Praising the photographs of Francis Frith, the grocery wholesaler-turned-photographer who undertook three photographic expeditions to the Middle East between 1856 and 1860, an Athenaeum critic wrote: “Mr. Frith, who makes light of everything, brings us the Sun’s opinion of Egypt, which is better than Champollion’s, Wilkinson’s, Eōthen’s, or Titmarsh’s.” Viewed as re-creations of nature itself, unmeditated reproductions of the real world fashioned by the direct agency of the sun, photographs were extolled as truthful and unbiased representations of reality. This conviction, which ignored the input of the human operator, imbued early photography with a passionate enthusiasm and mission: to reproduce the world in its own image, to make light of everything. Photography emerged not as an art form, still less as the result of certain developments in painting as proposed recently by Peter Galassi, but as an accurate and highly efficient means of transmitting visual information.

Social Science Research, especially foreign research, in and on the smaller states of the Arabian Gulf is a very new phenomenon. Only a few serious works on the area have been published in English, leaving an almost limitless opportunity for new research. There is, however, a common misconception that access to these states, at least for American nationals, is strictly limited as it is in neighboring Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. This is not really the case in the sheikhdoms, although it is true that all five states are somewhat wary of research, especially social science research, and the working atmosphere varies from one of relative openness to considerable skepticism. Still, a surprising amount of eminently rewarding research is possible here if one arranges it carefully in advance.

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

I wish to speak to you tonight about common dilemmas we face as scholars, citizens, and human beings. Each of these rôles involves distinctive obligations and at the same time casts a shadow on the others. Let me begin by discussing a subject that has enthralled or distracted (depending on your point of view) many members of our association over the last few years, the subject of religious resurgence. I shall confine my remarks to Islamic resurgence, since my own research in Jordan and Iran makes me somewhat more familiar with the phenomenon as it works in local contexts there, although the questions raised may quite possibly apply to the phenomena of Jewish and Christian resurgence.

Mr. Moderator, ladies, and gentlemen: I should like to begin by thanking MESA profoundly for this kind invitation. I must not forget to say that I was surprised to find that the general title of the colloquium today was “The Post-Liberal Age in the Middle East,” which sounds like a gruesome epitaph on a certain period. I personally belong to the school which holds fast to the liberal democratic tradition and I shall try to point out in the few lines which I have put down—which I will read out now—why I still belong to that school which believes in liberal democracy and secularism.

It is very difficult to trace the concept of Freedom or to analyse its theoretical content across Egyptian history up to 1798, the date of Bonaparte’s Expedition in Egypt.

This article is a personal account of how I, a professor of Arabic with no computer background, managed to get Arabic word-processing capabilities out of the computing facilities already intact in my college, with relatively little capital outlay. Although many of the details would be different at other institutions, it is clear that the same basic strategies could be followed to get word-processing capabilities anywhere the basic computing facilities already exist.

Before I begin my story, I should explain that there are Arabic word processors “out there” of varying qualities. CPT, Wang, Apple, Merganthaler, Xerox, and others have products either out or almost out which range in cost from a few thousand to almost a hundred thousand dollars. Except for the Xerox product, the Arabic on the screen is rather ugly, but when connected to a letter quality Arabic printer the hard copy of most is acceptable.

This article is intended to update an earlier one by Michelle Raccagni and John Simmons that appeared in the MESA Bulletin of February 1972 (vol. 6, pp. 30–36). Much of the information contained in it is still valid today, but as might be expected, the continuing emphasis in Tunisia on social science research has resulted in the creation of several new centers and institutes during the past few years.