Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies 2009 Number 14 ISSN: 1361-9144 Registered Charity No. 1003272 2009 £5.00 1 Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies 2009 The Society for Arabian Studies President Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies Miss Beatrice de Cardi OBE FBA FSA Editor Dr Robert Carter 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 Harriet Crawford Dr Nelida Fuccaro Dr Nadia Durrani Dr Nadia Durrani Mr William Facey Dr Nelida Fuccaro British Archaeological Mission in Yemen Dr Paul Lunde (BAMY) Dr James Onley Mrs Janet Starkey Chairman Prof. Tony Wilkinson 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. 1003272 0 CONTENTS A Message from the Chairman ...............................2 Awards and Prizes ................................................26 Available Grants and Prizes .................................26 Society for Arabian Studies News..........................3 Conferences and Seminars 2008-2009 ...............300 Monograph Series ..........................................3 Completed Conferences..................................300 Grants in Aid of Research ...............................3 Upcoming Conferences 2009 ...........................32 Society Grants-in-Aid 2008.............................3 Book Reviews.......................................................33 Saudi Arabia: An Environmental Overview..............33 Grant-In-Aid Reports......................................3 Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea.................35 The Tihamah Coastal Plain of South-West Arabia In British Archaeological Mission in Yemen Its Regional Context, C. 6000 BC–AD 600 ...................36 (BAMY)........................................................4 Classic Ships of Islam: from Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean.................................................................37 Lectures and Lecture Reports 2008......................4 India Traders Of The Middle Ages: Documents From City and State in Bahrain and in the Gulf before Oil. The Cairo Geniza – ‘India Book’..................................38 Nelida Fuccaro ................................................................4 A Traveller in Thirteenth-Century Arabia: Ibn Al- From Mayfair to Mecca: Lady Evelyn Cobbold, Mujāwir’s Tārīkh Al-Mustabsir....................................40 British Muslim. William Facey ...................................... 5 The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, The Arabian Frontier of the British Raj: Merchants, Rulers, And The British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf... Rulers, and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf ..................................................................................42 James Onley ................................................................... 6 British Missions around the Gulf, 1575–2005: Iran, Classic Ships of Islam. Dionisius Agius..................... 6 Iraq, Kuwait, Oman.......................................................43 Pilgrimage to Mecca.................................................44 Lecture Programme 2009....................................9 The Western Hadramawt: Ethnographic Field Research , 1983–91.......................................................45 Arabian News and Research.................................10 A Land Transformed: The Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco.............................................47 Arts ...................................................................10 The Burial Mounds of Bahrain. Social Complexity in Early Dilmun.................................................................48 Wildlife.............................................................11 The Tylos Period Burials in Bahrain. Volume 1, The Glass and Pottery Vessels. ............................................48 Other General News .........................................12 Funeral Monuments and Human Remains from Jebel Al-Buhais.......................................................................52 News and Research by Country.........................14 Bahrain.............................................................14 New Publications on Arabia.................................56 Kuwait ..............................................................16 Oman................................................................18 New Books 2008–09 ........................................56 Qatar ................................................................19 United Arab Emirates.......................................20 Journals And Magazines...................................56 General UAE News......................................20 Abu Dhabi....................................................20 Societies, Associations and Other Online Resources Fujairah ........................................................21 ..............................................................................58 Ras Al-Khaimah...........................................21 Sharjah .........................................................23 Obituaries .............................................................59 Saudi Arabia.....................................................23 Yemen ...............................................................25 Front Cover: Hudaibah Tower, Ras al-Khaimah. Photo by Christian Velde. 1 A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN When the Society for Arabian Studies was But all too often their designs threaten the founded in the mid-1980s, its remit was fragile environment of desert, mountain and strongly archaeological; the rapid rate of shore. The threats are highlighted by a development on the back of sharply increased relatively new journal, Wildlife Middle East oil revenues was seen as a major threat to the (see page 58). The Society feels as concerned fragile and often little-explored archaeological today about the danger to the natural past of the Peninsula, particularly the Gulf. environment from careless development as it Interest in that past was sparked by was initially for the archaeological heritage of organisations such as ours, and teams of Arabia. archaeologists from all over the world have Population pressure rather than grand since excavated some remarkable early sites. cultural developments is a critical problem in a Several members of the Society’s Committee very different environment from the rest of the attended Abu Dhabi’s excellent annual Peninsula, that of Yemen. Hence the Society’s archaeological conference in March; a report decision to highlight Yemen’s water problem on page 32 keeps us all up to date. Thanks to in its AGM lecture in May. But water issues the Bulletin’s current editor, Dr Rob Carter, must surely be a growing source of anxiety all and web expert Ivor Pridden, access to news over the Peninsula. Development of whatever and the Bulletin itself has been vastly kind is thirsty! We look forward to some improved by posting it on the Society’s pertinent discussion of the problem at the website, visited by a growing number of AGM. interested parties. A happier note is the UAE’s enthusiasm to Over the past eight years the Society has commemorate the British traveller Wilfred organised a very successful series of biennial Thesiger. Abu Dhabi gave him a posthumous conferences, three of them dedicated to the award in December, and his biographer Red