IRCICA Award for Excellence in Research 2003

Passed away on 1 December 2001 in Kazan, Tatarstan. An eminent specialist of Islamic manuscripts and medieval Arab culture in Russia and Eastern Europe, Prof. Khalidov was known world-wide, particularly in Islamic countries. For more than thirty years, he was the Head of the Arabic Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Academy of Sciences of USSR, and of the Department for Middle East of the Leningrad Branch of the same Institute. For the last two years of his life, he taught at the Institute of Oriental Studies of Kazan State University. Anas Khalidov obtained his PhD in Arabic Philology at Leningrad State University. He joined the Arabic Department in Leningrad of the Academy of Sciences, where he worked on Arabic literature and manuscripts. He compiled a catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts. He wrote around 120 publications including books on classical works of Islamic culture. His former students are teaching in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and also in Syria, Vietnam and the USA. Prof. Anas Khalidov considered the translation of the Quran into Tatar language his major task in life. He accomplished it during 1997-2001 and also prepared an Arabic-Tatar lexicon. Lastly, Khalidov had participated in the international symposium on Islamic Civilisation in Volga-Ural Region which was organised by IRCICA and the academic institutions of Tatarstan and the Russian Federation in June 2001.

Em. Professor at the University of Provence, a leading scholar of social history and urban history. IRCICA has great esteem for Prof. Raymond’s works focusing, particularly, on the Arab cities in North Africa and the Middle East from 18th century onwards. His studies on Cairo, Tunis, Damascus, Algiers brought new insights into research. Prof. Raymond’s numerous important works bring out the social and urban processes, the changes in life patterns and architectural practices observed in these cities under different political rules and resulting from the coexistence of different communities. André Raymond worked from the early fifties in various universities and between 1969-75 he was the Director of the French Institute for Arab Studies in Damascus, Syria. Then he founded and directed the Institut de Recherches et d’Etudes sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman (IREMAM). Since 1988 he is Emeritus Professor at the University of Provence. He published such works as Les Marchés du Caire (IFAO, Cairo, 1979), The Great Arab Cities. An Introduction (N.Y., 1984), Grandes Villes Arabes à l’Epoque Ottomane (Paris, 1985), Le Caire des Janissaires (CNRS, Paris, 1995), Egyptiens et Français au Caire 1798-1801, La Ville Arabe, Aleppe, à l’Epoque Ottomane (Damascus, 1998), Le Caire (Paris, 2001), Arab Cities in the Ottoman Period (Varorium, 2002).

An eminent cultural personality of Mali and Technical Advisor for Religious Affairs at the Presidency of the Republic of Mali since 2000. Dr. Zouber made a contribution of historical importance to the study of heritage by putting together and operating programs for the study and classification of the invaluable manuscript riches of Mali and its region. He accomplished this remarkable task while he was the first Director General of the Ahmed Baba Centre for Documentation and Research in Timbuctu, from 1977 to 1993. Afterwards, he was the Ambassador of Mali in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during 1993-1999. Ambassador Zouber represented Mali in the Governing Board of IRCICA. We wish to express our profound esteem to Dr. Zouber especially for having highlighted the oral and written sources and the works of the Muslim scholarly figures of Africa, such as Ahmed Baba of Timbuctu, subject of his own doctorate thesis published in Paris, Sheikh al-Kounti, El-Haj Oumar, among others. Dr. Mahmoud Zouber organised numerous workshops for the study of old Arabic manuscripts of West Africa, convened seminars on oral traditions as a source on the history of Africa, and his own publications most of which are the first comprehensive sources on Islamic civilisation in West Africa.

An international authority in linguistic and philological studies. Prof. Tietze is a well-known in this field not only in the three countries where he led long-term activities, that is Austria, Turkey, USA. Having completed his PhD at Vienna University in 1937, and studied almost all Balkan, Middle Eastern and Turkic languages, Andreas Tietze decided to work in Turkey, a country he had visited several times for studies on Turkish language. He taught at Istanbul University and wrote several major works, among them the well-known work Lingua Franca of the Levant. He is one of the editors of the Revised Redhouse Dictionary. From 1958 on he taught for 15 years at the University of California in Los Angeles. Returning to Vienna he started a new period of prolific authorship, publishing the two works by the 16th century Ottoman historian Mustafa Ali entitled Description of Cairo and The Counsel for Sultans. He edited the Turkologischer Anzeiger, the major bibliographical source for Turkish studies today. An outstanding feature of his work is that his was not desk research from a remote library but by living in Turkey, within the context of the language and the culture, whereby he uncovered previously unexplored aspects, did not limit himself to historical texts but studied the popular literature and the changes occurring in the living language. Thus he is making pioneering contributions in comparative grammar and lexical studies. The first volume of a seven-volume monumental work entitled the Historical and Etymological Dictionary of the Turkish of Turkey appeared in 2002.

The Honorary Director of Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Professor Dani has been fulfilling this mission since 1997. IRCICA holds in esteem his personal and professional achievements as a scholar, educator and author which helped to make known the archeology of Asian cultures to the world. From the late 40s, he performed archeological missions with the Government of Pakistan besides the academic and deanship posts he held in Peshawar University and Quaid-i-Azam University. He reorganised and directed several museums, was President of the National Committee for Museums in Pakistan, Advisor on Archaeology to the Ministry of Culture of Pakistan, Member of the Bureau of International Commission for Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind, UNESCO; President, Archaeological and Historical Association of Pakistan (1979), First Vice-President, International Association for the Study of the Civilizations in Central Asia, Paris (1981). He is the Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Central Asia since 1978, was Co-Editor of volumes 1 and 2 of the work titled Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind. He has numerous publications on: Rediscovery of the Civilization of Central Asia (1991), Gandhara Art in Pakistan (1992), Central Asia Today (1995), The Historic City of Taxila (1986), Legacy of Amir Timur (1996). His books titled History of Pakistan and Modern History of Central Asia are under print. Professor Dani holds many awards and orders from the Governments of Pakistan, Italy, Germany, France, Uzbekistan.