All posts by tabsir

Nineteenth Century Periodicals in Arabic

Journalism and Media, Teaching Resources

A Chronology of Nineteenth Century Periodicals in Arabic (1800-1900): A Research Tool

This website provides a chronology of nineteenth-century periodicals in Arabic.

Although it is meant to include all periodicals published in Arabic or in Arabic and in another language (like the usual pair of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish) or in Arabic written in a different script (like Judeo-Arabic) in the period from 1800 to 1900, this chronology is certainly incomplete. Furthermore, there remain numerous problems with dating and locating individual publications as well as identifying their owners, editors, or publishers. A common problem is that journals with different editors used the same title or the same editors published periodicals under different titles.

Thus, at the moment we consciously publish a working draft with the purpose of making our information available to the scholarly community. We welcome all readers to submit any comment, corrections, and new data via the email addresses provided in the “Submit comments” section. We would like to ask all contributors to always refer to the ID at the end of each row – in case of comments on existing entries – and cite their sources, as otherwise we cannot consider the submission for being included in the table. Every contribution will be acknowledged.

We chose to present the core data as a table containing information on titles, dates of first and last issue published, place(s) of publication, names of publishers and editors, language(s) of publication, and available collections. In addition, we provide various indexes of publishers and locations, as well as a bibliography of the most important secondary sources and available union catalogues. To search any part of the website, the browser’s search function should be invoked (Ctrl-F for Windows, Cmd-F for Mac OSX). Please keep in mind that unicode symbols adhering to the IJMES transliteration must be used.

For details, see the website at the Zentrum Moderner Orient.

Johnsen on Yemen in New York

"Arab Spring", Books You Should Read, Conferences and Talks, Terrorism Issue, Yemen

Book Night With Gregory Johnsen

12 November 2012 – 6:00pm – 7:30pm

40 West 45th Street, Club Quarters, New York, Free admission

by Sonya K. Fry, Overseas Press Club of America

The Last Refuge: Yemen, Al-Qaeda, and America’s War in Arabia [W.W. Norton & Company, November, 2012] is an eye-opening look at the successes and failures in fighting a new type of war in the turbulent country of Yemen, written by Gregory D. Johnsen, who is an OPC Foundation Scholar, a Fulbright fellow in Yemen, part of a 2009 USAID conflict assessment team and is now a doctoral candidate in Near Eastern studies at Princeton University.

Johnsen takes readers into Yemeni mosques where clerics in the 1980’s recruited young men to jihad to fight the Russian invaders in Afghanistan. These men eventually formed the basis for the Al-Qaeda movement. The story also leads to the presidential palace in Yemen where the country’s military dictator, Ali Abdullah Salih vascillated between helping the U.S. get rid of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and hindering the process. Salih himself called this delicate balancing act of staying in power a “snake dance.” For years this dance included concealing Islamists from the prying eyes of U.S. intelligence and yet later he allowed the U.S. to conduct attacks that killed dozens of Al-Qaeda operatives including Abu Ali al-Harithi, who was known as the “godfather” by U.S. intelligence. The dramatic story sounds like a Hollywood movie: Haritihi turned on his cell phone as he left a secret meeting which signaled a predator drone to track him. The first missile from the drone exploded next to Harithi’s speeding car. He threw the phone out of the window and screamed at everyone to get out, but there was nowhere to go since they were in the middle of the desert. The drone fired its second missile and the car exploded in flames. Continue reading Johnsen on Yemen in New York →

Two documentary films on Islam in NYC

Anthropology/Sociology, Film and Video, Islam in America

For those in the New York area and who have power (I still do not after Sandy hit last week), there are two films that will be of interest to those who read this blog. One is American Imam by Donya Ravasani. It is showing twice at the IFC Center: Saturday, Nov 10 at IFC 11:15am and Thursday, Nov 15 at IFC 1pm

It will be screened together with Building Babel, David Osit’s documentary about the developer of the so called Ground Zero Mosque.

For details on New York’s Documentary Festival, check out their website.

A Muslim Manual of War

Books You Should Read, Islamic History, Islamic Law, Islamic Texts, Scholars, Terrorism Issue


A Muslim Manual of War
being Tafrij al-kurub fi tadbir al-hurub by ‘Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Awsi al-Ansari
Edited and translated by George T. Scanlon
Foreword by Carole Hillenbrand

Free online facsimile anniversary edition

One of the first three books published by the AUC Press after its founding in 1960 was A Muslim Manual of War, an annotated editing and translation of a hitherto little-known fifteenth-century Arabic manuscript on the art of war, prepared by George Scanlon, then embarking on his career to become one of the most respected scholars in the field of Islamic art, architecture, archaeology, and history. Now, in celebration of 50 years of the AUC Press, and in honor of Professor Scanlon’s recent retirement after an illustrious career, most recently as professor of Islamic art and architecture in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo, the AUC Press is proud to make available once again this long out-of-print book, as a freely accessible scanned facsimile with a new Introduction by the author and a Foreword by eminent scholar Carole Hillenbrand, a former student of Professor Scanlon.

Harvard Arab Weekend

"Arab Spring", Conferences and Talks, Immigration Issues, Islamic Economics



It is our honor, on behalf of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association, the various MENA clubs across campus, and the Arab student body, to welcome you all to the 6th Harvard Arab Weekend, taking place at Harvard University from the 8th through the 11th of November, 2012.

As the largest pan-Arab conference in North America, the Harvard Arab Weekend has prided itself on showcasing a mosaic of perspectives and insights on the most pressing issues in the Arab world. Last year, the Harvard Arab Weekend was commended by the White House as “The Premier Arab World Conference” in North America. This year, we strive to uphold our venerable tradition of engaging discourses and informative debates.

At this critical moment of modern Arab history, and in the midst of the many challenges created by the unprecedented transformations in the Arab world, Arabs, from the Gulf to the Ocean, are posing critical questions about their past, present, and future. While the entire Arab landscape is undergoing a process of re-creation, Arabs look ahead at the future, wondering whether they will be able to sustain what they have achieved after more than a century of struggle. This year’s edition of the Harvard Arab Weekend specifically aspires to tackle these challenges and discuss how Arabs can sustain the “Spring” and avoid reverting back to authoritarianism or falling into chaos. Continue reading Harvard Arab Weekend →