The interface between East and West

This theme is considered currently to be highly relevant to most of the subjects within our remit to improve understanding of cultural behaviour: expressed in numerous ways such as the Roman frontier, the Crusades, current politics, and gender roles, political ideology, whether expressed through political means or literature.
CBRL has been supporting the following projects:

Classical art and literature in the early Islamic world
Tim Moore CBRL Research Scholar (Jerusalem)

Fortification of Cyprus under Lusignans, 1191-1489 AD
James Petre (Cardiff University, MPhil Research)

Investigation of Primary Source Material in Venice related to Medieval Cyprus
Dr Aysu Dincer (University of Birmingham)

Jerusalem between two Empires: The transition between Ottoman and British Rule
Roberto Mazza (SOAS)

Jinnis and Science: Modernising Islam in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries
Dr Matthew Elliott former CBRL Research Officer (Jerusalem)

Legend, History, Hospitality: Exploring geographical imaginations of the Levant
Dr Jessica Jacobs (Research Fellow Open University, former CBRL Amman Research Officer)
Investigation of the role of contemporary tourism practice in the construction of opinions and attitudes towards the Arab world and its people, involving interviews with tourists and people working in the tourism industry in Jordan and Syria

Nationalist Headgear in inter-war Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Palestine; Dancing in Arabia: Ibn Saud, Wahhabism and the World Depression 1930-31; A music ‘revolution’ in Turkey
Dr Matthew Elliott (former CBRL Research Officer, Jerusalem)

Survey of 13th-Century Crusader cemetery at ‘Atlit
Jennifer Thompson (Cardiff University, part of PhD Research on death and burial in the Frankish East, due to be published)

The role of Bethlehem policewomen in local conflict resolution
Jenny Steel University of Cambridge

Usamah Ibn Munqidh and the Emergence of the ‘Coastal Frank’
John Harte (former CBRL Research Scholar)
Christian-Muslim relations in 12th-Century Northern Syria

Additional Activities

• A multi-disciplinary conference was held in Amman in February 2007 with the British Mediterranean Institutes and the British School of Archaeology in Iraq on this theme.

• We have supported the publication of a booklet on the Roman frontier, bringing Syria and Jordan into the overall plan to develop a multi-national world heritage site. Importantly we translated this largely European inspired book into Arabic, helping to bring Levantine government agencies into the project with a sense of ownership.

   

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