Dr. Said Salman Abu Athera receives
Book prize from BRISMES
Dr. Mozammel Haque
Winner
Professor
Clive Holes and
Dr.
Said Salman Abu Athera
For
the first time the BRIMES has launched a new book prize in Middle Eastern,
North African and Islamic Studies, sponsored by Barclays Capital. This year’s
book Prize Presentation ceremony was held at Barclays Building at Canary Wharf,
London on Wednesday, 31st of October 2012.
About the book, The Narbati Poetry of the United Arab
Emirates, one reviewer commented, “The work to collect, contextualize,
record, translate poems in a dialect – and then to present translations that
work for the non-specialist Anglophone reader – is truly something to laud”.
“In sum, this is an academic study that deliberately and
successfully works to draw in a non-academic audience, introducing it to a
pervasive aesthetic, social and political presence in the Arabic culture of the
Gulf region.”
The
authors of the book: Clive Holes is a
Professor for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World, University of Oxford,
Professorial Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and
Dr. Said
Salman Abu-Athera is Jordanian heritage, originally Palestinian, Bedouin from
the south of Palestine. He completed his PhD from the University of Glasgow,
Scotland. He is an independent researcher into Bedouin poetry, lore, and
customs, and an Associate Member of the Sub-Faculty of the Near and Middle
Eastern Studies at Oxford. He has published and broadcast extensively in Arabic
and acted as a consultant for UNESCO on Bedouin affairs. He is a founder member
of the Jordanian National Committee for Cultural Heritage, and established the
Centre for the Preservation of Bedouin Culture, a non-Profit NGO.
I
had the opportunity to interview Dr. Said Salman Abu Athera. Speaking about the
background of the preparation and publication of the book, Dr. Said said, one
gentleman from the UNESCO in Paris approached Professor Clive Holes and Dr.
Said Salman in the University of Oxford to do a book about Bedouin (Nabati)
Poetry in the Emirates. Both Professor Clive and Dr. Said made the field work.
Dr. Said went several times to choose poetry and all other things. He met many
poets in the Emirates and selected very good amount of poetry and finished the
project and sent that to Paris.
Dr.
Said Salman said to me, “The UNESCO asked us to change at least eight points
and we enquired why. The gentleman said we do not deal with politics. I said it
is not our poetry; it is the poetry of Abu Dhabi or the Emirati poets. Their
feelings about what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Palestine and
the social problems of the Emirates. They are discussing these things in their
poetry. It is not our poetry and we are not going to change. He said sorry we
cannot put the UNESCO logo on it. We told him it is upto you, we don’t care.”
The book was published from Ithaca Press, Reading, April
2011.
Winner
Professor Konrad Hirschler
The BRIMES also announced another winner of the prize:
Professor Konrad Hirschler for the book entitled, “The Written Word in the
Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices”.
I
had the opportunity to interview Professor Konrad. Speaking about the book,
Professor Konrad said, “I am looking at the two processes: on the one hand, I
am looking at the Arabic society using the already written works in different
context and on the other hand I am looking at what ways new social groups
especially craftsmen and traders, say, the lower middle classes start to
participate in the reading practices in the propagation and distribution of the
written works in the contemporary new scale around the 12/13th
Century in Egypt and Syria.”
About
the book, one reviewer commented, “This is a clever book looking at the writing
practices amongst Arab intellectual classes during the Middle Ages. It is well
researched and very detailed in its presentation.”
“The
research is meticulous, the arguments and evidence are beautifully presented,
and comparative references to Europe as well as further east are interesting
and mean that the book should have an audience far beyond Islamic Studies.”
About
the author, Konrad Hirschler studied History and Islamic Studies in Hamburg,
Bir-Zeit (Palestinian Territories) and London where he also completed his PhD. After
four years at the University of Kiel (Germany) he joined the History Department
of the School of Oriental and African Studies in 2007 and is currently Reader
in history. His research focuses on Egypt and Syria in the medieval period with
a special interest in social history, intellectual history and Crusades.
Alastair Newton, President of
BRISMES thanked Barclays Capital for their generous funding of the Prize, and
Dr. Mohammed A. Ramady, Visiting Associate Professor, King Fahd University of
Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia who acts as the Society’s
relationship manager with Barclays. He also thanked the judges Professor
Beverley Milton-Edwards (Queen’s University, Belfast); Professor Marilyn Booth (University
of Edinburgh); Dr Oliver Bast (University of Manchester); Professor Allan Hill
(Harvard on secondment to Southampton) and Professor Rob Gleave (University of
Exeter).
About
the BRISMES
The
British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (popularly known as BRISMES) was
established in 1973 to encourage and promote the study of the Middle East in
the United Kingdom. BRISMES is the UK’s premier higher education umbrella
organisation for MENA studies, embracing all the top universities in the UK to
promote the study of all aspects of the region. It brings together teachers,
researchers, students, diplomats, journalists and others who deal professionally
with the Middle East.
HRH
Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz
BRISMES
Student Research Awards
In
this connection, it may be mentioned that HRH Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz
has kindly agreed to sponsor research assistance funding for 5 students
conducting research on Middle East related topics in the UK universities. Each
successful applicant will receive a research award of one thousand pound
sterling. .
1 comment:
I'm looking to get in touch with Dr. Said Salman Abu Athera. Is he still teaching at Oxford? I'm having trouble finding his contact information. Thank you
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