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Syrian Studies Association Newsletter SSASSA Syrian Studies Association Newsletter Volume 12, Number 1 Spring 2006 SSA on the Web: www.ou.edu/ssa Inside this issue: From the President Peter Sluglett, Professor of History From the President 1 University of Utah, Salt Lake City Syrian Studies in Russia 3 Guests of the Sheikha 4 Student Voices 6 Dear Colleagues, News of Members 7 I am delighted to have been elected President of the Notices of Books 8 Syrian Studies Association. It is a pleasant duty to thank my immediate Conferences 11 predecessor, Dawn Chatty, for the energy and commitment she has brought to Election Ballot 15 the position. I would also like to convey special thanks, both on my own behalf and on behalf of the Association, to the retiring Secretary/Treasurer, Sherry Vatter, for her extraordinary dedication over so many years. I hope that Annie Members of the Board: Higgins and I will be able to steer the Association through what promise to be President lively times ahead. Peter Sluglett Continuing its tradition of panel sponsorship, the SSA supported three Past President panels at MESA in Washington DC in November 2005. These were “Between Dawn Chatty a ‘Spring’ and a ‘Fall’: Lebanon and Syria at a Crossroads” (Amal Ghazal Secretary-Treasurer and Jens Hanssen); “Syria: Change at the Margins” (Fred Lawson), and “The Annie Higgins Levantine Bourgeoisie between Empire and Nation State” (Geoffrey Schad). Member at Large Fred Lawson In addition, several members of the SSA took part in a special ‘thematic Student Representative conversation’ on 20 November in honour of the work of André Raymond Faedah Totah (whom the SSA has elected to honorary membership). Sadly, Professor Prize Committee Chair Raymond’s doctor had advised him not to take the long flight from Marseille to Mary Wilson the United States, but about fifty people attended the session. It was a particular Lifetime Nominating pleasure to see (and hear) so many younger admirers of André Raymond, and Committee Chair also to hear that one of his most influential works,Artisans et Commerçants Peter Sluglett Book Review Editor au Caire au XVIIIe siècle, first published in Damascus in 1973, has now been Steve Tamari translated into Arabic. Newsletter Editor I shall be spending most of next academic year at the American University Elyse Semerdjian of Beirut, and hope to be able to make many visits to Syria while I am there. Webmaster I intend to finish editing the proceedings of the conference onBilad al-Sham Joshua Landis under Ottoman rule (1517-1918), held in Beirut and Damascus in May-June Beirut Representative Stefan Weber 2004 to honour of the work of Professor Abdul-Karim Rafeq, which will be Damascus Representative published by E.J. Brill in 2007. Mohamed Kamel Dorai -Peter 1 SSA The Suq Haraj Project 2 SSA Syrian Studies in Russia Dr. Dimitry R. Zhantiev Syrian studies in Russia started in the mid-19th Panchenko is working on the history of Orthodox century with the brilliant work of the Russian consul Christian community in Ottoman Syria a topic on which stationed in Beirut, Konstantin Mikhailovitch Bazili, who he has published a monograph and several articles. Dr. wrote “Syria I Palestina pod turetskim pravitelstvom” Taras Kobischanov has been studying and comparing (“Syria and Palestine under Turkish rule”) which is the non-Muslim communities of Syria and Egypt. The still considered a very informative source. At present, history of Ottoman Syria is included in the lecture studies of Ottoman Syria are under way mostly in two courses on the history of Arab world and several special Moscow institutions: Institute of Asian and African courses and seminars which are given to the students of Studies (IAAS, Moscow State University) and Institute IAAS. Among our younger generation of scholars we of Oriental Studies (Russian Academy of sciences). should certainly mention Dr. Anastasiya Ganitch with Altogether, dozens of monographs and articles have her monograph on the Circassian diaspora in Syria and been published in Russia on Ottoman Syria (over the last Jordan which originated in the Ottoman period. decades). This subject is also often used by students for At the Academic Institute of Oriental Studies their Master thesis and post-graduate students as well as several prominent scholars are working in the field of Ph.D. dissertations. Ottoman Syria’s history. Worth mentioning is Dr. Irina As one these scholars at IAAS, I have been studying Smilyanskaya, the author of a brilliant book entitled the Tanzimat reforms in Ottoman Syria and their impact Social and Economic structure of the Near and Middle on the social, political and intellectual processes. I East on the Eve of Modern Time (in Russian), based on published Tradition and Modernization in the Arab East: Arabic Syrian sources of the 18th century. Other works of Reforms in the Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire professor Smilyanskaya include studies on the Ottoman (Moscow, 1988) and several articles on the topic in Lebanon in the mid-19th century, publication and Russian. Currently I am working on the Abdul-Hamid commentaries of numerous sources (including Russian II period in Syria and the impact of “pan-Islamism” on consular papers on Ottoman Syria from the Archive of the the intellectual elite. Another scholar, Dr. Konstantin Foreign relations of the Russian Empire). Also Professor Z. Levin is working on Arabic thought in Ottoman Syria and other Arab countries in late Ottoman and post- Ottoman periods. Besides dominant interest of Russian scholars towards Arabic and Ottoman sources on Syria, we should mention that Russian archives and the works of Russian diplomats, travelers pilgrims and clerics visiting Syria in Ottoman Age still contain lots of data for new studies and attract growing interest of both currently working scholars and perspective post-graduate students. Dr. Dimitry R. Zhantiev is a professor Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University. He specializes in the history of the Ottoman Empire and its Arab provinces. 3 SSA guests of the sheikha Conference on Arab Women Past and Present Attempts to Bridge Academic and Temporal Divides by Elyse Semerdjian Qatar is a flourishing Persian debates called “The Doha Debates” Gulf country that is truly international and attempts to create “a public in focus. It has a population of forum for dialogue and freedom of 885,000, only 180,000 of which speech in Qatar.” The debates center are native Qataris. The rest of on international political issues the population is comprised of whereby high profile speakers are Her Highness Sheikha Mozah international workers, primarily invited to present their positions South Asian. Upon entering the Doha in front of a live audience and of women’s political and economic airport one immediately encounters broadcasted on BBC World. After participation. crowds of South Asian guest workers the debate, the audience votes on a The conference was opened by anxiously awaiting new arrivals. position the international community the ever-articulate Sheikha Mozah The present ruler, Amir Hamad bin should take concerning the issue. who called upon scholars to think Khalifa II, came to power in 1995 by Georgetown’s School of more critically about the position removing his father in a bloodless Foreign Service is in its first year of women in the Islamic World and coup. Since then, he has reformed of operation in Doha’s Education dispel dominant images propagated Qatar as a space for free speech. This City and has about 25 students in by the media. She also engaged agenda came into global focus with its first-year class. Georgetown the scholarship on women in the the appearance of al-Jazeera in 1996, University, in cooperation with Middle East calling for new scholars the first state-free news broadcasting the Qatar Foundation, sponsored to continue to highlight the historic to the Arab World, as well as its a conference of international and contributions of Arab women to their first 24 hour new service. The local Qatari scholars to discuss societies. intellectual opening of Qatar is also the historic and current status of Some of the research introduced highlighted by the activity of Sheikh women in the Arab World. Amira at the conference addressed the Hamad’s dynamic spouse, Sheikha Sonbol, Professor of History at Sheikha’s calling by advancing Mozah bint Nassar al-Mussned, who Georgetown’s School of Foreign new histories of women in the Arab has devoted much of her time and Service, organized the conference World. An example of these new attention to education. She founded in cooperation with Sheikha Mozah histories is the research of Umayma the Qatar Foundation in 1995 which and the Qatar Foundation. The Abu Bakr of Cairo University who has devoted itself to making Qatar conference brought together a rare uses early biographical sources to the center of intellectual development group of scholars from Europe, the highlight the historic position of and debate in the Arab World. The Arab World and the United States for Muslim women as teachers of Hadith Foundation has worked on creating a conference entitled “Arab Women, and Islamic jurisprudence. In her Education City, a 2,500-acre space Past and Present: Participation and research she has found women who outside the capital city of Doha, Democratization” on March 3-5. The were muftis, imams and teachers which is dedicated to educational broad range of topics covered within of sacred texts. Her provocative and research institutions. It already the conference included women’s findings raise questions concerning hosts several campuses including political participation, education and the disappearance of women in Georgetown University, Cornell and activism in the Arab World. The these crucial roles as interpreters of Texas A & M. The Qatar Foundation conference also brought together religious doctrine.
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