Digital Archive of the Middle East

Items

• Australians in Egypt in the First World War (1915-18)
  A selection of texts documenting the experiences of Australian soldiers posted in Egypt during the First World War, including letters written by nurse Sister Anne Donnell , C.E.W. Bean's booklet 'What to Know in Egypt: A Guide for Australasian Soldiers' (1915) and Captain R. Hugh Knyvett's memoir '"Over There” With the Australians' (1918). Annotated by Duncan Beard
• Black Power and Afrocentric American Solidarity with Egypt during the Long Sixties (1962/64/68/73)
  A selection of texts showing how leading figures in the Black Power movement - Malcolm X (1925-65), Stokely Carmichael (1941-98) and Shirley Graham Du Bois (1896-1977) - engaged with Egyptians between 1962 and 1973 on topics of African and racial identity. Annotated by Michael Fischbach
• Conquering the Weather: Khamsin, Föhn and Zionist Nation-building (1938)
  Excerpt from Benno Rothenberg's book 'Meteorologiya' (1938) discussing the hot desert wind found in Palestine and known in Arabic as 'khamsin', and the use of Hebrew replacement words such as 'sharav' and 'kadim' by Zionist settlers. Translated and annotated by Tuvaal Klein.
• Creating the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (1976 and 1979)
  Two documents - a satirical newspaper article and a government report - from the 1970s about the establishment of The Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (which eventually opened in 1980), reflecting French attitudes towards the Arab world in the wake of the oil crisis and OAPEC policies. Translated and annotated by Melissa Tedafi
• Cultural Production in Motion in the South American Mahjar (1928/29)
  Text of Nabih Schamún's article, 'Impresiones de mi viaje por el Brasil' [Impressions of My Journey through Brazil], from 1928, written by a co-founder of the "First Argentine-Syrian-Lebanese Film Company' that provides insights into patterns of late-19th century migration from Ottoman Syria (the 'Mahjar.') Translated and annotated by Lily Balloffet.
• Economic Activities of the Middle Eastern Diaspora in Argentina (1933 and 1938)
  A speech of Mr. Moisés José Azize (1933) and an advert for 'yerba mate' (1938), both from the 'mahjar' newspaper El-Diario Sirio-Libané. Source 1 selected, translated from Spanish and annotated by Rea Vogt. Source 2 selected and annotated by Vogt and translated from Arabic by Cyrus Schayegh
• Egypt’s Greek Population and the Panic Over Foreigners’ Employment (1960)
  Letter from Alex. M. Kazoullis and Giagkos Chrysovergis to P. Mamopoulos in response to the publishing of Egyptian decree 263/1960 concerning foreigners’ employment and the consequences for Greeks working in Egypt. Translated from the original Greek and annotated by Eftychia Mylona.
• Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb Meets Indian Muslim Scholar Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali al-Nadwi (1951)
  Excerpt from Abū al-Hasan ‘Ali al-Nadwi’s travelogue 'Mudhakkirat sa’ih fi al-Sharq al-‘Arabi (Memoirs of a Traveler in the Arab East), recounting his first meeting with Sayyid Qutb in Hilwan, Cairo, in February 1951. Translated from the Arabic and annotated by Mathias Ghyoot.
• Egyptian Muslim reformist Rashid Rida Reflects on the Ottoman Empire's Role in the Great War and its Unfolding Calamities (1914)
  Excerpts from the writings of Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā (1865-1935) on the role of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. Translated and annotated by Umar Ryad
• European Female Servants in Egypt at the Turn of the Century and their Ultimate Disgrace  (1892)
  Article on European Female Servants in Egypt, published in Cairo as “Per gli innocenti,” [For the Innocent Ones] in the Italian-language newspaper 'L’Imparziale' No. 62 (8-9 May 1892), translated, and annotated by Lucia Carminati.
• FBI Plans to Have Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver Expelled from Algiers (1971)
  A letter from FBI records about their surveillance of Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, members of the American Black Panther Party who had travelled to Algiers for the Pan-African Festival in July 1969. Annotated by Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik.
• Francoism, Colonialism and the Spanish-Moroccan Brotherhood (1939&40)
  Two texts documenting the role played by Moroccan forces in supporting Franco during the Spanish Civil War, and reflecting on the history of Islam in Spain. Translated and annotated by Alfonso Bermúdez and Pablo Bornstein.
• Ghassan Kanafani's Theory of Resistance Literature in Occupied Palestine, from the Pages of Afro-Asian Writings (1968)
  A report on 'Resistance Literature in Occupied Palestine' written by Ghassan Kanafani and submitted to the Third Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Conference held in Beirut in March 1967, with annotations by Elizabeth M. Holt.
• Global Cattle, Local Consumption: The Meat Trade in 1930s Tel Aviv (1937)
  Article by Nathan Ben-Nathan, 'On the Meat Question in Tel Aviv', published in Hebrew during the British Mandate for Palestine and discussing the monopolisation of meat imports by traders and the effect on the economy. Translated and annotated by Efat Gilad.
• How to Prevent Foreign Missionaries from Buying Land? A Late Ottoman Example (1902)
  A legal document aimed at preventing Catholic missionaries acquiring land in the district of Hassa in the Ottoman Empire. Translated and annotated by Gabriel Doyle
• International Civil Aviation at Beirut Airport (1950)
  Text of a report in 'Le Commerce du Levant' (Commerce in the Levant) about the grand opening of Khaldé International Airport in Beirut by Lebanese President Bechara El-Khoury on 5 July 1950. Translated from the original French and annotated by Cyrus Schayegh
• Internationalizing Gaza (1971)
  Excerpt from the 'Gaza Diaries' of Palestinian poet Mu‘in Bseiso (1926-84), responding to attempts to place Gaza under international administration as an alternative to either Israeli or Egyptian occupation. Translated and annotated by Dotan Halevy and Basma Fahoum.
• Inventing the Middle East: The Early History of a Problematic Geographical Concept (1902-3)
  Textual sources on the evolution of the term 'Middle East' from Valentine Chirol and Alfred T. Mahan, selected and annotated by Guillemette Crouzet.
• Iran’s Rural Development Organization in Africa (1993)
  The source is written by Golamreza Forouzesh, minister of Iran’s Rural Development Organization (Construction Jihad) between 1988 and 1997. It contains a speech/paper presented by minister Frouzesh during the 'seminar for Africa'. In it, he addresses Iranian-African developmental cooperation. Published in 1993.
• Iranian Female Novelist Simin Daneshvar on American Ignorance Meeting Iranian Tradition (1961)
  Text of the short story 'The Iranian Festival' (1961) by novelist Simin Daneshvar (1921-2012) in which she engages with American understanding of Iran in the wake of the 1953 coup. Translated and annotated by Shahar Bashan
• Jamal al-Din al-Afghani’s First Trip to India (1912)
  Excerpt from the Arabic diaries of Hibat al-Din al-Shahrastani, a young Shiʿi scholar of Najaf in Ottoman Iraq, written during a trip he took to India in 1912, and containing some valuable information he was told about the Afghan philosopher and politician al-Sayyid Jamal al-Din (1838-97) during his earlier travels in India. Translated and annotated by Sara Purvey.
• Japan’s First Action Plan on the Oil Crisis (1973)
  Document from the Japanese cabinet records of 16 November 1973 outlining their emergency measures in response to the reduction of oil supply from OAPEC states. Translated and annotated by Yutaka Kanda
• Japan’s Islamic World Exhibition (1939)
  Document about the Islamic World Exhibition held in Tokyo and Osaka in 1939, with a list of delegates from the Arab and Islamic world who attended. Translated and annotated by Mikiya Koyagi
• Japanese Silk and Textile Imports and Its Effects on Smuggling on the Turkish-Syrian Border (1937)
  Article by Mümtaz Faik for the Istanbul-based newspaper, Tan (The Dawn) about the smuggling of Japanese textiles into Turkey from Syria, where French Mandate policy had encouraged foreign imports to the detriment of Syrian loom workers. Translated and annotated by Mary Tezak and Mustafa Aksakal
• League of Red Cross Societies Representatives Visit Iran (1950)
  Report written in 1950 by Ali Akbar Yamin, for 'Majalleh-ye Mahaneh-ye Sazeman-e Javanan-e Shir va Khorshid-e Sorkh-e Iran', the monthly magazine of the Junior Red Lion and Sun Organization, to mark the visit of two representatives from the League of Red Cross Societies to Iran. Translated from Persian and annotated by Sivan Balslev