<p>In these studies Michael Macdonald examines the extraordinary flowering of literacy in both the settled and nomadic populations of western Arabia in the 1500 years before the birth of Islam, when a larger proportion of the population could read and write than in any other part of the ancient Near East, and possibly any other part of the ancient world. Even among the nomads there seems to have been almost universal literacy in some regions. The scores of thousands of inscriptions and graffiti they left paint a vivid picture of the way-of-life, social systems, and personal emotions of their authors, information which is not available for any other non-élite population in the ancient Near East outside Egypt. This abundance of inscriptions has enabled Michael Macdonald to explore in detail some of the - often surprising - ways in which reading and writing were used in the literate and non-literate communities of ancient Arabia. He describes the many different languages and the distinct family of alphabets used in ancient Arabia, and discusses the connections between the use of particular languages or scripts and expressions of personal and communal identity. The problem of how ancient perceptions of ethnicity in this region can be identified in the sources is another theme of these papers; more specifically, they deal from several different perspectives with the question of what ancient writers meant when they applied the term 'Arab' to a wide variety of peoples throughout the ancient Near East.</p>

Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia (Variorum Collected Studies)

Macdonald, M.C.A.

Reference

Routledge

<p>CONTENTS: THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF OMAN AND THE GULF: Peter Magee, New chronometric data defining the Iron Age II period in south-eastern Arabia; Vincent Charpentier, Philippe Marquis &amp; Éric Pellé, La nécropole et les derniers horizons Ve millénaire du site de Gorbat al-Mahar (Suwayh, SWY–1, Sultanat d'Oman) : premiers résultats; Jutta Häser, Archaeological results of the 1999 and 2000 survey campaigns in Wadi Bani Awf and the region of al-Hamra (Central Oman); Cécile Monchablon, Rémy Crassard, Olivia Munoz, Hervé Guy, Gaëlle Bruley-Chabot &amp; Serge Cleuziou, Excavations at Ra’s al-Jinz RJ–1: stratigraphy without tells; Tom Vosmer, The Magan Boat Project: a process of discovery, a discovery of process; Anne Benoist, Michel Mouton &amp; Jeremie Schiettecatte, The artefacts from the fort at Mleiha: distribution, origins, trade and dating; Ali Tigani ElMahi &amp; Moawiyah Ibrahim, Two seasons of investigations at Manal site in the Wadi Samayil area, Sultanate of Oman; Soumyen Bandyopadhyay &amp; Magda Sibley, The distinctive typology of central Omani mosques: its nature and antecedents; Caesar E. Farah, Anglo-Ottoman confrontation in the Persian Gulf in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; COMPARATIVE WATER SYSTEMS: Miquel Barceló, Julián Ortega, Arcadi Piera &amp; Josep Torró, The Search for the Hararah asdād in the area of Zafār, Governorate of Ibb, Yemen; Helena Kirchner, Ma’jil: a type of hydraulic system in Yemen and in al-Andalus?; THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF PRE-ISLAMIC YEMEN: T.J. Wilkinson, The organization of settlement in highland Yemen during the Bronze and Iron Ages; Frank Braemer, Serge Cleuziou &amp; Tara Steimer, Dolmen-like structures: some unusual funerary monuments in Yemen; William D. Glanzman, An examination of the building campaign of YadaΚΜil Dharīh bin Sumhu’alay, mukarrib of Saba’, in light of recent archaeology; Jean-François Breton, Preliminary notes on the development of Shabwa; Christian Darles, Les fortifications de Shabwa, capitale du royaume de Hadramawt; Jan Retsö, When did Yemen become Arabia felix?; The epigraphy of pre-Islamic Yemen; Joseph L. Daniels, Landscape graffiti in the Dhamār Plains and its relation to mountain-top religious practice; Serguei A. Frantsouzof, The Hadramitic funerary inscription from the cave-tomb at al-Rukbah (Wādī Ghabr, Inland Hadramawt) and burial ceremonies in ancient Hadramawt; Peter Stein, The inscribed wooden sticks of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich; Mohammed Maraqten, Some notes on Sabaic epistolography; YEMEN IN THE ISLAMIC PERIOD: A. Rougeulle, Excavations at Sharmah, Hadramawt the 2001 and 2002 seasons; Noha Sadek, a’izz, capital of the Rasulid dynasty in Yemen; ETHNOGRAPHY IN YEMEN: Vitaly Naumkin &amp; Victor Porkhomovsky, Oral poetry in the Soqotran socio-cultural context. The case of the ritual song The girl and the jinn; Miranda Morris, The Soqotra Archipelago: concepts of good health and everyday remedies for illness; Ester Muchawsky-Schnapper, Children's attire in early 20th-century San’ā’ as a socio-cultural paradigm. Orders from Archaeopress.</p>

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 33 2003

Politics & Social Sciences

Archaeology

Archaeopress Archaeology

Professor A.F.L. Beeston (1911-1995) was one of the leading Arabists of his day, with a long and illustrious academic career. This volume contains reprints of all eighteen of Dr. Beeston's papers from the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , with the addition of five previously unpublished workds ( Sabaic Inscriptions on Wadi Siham; The Arabian Aromatics Trade in Antiquity; Sabaean Origins; Thoughts on the Passive; On Etymologizing ). A personal reminiscence by W.W. Muller is also included.

A.F.L. Beeston at the Arabian Seminar and Other Papers

History

Philips, C. S.

Middle East

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