Five years ago, on the occasion of the first annual meeting of this Association at the University of Chicago, the Presidential address was delivered by our departed and lamented colleague, Gustave von Grunebaum. It was a distinguished occasion, but to tell the truth, it was also a somewhat trying one. For an hour or two before dinner, the cocktails had flowed freely; we were then served an enormous meal, enough to put some of us to sleep on the spot; the room was rather crowded and terribly overheated, and as the dinner plates were pushed away, the air grew thick with cigar smoke. As we struggled to regain our sobriety or at least to stay awake, perspiring and gasping for breath, Professor von Grunebaum arose in our midst and delivered a characteristically learned, intricate, and rather lenghthy discourse on the Islamic concept of sin. It was, of course, a brilliant performance, and it endowed the Middle East Studies Association with the necessary academic credibility to get off to a successful start. Upon reflection, I felt that it was also well suited to the locale of the city of Chicago, and as I pointed out to Gustave afterward, all in all it had been the very model of a Chicago convention: lots of booze before dinner, and lots of sin afterward.

Similar to other fields, Middle East Studies are at a stage where scholars have begun to reexamine their efforts within the framework of the modern university and science in general, with regard to both research and teaching. It is being realized that for a long time these studies have been directed towards area specialization and self-perpetration while efforts at keeping up the communication with other fields of scholarship and, more important perhaps, with the disciplinary approaches and theories that are or ought to be applied in Near Eastern studies have been very much neglected. Communication of our field with other fields and with the various disciplines is invariable dependent on translation from translations of individual pieces of literature to ‘translations’ of the entire field and the range of problems related to it. Translators from one European language into another can rely on a vast amount of secondary data and a general knowledge of the overlapping cultural settings. Translators of Middle Eastern literary output have first to overcome a basic public ignorance about the area on, or, if not ignorance, then a view and presupposition that our field is still largely exotic. There is moreover little expectation on the side of non-specialists that the literary output of the Middle East can have any wider impact on or be of any importance for the various humanistic or social disciplines and comparative studies.

Research possibilities and resources in Israel are so rich and varied that it is difficult to encompass all of them in the type of brief survey articles that have appeared in previous issues of the MESA Bulletin. Israel has developed a broadly-based European type of educational system culminating in a rapidly growing group of universities and technical research institutes. In addition to the base of scholars who immigrated to pre-1948 Palestine and helped found the educational system, there are now two newer elements in the scholarly community : native-born Jews and Arabs who have received their training in Israeli schools, often supplemented by graduate or post-doctoral study abroad, and a still newer element of Jewish immigrant scholars from Western countries such as the U.S., Britain, France, Italy, and Latin America, as well as a growing number of Jewish scholars, including some distinguished Orientalists, from the Soviet Union. This diversity of educational backgrounds adds stimulation to the Israeli academic scene. Perhaps more than in any other Middle Eastern country, cooperation with local scholars is recommended, not only for reasons of politics or politeness but because of the advisability of avoiding duplication of effort and because of the assistance that these scholars can give in the use of the research facilities. Furthermore, Israeli scholars can be of assistance to their foreign colleagues in such matters as arranging guest lectures, visiting professorships, or help in finding housing or schools for one’s children, all of which are more easily handled through personal contact.

The Tehran Center of the American Institute of Iranian Studies will move to new and better quarters on or about 15 October. The address there is no. 9 Kh. Moshtaq (just off Kakh), and the new phone number is 42488. The new building provides more ample accomodation for both the Institute and the director and his family. It is also a location that is far quieter and more convenient than the present one.

Main Features : The American University of Beirut is offering a summer session in Arabic and area studies from July 9 to Sept.l, 1973. No fellowships are offered for the summer students.

Near Eastern Languages: Arabic Language and Literature, Advanced Arabic Language and Literature.

Courses : History of the Arabs from 750 to 861 A.D. (in Arabic); History of the Arabs from 861 to 1258 A.D. (in Arabic); History of the Arab East 1798–1939; History of North Africa 1800–1939; Graduate Tutorial in Arab and Near Eastern History; History of Islamic Political Thought; Modern Islamic Political Institutions.

Inquiries : Requests concerning registration and admission should be addressed to the Registrar, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.