Prince Khosrow and his Redemption Mission: paper given by Dr Firuza Melville at Griboedov Stidies conference in Alushta, Crimea.
Language and Identity in the Gulf: seminar by Prof. Clive Holes, University of Oxford
Iran's nuclear programme and how to resolve it: lecture by Farhang Jahanpour
The Earliest Syriac in its Aramaic Context The 2012 Annual Semitic Philology Lecture
Lifting the Veil: Iran Past and Present - Discover the other face of Iran at Lucy Cavendish College
Political Legitimacy in the Islamic West: Call for Papers
Prof. Melville on BBC R4's Today programme: talking about the Shahnameh
James Montgomery appointed executive editor of new Library of Arabic Literature.
Reforms in Islamic Education: Call for Papers
The Real Vikings: Time Team Episode
2010 Purandocht Pirayech essay prize
£500 prize offered for best essay written by second-year undergraduate student studying Persian on their experience during their year-abroad in Iran
DMES Seminar Series
Programme for Easter Term, 2010
Islamicus Foundation Scholarship
Pembroke College and the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation invite applications for a Summer Visiting Scholarship.
Language, Conflict and Security in the Middle East
Conference run jointly by the Middle Eastern Studies department and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies.
Dr Amira K. Bennison is runner-up in the 2009 Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award
Religious Broadcasting
in the Middle East
Conference jointly hosted by the Cambridge Arab Media Project and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal
Centre of Islamic Studies.
Earthquakes and other upheavals in Persian History
Inaugural Lecture by Charles Melville, Professor of Persian History
Arab Ambassadors visit the Department, 6th July 09
Departmental Newsletter launched - click here to read the first issue.
The Gibb Memorial Trust invites applications for the Gibb Centenary Scholarship from doctoral students in any area of Middle Eastern Studies.
Knowledge and Language in Middle Eastern Studies
Cambridge Symposium on Middle Eastern Studies: 16th - 18th October, 2009
Karim Rida Said Cambridge Scholarships
one-year postgraduate scholarships for Arab citizens of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.
World Prize for the Book of the Year, Islamic Republic of Iran awarded to Dr Christine van Ruymbeke
MESA Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Awards 2008
Dr Mark Dickens awarded Honorable Mention in the Humanities category.
New Centre of Islamic Studies
A research centre opening in October 2008 aims to enhance understanding, tolerance and cross-cultural dialogue between Islam and the West.
New Prize! Undergraduate Dissertation Prize in Middle Eastern Studies
2008 R.A. Nicholson Prize awarded to Fraser ClarkEndangered dialects of Aramaic
Current estimates suggest that a language dies every two weeks. Prof. Geoffrey Khan describes the documentation of a group of dialects before they are lost forever.
Photo: Dr A K Bennison
Department of Middle Eastern Studies
The Department of Middle Eastern Studies conducts teaching in Hebrew and Semitic Studies and Arabic and Persian Studies.
For information on research projects currently being undertaken by members of staff, please see the research projects page. For information on current Post-Graduate Research Titles, please see the current PhDs page.
Cambridge Department of Middle Eastern Studies top in RAE 2008
The RAE results for 2008 have now been published and the Cambridge Department of Middle Eastern Studies has produced an outstanding result by coming top of all UK Middle Eastern studies departments.
The RAE is based on peer review of publications and overall research environment, and rates department research in terms of the percentages that are 4* (world leading), 3* (internationally excellent), 2* (internationally recognised). Our profile has 35% in the 4* category, 40% in 3*, and 20% in 2*, which makes us the highest rated department in the country.
The Department maintains close links with the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies which is housed in offices on the ground floor of the Faculty building.