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Sent: 08 January 2014 09:40 Dear List-Serv Members: I have been interested for a number of years now about whether there is a desire to produce an updated primary source collection in translation for professors and students of the medieval and early modern periods of Islamic/Middle Eastern history--or even whether such a possibility is feasible in the current climate. I hope to convene a roundtable discussion of the issues this suggestion raises at the forthcoming MESA conference in Washington, DC. If others on the list find this possibility intriguing, and would like to make informal comments as part of the roundtable group, or if you are working on such a project already, I would be thrilled to receive your input into these questions. Please contact me off-list at john.curry@unlv.edu if you would have an interest in participating. (For the record, my understanding is that participation in a roundtable does not preclude anyone from presenting a paper in a standard panel, if that is a concern for some, though I will double-check to be sure). I have developed a very rough draft for said roundtable below, although it will likely have to be edited subsequently to conform to the usual MESA guidelines on such things: Working Title: “Is There A Need For A New Primary Source Book For The History of Medieval Islamic Civilization?” This roundtable seeks to address the issues surrounding an increase in the number of professors teaching the history of medieval and early modern Islamicate world to undergraduate or non-specialist audiences. One of the major challenges facing both instructors and students alike at various levels is the difficulty in acquiring and utilizing primary sources for Islamic history prior to 1800. While a number of textbooks address the context of the modern Middle East (such as A.F. Khater and B. Fortna’s compilations, along with other materials integrated into more standard types of textbook), it is much harder to find resources for earlier periods without extensive review of sometimes hard-to-find literature. While primary source compilations were made during the 1970s (such as the B. Lewis two-volume set and the McNeill/Waldman volume), these are now dated and out of print, and little has been done toward updating these materials (the volume of the late N. Calder and J. Mojaddedi being a possible exception, but that is aimed more specifically at Islamic law and religious studies). The roundtable thus seeks to gather a group of scholars who have grappled with this question from a variety of perspectives, and discuss the ways in which they have overcome this issue (or failed to do so). In so doing, we also wish to address the question of whether it is time to produce a new textbook that can act as a resource for teachers and students of this period in Islamic history. Such a question raises a number of critical issues: What documents should such a compilation include? How can it balance the perspectives of different groups among medieval and early modern Muslims? How long can individual readings be? What should be the pedagogy of working in these types of primary sources? Perhaps the trickiest question of all is whether or not such a published resource has any value at all in the age of the digital revolution. Would a better strategy be to create a Medieval Islamic Internet Sourcebook along the lines of what Paul Halsall has done? An open discussion of these questions strikes us as a prerequisite to the consideration of any project aimed at rectifying this gap in the literature. Best regards, John Curry UNLV Department of History -- --
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