Un sanctuaire rupestre au dieu dhû-Samāwī à ʿān Halkân (Arabie saoudite)
Coauthored with Mounir Arbach , Christian Julien Robin, Saïd al-Saïd, Jérémie Schiettecatte and Ṣāliḥ Muḥammad āl Murīḥ
In : C. Robin et I. Sachet, Actes du colloque Dieux et déesses d’Arabie. Images et représentations, organisé les 1er et 2 octobre 2007. Orient & Méditerranée 7, Paris, De Boccard, 2012: 119-130.
Download (.pdf) Trade Cycles & Settlement Patterns in the Red Sea Region (c. AD 1050-1250)
by Tim Power
Power, T.C. 2012. Trade Cycles and Settlement Patterns in the Red Sea Region (c. AD 1050-1250).’ Navigated Spaces, Connected Places. Proceedings of Red Sea Project V. Held at the University of Exeter 16-19 September 2010. (British Foundation for the Study of Arabia Monographs No. 12) In D.A. Agius, J.P. Cooper, A. Trakadas & C. Zazzaro (eds.) Oxford: Archaeopress. pp. 137-45.
A growing politico-economic malaise becomes apparent in the Red Sea region from the mid eleventh century, culminating... more A growing politico-economic malaise becomes apparent in the Red Sea region from the mid eleventh century, culminating in the second half of the twelfth century, during which time most ports and hinterlands either declined or were abandoned. Whilst the causes of neglect were informed in each case by a specific local dynamic, the fact that so many sites were abandoned at broadly the same time across the Red Sea invites speculation as to underlying regional causes.
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Hawar Islands Protected Area (Kingdom of Bahrain) - Management Plan
by Mark Beech
Pilcher, N., R. Phillips, S. Aspinall, I. Al-Madany, H. King, P. Hellyer, M. Beech, C. Gillespie, S. Wood, H. Schwarze, M. Al Dosary, I. Al Farraj, A. Khalifa & B. Boer. 2003. UNESCO Office Doha, UNESCO World Heritage, Paris, and NCWP, Manama. First Draft, January 2003. 61pp.
UNESCO - Hawar Islands Biosphere Reserve Study, Bahrain
by Mark Beech
Aspinall,S., Al Madany, I., King, H., Pilcher, N., Phillips, R., Dosari, M., Al Farraj, A., Gillespie, C., Schwarze, H., Wood, S. & Boer, B (with assistance from Mark Beech & Peter Hellyer). 2003. Project Document - Assessment of the Hawar Islands and Al Areen Wildlife Park, Bahrain, as a potential Biosphere Reserve. Prepared for National Commission for Wildlife Protection, Kingdom of Bahrain - February 2003. 44 pages.
A Sequence of Inland Desert Settlement in the Oman Peninsula: 2008-2009 Excavations at Saruq al-Hadid, Dubai, U.A.E.
Herrmann, Jason T., Jesse Casana and Hussein Suleiman Qandil. 2012. A Sequence of Inland Desert Settlement in the Oman Peninsula: 2008-2009 Excavations at Saruq al-Hadid, Dubai, U.A.E. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 23/1: 50-69.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0471.2011.00349.x
Report on the Fourth Excavation Season (2011) of the Madâ'in Sâlih Archaeological Project
Laila Nehmé, Wael Abu Wazizeh, Christophe Benech, Guillaume Charloux, Nathalie Delhopital, Caroline Durand, Zbigniew T. Fiema, Khâled Al-Hâitî, Solène Marion De Procé, Nina-Ann Müller, Mâher Al-Mûsa, Jérôme Rohmer, Ibrahîm As-Sabban, Isabelle Sachet, Jacqueline Studer, Daifallah Al Talhi, Francelin Tourtet.
Excavations at Hegra (Madâ’in Sâlih, Saudi Arabia) Excavations at Hegra (Madâ’in Sâlih, Saudi Arabia)
Bahrain’s 10:0 against Indonesia puts both nations in the political hot seat
By James M. Dorsey
Bahrain’s stunning 10:0 thrashing this week of Indonesia in a World Cup qualifier... more
By James M. Dorsey
Bahrain’s stunning 10:0 thrashing this week of Indonesia in a World Cup qualifier threatens to damage the campaign of the country’s football czar, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, to be elected head of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and has put the careers of prominent soccer managers and executives in the firing line as world soccer body FIFA investigates possible match fixing.
The investigation kick starts former German police chief and Interpol director Ralf Mutschke’s new job as FIFA security chief, which includes the fight against corruption and match-fixing.
FIFA described the Bahraini victory which failed to ensure that the Gulf state advances to the fourth and final Asian qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup as “unusual.”
In addition to having to make up for a nine-goal deficit, which it did with its defeat of Indonesia, Bahrain also needed Qatar to lose its last match. But by scoring an 83rd-minute equalizer to draw 2-2 with Iran, Qatar ensured that it rather than Bahrain would advance to the final round.
All in all, Indonesia has lost all five of its previous group matches, conceding 16 goals while scoring just three.
FIFA, in a bid to appear impartial and not further tarnish Bahrain Football Association (BFA) president Sheikh Salman’s election campaign, described its investigation as “routine,” adding that the probe was justified "given the unusual outcome against results expectation and head-to-head history, and in the interests of maintaining unequivocal confidence in our game."
The allegation of match-fixing adds another layer of controversy to Sheikh Salman’s campaign given his backing last year of the arrest, torture and/or firing of 150 athletes and sports officials, including several national soccer team players on charges of involvement in anti-government protests.
Speaking in London, FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein said the outcome of the Bahrain-Indonesia match “might just be a coincidence, however there might be something behind it." Prince Ali, a proponent for greater transparency within FIFA, noted that match fixers were often “a step ahead” of those seeking to safeguard the integrity of the beautiful game. "We will have to see what the investigation comes out with,” he said.
The AFC said in a statement that it supported the FIFA probe and would "cooperate closely with the world football governing body in the investigation."
Bahrain’s English coach Peter Taylor is likely to move into the fire line if it emerges that the match against Indonesia was fixed. Mr. Taylor was criticized last year for taking up the job in a country where several national team players were banned and mistreated as part of the 150 sports people penalized for demonstrating against the government. Mr. Taylor somewhat callously at the time justified accepting the job by saying: "I am just a football manager. Since I've been here there have been more problems in England than there have been in Bahrain."
Bahrain has historically had close games with Indonesia, having won two, drawn two and lost two prior to Wednesday's game. Bahrain had scored nine goals in those matches and conceded seven.
Indonesia was disadvantaged during the match after its goalkeeper, Samsidar, was sent off the pitch with a red card just two minutes into the game and because it was fielding several inexperienced international players after suspending others who play for clubs in the breakaway Indonesian Super League.
As a result, it is hardly surprising that the probe shines the spotlight on the Indonesian football association (PSSI), which like Indonesia itself has been wracked by corruption.
PSSI chairman Djohar Arifin Husin added fuel to the fire when he was quoted by Indonesian news website Inilah.com on his way back to Jakarta from Bahrain as charging that the national team could “no longer depend on the senior players. They are all mafia who have been contaminated with the way previous PSSI officials ran football, fixing matches as they see fit.”
Amid denunciations by former players, Mr. Husin has since denied making the remark and accused Inilah.com of defaming him.
Mr. Husin nonetheless appeared to leave the door open to possible foul play charging that controversial Lebanese referee Andre El Haddad had made “lots of questionable calls…., so that should be investigated.”
Mr. El Haddad last year took charge of a qualifier between China and Singapore that saw him make several hotly contested decisions. China won 2-1.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
The Palmyrenes and the Arsacid Policy
Avdeev A.G. (ed.), «Voprosy Epigrafiki: Sbornik statei (Problems of Epigraphy: Collected Articles)», Vypusk 4, Russkii fond Sodeistviia obrazovaniiu i nauke, 4, 2010, pp. 21-37
Human Rights Watch condemns Saudi restriction of women's sports
By James M. Dorsey
International human rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Saudi Arabia of... more
By James M. Dorsey
International human rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Saudi Arabia of kowtowing to assertions by the country's powerful conservative Muslim clerics that female sports constitute "steps of the devil" that will encourage immorality and reduce women's chances of meeting the requirements for marriage.
The Human Rights Watch charges contained in a new report entitled “’Steps of the Devil’ comes on the heels of the kingdom backtracking on a plan to build its first stadium especially designed to allow women who are currently barred from attending soccer matches because of the kingdom’s strict public gender segregation to watch games. The planned stadium was supposed to open in 2014.
The report urged the International Olympic Committee to require Saudi Arabia to legalize women's sports as a condition for its participation in Olympic games.
"The glaring absence of a Saudi female athlete at the Olympics cannot go on much longer," Human Rights Watch researcher Christoph Wilcke, the report's principle author, said in a presentation of the report. ''We have listened to Saudi promises for decades. This is not good enough."
IOC spokesman Mark Adams in an emailed response to the call said that persuasion had proven to be "more effective. We've already seen them send a woman athlete to the Youth Olympic games so we are confident that we will make progress.”
The Human Rights call follows a warning last year by Anita DeFrantz, the chair of the International Olympic Committee's Women and Sports Commission, that Saudi Arabia alongside Qatar and Brunei could be barred if they did not send for the first time at least one female athlete to the London Olympic games.
Qatar, the only other country whose indigenous population are largely Wahhabis, adherents of the puritan interpretation of Islam predominant in Saudi Arabia, has agreed to field a women's team in London has increased the pressure on the kingdom to follow suit.
Saudi women despite official discouragement have in recent years increasingly been pushing the .envelope at times with the support of more liberal members of the ruling Al Saud family, The kingdom's toothless Shura or Advisory Council has issued regulations for women's sports clubs, but conservative religious forces often have the final say in whether they are implemented or not.
In a sign that efforts to allow and encourage women's sports are at best haphazard and supported only by more liberal elements in the government, the kingdom last year hired a consultant to develop its first national sports plan - for men only. There is no
legal ban in on women’s sports in Saudi Arabia where the barriers for women are rooted in tradition and the kingdom’s puritan interpretation of Islamic law.
"Nobody is saying completely 'no' to us," Associated Press quoted Reem Abdullah, the 33-year old founder, coach and striker of private women’s soccer team Jeddah King's United who is a leader in the campaign to allow women to participate in sports and compete internationally as saying. “As long as there are no men around and our clothes are properly Islamic, there should be no problem," she said.
The pushing of the envelope comes as women are increasingly challenging other aspects of the kingdom's gender apartheid against the backdrop of simmering discontent in Saudi society over a host of issues.
Manal al-Sharif was detained in May of last year for nine days after she videotaped herself flouting the ban on women driving by getting behind a steering wheel and driving. She was released only after signing a statement promising that she would stop agitating for women's rights.
A group of women launched earlier this year a legal challenge to the ban asserting that it had no base in Islamic law.
For his part, Saudi King Abdullah has made moves to enhance women’s rights. Last September, women were granted the right to vote, stand for election in local elections and join the advisory Shura council.
Women responded to the closing of private gyms for women in 2009 with a protest campaign under the slogan 'Let her get fat.' The government has since allowed the re-opening of health clubs for women but these are often too expensive for many women and don't offer a full range of sports activities.
Opposition to women's sports is reinforced by the fact that physical education classes are banned in state-run Saudi girl’s schools. Public sports facilities are exclusively for men and sports associations offer competitions and support for athletes in international competitions only to men.
The issue of women's sport has at time sparked sharp debate with conservative clerics condemning it as corrupting and satanic and charging that it spreads decadence. Conservative clerics have warned that running and jumping can damage a woman's hymen and ruin her chances of getting married.
One group of religious scholars argued that swimming, soccer and basketball were too likely to reveal “private parts,” which includes large areas of the body. Another religious scholar said it could lead to “mingling with men.”
To be fair, less conservative clerics have come out in favor of women's sports as well as less restrictions on women. In addition, the newly appointed head of the kingdom's religious vigilantes is reported to favor relaxation of the ban on the mixing of the sexes.
In defiance of the obstacles to their right to engage in sports, women have in recent years quietly been establishing soccer and other sports teams using extensions of hospitals and health clubs as their base.
The clerics "say it’s too masculine or too aggressive or not really feminine,” Lina Almaeena, a Saudi woman who plays on a private basketball team called Jeddah United told the Los Angeles Times.
"We will watch the London Olympics and we will cheer for our men competing there, hoping that someday we can root for our women as well," Ms. Abdullah said. “When Saudi women get a chance to compete for their country, they will raise the flag so high. Women can achieve a lot, because we are very talented and we are crazy about sports."
Ms. Abdullah established King’s United as the kingdom’s first female soccer team in 2006. Her example has since been followed in other cities, including Riyadh and Dammam. Two years later seven female teams played in the first ever national tournament as part a clandestine and segregated women's league.
Mr. Wilcke said that despite the apparent lack of real political will to encourage women's sports it “is very achievable. Government clerics are saying, ‘We should do this.’ Even if they take small steps, that still has the potential to alter lives of women who get out of the house, meet other women -- every bit helps.”
Mr. Wilcke said attitudes were likely to change because of the kingdom's young population which is likely to favour more liberal approaches.
Expectations that 18-year old equestrienne Dalma Rushdi Malhas who won a bronze medal in the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics, the sports event IOC spokesman Adams was referring to, would be the first Saudi athlete to compete at an Olympic games were dashed recently when the all-men Saudi team recently qualified for this year's London Olympics jumping competition.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Magee, P: 2011: Shifts in ceramic production and exchange in late prehistoric southeastern Arabia and the introduction of domesticated Camelus dromedarius, In: Between Sand and Sea: The Archaeology and Human Ecology of southwestern Asia. Festschrift in honor of Hans-Peter Uerpmann. Tubinger Monographien zur Urgeschichte, Kerns Verlag, Tübingen. Pp 213-226.
by Peter Magee
Mapping Masna’at Maryah: Using GIS to Reconstruct the Development of a Multi-Period Site in the Highlands of Yemen
by Krista Lewis
Krista Lewis, L. Khalidi, W. Isenberger and A. Sanabani, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, volume 40: 213-226, 2010
The 2008 field season of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) Māryah Archaeological Project was dedicated... more The 2008 field season of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) Māryah Archaeological Project was dedicated to creating a detailed, three-dimensional map of the 40.4 ha highland site of Masna'at Māryah. This site was occupied from the Neolithic to the Himyarite period. In addition to precise mapping of the topography, buildings, streets, water cisterns, and other cultural features visible on the surface, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of the distribution of cultural artefacts across the site’s surface. This work has also clarified Masna'at Māryah’s cultural chronology as it developed from a town with a focus on ceremonial space in the Bronze and Iron Ages, to a strategic elite urban production centre in the Himyarite period. The artefact densities and distributions systematically mapped out across the site reflect a number of processes that allow us to understand the use of space through time. We have identified evident access routes for local obsidian procurement and trade, specialized areas for ironworking, drainage patterns, and water management strategies, as well as areas currently heavily affected by, and prone to, erosion. This paper explains the mapping strategy developed for MaΒnaΚat Māryah and presents the implications of the data for the spatial, socio-political, and economic transformation of this site over several millennia.
