904 and 1907/08 by the observant Madinah, a record of a highly distinctive urban Muhammad Sa‘udi, a technically competent fabric now sadly lost. Notable personages employee of the Egyptian Ministry of Justice. include the boy amir of Ha’il, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Sa‘udi’s photographs and diaries of his Al-Rashid. The scenes of pilgrims around the journeys, as well as his camera equipment, Haram and Ka‘bah, the Standing at ‘Arafat, the have come to light in recent years through the stoning of the pillars at Mina, the Namira and efforts of Farid Kioumgi. They were sold in al-Khif mosques, and the Egyptian mahmal, are 2006–08 in various lots at Sotheby’s in unsurpassed in clarity. London, but not before the authors had taken To accompany their selection of his photos, the opportunity to study their contents. Thanks the authors have provided a readable narrative to this publication, which is essentially a of Sa‘udi’s journeys, peppered with extracts condensed version of his diaries accompanied from his diaries highlighting the irritations and by photographs, the fastidious Sa‘udi emerges intrigues that beset him. Good though it is, their for the first time as a personality in his own account betrays a certain unfamiliarity with the right. An accomplished photographer who had geography of the Hijaz. For example, is it also read Burckhardt and Burton, he was intent Sa‘udi or the authors who consistently misspell on making an ample photographic record of the Rabigh, the important coastal station en route Egyptian mahmal and pilgrim caravan from Makkah to Madinah remembered by the (comprising the surprisingly small number of thirsty John Keane (1878) and Lady Evelyn 1,800 pilgrims) and of the Hajj, as well as Cobbold (1933) for its watermelons, as Ghabir? being officially charged with helping to record One might also add Khalis and ‘Afsan the antiquities of the Hijaz. Travelling at a time (properly Khulais and ‘Usfan). There are when the Ottoman Empire was on the wane and slightly frustrating vaguenesses in the story; for the advance of the Hijaz Railway threatened to example, Sa‘udi clearly had relatives living in upset vested interests in the old pattern of the Makkah, but their presence there is not Hajj, the pious Sa‘udi is a scathing observer of explained. Ottoman and Sharifian governance of the Hijaz, But overall the tale is well told for the the frustrations and inconveniences of daily general reader. Scholars may be left with an life, the chaotic customs at Jiddah, and the appetite for more: perhaps a full and definitive general neglect of pilgrims’ welfare and edition of Sa‘udi’s diaries will appear one day – security, not to mention the ever-present a tantalizing thought, especially as the authors dangers of taking photographs. Over all hangs maintain that Sa‘udi himself wanted to publish the spectre of cholera, and there are good a book on the Hajj, but allegedly deferred to pictures of the quarantine station at Tor in Ibrahim Rif‘at’s own project to write the much- Sinai. The outraged tone of Sa‘udi’s account is delayed Mir’at al-Haramain. Scholars may almost a trope of pre-1920s Hajj narratives: the also wish to delve into the three Sotheby’s sale hapless pilgrim maintaining, against all the catalogues for more detailed information on odds, his devotion and spiritual elation in the Sa‘udi’s collection. An Appendix containing face of danger, exploitation and casual such data would have been a useful addition to victimization. this book. There is no index. But there is a But it is Sa‘udi’s photographs that are the wonderful coloured sketch, on pp. 62–3, of a real glory of this book. Wonderfully sharp and catastrophic late 19th-century flood in the detailed, reproduced with care on high-quality Haram which damaged the buildings and paper, they provide a vivid memorial of old apparently left the Ka‘bah in ruins. Makkah and Madinah that will surprise those William Facey who are familiar only with the modern cities which have almost totally replaced them. Ihlal al-salaam fi Hadhramaut: dirasah Notable historic landmarks recorded by him tarikhiyyah li tajribat Hadhramaut fi al- and since destroyed include the shrines at qadha’ ‘ala al-tha’r al-qabali (Establishing Makkah’s cemetery of Jannat al-Ma‘alla Peace in Hadhramaut: a study of Hadhramaut’s (including that of the Prophet’s wife Khadijah), experience in eliminating tribal feuding, 1933– the grand mausoleums in Madinah’s cemetery 1953) of al-Baqi‘, and the Quba Mosque. As ‘Abd al-‘Aziz bin ‘Ali bin Salah Al-Qu‘aiti noteworthy are the remarkable images of the London: Arabian Publishing Ltd, 2009. Arabic. old buildings and streets of Makkah and Large hardback, jacketed. 430 pp. 40 b/w

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photographs, 170 documents, 2 maps. time and includes correspondence between Bibliography, Index. £50.00. ISBN: 978-0- Sultan Ali bin Salah, British officials (mainly 9558894-1-7 Ingrams) and local political actors; it also This book discusses the process which brought includes a number of tribal treaties and peace to Hadhramaut, a region which for agreements. An explanatory note is helpfully generations until the late 1930s had been appended to each manuscript (the note, bedevilled by blood feuds and tribal warfare. It however, on p. 145 does not relate to the text builds on the extensive research carried out by above it), and each manuscript is fully the author in collaboration with the Sudanese reproduced in typescript in the last section of historian, Dr Muhammad Sa‘id al-Qaddal (now the book. sadly deceased), for their biography of the The author deserves to be congratulated not author’s father, Sultan ‘Ali bin Salah Al- only on making such a wealth of original Qu‘aiti. During the 1930s, Sultan ‘Ali material accessible to future researchers and administered the hinterland of the Qu‘aiti State area specialists (conversant with Arabic), but on behalf of his cousin, Sultan Salah bin Ghalib also for his readable and balanced presentation Al-Qu‘aiti, who divided his time between his of the historical background to the coastal capital, Mukalla, and his property in establishment of peace in the region. The text is Hyderabad. illustrated with numerous period photographs, The author tells how, by the mid-1930s, including images of many of the personalities Britain’s geopolitical interest in bringing involved in the peace process. Although a bit stability to the region coincided with the urgent heavy to handle, this book is a production of desire of leading Hadhramis to establish peace exceptional quality, with a sewn binding and and security in their turbulent homeland. cloth covers. Harold Ingrams was Britain’s chosen Yemen’s former Prime Minister, ‘Abd al- instrument and was posted to the region in Qadi Ba Jammal, contributes a Foreword, and 1936, having made a nine-week exploratory shares the author’s view that Yemen today can visit there with his wife, Doreen, in 1934. The draw useful lessons from Hadhramaut’s author identifies Sultan ‘Ali bin Salah, Sultan experience in bringing tribal feuding to an end ‘Ali bin Mansur, Ruler of the Kathiri State during the first half of last century. In view of (centred on Saiyun and Tarim in Wadi Yemen’s current problems, this book has been Hadhramaut), and the celebrated Hadhrami published, it seems, at a particularly appropriate philanthropist, Sayyid Abubakr bin Shaikh al- moment. Kaff, as “men of enlightenment” who acted as John Shipman Ingrams’s principal coadjutors. Together they succeeded in negotiating a three-year truce, Ein Jude im Dienst des Imams: Der signed by some 1400 tribal chiefs, which was erfolgreiche Geschaftsmann Israel Subayri later extended for a further ten years. The Josef Tobi author divides the credit for this historic München: Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde achievement fairly equally between Ingrams / Dettelback: J. H. Roll Verlag, 2008. 168 pp. (who was able to call upon the RAF in Aden to Hardback. 14 b/w illustrations. #89.90. ISBN: bring two recalcitrant tribes to heel) and his 978-3-89754-265-5 Hadhrami colleagues. There have been many studies on Yemeni Jews, The author devotes about a third of the book but this is the first book devoted to the most to an analysis of the historical background to colourful and extraordinary Yemeni Jewish the long and arduous business of pacification. personality of the 20th century, Israel Subayri. He draws on a diversity of Western and Arabic A self-made man in the modern sense of the sources, and includes a detailed biographical word, his life fluctuated between Imam note, in English and Arabic, on Harold and Yahya’s Yemen, the Germany of the 1930s, Doreen Ingrams, written by their daughter and what is now the State of Israel. He was the Leila. Imam’s chief weapons’ provider and importer The rest of the book comprises a treasure of luxury goods, and anchorman to foreign house of original documentation largely visitors and scholars in San‘a; it was through connected with the peace-making efforts him that the collections of Yemeni antiquities outlined and discussed by the author. Much of in the museums of Hamburg, Harvard and this documentation is published for the first Jerusalem originated.

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In this book, Yosef Tobi of the University of Architecture in San‘a remain basic studies. Haifa, the foremost authority on the history, Rathjens was authorized by Imam Yahya to ethnography and intellectual heritage of the take his collections, largely gathered with Yemeni Jews, has reconstructed Subayri’s life Subayri’s assistance, to Germany (72 camel and times through the documents preserved by loads!), and these are now in Hamburg and the Subayri family in Israel. Jerusalem. In the first chapter, Tobi explores the Chapters 4 and 5 cover Subayri’s foreign economic situation of the Yemeni Jews under trade activities. In 1934 he became Yahya’s Imam Yahya. We shall return to this later. main weapons’ procurer, importing rifles, Chapter 2 describes Israel Subayri’s pistols, mortars, machine guns, ammunition, background. The family originated from and equipment to set up an ammunition factory, Subayra, near Qa‘taba (on the former border mainly from Germany and Belgium. The range between North and South Yemen, east of of his other imports is even more surprising: a Ta‘izz), moving to San‘a in the 19th century. soap factory, paper for Yemen’s only They were connected with the Rabbinic elite in newspaper (al-Iman); 200 dozen black fezzes; Yemen. Their business (shopkeepers) expanded 208 kg of toys; perfumes, shoes, deck chairs by catering to the more sophisticated needs of and marquees; a textile factory complete with the Ottoman Turkish administration. After raw materials; and two 8-cylinder Horch 1918, they moved into the respected and more (today’s Audi) motor vehicles. In 1938, rewarding art of weaving gold-thread belts for Subayri arranged through Schroder Bank the the janbiyyas worn by sayyids and qadis. After minting in London of 10,000 riyals for the his father’s death in 1924, Israel Subayri Imam’s treasury. acquired half the family business (valued at the Chapter 6, covering 1939/40, coincides with very considerable sum of 900 riyals) from his the intensification of Nazi persecution of Jews. brother. He then bought his brother’s share in While this did not affect Subayri personally, it their parents’ house, and acquired a large is sad to read of the desperate efforts of his building in the Qa‘ al-Yahud for 300 riyals. main commercial partner, previously in These deeds and other documents were issued Hamburg but now in Liège, to maintain his (in Arabic) by the Rabbinical court, and then business links with Subayri. The book ends authenticated by Qadi Husayn bin ‘Ali al- with Subayri’s later years in Israel. ‘Amri, ra’is al-diwan. Photographs of the Subayri family in the The enterprising Subayri soon became courtyard of their house in San‘a, and, later, of aware of the need for accommodation in San‘a Subayri himself in his elegant coat and hat in of a growing number of European travellers Jerusalem during the 1930s, illustrate the stark and official guests (and some American contrast between the two worlds he so visitors, such as Dr Coon from Harvard successfully bridged. Two other images, by Museum). Behind his home, he built a Toni Hagen, show San‘a as it was in the early European-style hotel to which foreigners were 1960s, intra muros. also assigned by the Yemeni government. Returning to Chapter 1, Tobi presents us Subayri thus became the chief middleman for with an overview of the economic situation of many foreign visitors to San‘a. Tobi quotes at Yemeni Jews under Turkish rule and under length from Hans Helfritz and Hugh Scott (who Imam Yahya. Their tax burden under the Imam described Subayri’s red wine as “pleasant to the was lower than that of Muslims, Jews having to taste, but somewhat heavy and potent”), and pay only the jizya. But Tobi concludes that the also speaks of a certain Mr Bailey who Jews fared much better under the Turks, whose borrowed 1,500 riyals from Subayri before administration opened the country up to the disappearing into thin air! wider world, than they did under the The third chapter deals with the decades- restrictions imposed by the Imam. However the long friendship between Subayri and the chapter on the Jews in Serjeant and Lewcock’s scholar Carl Rathjens, who visited Yemen City of San‘a reached the opposite conclusion. several times between 1927 and 1938, and Incidentally, Tobi errs in stating that the menial whose excavation of the temple at Huqqa, north task of collecting human excrement for heating of San‘a, was the first professional the hammams would have been assigned to the archaeological dig in the country. Rathjens’s Jews, since this was, in fact, the chief three-volume Sabaica and his Jewish Domestic occupation of members of the lowest Muslim

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class, the Bani al-Khums, until liberated by the Forces, the Intelligence services and the Revolution of 1962 (they still bear the name Federation, makes disturbing reading, as does Hammami). the belated surprise that the insurgent This book provides a none the less movement for independence, which became the fascinating insight into the Yemen of Imam two nationalist organisations, the National Yahya and its economic relations with the Liberation Front and the FLOSY, had world at large, and into Jewish–Arab relations. penetrated them so deeply. The innumerable business documents make the It is a history of strong personalities, book an important source for the economic allowed to become larger than life in the wide history of Yemen in the first half of the 20th expanses of the Protectorates, driving through century. Although the Rathjens collections in unworkable policies with unpredictable the Hamburg Volkerkundemuseum and in the consequences against a background of Jerusalem Museum are well documented, this is Whitehall parsimony. Harding delineates his not so for the Yemeni antiquities (also characters with a pungent candour. Even if they originating from Subayri) in the Harvard did not take to him or altered his career, he still Peabody and Harvard Semitic Museums. It is treats them kindly. The feudal relationships of good to know that Tobi plans their publication. the tribal leaders, the interplay of the senior Ruth Achlama, who translated the book into staff and the turf wars among the senior civil German from the Hebrew original, is to be and military officials are described with wit and applauded for her meticulous work. A single humour and not a little bafflement. Events in desideratum remains: that the property the desert and the rugged mountains are documents from the 1920s should be published recounted with an observant eye. in their original Arabic. With this in the background, it is also a Werner Daum story of adventure and “swashbuckling in international pastures”, to quote a Master of Roads to Nowhere: A South Arabian Balliol. The Assistant Advisers were the Odyssey, 1960–1965 colonial officers closest to the local rulers and John Harding directly responsible for helping them by London: Arabian Publishing Ltd, 2009. xxiv + creating and supporting plans for their 312 pp. Hardback, jacketed. 61 b/w development of schools, roads, agriculture and photographs, 1 map. Bibliography, Index. fisheries. There were journeys with the bedu in £30.00. ISBN: 978-0-95544894-2-4 the sands of the Empty Quarter, going from fort This is a riveting book which carries the reader to fort, manned by bedouin legionaries, as well along page after page. It is the story told by one as frustrating meetings with the local State who was at the focal point of British contact councils. with the local rulers and what passed for local When he moved to the Secretariat in 1962, it administrations for six of the last eight years of was still operating as it had been. One year later Britain’s rule in South Arabia. The author left it had disappeared completely with the two years before the British withdrawal in accession of Aden Colony to the Federation. 1967. The succeeding structure was fragile and The preface sets out the historical fragmented. The difficulty of getting the new background and emphasizes that Aden was a Federation ministers to take their tasks large and prosperous city-state because of its seriously, the absences of the Chief Minister of strategic position on the route to the East. It Aden, to whom Harding reported, his eventual was at the peak of its prosperity in 1960. The demise, and the lack of co-ordination of the Western Protectorate had been metamorphosed British authorities, caused the author increasing into The Federation, with a Government with frustration. The terrorist threat went undetected. ministries led by feudal leaders happier with a When first appointed High Commissioner, pistol than with a portfolio. The narrative takes Trevaskis, a long-standing member of the Aden the reader through the area’s turbulent decline, service and the architect of the Federation, analysing the problems of marrying a “failed to take a sufficiently firm grip on the threadbare Federation to a prosperous colony Federal internal security apparatus until the moving towards self-government. The lack of botched attempt to assassinate him and other co-ordination between the various British Federal Ministers at Aden airport in December elements in Aden, the Government, the Armed 1963”.

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In 1964, Harding was appointed Adviser to Occident and the Orient. the Sultan of Lahej. This state, adjacent to Donna Landry’s Noble Brutes is an Aden, had a history of disaffection and Harding important and most welcome contribution to worked hard to keep it “on-side”. Subsequently our understanding of the multi-faceted impact he was charged with development programmes of horses on humans and focuses on the for agriculture and roads in the more remote significant influence of Eastern imports on parts of the Federation. Each project was more English culture. challenging than the last, all a compromise The subject matter rides into the widely between the devious interests of the ruler and contested territory of various interest groups. the strategic requirement to maintain order. So This is a field that involves not just academics successful was he that he was appointed to the and disciplines such as literature, art, military Radfan area, which had been pacified by and colonial history, economics and trade and British forces with the expenditure of much relationships with the East as well as scholars blood and treasure. It was close to the Yemen of the Ottoman Empire and Arabia, but also border, so attacks on the substantial British equestrian specialists, horse breeders, and those garrison and Harding’s house by Yemenis and interested in Western and Eastern others supported by the Egyptians were a horsemanship and material culture. frequent occurrence. Landry, professor of English at the It is a story of very dedicated and competent University of Kent, leads the reader deftly men with insufficient resources, often in through a complex course presenting valuable considerable personal danger, struggling to detail, a trove of quotes, provocative arguments serve the people of Arabia and to maintain a and fascinating observations which will engage less and less credible British presence. It a wide spectrum of interests. became a Sisyphean task after 1966, when the From the start there are vexed issues of Labour government decided to quit the Aden terminology to hurdle. There is the challenge of base, ignoring previous assurances made. They defining Eastern Horses of the title and Landry also appeared to encourage the Nationalists. introduces Barbs, Moroccans, Akhal-Tekes and When this reviewer left Aden to return to Arabians, sometimes also collectively referred Oxford in 1961, the Head of Personnel said: to as Oriental horses. The author employs the “You will be very welcome back here – but I lower-case term “thoroughbred” to designate a wouldn’t. We’ll be out of here soon.” John pedigreed horse of pure blood. When Harding’s book describes six years of capitalized, the same term refers to “the honourable and dedicated service in a climate particular breed developed in England during of denial. The Envoi completes the dismal story the 18th century, genetically forged from of the end of British rule in South Arabia. crossing previously separate types of Eastern Stewart Hawkins bloodstock”, most famously giving rise to the iconic British racehorse. Noble Brutes: How Eastern Horses Landry provides the reader with a valuable Transformed English Culture survey on the “contours of the debate” on the Donna Landry origins of the Thoroughbred. “What seems Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, incontestable,” she states, “is that a potent 2009. 248 pp. Hardback. 12 b/w photos. Notes, infusion of Eastern blood transformed not only Bibliographical Essay, Index. £27.00. ISBN: the equine gene pool in the British Isles but 978-0-8018-9028-4 also ideas about horse breeding and record The Arabian horse is universally admired and keeping.” respected and today is the subject of almost And there is dark matter too presented in her obsessive preservationist breeding in some narrative: “Appropriation and sometimes theft, quarters (particularly in the USA) as well as followed by a suppression or forgetting of equally controversial out-breeding aimed at foreign origins, has long been a part of the strengthening traits for competitive showing Thoroughbred’s story.” This forgetting of and the acclaim, prizes and values that can Eastern origins is a theme she elaborates and ensue. Far more Arabian horses are kept and returns to at various points in the book. bred in the West than in the Middle East and There are chapters on imports of Eastern the breed stands today in many ways as a horses which focus on the Levantine potent cultural ambassador between the connection (although numerous Arabian horses

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were also sourced directly from imperial India, Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, the Gulf, southern Arabia and East Africa) and Modernists, Terrorists and the Struggle for the author presents fascinating insights on Saudi Arabia shipping horses. There are accounts of the Robert Lacey individuals involved in sourcing Eastern horses London: Hutchinson, 2009. 432 pp. Price: and she explains the various methods through £20.00. ISBN: 978-0-091312-4-7 which they were obtained: war (the Byerley Robert Lacey’s new book has an extraordinary Turk); trade “including the odd dodgy compelling quality and should be widely read, transaction” (the Darley Arabian); and and not just by afficionados of Saudi Arabia. diplomacy and gifts (the Godolphin Arabian). The short chapters propel you into the life and In her chapter “The Making of the English thoughts of Saudis; the use of so much Hunting Seat” Landry details equipage, such as verbatim interview makes you feel you have the European saddle and Turkish cradle, bits somehow been let in on a secret, and given and riding techniques such as the Eastern habit confidential and intimate information. The of “riding short” using stirrups. Here we learn technique leaves Lacey free not to be of the curious shift and exchange in which the judgemental, letting the talkative Saudis Turks adopted long stirrups – with disastrous criticize or explain their society. Lacey is the results – whereas English riders adopted the master of this style, which sometimes can seem Ottoman use of the short stirrup – and never sensational but mostly brings people and events acknowledged the fact as they successfully rode alive. Following the dialogue comes Lacey’s forward! explanation and analysis, insightful and Some readers might find the use of scattered informed. and uneven subheadings (not shown in the For a country as topsy-turvy, paradoxical contents page) distracting such as “Bits” and and muddled (all words used by Lacey to “The Contribution of Sporting Art to the describe Saudi Arabia), this fragmented and Houyhnhnmization of Society”. A dozen black- anecdotal approach is useful. It helps explain and-white reproductions of iconic equine and illumine some of the country’s curious subjects and equestrian scenes by Stubbs, anomalies. Lacey is good at bringing out the Seymour, Landseer and Wootton throughout paradoxes and contradictions and enjoys them: the text, particularly Stubb’s Whistlejacket, rich/barefoot, mighty/humble, reformist/ form part of Landry’s scholarly analysis. conservative, Muslim/secular. To understand Although perhaps wishful thinking, it is the holding of irreconcilable attitudes simul- somewhat regrettable that these could not have taneously is to begin to understand Saudi appeared as glorious full-colour plates (perhaps Arabia. in a single signature) as these masterpieces, as Lacey’s style should not blind the reader to well as the subject matter and readers, deserve. the seriousness of the book. He deals with a 30- Johns Hopkins University Press have year period from 1979 to 2008/09 during which published a book with exemplary production Saudi Arabia has changed in technology, values to complement the content, at an population, oil-sustainable capacity and in the accessible cover price. The volume is well exercise of religion. Lacey has put religion indexed and contains copious, detailed 40-page centre-stage, which gives this book a veracity chapter notes tidily sectioned at the back of the often missing in books on Saudi Arabia. He book with handy page references at the head of explores how Wahhabi Islam, the Islam of each page for quick reference and access. Saudi Arabia, has become more stringent, how Rather than a standard bibliography, Donna Saudi Arabia and its autocratic monarchy have Landry presents an essay on sources in various survived at all, and analyses the rise of related subject areas. These combine with the fundamentalism after the First Gulf War author’s fastidiously researched work, (1991). He proposes that the paradoxes in Saudi provocative arguments, cogent narrative and Arabia led to the emergence of Osama bin salient and colourful quotes to provide a rich Ladin and that his hostility to the West was a and fascinating vein for further reading and product of Saudi Arabia’s contradictions. So by investigations, and of course, debate on the extension bin Ladin’s extremist Islam led to origins, merits and influence of the magnificent 9/11 and, by further extension, Lacey says, and universally revered Eastern Horse. “Saudi problems have transformed the modern Peter Harrigan world”.

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The book is in three sections: the first takes sources may also have their “takes”. In his us through the ten years from the 1979 Grand preface he says he wanted to upend and re- Mosque attack to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; examine everything in the Kingdom since the the second runs up to 9/11; and the third 1981 publication of The Kingdom, and his three discusses the arrival of al-Qa’ida in Saudi years’ research appears very thorough. Arabia, reaching the present day with the story Through Lacey Saudi Arabia receives a of the “Qateef girl”. Through all three sections more sympathetic profile than usual, though his certain themes stand out: the growth and descriptions of their country may seem quite pervasiveness of fundamentalist religion in the bold to Saudis, such as his description of it Kingdom; the development of salafi doctrines; being a “bundled up conglomerate”, which it the sahwah (awakening); the da‘wah undoubtedly is. The exposé of Saudi Arabia in (missionizing); tradition and reform; the the first two sections comes mainly from position of women and of dissent and Saudis, but in the third section Lacey’s own reformers; and relations between the judgements emerge. He suggests the story of government and the Shi‘as of the Eastern the Qateef girl “would provide a metaphor for Province. Others focus on the Al Saud ruling all that was wrong, and a few things that were clan, especially on King Abdullah: who they right, inside King Abdullah’s Saudi Arabia”. In are, how they keep power, and how they other areas of this section he describes the interact with the religious establishment; their Kingdom as “a muddle of tradition and relations with the US and the rise and fall of the progress” with a “perverse and topsy-turvy special US-Saudi relationship. code of traditional values”, but his chiaroscuro What makes the book so fascinating is the of the Kingdom is masterly and as accurate as extraordinary inside information and the quality we are likely to get. of Lacey’s sources. On certain events he offers Caroline Montagu more detailed information than I have ever heard or read and he presents and explains the REVIEWS IN THE 2011 BULLETIN personalities – for instance, the relevance of the The Reviews Editor welcomes readers’ capture of Khafji in the First Gulf War; the suggestions to be considered for review in the development of dissent; reformers and the next edition of the Bulletin. Please contact salafi preachers in the 80s; Osama bin Ladin William Facey via email at: and the efforts to get him back to Saudi Arabia. william.facey@arabia .uk.com. Saudi Arabia being such an opaque and “through-the-looking-glass” country, Lacey’s

NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ARABIA

See also the Book Reviews section for new publications, and the Societies, Associations And Brisch, G. (ed) 2010. World Enough, and Time: The Other Online Resources section below for Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent. Volume information on the newsletters of various societies. III: Southern Arabia and Persia. Mabel Bent's diaries of 1883–1898, from the archive of the Joint NEW BOOKS 2009–10 Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies,

Al-Hassan, O., et al. 2009. Bahrain and the London. ISBN 9781905739134. Democratic Transition. Gulf Centre for Strategic Studies Ltd. ISBN10: 1840510005; ISBN13: Commins, D. 2009. The Wahhabi Mission and 9781840510003. Saudi Arabia. Paperback Edition. I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. ISBN: 9781848850149. Aithie, C. and Aithie, P. 2009 Yemen: Jewel of Arabia. Stacey International. Resized Paperback De Maigret, A. and Wilkinson, T. 2010. Arabia Edition. ISBN: 9781905299935. Felix: An Exploration of the Archaeological History of Yemen. 2nd Revised edition. Stacey International. L. Blue, J. Cooper, R. Thomas and J. Whitewright, ISBN: 9781906768041. J. (eds) 2009. Connected Hinterlands: Proceedings of Red Sea Project IV held at the University of Drechsler, P. 2009. The Dispersal of the Neolithic Southampton September 2008. British over the Arabian Peninsula. British Archaeological Archaeological Reports. ISBN 9781407306315. Reports. ISBN: 9781407305028.

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Fuccaro, N. 2009. Histories of City and State in the OTHER SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS Persian Gulf: Manama Since 1800. Cambridge OF INTEREST University Press. ISBN: 9780521514354. Onley, J. 2009. “Britain and the Gulf Shaikhdoms, Ibrahim, B. and Sherif, D. 2009. From Charity to 1820–1971: The Politics of Protection”, Occasional Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy. The Paper No. 4 (Georgetown University, Center for American University in Cairo Press. ISBN: International and Regional Studies), pp. 1–44. 9789774162077. Onley, J. 2009. “The Raj Reconsidered: British Jayyusi, S. and Al-Semmari, F. 2009. A History of India's Informal Empire and Spheres of Influence in the Arabian Peninsula. I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. Asia and Africa”, Asian Affairs, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. ISBN: 9781845116880. 44–62.

Kraidy, M. 2009. Reality Television and Arab Valeri, M. 2010. “High Visibility, Low Profile. The Politics: Contention in Public Life. Cambridge Shia in Oman under Sultan Qaboos”, International University Press. ISBN: 9780521749046. Journal of Middle East Studies, 42 (2).

JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES Lamb, R. 2009. Bahrain. Stacey International. ISBN: 9781905299706. Adumatu www.adumatu.com Newton, L. 2009. A Landscape of Pilgrimage and ISSN 1319-8947. Adumatu, PO Box 10071, Riyadh Trade in Wadi Masila, Yemen: The Case of. British 11433, Saudi Arabia. Editor: Dr Abdullah Archaeological Reports. ISBN: 9781407303819. Alsharekh, contact at [email protected]

Norton, J.A., et al. 2009. An Illustrated Checklist of Arabia Antica the Flora of Qatar. Browndown Publications ISBN: http://arabiantica.humnet.unipi.it/index.php?id=994 9780956396105.

Rogan, E. 2009. The Arabs: A History. Allen Lane. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy ISBN: 978-0713999037. www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0905-7196 ISSN: 0905-7196. E-ISSN: 1600-0471. This journal Rugh, A. 2009. Simple Gestures: A Cultural serves as a forum for study in archaeology, Journey into the Middle East. Potomac Books Inc. epigraphy, numismatics, and early history of ISBN: 9781597974349. countries in the Arabian peninsula. Editor: Daniel T. Potts. Starkey, J., ed. (2009) Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 39 2009. Papers from the Aram forty-second meeting, London. 24–26 July 2008. poj.peeters-leuven.be/content.php British Archaeological Reports. ISBN 978 19057 ISSN 0959-4213. E-ISSN 1783-1342. Published by 39233. the ARAM Society for Syro-Mesopotamian Studies. It presents contributions to its annual International Teitelbaum, J. 2009. Political Liberalisation in the Conference, together with the ARAM Newsletter. Persian Gulf. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd. ISBN: 9781850659280. Atlal: Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology ISSN 1319-8351. Ministry of Education, PO Box Valeri, M. 2009. Oman. Politics and Society in the 3734, Riyadh 11481. Qaboos-State. Hurst and Columbia University Press. ISBN: 978-1850659334 Banipal: Magazine of Modern Arabic Literature http://www.banipal.co.uk/ Um, N. 2009. The Merchant Houses of In its latest issue Banipal celebrates ten years of Mocha:Trade and Architecture in an Indian Ocean publishing – translating and showcasing hundreds of Port. University of Washington Press. ISBN: Arab authors who have never had their works 9780295989112. published in English before, presenting newly emerging and well-established writers. Willis, J. 2009. Unmaking North and South: Cartographies of the Yemeni Past. ISBN: Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies 9781850659815. Past and present issues of our very own Bulletin can now be found online. www.societyforarabianstudies.org/bulletin.shtml

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Chroniques Yémenites Near East for more than 120 years. Contact cy.revues.org [email protected] An annual review in French and Arabic, produced by the Centre français d’archéologie et de sciences Journal of the Economic and Social History of sociales de Sanaa (CEFAS). The same website also the Orient covers Chroniques du Manuscrit au Yémen, which www.brill.nl/jesh can also be downloaded free of charge. Email ISSN 0022-4995. E-ISSN: 1568-5209. JESHO [email protected] contains studies extending our knowledge of the economic and social history of what was once Current World Archaeology labeled as the Orient: the Ancient Near East, the www.archaeology.co.uk World of Islam, and South, Southeast, and East Published six times a year. Subscriptions to: CWA, Asia. Contact [email protected] Barley Mow Centre, 10 Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4PH. Tel: 08456 447707. Email Journal of Oman Studies [email protected] ISSN 0378-8180. Published by the Ministry of National Heritage and Culture, Sultanate of Oman, Fauna of Arabia POB 668, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. http://www.libri.ch/App_Web/EN/services/faunaofa rabia.aspx Journal of Persianate Studies A continuous series on the terrestrial, limnetic and www.brill.nl/jps marine zoology of the Arabian Peninsula. It begans Order through: [email protected] as Fauna of Saudi Arabia but changed its name and remit in 2998. It can be ordered from Karger Libri Middle East Journal of Culture and AG, Tel. ++41 61 306 15 23. Email Communication. [email protected] www.brill.nl/mjcc Order through [email protected]. MJCC provides HAWWA Journal of Women of the Middle East a platform for diverse and interdisciplinary work, and the Islamic World including original research papers from within and www.brill.nl/m_catalogue_sub6_id10263.htm outside the Middle East, reviews and review articles, Hawwa publishes articles from all disciplinary and to investigate transformations in communication, comparative perspectives that concern women and culture and politics in the region. gender issues in the Middle East and the Islamic world. These include Muslim and non-Muslim Paléorient communities within the greater Middle East, and www.mae.u-paris10.fr/paleo_index.htm Muslim and Middle Eastern communities elsewhere ISSN 0153-9345. A multidisciplinary six-monthly in the world. CNRS journal with an international audience, devoted to a number of aspects of the prehistory and International Journal of Middle East Studies protohistory of south-western Asia, including www.jstor.org/journals/00207438.html Arabia. CNRS Editions, 15 rue Malebranche, F- IJMES is a quarterly journal publishing original 75005 Paris. Further information from Genevieve research on politics, society and culture in the Dollfus, [email protected] Middle East from the seventh century to the present day. It is published by Cambridge University Press Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies under the auspices of the Middle East Studies www.arabianseminar.org.uk/proceedings.html Association of North America. Email ISBN 190573901X. £45.00. 299 pages; numerous [email protected] figures, plans, maps, drawings and photographs.

Journal of the British-Yemeni Society Saudi Aramco World http://www.al-bab.com/bys/journal.htm www.saudiaramcoworld.com ISSN 1356-0229. Contact the Honorary Secretary, British-Yemeni Society, 2 Lisgar Terrace, London Tribulus, Journal of the Emirates Natural W14 8SJ. Tel: 020 7603 8895. History Group www.enhg.org/trib/tribpdf.htm Journal of Near Eastern Studies ISSN 1019-6919. PO Box 45553, Abu Dhabi, UAE. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/jnes/current This now appears annually, rather than bi-annually. ISSN 0022-2968. Based in Chicago, JNES has been devoted to an examination of the civilizations of the Wildlife Middle East News www.wmenews.com

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SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS AND OTHER ONLINE

RESOURCES

Significant information is only given below for new British Institute of Persian Studies organisations. For further details on organisations www.bips.ac.uk which have been described in previous editions, please see either the websites listed or the Bulletin British Institute for the Study of Iraq online at : www.society www.britac.ac.uk/institutes/iraq forarabianstudies.org/bulletin.shtml British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage www.dur.ac.uk/brismes (ADACH) www.cultural.org.ae British-Iraqi Friendship Society www.britishiraqi.co.uk Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey BIFS aims to inform the British public about all www.adias-uae.com aspects of Iraqi life and culture, including its ADIAS has now been absorbed into ADACH, but history, heritage, art, performing arts, language and this website still contains a record of its activities. traditions.

Al Ain National Museum British-Yemeni Society www.aam.gov.ae www.al-bab.com/bys/articles/douglas06.htm

Al-Bab Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab http://www.al-bab.com/ World Abundant data relating to the Arab world, aiming to www.casaw.org introduce non-Arabs to the Arabs and their culture. Centre Français d'Archéologie et de Sciences American Institute for Yemeni Studies Sociales de Sanaa (CEFAS) www.aiys.org www.cefas.com.ye/homeng.html

Arab-British Centre Council for Arab-British Understanding http://www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/ www.caabu.org

Arabian Wildlife Council for British Research in the Levant www.arabianwildlife.com www.cbrl.org.uk

Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Deutches Archäologisches Institut, Orient Areas (ASWA[AA]) Department www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/workaswa.htm www.dainst.org/abteilung.php?id=270

Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and Friends of the Hadhramaut the Near East www.hadhramaut.co.uk www.astene.org.uk

Friends of Soqotra Atlas of Breeding Birds of Arabia www.friendsofsoqotra.org www.dspace.dial.pipex.com/arabian.birds%20

Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter Bahrain Society University www.bahrainsociety.com www.huss.ex.ac.uk/iais

Barakat Trust George Lewis Fine Art www.barakat.org George Lewis is an artist and photographer whose

art focuses on the Middle East. He will be exhibiting British Association for Near Eastern in London at the Mathaf Gallery in June 2010. His Archaeology work can be seen at www.georgelewisart.com and www.banea.org on the cover of the Bulletin. Contact

[email protected] for more details. British Council, Middle East pages www.britishcouncil.org/me.htm

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Janet Rady Fine Art Oxford Brookes Archaeology and Heritage Janet Rady is dedicated to representing Middle (OBAH) Eastern Artists in the broadest possible sense, and heritage.brookes.ac.uk/Home.html now produces a monthly newsletter. Contact A new grouping offering specialist consultancy in [email protected] or see: Arabian archaeology, heritage and environments. www.janetradyfineart.com/html/home.asp Palestine Exploration Fund London Centre for the Ancient Near East www.pef.org.uk www.soas.ac.uk/academics/departments/nme/ane/lc ane Royal Asiatic Society royalasiaticsociety.org London Middle East Institute www.lmei.soas.ac.uk Saudi Arabian Natural History Society For further information contact the acting Mathaf Gallery coordinator Margaret Thomson, on www.mathafgallery.com [email protected], or the Secretary Janet Jacobsen, [email protected] MBI Al Jaber Foundation www.mbifoundation.com Saudi–British Society www.saudibritishsociety.org.uk National Museum of Ras al-Khaimah Seminar for Arabian Studies www.rakmuseum.gov.ae%20 www.arabianseminar.org.uk/aboutus.html

Oman & Arabia Natural History Society for Arabian Studies www.oman.org/nath00.htm www.societyforarabianstudies.org

Ornithological Society of the Middle East UAE Interact, Culture Pages www.osme.org www.uaeinteract.com/culture See this page for the latest editions of OSME's journal, Sandgrouse

OBITUARIES Serge Cleuziou left us in Paris on 7 October Mission in Abu Dhabi, where his name was 2009, at the age of 64, after a long battle with quickly associated with the Hili 8 excavation in cancer. The community of archaeologists the Al-Ain oais, and later the French team of working in the Arabian Peninsula experienced the Joint Hadd Project/Ja‘alan, where he with sadness the passing of one who began as a actively participated in the work at Ras al-Jinz. researcher at the Centre National de la Serge Cleuziou quickly imposed himself as one Recherche Scientifique (1977–2003), and then of the main actors of this second phase of the Professor of Near Eastern archaeology at the regional archaeological researches, several University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne decades after the pioneering work of the (2003–09). Until his death, he headed the Moesgaard expeditions from Denmark. He CNRS team, Du village à l’état au Proche et owed this high status at first to his exceptional Moyen-Orient. knowledge of ancient Gulf cultures acquired Following in the steps of his master, Jean during numerous fieldwork missions, intense Deshayes, Serge Cleuziou’s research was first professional encounters, a large reading devoted to the Balkans, then Iran where he experience and above all exchanges with a participated notably in the Tureng Tepe professional community which particularly excavations, as well as in a strategic project of appreciated his communication skills at annual survey and sampling of ancient copper mines. sessions of the Seminar for Arabian Studies or Like many scholars concerned by the the South Asian Archaeology Conference. political events in Iran at the end of the 1970s, It must also be noted that by the late 1960s he chose to work in the vast and nascent field Serge Cleuziou was an active participant in the of Eastern Arabian archaeology, and beginning evolution of archaeological thought in France, in 1977 worked principally in the United Arab following the steps of the Anglo-Saxon New Emirates and in Oman. There, he headed Archaeology, which was hotly debated in successively the French Archaeological France. His exceptional ability to use the

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theoretical frame of processual archaeology founded Yarmouk University to set up and with intelligence and caution deeply affected direct the Corpus of the Inscriptions of Jordan his thinking about his own research in Arabia. Project aimed at recording as many as possible Thanks to him, the regions of Eastern Arabia, of the ancient inscriptions of Jordan. then largely neglected, were no longer Annie and I soon got to know Geraldine, considered as simple, peripheral cultures of the and she spent quite a lot of her spare time with Fertile Crescent, but acquired the status of us and with our circle of friends at the British major commercial and cultural actors between Institute at Amman for Archaeology and Mesopotamia, Iran and the Indus. History (now the CBRL), which was also near If his untimely disappearance deprives us of the University. During this time she became the final publications of his main excavations interested in the ancient inscriptions on which I (which will undoubtedly be completed by his was working and so, when she had completed closest collaborators), this great scientist leaves her course at SOAS in 1980, she came back to behind him about a hundred articles and book Jordan and joined Annie and me working for contributions. These last years, Serge kept the project at Yarmouk, thus increasing its staff himself occupied writing, together with by 50 percent, to three! Maurizio Tosi, the synthetic monograph In the Geraldine quickly learnt the dialects and the Shadow of the Ancestors: The Prehistoric scripts and made one of the most lasting Foundations of the Early Arabian civilization contributions to the project by compiling a in Oman (reviewed above, pp. 52–4) where the huge card index (this was before computers reader can find again with pleasure and respect were in general use) of the many and varied not only the rigorous scientist, but also the interpretations of every single one of the 40,000 great pedagogue he was for all of us. inscriptions known at the time, which has Pierre Lombard proved invaluable in the creation of the Safaitic Database, soon to go on line. She also took part Geraldine Margaret Harmsworth King died in the Project’s fieldwork in the basalt desert of on 12 October 2009, at the all too early age of north-eastern Jordan, in which we combed the 56. Over the previous three years, she had sea of broken-up lava for stones with fought the onset, and eventual spread, of cancer inscriptions and rock-drawings carved on them. with her habitual courage and determination, She quickly became very proficient at reading, and she will be very sorely missed by her copying and photographing the inscriptions, family, especially her daughter Ellie, and her which is a meticulous and time-consuming numerous friends throughout the world. task, not helped by the swarms of flies, the Geraldine was born in 1953 and grew up on intense heat and the occasional attentions of her parents’ farm in Wiltshire. After leaving inquisitive snakes or scorpions. She also school, she spent a year teaching English in continued to use her colloquial Arabic talking Ethiopia, and then read Philosophy at the to the Bedouin who came to visit us and to our University of Durham. After graduating, she Jordanian colleagues on the expedition. spent a year teaching in the Sudan and it was In the early 1980s, Alistair Killick invited there that she made up her mind to study her to undertake an epigraphic survey in the Arabic. This she did at the School of Oriental environs of the Roman fort of Udhruh, near and African Studies, University of London, and Petra in southern Jordan, in connection with his as part of her course, she spent a year, in 1979, excavations at the site. This was her first at the Jordan University in Amman, living in encounter with the Hismaic inscriptions of the women’s hostel, where she quickly became southern Jordan, which are of a different type fluent in spoken Arabic, while continuing to from the Safaitic in the north and were at that study the written language. time far less known. A few years later, in 1986 At this time, my wife, Annie Searight, and I and 1987, she set off with a surveyor, Hugh were living in Amman, in a house behind the Barnes, to the Hisma desert of southern Jordan University. I had been working with the where they spent thirteen weeks, he putting the archaeologist and epigraphist Gerald Lankester positions of the inscriptions on a series of Harding, Director of Antiquities of Jordan from maps, while she, single-handedly, recorded 1936 to 1956, and a great expert on Ancient over 1,500 inscriptions and drawings. She later North and South Arabian inscriptions. After his produced an edition of most of these as her death in 1979, I was invited to join the recently doctoral thesis at SOAS in 1990. But her thesis

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was far more than this. In it, she also restudied computers were a great deal more primitive all the other Hismaic inscriptions known at that than they are today, designed a font to represent time, and made the first detailed analysis of the letter forms and produced concordances of every aspect of this type of text – from the all the texts, as an essential tool to be used in script, grammar, vocabulary and names, to the their decipherment. The fact that they have not different types of prayer they contained, and the yet been deciphered is certainly not her fault, rock drawings which often accompanied them. since she did everything possible to facilitate it. Although she never published it, her thesis The problem, as always in these cases, is that quickly became, and has remained, the standard we do not know what language they were reference book on the subject, and photocopies written in. of it can be found throughout the world in In 1995 and 1996 she again came into the academic libraries dealing with ancient Jordan field when she brought her invaluable skills, and Arabia. It is very much hoped that her her indefatigable energy, and calm thesis will finally be published in the near companionship to the first and second seasons future. of the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, In the autumn of 1988, Geraldine heard that which I was directing in southern Syria. I am oil prospectors were clearing long tracks immensely grateful to her for all she through the basalt desert of north-eastern contributed to these expeditions and to the Jordan to allow the movement of huge others on which we have worked together. machines which sent pulses deep into the earth After 1996, Geraldine took on the more to check for the presence of oil-bearing rocks. important and more rewarding role of a being a In the process, large numbers of inscriptions, mother. However, although she no longer took rock drawings, and archaeological sites were part in fieldwork, she continued, whenever being destroyed. So she quickly organised, and possible, to prepare her finds for publication. found funding for, a rescue survey of the area In addition to her research, Geraldine also which would work just ahead of the bulldozers served as the Secretary and organiser of the recording everything which was to be Seminar for Arabian Studies between 1992 and destroyed. The mission, which consisted solely 1996. In this role she not only single-handedly of Geraldine and her equally intrepid colleague organised the annual conferences in Oxford, Becca Montague, lasted from late January to Cambridge, Manchester, and London, but late March 1989, a period of icy winds and edited each year's papers in volumes, which alternate snow and heavy rains. They lived in were published in time for the conference the the camps of the oil-exploration workers and following year, jobs which are now done by did an incredibly valuable job in the harsh two people with several helpers. In this, Ger- wintry conditions. Geraldine recorded over aldine was working extremely hard to help 3,700 inscriptions and rock drawings and Becca other scholars make their work known. When surveyed and recorded over 400 archaeological her death was announced, the Seminar cir- sites. Geraldine has been editing the culated the sad news to all those on its mailing inscriptions ever since, whenever she has had list and received an enormous number of warm the chance, and they are now almost ready for messages from those, all over the world, who publication. Again, I hope to ensure that they remember her with great affection and respect. will be published as soon as possible. This is not at all surprising, because, as well In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, carved as being an excellent scholar, she was a warm, and painted inscriptions in a previously loyal, affectionate friend and these were unknown South Semitic alphabet were qualities felt by all who came into contact with discovered in the mountains of Dhofar, her. She was someone who could always be southern Oman, by Ali Ahmad al-Mahash al- relied on, who could be gentle and fun, but was Shahri. He needed an expert in ancient Arabian capable of great courage and endurance, and inscriptions to work with him in recording who responded with enthusiasm to challenges. these texts and to see if they could be In short, her monument is not only in her deciphered. Geraldine again raised money for academic legacy, but in all those whose lives the survey and worked with him and a surveyor she touched. for two seasons in 1991 and 1992, recording M.C.A. Macdonald some 900 inscriptions. She not only wrote full Professor John Barrett Kelly was the reports on these surveys but, at a time when foremost Western historian of Arabia and the

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Gulf of his generation. He was born in shaikhdoms and Oman with Saudi Arabia. His Auckland, New Zealand, on 4 April 1925. He first book, Eastern Arabian Frontiers (Faber was educated at Sacred Heart College, and Faber, 1964) was based on this work. University College, Auckland (later Auckland In the meantime J.B. had left Oxford for the University), and the University of London United States, where he held a series of (LSE and KCL). After receiving his PhD, on teaching posts in the 1960s at Ohio Wesleyan Britain and the Persian Gulf in the first half of College in Delaware, Ohio, the University of the 19th century, “J.B.”, as he was known to Michigan at Ann Arbor, and the University of family and friends, became a research fellow at Wisconsin at Madison, where he became the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at Professor of Imperial History and published his Oxford University, from 1955 to 1958, under magnum opus, Britain and the Persian Gulf, the guidance of the Director, Sir Reader 1795–1880 (Clarendon Press, Oxford,1968). Bullard, former British Ambassador to Iran As Britain withdrew from Aden in 1967 and during the Second World War, and a British prepared to withdraw from the Gulf in 1971, Minister to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. It was J.B. left academia and became an advisor to with the encouragement of Bullard, who was to Shaikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi on his disputed become his mentor, that J.B. paid his first trip frontiers with Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Coming to the Gulf in 1957. He visited Iraq in the dying up against the increasingly pro-Saudi alignment days of the Hashemite regime and then flew on of the British Foreign and Commonwealth in a light plane (piloted by an Australian who Office and the U.S. State Department, J.B. liked to fly with his feet) to the Trucial Coast. fought hard to make the best case for Abu The only Europeans in Abu Dhabi at that time Dhabi for the retention of the Khaur al-Udayd were either oil company men, Foreign Office on the marches of Qatar, which the Saudis diplomats or soldiers. The British Political coveted as an outlet to the lower Gulf, and the Officer, the Hon. Martin Buckmaster (later the tract of desert south of the Liwa Oases, which 3rd Viscount) introduced J.B. to the ruler, contained the newly-discovered Shaiba oilfield, Shaikh Shakhbut, before taking him to see his then the largest strike in the world. In the end brother, Shaikh Zayed, in the Buraimi Oasis, he was thwarted by the murky compromises of which controlled the routes between inner Arabian and international politics. This Oman and the Trucial Coast. J.B. was to form a experience resulted in the conviction that firm friendship with both brothers, which was Britain’s hasty withdrawal from the Gulf had to survive the political turmoil in Abu Dhabi in destabilised the region, leaving the smaller the following two decades. This was based on states prey to the territorial ambitions of their J.B.’s knowledge of the tribes and history of larger neighbours, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, Eastern Arabia and his ability to talk to and the West to oil blackmail. This view was Shakhbut and Zayed about them. His visit to not popular in Whitehall and the City of Buraimi, from where the British-officered London, where eyes were firmly fixed on Trucial Oman Scouts had ejected an American- recycling petrodollars through arms sales and backed Saudi force two years before, was lavish infrastructure projects. But it seemed to instructive. Buckmaster soon picked up signs find a ready audience in the then Leader of that the Saudis were retaliating by stirring up HM’s Opposition, Margaret Thatcher and her the tribes of inner Oman, with arms and money. Centre for Policy Studies. It led him, J.B. passed this information on to the British encouraged by the likes of Elie Kedourie and Political Resident in Bahrain, Sir Bernard David Pryce-Jones, to write Arabia, the Gulf Burrows. The latter discounted the news, and the West (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980, coming as it did from a Gulf ingénu, and a and Basic Books, 1981). This book made a colonial to boot. Burrows returned on leave to great impact in Washington, D.C., following London, only to be called back to the Gulf in a the demise of the Carter Administration over hurry in July 1957 when the Imamate rebellion Iran and the search by the incoming Reagan broke out in Oman. J.B.’s first publication, Administration for a new, robust Gulf policy. written for Chatham House, was a paper on the As a Visiting Research Fellow at the Woodrow revolt. His growing expertise on the tribes of Wilson Centre and the Heritage Foundation in Eastern Arabia was soon in demand by the Washington in the early 1980s, J.B.’s advice on British Foreign Office, who hired him to advise the Gulf was sought by Administration on the long-disputed boundaries of the Trucial officials, Senators, Congressmen, journalists

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and think-tanks. He was directly involved in excavations and research, their connections in lobbying against the sale of AWACs early- the international archaeological community warning aircraft to Saudi Arabia, arguing that it meant that a steady stream of foreign teams would further destabilise the region. came to work in Ra‘s al-Khaimah, from Subsequently, he advised the Government of Germany, Britain, France and Japan, for Oman on their disputed frontiers with Saudi example. Through their publications and Arabia and South Yemen, paying trips to inner participation in academic seminars abroad, in Oman, Dhofar and the Musandam Peninsula. particular at the annual Seminar for Arabian J.B. left Washington in 1988 and the Studies in London, Ra‘s al-Khaimah, small, following year retired with his wife to south- impoverished and lacking in resources, became western France. He died in Albi on 29 August one of the best-known areas of the Arabian 2009. He is survived by his wife, son and Gulf in terms of its archaeology. daughter. Sheikh Sultan deserves much of the credit Saul Kelly for that achievement. Unlike some members of UAE ruling families, appointed to posts in Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Deputy which they had little personal interest, he Ruler of the UAE emirate of Ra‘s al-Khaimah, consistently kept an eye on the work of his died on 11 December 2009. Son of the ruler, department, talking to the archaeological teams, Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, who listening to their suggestions and advice, and came to power in 1948, Sheikh Sultan was born then acting on it. One result was a programme in 1946 and had been deputy ruler for many of protection and restoration of many of the years, his brothers Sheikh Khalid (until 2003) emirate’s most important sites, ranging from and Sheikh Saud (since 2003) occupying the Bronze Age Shimal to the late Islamic fortess at more senior position of Crown Prince. Dhayah, the last stronghold of the Ra‘s al- Sheikh Sultan was best-known to the Khaimah sheikhs in the war in 1819–20 with academic community through his long and the British that led to the establishment of a dedicated service as Chairman of the emirate’s 150-year British presence in what was to Department of Antiquities and Museums. In become the United Arab Emirates. this role, he guided the transformation of his A fuller overview of Sheikh Sultan’s work father’s old fort and palace into the National will appear in a subsequent issue of the Museum of Ra‘s al-Khaimah, which has Newsletter. For this issue, it will suffice to note become a popular destination for tourists and that his contribution to the creation and UAE visitors alike. management of the process by which the More importantly, he actively encouraged archaeological and architectural heritage of foreign academic teams to become involved in Ra‘s al-Khaimah was recorded and preserved the study of Ra‘s al-Khaimah's archaeo- was immense. The people of Ra‘s al-Khaimah logy. Developing an early interest during Bea- and many of those who are now leading figures trice de Cardi’s ground-breaking surveys in the in Arabian archaeology are indebted to him. late 1960s, these being followed by Iraqi Peter Hellyer excavations in the early 1970s, he was responsible for sponsoring the first excavations Sheila Unwin, my mother, who has died aged at the Islamic port-city of Julfar by John 89, was an expert in Swahili and Arab culture. Hansman and the excavations by Peter At the age of 86, she fulfilled her lifelong Donaldson in Shimal and Ghalilah later in the ambition and published a book, The Arab Chest same decade. (Arabian Publishing, 2006), a personal yet Lacking sufficient funds to permit the year- erudite account of her quest for the origins of round appointment of further professional these brass-studded wooden pieces of furniture staff, Sheikh Sultan had the idea of recruiting found all over the Gulf and East Africa. This young European archaeologists who might be unique contribution to the study of Arabian and interested in spending the winter months, from Indian Ocean trade received critical acclaim October to April, working in the Emirate. and has become a boon to collectors. Burkhard Vogt was the first, followed by Derek This fascination began as long ago as the Kennet, who was succeeded by Christian late 1940s when, after the war, she and my Velde, who continues to hold the post of father went to Tanganyika to work on the ill- resident archaeologist today. Besides their own fated Groundnut Scheme, where they lived in a

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tent for the first two years of their married life. 1945 she was posted to north Germany, where During the revolution in Zanzibar in 1964, she she met my father, who famously drove her rescued an Arab family and, in return, into a tree for which she never forgave him. Muhammad Matar gave her first option on his They married in 1946 and divorced in 1970. latest shipment of 60 chests, which she bought After the divorce, she returned to her for the sum of £600 borrowed from a trusting beloved East Africa and, hard up, undertook a bank manager. From that moment on she had to soul-destroying job with the United Nations as know their provenance, and she became a a stenographer; in her leisure time she went on latter-day Freya Stark, travelling alone in the archaeological digs with Neville Chittick, her 1960s and 1970s through Ethiopia, Yemen, the soul mate, whom she had first met in the 1950s Gulf States, Pakistan, Iran, India and Turkey; in when my parents, now in the colonial service, the 1980s she joined successive expeditions to lived in Kilwa; she participated in historic digs Baluchistan as a cultural advisor. in Manda, Pate and Lamu islands, where she She was born Sheila Mills in Scotland and and Neville bought a house. She also started grew up in Norfolk; her father, Findlay, whom collecting tribal handicrafts, many of which are she revered, was a First World War hero and now with the Exeter Museum. won a Military Cross; he was also rumoured to She returned to England in the 1970s, living be the illegitimate son of Lord Sackville-West. first near Oxford and then in Branscombe, After leaving school where she had excelled Devon. She was a warm and popular person, academically, she went to St James Secretarial with a vast array of friends from all over the College where she was very proud of achieving world, many of whom turned up for her 150 wpm shorthand. She was also an excellent prestigious book launch, where she sat artist and her beautifully illustrated school resplendent and elegant in a gold gelabia, the history books bear witness to this as do her zenith of her remarkable life. later paintings. Her greatest regret was that the She is survived by me, her two war prevented her from going to university. grandchildren, Tommy and Louise, her sister, She was a Second Officer in the WRNS Rosemary and by her ex-husband, Tom, with during the war, most of which she spent in whom she remained on good terms. Egypt, working as Signals Officer for Admiral Vicky Unwin Ramsay and planning the invasion of Sicily. In

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Society for Arabian Studies Monograph Series Series editors: D. Kennet & St J. Simpson

In 2004 the Society launched this series and we have now published eight titles with five more forthcoming which are at post-referee stages of production. The aim is to include research-based studies, conference proceedings, archaeological excavation or survey reports, and theses where the contents mark an important synthesis or a significant addition to knowledge. Creating a specific monograph series within the British Archaeological Reports International Series is intended to allow libraries, institutions and individuals to keep abreast of work that is specifically related to their areas of research. Whilst research and conference volumes in the series will all be peer- reviewed according to normal academic procedures, the decision was taken to allow the publication of doctoral theses, field reports, catalogues and other data-rich work without peer review where this will permit the publication of information that, for one reason or another, might not otherwise be made available. The latest flyer giving details of our publications can be downloaded from the Society’s website. Any authors interested in publishing their research on an Arabian topic are encouraged to contact either of the Monograph editors in the first instance.

PUBLISHED MONOGRAPHS Derek Kennet, with a contribution by Regina Krahl Sasanian and Islamic Pottery from Ras al-Khaimah Classification, chronology and analysis of trade in the Western Indian Ocean Archaeopress: BAR S1248 (2004). Society for Arabian Studies Monographs, No. 1, ISBN: 1-84171-608-1 £32.00

Paul Lunde & Alexandra Porter (eds) Trade and Travel in the Red Sea Region: Proceedings of Red Sea Project I held in the British Museum, October 2002 Archaeopress: BAR S1269 (2004). Society for Arabian Studies Monographs, No. 2, ISBN: 1-84171-622-7. £33.00

Janet C. M. Starkey (ed.) People of the Red Sea: Proceedings of Red Sea Project II held in the British Museum, October 2004 Archaeopress: BAR S1395 (2005). Society for Arabian Studies Monographs, No. 3. ISBN: 1-8417-18335 £30.00. iv+176 pages; 35 figures, plans, drawings and photographs; 7 maps; 7 tables; index.

Nadia Durrani The Tihamah Coastal Plain of South-west Arabia in its Regional Context c. 6000 BC – AD 600 Archaeopress: BAR S1456 (2005). Society for Arabian Studies Monographs, No. 4. ISBN: 1-84171-8947 £32.00. 164 pages, b/w tables, figs, pls.

Janet C. M. Starkey, Paul Starkey & Tony Wilkinson (eds) Natural Resources and Cultural Connections of the Red Sea: Proceedings of Red Sea Project III held in the British Museum, October 2006. Archaeopress; BAR S1661, Society for Arabian Studies Monographs No. 5. ISBN: 9781407300979. £36.00.

Michel Mouton La Péninsule d’Oman de la fin de l’Age du Fer au début de la période sassanide Archaeopress; BAR –S1776, (2008) Society for Arabian Studies Monographs No. 6. ISBN 978 1 4073 0264 5 £55.00. (250 av. – 350 ap. JC)

Eric Olijdam & Richard. H. Spoor (eds) Intercultural Relations between South and Southwest Asia Studies in commemoration of E.C.L. During Caspers (1934-1996) BAR –S1826, (2008) Society for Arabian Studies Monographs No. 7. ISBN 9781407303123. £54.00.

******* POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTORS Please contact the editors in the first instance: Dr Derek Kennet, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK [email protected] or Dr St John Simpson Department of the Middle East, The British Museum, London WC1B 3DG, UK. [email protected]

MONOGRAPH ORDERS TO Hadrian Books, 122 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7BP, UK. Tel: +44(0)1865-310431. [email protected] or visit www.archaeopress.com

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