Womens Worlds in Qajar Iran: A Digital Archive and Website

Recipient: Najmabadi, Afsaneh (Cambridge, MA 02138 USA) in affiliation with Harvard University

Goal: The development of a comprehensive digital archive and Web site that will preserve and render accessible primary sources related to the social and cultural history of women during the Qajar dynasty (1785-1925) in Iran.

Description: Womens Worlds in Qajar Iran: A Digital Archive and Website May 2009 to April 2011. Harvard University seeks $341,933 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop a comprehensive digital archive and website that will preserve, link, and render accessible primary source materials related to the social and cultural history of womens worlds during the reign of the Qajar dynasty, 1785 to 1925, in Iran. The Qajar dynasty is perhaps most notable for a series of intense interactions with Europe (Britain and Russia, in particular), many of which introduced cultural and political changes that still resonate in the Iran of today. The proposed archive will address a significant gap in the scholarship related to this important time in the history of Iran by making available writings and other personal documents created by, and reflecting the lives of, women during the Qajar era.

Grant: 194571 / PW-50478-09,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources,   Year Awarded: 2009

Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict -- An International Collaborative Conference

Recipient: Madden, Thomas Francis (St Louis, MO 63108 USA) in affiliation with St. Louis University (Saint Louis, MO 63103-2097 USA)

Goal: An international conference to examine the Crusades from a global perspective, including public lectures and online abstracts, and preparation for publication of a resulting scholarly monograph. (12 months)

Description: World events have brought the subject of the Crusades to a new place of prominence and importance. This surge of interest comes on the heels of a renaissance in Crusade scholarship during the past thirty years that has greatly expanded our understanding of many aspects of the movement. However, virtually all of that scholarly energy has been focused on the medieval West. Yet the Crusades also represented an interactive episode in which diverse cultures -- western Christian, eastern Christian, Jewish, and Muslim -- came into contact, conflict, and collaboration. The purpose of this conference will be to bring together diverse avenues of scholarly expertise to examine the Crusades from a global perspective. The conference will result in public lectures, online abstracts, and a scholarly monograph that will further not only Crusades Studies, but understandings across the Humanities.

Grant: 196426 / RZ-51008-09,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 2009

The Neo-Babylonian Trial Procedure

Recipient: Wells, Bruce (Philadelphia, PA 19131 USA) in affiliation with St. Joseph's University

Goal: Continuing work on the transcription, computer encoding, translation, and analysis of about 1,500 cuneiform clay tablets of Neo-Babylonian litigation documents. (36 months)

Description: This project seeks to understand and describe the features and procedures of the trial court system from ancient Mesopotamia (southern Iraq) during the seventh to fifth centuries BCE (the Neo-Babylonian period). This effort includes: (1) analyzing the 1,466 Neo-Babylonian documents that the project has already identified as potentially related to trial proceedings from that period; (2) encoding a large number of these texts with the Unicode encodings for cuneiform signs; (3) mining these texts for legal and historical content; and (4) compiling and organizing the encoding data and the legal-historical analysis in the University of Chicago's OCHRE system, a Unicode-based and internet-based system designed specifically for the study of ancient Near Eastern texts and artifacts. The ultimate goal of the project is to produce a written presentation of the findings in book form and to make available a free website with encoded Neo-Babylonian texts, searchable by individual cuneiform signs.

Grant: 191368 / RZ-50877-08,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 2008

The Zionist Idea

Recipient: Rudavsky, Oren (New York, NY 10025 USA) in affiliation with New York Foundation for the Arts (Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA)

Goal: Development of a two-hour documentary exploring the modern ideology of Zionism, an accompanying website, a study guide, and a companion book.

Description: The Zionist Idea is a 120-minute documentary film exploration of one of the most influential political ideologies of the modern era. Originating in Europe in the late 19th century, Modern Zionism was born out of the renewed fears and persecution of Jews throughout Europe. Hoping that a land of their own would bring normalcy and safety to Jews and acceptance in the world, Zionist pioneers helped create the State of Israel. And yet Zionism has been, since its inception, subject to fierce argument and often lethal controversy. Today Zionism is little understood and its meaning often distorted. Now more than ever as the Middle East plays a central role in world politics and as the conflict between Arab and Jew continues to threaten the entire region, it is crucial for Americans to better understand Zionism, both its history and its signficance. .

Grant: 191716 / TD-50014-08,   Division: Public Programs,   Program: America's Media Makers Development,   Year Awarded: 2008

Preserving and Creating Access to Unique Afghan Records, 1989 to 2006

Recipient: Rawan, Atifa (Tucson, AZ 85721-0055 USA) in affiliation with University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ 85721 USA)

Goal: The training of Afghan library staff in digitization and modern cataloging procedures, who would then scan and mount on the Internet 6,000 titles selected from the archival collections of the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University.

Description: The University of Arizona Libraries in partnership with the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University will collaborate to catalog, digitize, and create metadata for a unique collection of documents related to Afghanistan history, culture, and its development during the Jihad period, 1989 to 2006. ACKU's Permanent Collection is the most extensive in the region covering a time of war and social upheaval in the country, with most of the documents in English or the principal languages of Afghanistan. The two-year project objectives are to: 1) train staff in standardized cataloguing, metadata creation, and digitization processing; 2) identify and provide international standardized cataloguing and classification (metadata) for 6,000 titles or 15,000 physical unique items; 3) scan, digitize, and preserve these 6,000 titles; 4) facilitate digital access and delivery; and, 5) build a preservation infrastructure at Kabul University that can be a resource for all 19 universities in Afghanistan.

Grant: 184666 / PC-50063-07,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Grants to Preserve & Create Access to Humanities Collections,   Year Awarded: 2007

The Iraqi Oral History Project

Recipient: Gibson, McGuire (Chicago, IL 60637 USA) in affiliation with American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (Chicago, IL 60615 USA)

Goal: The collection and interpretation of oral histories from Iraqis in Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Description: TAARII requests support over three years for the collection of oral history interviews among Iraqis in Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This three-year period represents Phase One of an oral history project begun as a pilot project with TAARII support. To date, 42 interviews with Iraqis over fifty years old have been conducted in Jordan. On the basis of preliminary analysis of these interviews, the interview questionnaire has been revised for use in a broader study that will collect, translate and transcribe and analyze 60 interviews per year in multiple Phases. Phase One has two immediate aims. The first is to begin to establish an archive for the project that includes digital recordings, transcripts, and translations (in Arabic and English), for use by scholars internationally, in any field of the humanities. The second aim is to begin analysis of interview transcripts immediately, for several scholarly publications.

Grant: 186369 / RZ-50737-07,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 2007

Creating the "Encyclopedia of Egyptology"

Recipient: Wendrich, Willemina Z (Los Angeles, CA 90095-1511 USA) in affiliation with University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA)

Goal: Creating the first phase of the online "Encyclopedia of Egyptology" with 500 entries on the history and culture of Egypt from 5500 BCE to 641 CE.

Description: UCLA, in collaboration with an international team of experts, requests support for the first implementation phase of the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE), a digital resource that will broaden and enhance the access of scholars, students and the lay public to high quality scholarly information on the ancient Egyptian civilization. The UEE will make readily available a wide array of texts, images, 3D models, maps and other data. In addition, the UEE will provide a model for new methods of presentation, access and generation of information for the humanities. This NEH supported two-year phase will allow launching the UEE through the creation and publication of the first 500 core content entries.

Grant: 179466 / PA-51941-06,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2006

Neo-Babylonian Trial Procedure

Recipient: Wells, Bruce (Philadelphia, PA 19131 USA) in affiliation with St. Joseph's University

Goal: The examination of several hundred Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablets in order to analyze and describe the features of the trial court system operative in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) during the 7th to 5th centuries BCE. (36 months)

Description: This project will analyze and describe the features of the trial court system operative in southern Iraq during the 7th to 5th centuries BCE. This will entail the identification and examination of several hundred Neo-Babylonian cuneiform tablets, both published and unpublished. The analysis will utilize methods from Assyriology, legal history, and information technology. The final result will be a one- or two-volume work containing text copies, text editions, analysis of the texts’ legal content, and an enclosed CD-ROM with a searchable database to facilitate readers’ utilization of the collected legal-historical data. A free website will also be created with many of the tablets rendered in searchable Unicode encodings for cuneiform signs.

Grant: 181553 / RZ-50606-06,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 2006

Final Pre-Publication Preparation of the New Cambridge History of Islam

Recipient: Cook, Michael A (Princeton, NJ 08544 USA) in affiliation with Princeton University

Goal: The final assembling and editing of the six-volume "New Cambridge History of Islam," which will replace the two-volume history published over thirty years ago. (12 months)

Description: Cambridge Histories are intended to provide authoritative accounts of their fields. However, the two-volume Cambridge History of Islam, first published in 1970, gives only a limited and now dated coverage of the history of the Islamic world. We are in the process of superseding it with a new Cambridge History of Islam in six volumes of 300,000 words each. No other work of this kind has been published, or is likely to be in the foreseeable future. We are seeking a grant to cover some of the costs of the final editing, above all the cost of employing for a further year an editorial assistant who acts as the administrative center of the project and who helps the project director and volume editors with assembling and editing the contributions.

Grant: 181563 / RZ-50616-06,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 2006

NEH Post-Doctoral and Professional Fellowships at the American Research Center in Egypt, Inc.

Recipient: Scott, Gerry Dee (Cairo, Egypt) in affiliation with American Research Center in Egypt (Atlanta, GA 30306 USA)

Goal: The equivalent of two full-year humanities fellowships a year, for each of two years.

Description: The American Research Center in Egypt requests an NEH grant of $258,000 over a four year peiod to support an average of three long-term humanities fellowships for each of three years in a variety of disciplines including history, Islamic studies, literature, art history, Egyptology, political science, and the humanistic social sciences. ARCE also proposes to continue to offer two short-term multiple-year fellowships for museum curators in Islamic art; Coptic art; and Egyptian, pre-dynastic and pre-historic materials. Thse funds will provide scholars with living expenses and round-trip air transportation. ARCE also requests $6,000 for three years to publicize these opportunities and to support the selection of grantees.

Grant: 174609 / RA-50028-05,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions,   Year Awarded: 2005

Jews and Arabs in the Middle Ages: Interpretations and History

Recipient: Wasserstein, David J (Nashville, TN 372351802 USA) in affiliation with Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN 37240 USA)

Goal: A six-week seminar for college and university faculty to study the relations between Jews and Arab-Muslims in the Middle Ages.

Grant: 176906 / FS-50086-05,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Seminars for College Teachers,   Year Awarded: 2005

Preservation Assessment and Preservation Training

Recipient: Ghazarian, Ara (Arlington, MA 02476 USA) in affiliation with Armenian Cultural Foundation (Arlington, MA USA)

Goal: A conservation assessment of the Armenian language newspaper collection and historically important Armenian language books, the curator's registration fee for a preservation management workshop, and storage supplies.

Grant: 167525 / PA-50352-04,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2004

The Ya'qubi Translation Project

Recipient: Gordon, Matthew S (Dayton, OH 45419 USA) in affiliation with Miami University, Oxford (Oxford, OH 45056 USA)

Goal: A four-volume, annotated translation of the History, the Geography, and a short political essay by the late ninth-century Muslim scholar al-Ya`qubi, works that provide rich information about early Islamic politics, culture, and thought. (25 months)

Description: The Ya`qubi Translation Project (YTP) seeks NEH support for an annotated translation of the three extant works of the late ninth-century Muslim scholar, Ahmad ibn Abi Ya`qub al-Ya`qubi (d.c. 905 C.E.). The YTP is an international collaborative effort that brings together ten scholars of Islamic and Near Eastern history, each of whom has been assigned a section of one of the three works of al-Ya`qubi. The works in question are the History (Ta`rikh al-Ya`qubi), the Geography (Kitab al`Buldan) and a short political essay (Mushakalat al-nas lizamanihim), available in a previous translation under the title "The adaptation of men to their time: an historical essay by al-Ya`qubi."

Grant: 162911 / RZ-50072-03,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 2003

Bayhaqi Translation Project

Recipient: Yarshater, Ehsan O (New York, NY 10027-6821 USA) in affiliation with Columbia University (New York, NY 10027 USA)

Goal: To support the translation and annotation of an 11th-century Persian chronicle, an important source for the history of what is now Eastern Iran, Afghanistan, and modern Pakistan.

Grant: 161809 / RZ-20833-02,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 2002

Societal Transformation and The Legitimation of Power in Early Islamic States

Recipient: Donner, Fred M (Chicago, IL 60637 USA) in affiliation with University of Chicago

Goal: A six-week national institute for college and university teachers to explore the interplay of politics, culture, commerce, and religion at the origins of early Islamic states.

Grant: 142752 / EH-22303-01,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Institutes for College and University Teachers,   Year Awarded: 2001

Modern Middle East Sourcebook Project

Recipient: Amin, Camron M (Dearborn, MI 48128-1491 USA) in affiliation with University of Michigan, Dearborn (Dearborn, MI 48128 USA)

Goal: The development and organization of historical materials in a sourcebook for the study of modern Middle Eastern history at the college and university level.

Grant: 142007 / ED-21851-00,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Education Development and Demonstration,   Year Awarded: 2000

Completing the Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition [EOI]

Recipient: Heinrichs, Wolfhart P (Cambridge, MA 02138-0000 USA) in affiliation with Harvard University (Cambridge, MA 02138 USA)

Goal: The completion of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM.

Grant: 158052 / PA-23455-00,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2000

Islamic Origins

Recipient: Donner, Fred M (Chicago, IL 60637 USA) in affiliation with University of Chicago

Goal: A five-week national institute for 25 college and university teachers to review a range of theories on the rise of Islam as a major phenomenon in world history.

Grant: 142730 / EH-22249-99,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Institutes for College and University Teachers,   Year Awarded: 1999

Poverty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts, a Conference

Recipient: Bonner, Michael D (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290 USA) in affiliation with University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA)

Goal: To support a conference to assess Middle Eastern understandings of poverty and charity, as they have been influenced by Islamic law and as they broadly affect political and social development.

Grant: 161714 / RZ-20502-99,   Division: Research Programs,   Program: Collaborative Research,   Year Awarded: 1999

The Arab World and the West: A History of Intellectual Relationships

Recipient: Bonner, Michael D (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1290 USA) in affiliation with University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA)

Goal: To support a four-week institute for 30 secondary school teachers on the intellectual connections between the Arab World and the West.

Grant: 143642 / ES-23046-98,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Institutes for School Teachers,   Year Awarded: 1998