The last fifteen years have witnessed rapid growth in the number of students studying Arabic and of programs concerned with the teaching of the language. This is directly attributable to the awakened interest in the United States in the Middle East in general, and the Arab world in particular, as a result of the entry of the U.S. in World War II and its emergence as a global power with strategic, economical, and political interests in the area. This is not to say that the teaching of Arabic is a new phenomenon in the U.S. As an indespensible tool of Orientalistic scholarship, Arabic was taught for many years in a few institutions which offered programs in Oriental and Semitic Studies.

Apart from the fact that anthropology has long been considered the bastard of the social sciences and the stepchild of the humanities, it is quite appropriate that a syllabus in Middle Eastern anthropology should follow those on geography, political science, and history. I cannot think of a single cultural anthropologist of my acquaintance dealing with Middle Eastern materials who has not urged, if not insisted, that his students familiarize themselves with the geography of the area, its ancient, medieval, and modern history, its religions, and its languages. Since most cultural anthropologists do field work in ar least one culture area, and many do it in two, the latter requirement is usually met with some degree of proficiency by anthropologists themselves and their graduate students. However, despite the obvious relevance of such great religious traditions as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism to the study of particular communities and regions within the Middle East, the acquaintance of anthropologists (not to mention students) with historical and religious materials remains sadly deficient, if only because of the richness of the literature available.

The analysis of international event data has in the past several years become a major trend in quantitative and non-quantitative international politics. The upsurge of interest in event data parallels the attempt in the late 1960’s to test empirically the international relations theorizing of the 1950’s. Charles McClelland has argued forcefully that systems theory and other theories which focus on the structure, interactions and overt behavior in international politics can be conceptualized and operationalized in terms of streams of discrete events between the actors of the international system and its subsystems (McClelland, 1967 and 1970). These streams of conflictual and cooperative events - for example, verbal protests, visits, agreements and military actions - can be used to profile both the behavior of a nation and the relationships among two or more nations. As a consequence, the recent turn toward data-making and data-analysis has brought many students to international event analysis. This has been as true of students of comparative foreign policy as of international systems theory.

In a previous article I sought to appraise the field of Turkish studies, for the most part among western (predominantly American) scholars (MESA Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 3, October 15, 1969). To fill out the picture, it is appropriate to also view the state of social research among the rapidly growing body of Turkish teachers and researchers. This article is not, however, a direct parallel to others in the MESA “State of the Art” series, in that it is not basically bibliographical. Such a review would require far more time, space, and knowledge in depth of several other social science disciplines than is currently available to me, because despite the remarks made below about problems of definition, the quantity and technical sophistication of work by Turkish researchers is quite large and is growing rapidly. Furthermore, since most of the research referred to below is in Turkish, the number of persons to whom a bibliographic review might be useful is quite limited. Instead, I think it would be more interesting to MESA members and other American social scientists to examine the characteristics and problems of what is probably one of the most vigorous social science communities in the “developing” countries, with a view (among other things) to helping facilitate increased cooperation between Turkish and American scholars in our common endeavors of advancing the state of knowledge.

The Library of the American University in Cairo invites Fellows of the American Research Center to become subscription members. For a fee of LE 6.000, borrowing privileges and full internal use of the library are granted. Of special interest to researchers are the Creswell and Debbane Collections. The Creswell Collection, containing over 3,500 volumes devoted to Islamic art and architecture, is a non-circulating reference collection which may be consulted by serious scholars. Letters of introduction should be presented to Prof. Creswell and to the Director of the Center for Arabic Studies by anyone who is not affiliated with the American University.

The American Association of Teachers of Arabic was organized in 1963 with the encouragement of the Modern Language Association, to promote study, criticism, research and instruction in the field of Arabic language and literature. It has worked toward these aims primarily through annual meetings and the publication of a newsletter An-Nashra. Begun eight years ago by a handful of interested teachers of arabic, the organization has since grown to a membership of almost 100 in 1970 including teachers of Arabic to Americans in Cairo and interested students who plan a future career which includes the teaching of Arabic.