The Bfsa Bulletin
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Number 21, 2016 Price: £5.00 THE BFSA BULLETIN The Latest News and Research in the Arabian Peninsula The BFSA Bulletin (British Foundation for the Study of Arabia) Number 21, 2016 British Foundation for the Study of Arabia Contents (BFSA) formerly the Society for Arabian Studies WELCOME 3 CONFERENCES & EVENTS 50 BFSA NEWS 4 Completed 2015/16 50 BFSA Trustees Publications Forthcoming 2016/7 52 THE BFSA 4 President Miss Beatrice de Cardi OBE FBA Bulletin Dr Sarah Doherty (Editor) Ms Sarah Searight, NEW PUBLICATIONS ON ARABIA 54 Chair Ms Carolyn Perry Mrs Ionis Thompson, Mr William Facey (Book Reviews), BFSA LECTURES 4 Treasurer Mr Simon Alderson Ms Carolyn Perry, Dr Tim Power (Research) BFSA CONFERENCES 5 JOURNALS & MAGAZINES 55 Honorary Secretary Mr Michael Macdonald Monographs Dr Derek Kennet, Dr St John Simpson The Seminar for Arabian Studies 6 (Editors) SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS & Lectures Mrs Ionis Thompson MONOGRAPH SERIES 7 OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES 57 Website co-ordinator Mr Robert Wilson Seminar for Arabian Studies NEWS & RESEARCH 8 Dr Noel Brehony CMG BOOK REVIEWS 58 Dr Derek Kennet (Chair), Dr Robert Wilson (Treasurer), Dr GRANTS-IN-AID 9 Orhan Elmaz (Joint Editor of PSAS), Dr Janet Starkey (Joint LIVES REMEMBERED 68 Dr Rob Carter Detecting subsurface remains with Radar 9 Editor of PSAS), Dr Mark Beech, Dr Rob Carter, Dr Nadia Beatrice de Cardi Mr Michael Crawford THE BFSA TRUSTEES 10 Durrani, Prof Robert G. Hoyland, Dr Julian Jansen van Patricia Crone Prof Clive Holes FBA Rensburg, Mr Michael C.A. Macdonald, Dr Harry Munt, Dr NEWS & RESEARCH BY COUNTRY Hugh Leach Dr Derek Kennet Venetia Porter, Dr St John Simpson, Dr Lucy Wadeson, Dr St John Simpson BAHRAIN 12 Ms Aisa Martinez LAST WORD 72 Additional Members of PSAS Committee KUWAIT 14 Dr Robert Wilson The Destruction of Cultural Heritage Prof Alessandra Avanzini, Prof Soumyen Bandyopadhyay, OMAN 15 in Yemen 72 Dr Ricardo Eichmann, Prof Clive Holes, Prof Khalil Al- QATAR 20 Grants Muaikel, Professor Daniel T. Potts and Prof Christian J. Message from MBI Al Jaber Foundation 73 Chair Dr Derek Kennet Robin SAUDI ARABIA 29 Dr Lucy Blue, Dr Nadia Durrani UAE 35 YEMEN 43 Notes for contributors to the Bulletin AWARDS AND PRIZES 44 The Bulletin depends on the good will of BFSA members and correspondents to provide contributions. News, items of general interest, details of completed postgraduate research, forthcoming conferences, meetings and special events are AVAILABLE GRANTS 45 welcome. Please email: [email protected] Grants in aid of research The grants scheme has been reformulated and details, including deadlines are announced on the BFSA website https://www.thebfsa.org/content/grants WELCOME As this edition of the BFSA Bulletin was going to press we histories of Oman (page 16). Don’t miss Mark Evan’s article Membership received the sad news that our President, Beatrice De Cardi, on the explorer Bertram Thomas (page 15) and an exciting had passed away, one month after her 102nd birthday. An new find of an Aramaic-Hasaitic Funerary Inscription Membership details are available from the BFSA website www.thebfsa.org. For membership renewals contact William obituary for Beatrice appears in this Bulletin. She will be Mentioning the King of ʿUmān by Bruno Overlaet (page 38). Deadman, BFSA Membership Secretary, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, greatly missed by us all. or email: [email protected] You’ll also find information on BFSA such as our expanded The 2016 Bulletin contains a wealth of information on Arabia grants scheme, monograph series and events. For other enquiries, contact: related conferences and lectures, publications, resources and The Hon. Secretary, Mr Michael Macdonald, The British Foundation for the Study of Arabia, c/o The Department of the funding bodies, and our Last Word article from Dr St John If you have anything to contribute to next year’s Bulletin Middle East, The British Museum, London, WC1B 3DG or email: [email protected] Simpson documents the terrible destruction of the cultural please email: [email protected]. and stay up to Website: www.thebfsa.org or tweet @TheBFSA heritage of Yemen. date with BFSA on Facebook and on Twitter @TheBFSA. BFSA Bulletin ISSN: 2050-2036 BFSA Registered Charity No. 1003272 New discoveries include our ‘cover story’ - the exciting work Kind thanks also to all of the many contributors to the of the Umm Lajj 1 shipwreck team discovering wrecks off Bulletin, and to you, the reader, for your continued support of the coast of Jeddah: a write-up of their work appears on page the BFSA The BFSA is sincerely grateful to the MBI Al Jaber 31. Other discoveries and developments also feature in the Foundation for supporting the Bulletin. News and Research by country section – from a round-up of On the cover: Discovering porcelain bowls off the coast of Jeddah Bahraini news from Prof Tim Insoll (page 12) to the water Dr Sarah K. Doherty (Editor) @sherd_nerd Photo: Chiara Zazzaro and Romolo Loreto 3 The BFSA Bulletin (British Foundation for the Study of Arabia) BFSA Lectures Number 21, 2016 These posters, previously hidden and not mentioned in the SOTA Research Centre for Turkish and Arabic World who file’s catalogue description, are now online and fully provided the Ottoman perspective. This event was supported BFSA NEWS discoverable in any searches for the keywords ‘propaganda’ by the British Museum, the BFSA and the MBI Al Jaber Foundation partnership (BLQFP) and the bi-lingual (English/ or ‘poster’. Foundation. THE BFSA Arabic) online portal that it has created, the Qatar Digital Library (QDL). The QDL was launched in November 2014 Mr Allday also discussed contextual articles written by The British Foundation for the Study of Arabia (BFSA) was and can be found at www.qdl.qa. Since its launch, the QDL himself and other BLQFP curators for the QDL site, and BFSA CONFERENCES formed in 2010 through the merger of the Society for site has been used by an average 10-12,000 users per month, provided some examples of how these articles have led to Arabian Studies (1987) and the Seminar for Arabian Studies primarily in the US, UK and across the Gulf region (in interactions with members of the public who have personal (1968). We aim to act as a focal point and advocate for the Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the UAE). and familial connections to the political history contained in The Seminar for study of Arabia’s cultural heritage and to advance public the IOR files. He and other members of the team are keen to knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula through the promotion The BLQFP has two main branches: the enhanced encourage more interactions of this kind. You can follow the Arabian Studies of research into its history, antiquities, archaeology, cataloguing and digitization of a number of the library’s project on Twitter at @BLQatar. ethnography, languages, literature, art, culture, customs, Arabic-language scientific manuscripts from around the The Seminar for Arabian Studies, founded in 1968, is the only international forum that meets annually for the geography, geology and natural history. We do this through Islamic World, and the enhanced cataloguing and Report by Marylyn Whaymand the raising of money, organization of events and the digitization of India Office Record (IOR) materials related to presentation of the latest academic research in the supporting of research and publications. the history of the Persian Gulf and the broader Middle East. 17 March 2016 humanities on the Arabian Peninsula from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social It was the latter aspect of the project that Louis introduced in Architecture that “fills the eye;” building traditions in The BFSA organises lectures, oversees the annual Seminar for history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922). the lecture. highland Yemen Arabian Studies, publishes its own monograph series, and by Prof Trevor Marchand, Professor of Social Anthropology supports research and publications on the region. Full details Papers read at the Seminar are published in the Proceedings The IOR files contain a wealth of information regarding at SOAS. can be found at our website: http://www.thebfsa.org. The of the Seminar for Arabian Studies in time for the Seminar of Britain’s colonial role in the Gulf, notably in the archives of For nearly two decades, headline news about Yemen has following BFSA News pages will explore this work in more the following year. The Proceedings therefore contain new the numerous political agencies and residencies through dwelt on Islamic extremists and political turmoil, and more detail. which Britain administered its informal empire in the region. research on Arabia and reports of new discoveries in the recently on a Civil War that is destroying livelihoods and Peninsula in a wide range of disciplines. They also contain earlier records related to the East India heritage. By contrast, this lecture celebrated one of the Company’s involvement in the Gulf (and broader region) that great cultural achievements of that country: namely its The Steering Committee is delighted to acknowledge the begun in the 17th Century and which Britain’s later colonial architecture. BFSA LECTURES domination grew out of. The private papers of relevant continued support and generosity of the MBI Al Jaber individuals (including Gertrude Bell and Lord Curzon) are Foundation and the British Museum. also being uploaded on to the QDL site, as well as John 21 April 2016 Lectures delivered Gordon Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Oman’s unique position in the archaeology of pre- The 50th Seminar for Arabian Studies was held from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st July 2016 at the British 4 June 2015 Central Arabia, a well-known, multi-volume intelligence Islamic Arabia report that was published in secret by the British by Carl Phillips Museum, London.