Reconstructing the Quseiri Arabic Documents (RQAD)
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Grant Holder:
Professor Dionisius Agius
The research objective is to read or reconstruct the Arabic documents found at the harbour town of Quseir on the Egyptian Red Sea coast during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (13th-15th centuries)
ie:
a) to evaluate the texts combined with archeological enquiry;
b) to examine the content and context within the framework of the long distance trade and pilgrim traffic from Quesir as a chief port of the Red Sea region and its trade contacts with the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
c) to raise public and scholarly awareness about the significance of the documents as a source of academic, educational and community interest so that comparative work will be possible in subsequent research.
The value of this inter disciplinary project is that it will bring together a diverse range of scholars and approaches whose input will contribute to a comprehensive analysis of the material. The discussions will offer a clearer hypothesis as to the cultural patterns that lie beneath the surface of Islamic habitation.
| Project start date: 2002-12 | Project end date: 2005-11 |
Subject domains:
| Methods used | Category |
|---|---|
| Coding and standardisation | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Collating | Data analysis |
| Indexing | Data analysis |
| Content analysis | Data analysis |
| Content-based image retrieval | Data analysis |
| Data modelling | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Image enhancement | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Text encoding - descriptive | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Text encoding - presentational | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Text encoding - referential | Data structuring and enhancement |
| Parsing | Data analysis |
| Searching and querying | Data analysis |
| Use of existing digital data | Data capture |
| Manual input and transcription | Data capture |
Funding sources:
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Content types created:
Dataset/structured data, Still Image/Graphics, Text
Source material used:
The significance of this project is that the body of the Quseiri documents have never been thoroughly examined or catalogued. Their value lies not only in the linguistic and purely historical facets, but this site also offers an opportunity to explore new questions of religious and cultural interaction between people in the worlds of commerce and pilgrimage. Patterns of contact dealing with long-distance trade, local adaptation and land utilisation, questions as to all of these are posed by the excavations at Quseir.
Digital resource created:
10,000+ digital images
Data Formats created:
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Publications:
A. Regourd, 2004
"Trade on the Red Sea during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods: The Quesir paper manuscript collection 1999-2003, first data", in Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 34:277-292.
D.A.Agius, 2005
"Ostrich eggs in a burial site: Quesir al-Qadim in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods", in Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras IV, eds U. Vermeulen and J. Van Steenbergen [Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 140] (Leuven: Peeters), pp 357-382.
D. Peacock & L. Blue, 2005.
Survey and Evaluation at Myos Hormos - Quseir al-Qadim 1999-2003, with contributions by D. A. Agius, E. Beadsmore, R. Bridgman, P. Copeland, G. Earl, J. Flatman, D. Glazier, A. Macklin, D. Murphy, James Phillips, Jill Phillips, S. Poppy, A. Regourd, W. Van Rengen, R. Thomas, M. Walsh, and P. Whittaker. Volume I. London: Oxbow [forthcoming].
"Trade on the Red Sea during the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods: The Quesir paper manuscript collection 1999-2003, first data", in Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 34:277-292.
D.A.Agius, 2005
"Ostrich eggs in a burial site: Quesir al-Qadim in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods", in Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras IV, eds U. Vermeulen and J. Van Steenbergen [Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 140] (Leuven: Peeters), pp 357-382.
D. Peacock & L. Blue, 2005.
Survey and Evaluation at Myos Hormos - Quseir al-Qadim 1999-2003, with contributions by D. A. Agius, E. Beadsmore, R. Bridgman, P. Copeland, G. Earl, J. Flatman, D. Glazier, A. Macklin, D. Murphy, James Phillips, Jill Phillips, S. Poppy, A. Regourd, W. Van Rengen, R. Thomas, M. Walsh, and P. Whittaker. Volume I. London: Oxbow [forthcoming].
Project staff and expertise:
| Principal staff member: | Dr Dionisius Agius |
|---|---|
| Other staff: | Computing officer(s) / Technical supporter(s), Postdoctoral researcher(s) / Research assistant(s) |
| External expertise: |
| Metadata on this arts-humanities.net record | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) of record | Steve Aylmer |
| Title | Reconstructing the Quseiri Arabic Documents (RQAD) |
| Record created | 2007-04-20 |
| Record updated | 2011-05-11 16:32 |
| URL of record | http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2178 |
| Citation of record | Steve Aylmer: Reconstructing the Quseiri Arabic Documents (RQAD). <http://www.arts-humanities.net/node/2178> created: 2007-04-20, last updated 2011-05-11 16:32 |