The term “social sciences” (‘ulūm-i-ijtimā’ī) has gained currency in Iran only during the last fifteen years or so, but some of the disciplines falling within its purview have been in existence for a longer period. Thus the first institution for teaching political science was established in 1899, and the first chair of sociology was created in 19 35 in the University of Tehran. Besides, iike Molière’s bourgeois gentillhomme who belatedly realized that he had been making prose all his life without being aware of it, some Iranian scholars too have long been engaged in writing, translating and conducting research on social problems or using sociological concepts without being conscious of themselves as social scientists.

Since from a chronological viewpoint, political science appeared in Iran prior to other disciplines of social sciences and its studies involve problems of a distinct nature, the present paper is divided into two parts: the first dealing with political science, and the second with sociology and related disciplines.

In comparison with other ethnic groups in the U.S., the Arab-American community has received little study. In part this is due, no doubt, to its relatively small size, which is estimated to be about one and one half to two millions. Recently however, there has been an ethnic revival in the urban areas of the U.S. It became obvious in the late ’60s and early ‘70’s that many members of ethnic groups had not “melted”, had not lost their pride and cultural values, and that some had been forced to be ashamed of their foreign origin in public, and lived in a form of dual existence. The politics of ethnicity, always a part of the American class and political structure, also became more publically discussed in the 1960s. In large part this was due to the success of the Black expressions of identity and unity, but in the case of the Middle Eastern Arab communities, it was also in response to the conflicts in the Mid-East, and to the U.S. policies in relation to those conflicts. The heavy governmental support of the expanding settler state of Israel, and the inability to find expression of the Arab side through the mass media caused a growing alienation from U.S. policies and a new feeling of cultural and political awareness. This was particularly true after the 1967 Mid-East War, and more recently as a result of such a policy as Operation Boulder, a special surveillance policy instituted by President Nixon which specifically included Arab “ethnics.” The October War and the oil situation has also added a new and different dimension. It should be added, that in certain of the social sciences, there is a renewed emphasis upon migration studies, both in the national and international context.

Western knowledge of Southwest Arabia, the scene of an important ancient civilization and a flourishing center of early Islamic culture, has until recently owed as much to legend and hearsay as to analytical research. During the past few centuries access to Yemen by Western scholars and observers was sparse and intermittent, inhibition by the land’s forbidding terrain, its remoteness, and by the isolationist policy of its Zaidi monarchs. When the imamate was overthrown in 1962 there ensued a protracted civil war which opposed Egypt to Saudi Arabia in an intra-Arab “Vietnam”, and also prolonged the country’s inaccessibility to scholarly inquiry. Only in the late 1960s did research become even theoretically possible in Yemen on a scale approaching what had been going on for decades in most other Middle Eastern countries. Since then the territory has attracted a growing number of researchers, and information about Yemen’s past and contemporary life is now beginning to appear on a regular basis. It is widely dispersed, however, and the need is clear for a summary of the existing research tools and facilities both outside and within Yemen, the climate for scientific investigation in the country, the projects recently completed or in progress, and the researchers involved.