The Seminar for Arabian Studies (SAS) - 2009

The 2009 Seminar was once again held in the British Museum in July and was another success for the annual meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies and for its main sponsor, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation. 

Throughout the 3-day forum, specialists, scholars, students and general enthusiasts had the opportunity to learn about and discuss new developments in archaeology and humanities in the Arabian Peninsula with friends both new and old.  

In addition to its ongoing support and contribution, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation staff was present for the duration of the event, getting to know participants and talking with them about the Foundation and its many activities.  

• Contributed by Dr. Ardle MacMahon of Seminar for Arabian Studies 

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international forum which meets annually for the presentation of the latest academic research in the humanities (including archaeology, epigraphy, ethnography, language, history, art etc.) on the Arabian Peninsula from the earliest times to the present day or, in the case of political and social history, to the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922).

It is a three-day event, normally held in July, and is currently hosted by the British Museum. The Seminar attracts scholars, students and interested individuals worldwide but predominately from the UK and Europe (France and Germany in particular), the Arabian Peninsula and North America. The attendance at the Seminar is regularly between 150-170 participants and approximately 45 papers are presented.

The Seminar began as an informal study-group in early 1968 to promote the cause of archaeological research in the Arabian Peninsula. The success of this lead to the formation of a Society that held its first meeting in October 1968 with a lecture by Peter Parr on a survey in the North-west Hejaz. In January 1969 five papers were presented at a one-day seminar held at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and summaries of these were published in the Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology.

It was not until the fourth Seminar held in Cambridge in June 1970 that the Proceeding of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (PSAS) was established and published in 1971. This first volume included seven papers of the twelve read at the Seminar. It was after the seventh meeting in Cambridge that the present pattern of publication of PSAS was established. The eighth Seminar held in Oxford established the first three-day seminar in July.

To date 42 Seminars have been held and PSAS is in its 39th Volume.

This year’s Seminar for Arabian Studies was held at the British Museum from the 23rd-25th of July 2009. This year sessions included: Prehistory & Surveys, Bronze Age to Iron Age in S.E. Arabia, Islamic Arabia, Landscape & Food Resources, Arabic & Modern South Arabian and South Arabian Ethnography. On the 24th of July there was a Focus Session on ‘Current Fieldwork in Qatar’ and a Special Session on ‘The Development of Arabic as a Written Language’.