El-Nasry, The Greeks: History and Culture to Alexander the Great

"Digital Classics in Arabic" gets funding from the British Academy

Digital Classics in Arabic (DCA)

Makdisi, George,1980. The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West. Edinburgh University Press.

        After a delay of one year(!), my project "Digital Classics in Arabic", funded by the British Academy and hosted by the Institute of Classical Studies (ICS) of the University of London, has officially started. It has been a long journey from my office in Cairo until I arrived here safe and sound in London on Sunday the 7th of July 2019. I can not express how happy I am to start working in the ICS and I'm sure that, with the help and expertise of Gabriel Bodard, Charlotte Roueché and Valeria vitale, this project will achieve its goals and provide both our national and international classical and papyrological community with important tools and gadgets. For the moment I am just announcing the quick-off of this long-delayed project. So, dear classical and papyrological friends and colleagues (in and outside Egypt) stay tuned DCA is coming!

      As for the reasons behind this long delay, I will be giving a detailed account of this trip in a blogpost that will appear soon in "Everday Orientalism". For those who unfamiliar with this blog; this is the blog I, Katherine Blouin, and Rachel Mairs, are running for almost three years now. It's main focus is the discourse of Orientalism, Colonialism, Nationalism, politicized past in and around Antiquities-related disciplines. In addition to regular posts about these topics in English, French and Arabic, we are running an Egypt-based yearly workshop that brings together scholars from the Middle East, Europe, and North America, in order to reflect on the many ways in which Orientalism has shaped the field of “Classics” and its relationship to Egypt’s territory, history, and heritage. To know more about this initiative and our other activities, please visit the blog here https://everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/ .

COLONIALISM AND EUROPEAN ARCHAEOLOGY

COLONIALISM AND EUROPEAN ARCHAEOLOGY

González-Ruiba, Alfredo, Colonialsim and European Archeology in: Jane Lydon and Uzma Rizvi (eds.): Handbook of Postcolonial Archaeology.Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press, 2010, pp. 37-47. Available throug the author's website here: https://www.academia.edu/366003/Colonialism_and_European_archaeology

Future Directions

Colonialism and European archaeology have been close allies for a long time. Even today,the colonial sin is far from being washed away. Postcolonial archaeology has to be lessself-in-dulgent and more critical in order to deconstruct the ongoing relationship withneocolonialism. Here are a few suggestions for producing a more radical archaeology. First,it is necessary to get rid of the condescending language of cooperation and progress, whichsimply transforms the savage of colonialism into the undeveloped native of the postcolony(González-Ruibal 2009). Second, we must take equality seriously (Rancière 1995) and stopdreaming of impossible, idealized partnerships. As Alberto Memmi (2004: 163) reminds us,“Partnership does not make sense except when both partners have a reasonably equal force.”It is still Western archaeologists who study Africa’s past, not the other way around. Third, itis important to embrace politics beyond identity issues, and recognize that politics is all aboutconflict (iek 2007). We have to be able to accept conflict in postcolonial situations. Fromhere, we have to consider ruling out concepts that have been deeply tainted by colonial valuesand Eurocentricity, such as “prehistory” (McNiven and Russell 2005), which situatescontemporary Indigenous communities in another time (Fabian 1983), or “historicalarchaeology,” which only considers Western World History as “historical” (Guha 2002).Then, archaeological traditions in Europe must properly address their colonial pasts andneocolonial presents. And finally, a dichotomy has to be broken between consciouspostcolonial scholars who focus on deconstructing their discipline and researchers who,without caring much about the history of the discipline, Indigenous communities, orcolonialism, tell us how the past truly was (Langebaek 2006: 118).

The History of Egyptian Law in Ptolemaic Egypt (in Arabic)

The History of Egyptian Law in Ptolemaic Egypt

and an Introduction to the Roman Law

It is a very good introduction, for Egyptians and Arab students, to the history of Egyptian law in Ptolemaic Egypt. In 323 pages, Prof. Ahmed Ibrahim Hasan of Alexandria University gives not only a concise history of the law in Ptolemaic Egypt (pp. 5-99), but a brief history of the evolution of the Roman law. It is a must read for every student of papyrology in Egypt. Congratulations for this effort, Prof. Ahmed. The book is published in Alexandria 2000 and to be obtained from Dar al-Matbu'at al-Gamiya (House of University publications). Here are the first pages of the book as well as its contents if you want to see for yourself.

 Book contents

A New Publication: Tebtynis VI

From the IFAO website 13/11/2018: http://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/catalogue/9782724706949/

Claudio Gallazzi

Tebtynis VI

Scripta Varia

IF1139, ISBN 9782724706949 
2018 IFAO
Collection: FIFAO 78 
1 vol., 264 p., 45 € (818 EGP)

The abundant material discovered at Tebtynis includes few hieroglyphic or Aramaic texts, hieratic ostraca, graffiti, inscriptions, texts on stamps, seals, bones or glass. Nonetheless, these inscriptions are of interest and the present volume aims at gathering and classifying them, according to their language, the type of inscription and the material used. Indexes complete the classification. Thanks to this presentation, the reader interested in a particular type of text will easily find them grouped together here and anyone studying Tebtynis will have easy access to all the information these pieces offer about the village.

In order to facilitate studies on Tebtynis and to avoid the scattering of works on the village, an appendix devoted to the papyri of Soknebtynis, one of the major legacies of the site to modern science, has been included in this volume.

من منشورات المعهد الفرنسى للآثار الشرقية فى المنيرة.

A video in Arabic: A short story of an Egyptian papyrus document

in Arabic: A short video answering the questions about tranlastions in papyri.info

Cultural Heritage Cluster Conference in Cairo from May 7-9, 2018.

DAAD Heritage

I have just received a kind invitation from the Cairo office of DAAD to participate in its kick-off event for its cultural heritage cluster. It is a three-day conference that will take place in different venues: May 7 at the Cairo Marriott Hotel, 16 Gezira St., Zamalek.

May 8 at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Ad Deyorah, Misr Al Qadimah / Fustat

May 9 at the DAAD Cairo Office, 11 El-Saleh Ayoub St., Zamalek.

The most updated programme is to be found here: www.daad.eg/heritage-programme

Two five year positions at Würzburg University

[Posted on the 9th of April in papylist https://lists.ku.dk/hyperkitty/list/papy@lists.hum.ku.dk/]

Dear colleagues,

I would like to announce two forthcoming positions at Würzburg University. Please find details below, and feel free to share, and to contact myself or Prof. Dr. Martin Stadler for fuller details.

Two Five-year Positions: Study of Coptic Magic (doctoral and post-doctoral)

As part of the new Excellent Ideas programme, the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg is pleased to announce two vacancies within the Department of Egyptology:

- 1 postdoctoral researcher (TV-L E13 100%; initial monthly salary min. 3,672.02 EUR before tax)

- 1 doctoral assistant (TV-L E13 50%; initial monthly salary min. 1,836.01 EUR before tax)

These positions will be part of a new in-depth project studying “magical” texts from Late Antique and early Islamic Egypt written in Coptic, and will involve the creation of a database of published and unpublished texts, the edition and re-edition of original manuscripts, and the production of research situating them within their historical, social and intellectual context. The appointed applicants will work with the team co-ordinator (Dr. Korshi Dosoo).

Both positions will begin 1 September 2018, running for five years until 31 August 2023.

The postdoctoral candidate will require a doctoral degree in a relevant discipline (Coptic Studies, Papyrology, Egyptology, Early Christian Studies, Islamic Studies etc.), and a strong knowledge of the Coptic and Greek languages, as well as fluent English and at least a reading knowledge of German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Language skills in Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin, and earlier phases of Egyptian are also highly desirable. As a position intended for a junior researcher, applicants are normally expected to have completed their doctorate within the last three years.

The candidate for the position of a doctoral assistant will require a master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline (Ancient History, Coptic Studies, Papyrology, Egyptology, Early Christian Studies, Islamic Studies etc.), and a strong knowledge of the Coptic and Greek languages, as well as fluent English. A reading knowledge of German, French, Italian, and Spanish is highly desirable, as are language skills in Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Spanish, Latin, and earlier phases of Egyptian. She or he will receive supervision to allow her or him to complete her or his doctoral degree. The candidate will be free to decide on a thesis topic, although it will preferably overlap to some degree with the project theme.

In order to increase the proportion of female researchers at the University of Würzburg, applications from women are particularly welcome.

Persons with disabilities will be given preference if equally qualified.

To apply, please send a current curriculum vitae with the contact details for 2 referees, a letter of motivation (no more than 2 pages), and

- a writing sample (article or conference presentation; postdoctoral researcher)

or

- a proposal for a doctoral dissertation topic (ca. 2 pages, doctoral assistant)

as a single PDF.

For further details, and to apply, please contact Prof. Dr. Martin Andreas Stadler: martin.stadler@uni-wuerzburg.de.

The deadline for applications for both positions is 31 May, 2018.

Romeyka or the Grecophonic Muslims of Turkey

Romeyka 

It is very interesting to see that there is a variety of Greek that is spoken in a region outside Greece. Romeyka is such a variety, but it is more interesting as it is spoken in modern Turkey. Wikipedia offers a general introduction to this topic here. Ioanna Sitaridou is working on documenting this variety. Here you could read about the linguistic profile of Romeyka: http://www.romeyka.org/the-linguistic-profile-of-romeyka. You could also see the introduction to her interest and work on this project from the Youtube video below. I have also added more videos where you can listen to this variety along with Modern Greek subtitles. If you want more information about this important project you could check its website here: http://www.romeyka.org/the-romeyka-project. 

Orientalism, the Classics, and Egypt II workshop: Cairo 10 April 9:30-18:30

For more information please visit  https://everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/ 

Original Documents from Ancient Alexandria

Original Documents from Ancient Alexandria

A translation of all documents from ancient Alexandria that survive on papyrus.

Work in progress by Peter van Minnen

[Retrieved from original website on 17-3-2018]

Original documents from Ancient Alexandria! Wish it were true? It is true.

On this web site we at UC present a work in progress: a translation with introduction and notes of all documents from ancient Alexandria that survive on papyrus. There are hundreds such documents – even thousands. Just imagine a stack of such texts from ancient Rome or Athens – the whole world would be all over it! A similar project was undertaken for the documents found on the island of Elephantine in southernmost Egypt (B. Porten ed., The Elephantine Papyri in English, 1996), so why not for Alexandria on the other, Mediterranean, end?

Recent archaeological work in Alexandria and its harbor have created a lot of interest among those who cannot be expected to know about, let alone read, original Greek documents. They will want to bookmark this page.


Continue...

The DCC Greek List is now available in Arabic

The Dickinson College Commentaries (DCC)

According to Wikipedia, the DCC is  a digital project of Dickinson College, which is located in Carlisle, near Harrisburg, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The project assembles digital commentaries on texts in Latin and ancient Greek and publishes core vocabularies of the most common words in those languages. It is hosted by the department of Classical Studies, see also here for the entry in the Digital Classics Wiki.

The DCC  Greek vocabualry list of this porject is now available in Arabic translation where one can both search and browse it, see it here: http://dcc.dickinson.edu/ar/greek-core-list-arabic. According to the project director, Christopher Francese , "This list contains about 500 of the most common words in ancient Greek. These are the lemmas or dictionary headwords that generate approximately 65% of the word forms in a typical Greek text." To know more details about this valuable learning resource see the project's website here:http://dcc.dickinson.edu/. They have also a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) (ISSN 2161-0002)

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP)

[Retrieved from the website of IEP on 2018, January 1]

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) (ISSN 2161-0002) was founded in 1995 to provide open access to detailed, scholarly information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy. The Encyclopedia receives no funding, and operates through the volunteer work of the editors, authors, volunteers, and technical advisers. At present, the IEP has over a million visitors per month, and about 20 million page views per year. The Encyclopedia is free of charge and available to all users of the Internet world-wide. The staff of 30 editors and approximately 300 authors hold doctorate degrees and are professors at universities around the world, most notably from English-speaking countries.

Dr. Noha A. Salem; the new director of Ain Shams Center of Papyrological Studies

A New Director of Ain Shams Centre of Papyrological Studies

It is my pleasure to announce that my colleague in the department of Ancient European Civilisation Assistant Prof. Dr. Noha A. Salem has been appointed (effective from 1.1.2018) as the new director of Ain Shams University's Centre of Papyrological Studies. The centre, as you all know, publishes annually since 1985 the only Egyptian periodical specialised in papyrology i.e. BullCPS = Bulletin of the Centre of Papyrological Studies. The Bulletin has now a new editor-in-chief.

As I am looking forward to seeing the BullCPS in its new shape under the new direction, I would like to congratulate Prof. Noha Salem for this appointment and wish her all the success in her endeavours to promote the centre, the bulletin and the whole field of papyrology in Egypt. In this regard, I am also quite sure that Prof. Noha Salem will continue her cooperation with me, the department, Ain Shams institute for papyrology, all the papyrologists worldwide and all the papyrological institutions around the globe.

To know more about "us", visit our blog here:https://everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/about/.

If you do not know what "the 28th ICP" is, please, go here: http://papyrologia.upf.edu/