BRISMES Book Prize

We would like to thank Barclays Capital for their generous funding of the Prize in 2012, and Dr Ramady who acted as the Society's relationship manager with Barclays, as well as 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)
     Professor Rob Gleave (University of Exeter).

On the shortlist were:

Johan Franzen – Red Star over Iraq: Iraqi Communism before Saddam

Described as 'a solidly researched and insightful single-volume history of the Iraqi Communist Party from its inception to its annihilation by Saddam.' .... 'The author is to be lauded for 'taking the long view' by tracing the roots of Iraqi communism back to the turbulent emergency of the Iraqi state after World War I.'

'a highly readable and instructive history of secular political ideologies in Iraq.'

Fanar Haddad – Sectarianism in Iraq: Antagonistic Visions of Unity

One assessor noted that this is 'An excellent piece of ground breaking research on sectarianism in Iraq and its genesis and impact. An extremely well-ground theoretical framework allows for a very strong piece of scholarship to emerge. It draws out the complex identity politics and associated factors which explain the 'new' politics of post-Saddam Iraq. It is a highly challenging subject and the writing is very engaging.'

Another that this is a 'well written and scholarly account of sectarianism and its meaning in contemporary Iraq ..... is a model for scholarship in this hotly contested area. '

Gerald MacLean and Nabil Matar Britain and the Islamic World

One reviewer reported 'This is a careful account of relations between Britain and the Islamic world 1558-1713... It is scholarly, well-written and well presented. There is evidence of a great deal of original research and the unearthing of new materials in widely dispersed archives.'

Another described it as 'An excellent read – first class scholarship combined with novel ideas and an attractive presentation.'

We are pleased to announce thw winners:

Runner up: Clive Holes and Said Salman Abu Athera
The Nabati Poetry of the United Arab Emirates: Selected Poems annotated and translated into English

As one reviewer commented, 'The work to collect, contextualize, record, translate poems in a dialect – and then to present translations that work for the nonspecialist Anglophone reader—is truly something to laud'

'The translations work fabulously in English, showing a range of style, technique, sensitivity to the tone and historical context of the original. The work with rhyme schemes is nothing short of astounding!'

'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 Arab/ic culture of the Gulf region.'

Winner:

Konrad Hirschler - The Written Word in the Medieval Arabic Lands: A Social and Cultural History of Reading Practices

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. '

'It takes up the difficult to research topic of medieval reading practices, and produces a fascinating, rich and thorough study of existing and changing reading practices in medieval Egypt and Syria (with some attention to other areas), through investigation of public reading sessions, schooling, the institution of endowed libraries, and the public reading of 'popular' (sira) texts. The author draws on a wide range of sources, not only the typical chronicles and biographical dictionaries, but also normative manuals, curricular lists, reading licenses and notations of attendance at public reading sessions, visual sources from illuminated manuscripts, library catalogues, and versions of written siras.'

'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 this book should have an audience far beyond Islamic Studies. '

Photos from the presentation ceremony held on 31st October 2012:

Clive Holes is Professor for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World, University of Oxford; Professorial Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.

Said Salman Abu-Athera is Said Salman Abu Athera 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

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 the Crusades.

We are grateful to Barclays Capital for their sponsorship of this prize.

British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize

BRISMES administered the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Prize in Middle Eastern Studies from its inception until the end of 2010. This prize was founded thanks to an endowment of the Abdullah Mubarak Charitable Foundation. In each of the years since the prize commenced, it has attracted around 30 nominations from some 15 publishers and the overall standard of entries has been extremely high. The prize is awarded for the best scholarly work on the Middle East each year. Normally the chronological remit of the prize will be from the rise of Islam until the present day, but outstanding scholarly entries from the pre-Islamic era may also be considered.

Administration for the prize has now moved to Cambridge.  Please visit: www.bkfsprize.co.uk for further inforamtion.

 

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