Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1997, Page 136

Bulletin Board

Compiled by Janet McMahon

Convenings

The University of Pennsylvania's Middle East Center is sponsoring a number of events for the remainder of 1997: a lecture by Joyce Oates of Cambridge University's McDonald Institute for Archeological Research on "Early Empires: the Akkadians and the Mitanni at Tell Brak," Oct. 22, 6 p.m., in the University Museum's Rainey Auditorium; a screening of Tunisian film "Silence of the Palaces," with a discussion led by UP Prof. Anjali Arondakar, Oct. 23, 6:30 p.m., in room 103-105, Williams Hall; seminars, all at 4:30 p.m. in the West Lounge (Room 421) of Williams Hall, on "Ecological History in the Middle East: Local Accommodation to Catastrophe," with Brian Spooner of the Department of Anthropology, Oct. 28; on "Letters or Numbers? Ontological Dimensions of the Alchemical Corpus Attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan and the Ras'il of the Ikhwan al-Safa," with Nomanul Haq of the Rutgers University Department of Religion, Nov. 4; on "Language and Diasporas: Arabs, Turks and Greeks," with Jacob Landau of Princeton University's Near East Studies Department, Nov. 11; and on "Some Contesting Views of Same-Sex Attraction in Medieval Arabic Texts," with Everett Rowson of the Department of Asian and Middle East Studies, Dec. 2; a lecture by Natalla Shishlina, curator of the Bronze Age collections in Moscow's State Historical Musuem, on "Before the Scythians: The Bronze Age Origins of Nomads on the Eurasian Steppe," 6 p.m. in the Rainey Auditorium. For further information contact the Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania, 838-839 Williams Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305, (215) 898-6335.

The Hartford Seminary will hold its Fall Conference for the Luce Forum in Abrahamic Religions on "Jews and Muslims in the American Context," with a keynote address by Harvey Cox, Nov. 9 at the Hartford Seminary and Nov. 10 at the University of Hartford. For complete information contact Joyce Winkler at the Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman St., Hartford, CT 06105-2260, (860) 768-4963.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council will honor Khalil Bendib of the Minaret; Washington Report on Middle East Affairs writer Pat McDonnell Twair; and Faze Rahman of Pakistan Link, at an event to be held Nov. 15, 6:30-9:30 p.m., at the Islamic Center of Southern California, 434 South Vermont Ave., Hollywood, CA. Tickets are $45. For additional information contact Salam or Lydia at (213) 383-3443.

Opportunities

Global Exchange will lead two "Reality Tours" to Palestine and Israel, fact-finding study trips on the reality of the occupation, the peace process and grassroots voices, Jan. 12-25 and June 16-29, 1998. Cost is $2,700 with airfare, $1,000 land-only, with a non-refundable deposit of $200 due two months before departure date. For complete information and application forms, contact Global Exchange, Attn.: Shirabe Yamada, 2017 Mission St., #103, San Francisco, CA 94110, phone (415) 255-7296 or (800) 497-1994 ext. 242, fax (415) 255-7498, e-mail gx-shirabe@globalexchange.org

The American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, Jordan announces the following 1998-99 fellowships: Kress Fellowship in the Art and Archeology of Jordan, one or more 3- to 6-month fellowships for American Ph.D. candidates or pre-doctoral students matriculating at U.S. institutions, completing dissertation research in an art historical topic, maximum award $14,000; USIA Fellowships, five or more 2- to 6-month fellowships for pre- and post-doctoral applicants in all areas of the humanities and social sciences, maximum award $14,000, U.S. citizenship required; Near and Middle East Research and Training Program (NMERTP) senior research grants, two or more 4- to 9-month fellowships for senior post-doctoral scholars pursuing research and publication projects, with preference given to applicants with little prior Mideast experience, maximum award $35,600, U.S. citizenship required; NMERTP Pre-Doctoral Fellowships, two or more 2- to 4-month fellowships for pre-doctoral students with little or no prior Mideast experience, maximum award $9,200, U.S. citizenship required; National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Research grants, one or more 4- to 6-month fellowships for U.S. citizens or foreign nationals living in the U.S. for the immediately preceding three years, maximum award $30,000. NOTE: All of the above fellowships are subject to available funding. The Jennifer C. Groot Fellowship consists of one or more awards of $1,500 each to undergraduate and graduate beginners in archeological fieldwork accepted as staff members on ASCOR/CAP-affiliated projects. The Kenneth W. Russell Fellowship of $1,500 will be awarded to a Jordanian citizen who is a graduate student in the fields of archeology, anthropology, conservation, or a related area. The Harrell Family Fellowship of $1,500 will be awarded to a graduate student for participation in an ACOR-supported archeological project. Deadline for all the above fellowships is Feb. 1. For complete information contact ACOR, 656 Beacon St., 5th floor, Boston, MA 02215, phone (617) 353-6571, fax (617) 353-6575, e-mail acor@bu.edu.

Deaths

Munir Bashir, an Iraqi musician nicknamed "emir of the oud," died Sept. 29 of a heart attack in Budapest, Hungary at the age of 67. He was the director-general of musical affairs at Iraq's Culture Ministry for 16 years until his retirement in 1993, when he moved to Budapest with his Hungarian wife, Agnes, a pianist. Believing that Arabic music should be an integral part of his country's educational system, he established a ballet and music school for children, as well as the Iraqi Institute for Melody Studies for teenagers. He once said that one of his most important goals was to instill a love of traditional music among young Arabs seduced by Western pop and rock.

Sabatino Moscati, an archeologist and linguist whose specialty was Semitic languages, died at his home in Rome on Sept. 8, at the age of 74. Trained as a linguist, he became chair of Rome University's department of Semitic philology in 1954. Three years later, while visiting Israel, he took part in an excavation of the remains of an 8th century B.C. fortress at Ramat Rehel and, after further excavations, began to trace the influence of the Phoenicians and the Punic cultures of North Africa on the Mediterranean region. He discovered and excavated a series of Phoenician forts near Cap Bon, Tunisia, as well as sites containing steles and statues in Motya, an island off Sicily, and the Phoenician city of Monte Sirai on Sardinia. He was the author of numerous books, the most widely read being Ancient Semitic Civilizations.

Abdullah ibn Hamoud Al-Tariki, Saudi Arabia's first oil minister and a founder of OPEC, died Sept. 7 of a heart attack in Cairo, where he had lived for more than a decade, at the age of 80. Born in the Saudi village of Zilfi, he received his early education in Kuwait and Cairo, and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in petroleum engineering. He then returned to Saudi Arabia and joined the Finance Ministry in the 1940s. He was minister of petroleum in 1961 and 1962, when he lost the position due to his disagreements with the king over Saudi oil strategies and pro-Western policies.