Maleonn, 2008. Postman [photograph] (London, SOAS Library). Photograph by David Pearson. You have probably seen these photographs in the Library (Level E). They were from the exhibition Chinascape: Contemporary Chinese Photography held at the Wolfson Gallery in the library in 12th April – 8th June 2012. The exhibition presented photographs of a number of high-profile independent artists in China, and provided a rare opportunity to get a glimpse of trends
Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk SOAS Library has now acquired this new multi volume set regarded as a ‘mini library’ centering on contemporary Bollywood. Edited by our very own Bollywood specialist, Rachel Dwyer it is a one stop resource about the progress of Indian cinema, with an emphasis on Hindi film from Bombay. Contemporary periods chart the success of several genres including, the silent era, the studio period and the ‘Golden
Image courtesy of indiainlondon.com SOAS are delighted to announce that the West Bengal Government has generously offered the SOAS South Asia Insitutue (SSAI) some scholarships for Bengali Studies. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, will be visiting London next week and we will be holding a short ceremony in her presence at the Tagore statue in Gordon Square at 5.30 on Tuesday 28 July.
The oldest fragments of the Qur’an ever discovered have been found in the Mingana Collection at the Birmingham University Library. Those fragments (2 folii) written in Hijazi script on parchment have been carbon-dated around 568-645 A.D. and are remarkably clear and well-preserved. Their datation means that they could be contemporary to the Prophet Muhammad (who died in 632) and the copyist could well have heard the Prophet Muhammad preaching. Birmingham
The Victoria and Albert Museum are currently holding a photography exhibition of British photographer Captain Linnaeus Tripe, capturing 60 of his most striking images of India and Burma. The photographs were taken between 1852- 1860 and consist of Indian and Burmese landscape and architecture. Rarely seen in the West, Tripe brings to light documentation covering archeological sites, monuments and an eye for creative photography. The exhibition runs until October the
We are currently trialling the Declassified Documents Reference System. The database covers govenment documents from the United States and coverage ranges from the years immediately following World War II, when declassified documents were first made widely available, through the 1970s. Nearly every major foreign and domestic event of these years is covered: the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, the civil rights movement, and many others. DDRS enables users to
One of the most important historians of Islam in the last 50 years and whose contributions were pivotal in the study of early Islam, Patricia Crone died at the age of 70 on 11th July 2015 in Princeton, New Jersey. Patricia Crone graduated from SOAS, University of London in 1969 where she learnt Arabic, adding later Persian and Syriac. Upon graduating with a First, she went on to write her
Hosted by the University of Würzburg as part of the DFG-funded project Corpus babylonischer Rituale und Beschwörungen gegen Schadenzauber: Edition, lexikalische Erschließung, historische und literarische Analyse, directed by former SOAS staff member, Daniel Schwemer, the Critical Catalogue of Mesopotamian Anti-witchcraft Rituals (CCMAwR) allows users to search for particular cuneiform tablets indexed in the collection or to browse by language or place or origin. The site also links to related websites (please note that
The Dome of the Rock, viewed from the roof of the Austrian Hospice (via Wikimedia Commons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jerusalem_Dome_of_the_rock_BW_11.JPG) The Palestine Exploration Fund was founded on May 12th 1865 in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey. One of its founding members was the Dean, Arthur Penhryn Stanley and its roots lay in his involvement with the Jerusalem Water Relief Fund which had necessitated comprehensive professional surveying work in the city in 1864.
The Shubbak Festival is back in town for another fortnight of inspiring events (gigs, talks, films, theater, and family events) providing a Window on Contemporary Arab Culture, from 11th-26th July 2015. Check it out at http://www.shubbak.co.uk/ To note: this year the Shubbak Literature Festival is organised in cooperation with the British Library and will includes talks on 25th and 26th July such as : The Rise of Arabic Literature in
