Middle East, Islamic Studies & Arabic Studies: Biographic & Auto-Biographic Collections

We are concerned global citizens committed to preserving this chapter of our collective history. We come from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, nationalities, and professions. It is our view that a strong foundation in history will pave the way for a more enlightened future for the subcontinent and hence the world. At the moment our team consists of 100% volunteer based staff, interns, advisers and experts who are passionate about preserving the people's history of Partition.

Explore the lives of men and women in the Muslim world – from the sixteenth century to now – through their autobiographical writings. Writings are by Muslims and non-Muslims living in various social, cultural and political contexts. The authors range from scholars, saints and socio-religious reformers to princes, bureaucrats, nationalists, educators, writers and actors. Browse by category, region, time or name. Also access an extensive bibliography of published autobiographical writings from the Muslim world in English or English translation.

The al-Qaeda Statement’s Index is an ongoing project created by Professor Barak Mendelsohn with the support of the Political Science department at Haverford College. The Index consists of a database of over 300 statements made by various members of al Qaeda and its affiliates’ senior leadership going back as far as 1994. Each statement is read by a group of research assistants and indexed based on critical keywords and relevant contexts. The index makes it possible to study trends in statements released by al-Qaeda over the years. It is a valuable tool in studying and combating global terrorism. Please note the availability of biographical information on authors with a significant presence in the index

Maxim Romanov is a postdoctoral associate at the Department of Classics and the Perseus Digital Library Project, Tufts University. His dissertation (Near Eastern Studies, U of Michigan, 2013) explored how modern computational techniques of text analysis can be applied to the study of premodern Arabic historical sources. In particular, he studied “The History of Islam” (Taʾrīḫ al-islām), the largest of surviving biographical collections with over 30,000 biographies, written by the Damascene scholar al-Ḏahabī (d. 1348 CE). He is continuing his research and develops methods of computational analysis for other genres of premodern Arabic literature, mainly large volume collections—bibliographical collections, collections of traditions (ḥadīṯ), collections of legal decisions (fatwás), interpretation of the Qurʾān (tafsīr), etc.—that can offer insights into long-term and large-scale developments that took place during the pre-modern period of Islamic history.

The ASTENE Bulletin is published four times a year and aims to keep members informed of research interests and queries in the field of travel in Egypt and the Near East. Members are encouraged to submit information and material for the Bulletin relating to on-going research and interests, conferences etc.

Database of Nusantara Islam Manuscripts is a database that provides various informations related to Nusantara Islam manuscripts. The database covers a wide range of Nusantara Islam manuscripts-based research—using philological approach or other approaches; conducting by foreign scholars or native scholars. As the center of Nusantara Islam manuscripts, the database not only records the title, author, copyist, language, and literacy texts, but also provides a number of manuscript collections and catalogues including lists, and various publications relating to manuscript which is used as the primary resource of research. In addition, the database provides authors and copyists’ biographical information and their activities. Therefore, Database of Nusantara Islam Manuscripts, as the center of information and research on manuscript that can be accessed online, is very important for the manuscripts-based researches and other researches. Thus, through the information contained in the database of Nusantara Islam manuscript, various topics of research can be developed further, while the potential for duplication and plagiarism cases in the study of manuscript can also be avoided.

Onomasticon Arabicum (OA) is a long-living database project. This new online-version informs on more than 15000 scholars and celebrities from the first Muslim millenary. Its entries in Arabic are compiled from ancient biographical dictionaries, a veritable treasure of Islamic culture. Crossed search allows separate interrogation on any of the different elements of the Arabo-Muslim names, dates and places, reconstructing the identity of a person, trace ways of knowledge transmission and frame historical contexts.