The aim of the paper is to analyze the political trajectory of changes in Saudi Arabia during the reign of Prince Muhammad Ibn Salman and the effects it has on the traditional and conservative values of the Saudi kingdom. The point of reference for the prince’s reform policy is the Vision 2030 project of changes announced in 2016, which aims to maintain a balance between modernization, including economic reforms, privatization and cultural initiatives, on the one hand, and Islam and political authoritarianism on the other. The structure of my article is built around the hypothesis that assumes that the reformist policy of Muhammad Ibn Salman is aimed at improving the economic and social conditions of Saudi Arabia in order to obtain social legitimization and loyalty and in the long term to ensure regime survival and its stability. I have posed three research questions which are as follows: 1) Can traditionalism and modernization be combined? 2) What is the impact of the authoritarian regime on modernization policy? 3) How has the relationship between the political authority and the Wahhabi establishment changed?
The wave of revolutionary uprisings in a series of Arab countries in 2010/11 also encouraged a number of minorities in the MENA region to take to the streets and raise their voices against discrimination and marginalization. Parts of Kuwait’s stateless Bidun were among the subalterns who now began to call for their civil rights as long-term residents of the country. The protests began in 2011, were upheld sporadically until 2014, and resurfaced in mid-2019 following the suicide of a young Bidun. After a brief look at the historical background and context, this contribution will focus on the mobilization and activities of pro-Bidun organizations in recent years (2011–2014/15, 2018–19/20) and ask whether there are signs of a broader alliance between Bidun and Kuwaiti citizens to counter the increasingly authoritarian, anti-democratic governmental policies. It will be argued that as from 2018/19, a rapprochement of positions can be discerned. However, the year 2020 brought a new setback.
In and around the 13th century, two eastern authors describe the island of Sicily from different perspectives but with the common purpose of linking it to the Arab and Islamic world it had belonged to. Both describe the place with varied images which combine the real physical aspects with fantasy, and which show natural landscapes, both urban and rural, dominated by the presence of the great volcano. The study of this island using its landscapes as a key allows us to investigate the ideological processes of the authors who describe it. Al-Qazwīnī and Al-Harawī undertake a literary itinerary in which the images of idealization and Islamization or sanctification of the island are crystallised.
The Arab Republic of Egypt – the most important Middle Eastern Arabic country, is one of the oldest countries in the world, believed by some to be the cradle of civilization. Patriotic songs are very popular in it. They can be heard in times of peace and when the country may be facing some difficulties. They are shown on television, played on the radio, broadcast during official ceremonies, and used in social media, coffee shops, and weddings. In recent years, there has been something of a phenomenon around songs titled Taḥyā Maṣr. Notwithstanding the main messages – for Egypt to “live long” and show the artist’s love for their country – other messages and differences in how the singer expresses their love can be found. An analysis of six songs released in the years 2013–2018 under the same title, Taḥyā Maṣr, will be presented in this article. Any clear distinctions between them and the reasons for their being made under the same title will be shown.
This paper comments on two Mesopotamian bricks belonging to collections of the Asia and Pacific Museum and the National Museum in Warsaw. Both bricks bear cuneiform inscriptions. The first was fashioned during the reign of the Ur king Amar-Suen (c. 2046–2038 BC) while the second is to be dated to the reign of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858–824 BC). They commemorate building projects commissioned by these two Mesopotamian kings.
Mining industry is an important sector that produces materials for other industries, also plays an important role in economic and social development, especially in a developing country like Vietnam. However, mineral mining can destroy the environment and deplete resources over time. The biggest challenge for state managers is to balance the conflict between the mining planning, development planning of other economic sectors and environmental issues. One of the solutions is to replace backward, manual extraction tools with the application of the modern computer (Modernize government administration). In Viet Nam, at present, the provincial management agency of mines faces up with difficult problems such as: backward management method, lowly informative level, not using the current data effectively, even some areas can manage data well but can hardly and lowly share them, the current softwares are mainly document management, most of maps are stored on paper, digital map manage is not really cared. The traditional procedure and technology needs to be innovated by the way of enhancing to synthetically manage mineral resources, this can advance speed and quality of data processing, reduce the burden on employees and raise the level of office automation. The article uses the open code ASP.NET combined with GIS (Geographic Information Systems), based on the mineral economic development planning map in Tuyen Quang province, tools for editing, storing and extracting informaion are built detailedly for activities in mines from the beginning to the end of mining process. As a result, managers and authorities can easily search information for their work.
The purpose of this article is to present and count the North Korean population living in Beijing. The North Korean people in Beijing do not constitute a united community but rather citizens from the same country who are in transit in the Chinese capital. The spatial dimensions of residence of North Koreans in Beijing and the issue of North Korean refugees based in the Chinese capital are emphasized in this paper.
In his contribution, the author discusses the Yakut forms in the travelogue of the physician, botanist and geologist Johann Redowsky (1.1.1774–8.2.1807). The travelogue was recorded on the occasion of Count Yurii Aleksandrovich Golovkin’s diplomatic mission to China. Redowsky accompanied Golovkin representing the Academy of Sciences. The travel diary documents Redovsky’s journey from Irkutsk to Kamchatka in 1806–1807 and contains much ethnographic information about Tungus and Yakuts. Redowsky’s material is interesting because it contains lexemes that are not found elsewhere, or at least not in the form noted in the diary.
The article presents the two known Poland-related statements by the Hungarian Orientalist Arminius Vámbéry (1832–1913), who explained his opinion on the possible independence of a Polish state twice – in 1898 and 1906. In 1898, he was interviewed by the Budapest correspondent of the Kraków-based Polish newspaper Nowa Reforma. In 1906, he answered an international survey by the cultural journal Krytyka, based in Kraków as well. Vámbéry’s answer to the question of whether Poland should gain independence once again was positive. Still, he justified the necessity of Polish independence not with the interests of the Polish people but with Europe’s wish to be protected from the Russian Empire: to Vámbéry’s mind, an independent Poland should serve as Europe’s bulwark against the Russian enemy. Vámbéry’s fear of the Russian Empire might be in line with his previous views on the Great Game, the rivalry between the Russian Empire and Great Britain on influence in Central Asia, and the European public opinion at the end of the 19th century.
This paper is based on examining a limited number of Arab–Berber sources whose main objective is to highlight that the Muslim West (Maghreb – al-Andalus) constituted a multilingual geographical space. First, I will look at the question of the Almoravids and the mastery of languages in a context of power. Then, I will raise the question of the linguistic skills of the sovereigns in al-Andalus. After this, I will give some details on the Berber language in the Marinid Maghreb. Finally, I will propose some brief conclusions of a provisional nature, emphasizing the interest of the study of linguistic uses and cultural contacts in the Muslim West in the Middle Ages.
The medieval manuscripts of St. Mary’s Church Library ( Biblioteka Mariacka) are the oldest part of the collections of the Gdansk Library, with some items dating back to the 12th century. In view of their topics and history, they provide a priceless testimony to the history of Pomerania. The value of the manuscripts lies not only in their contents and ornamentation, but also in the fact that they include parchment documents bound by Gdansk bookbinders, which have survived in an excellent condition. The uniqueness of the collection was confirmed by the missal Missale secundum notulam dominorum Teutonicorum (Ms. Mar. F 332) being entered on UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” Polish National Register in 2016. After 1921, not a single study discussing the provenance of books kept in St. Mary’s Church Library was written. This paper is an attempt to partially fill in the gap – to indicate the scribes and owners of the most valuable manuscripts. Among the latter, special attention should be devoted to clergymen connected with St. Mary’s church: Andreas Slommow, Heinrich Calow, and Johannes Zager, a lawyer Nicolaus Velan, and a scribe Johannes Rasoris from Nidzica. For the purposes of this article, books kept by the Library were divided into sections: theology, philosophy, law and medicine; manuscripts related to the Teutonic Order were also given a separate section. Such a division may help the readers use the library holdings. The text also discusses the most important wartime losses.
The statutes of the community Association for the Establishment and Maintenance of Early Childcare Facilities ( Verein zur Errichtung und Erhaltung von Klein-Kinder-Bewahr- Anstalten) dating to 1870 underlines the goal behind the activity of the organisation: the provision of appropriate day care to children aged from 2 to 7 years during the time when their unwealthy parents work. In compliance with the guidelines of the authorities of the Association, the staff of the facilities shaped the moral attitudes of the children, educated them, taught them hygiene habits, and provided them with a good start to subsequent stages of their school education by conducting classes. Towards the end of the 1860s, the four Facilities – located in the Old Town (as of 1839), in the Lower Town (as of 1844), in the Old Suburbs (as of 1848) and on the edge of the Main Town (as of 1858) – provided care to about 700 little children. The Association activated the inhabitants of Gdansk – not only the ones actively participating in the work of the organisation, but also the ones providing financial support and support in kind. What should be stressed is the involvement of women in the activity: they were not only members of the Association, but, in line with the 1870 Statutes – which was exceptional in the social realities of the time – could sit on the Governing Council ( Verwaltungs-Rath), and even (in one case) on the Board ( Vorstand).
This paper presents information on printed lists of Gdansk officials, which were published in 1741–1810 under the title Das itzt-lebende Dantzig… and Das jetzt-lebende Dantzig… (as of 1764). The author’s findings indicate that they were not published in 1742, 1745, 1747, 1749–1751, 1753 and 1793–1808. Detailed studies also allowed to determine the price at which these materials were sold, although the number of copies published still remains unknown. The author briefly discusses the contents of Das itzt-lebende Dantzig…, which was each time presented on about 100 pages. Inside, the readers could find the full names of Gdansk mayors, councillors, judges, representatives of the Third Order as well as the city military, religious, and school authorities. The source in question is one of the most important publications allowing supplementation of biographical data of Gdansk citizens living in the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th century.
The article attempts to present the functioning of the Gdansk Library under the patronage of the Polish Academy of Sciences. As of 1 January 1955, the scientific department of the Municipal Library in Gdansk was taken over by the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the thus established separate institution received new statutes regulating the activity of the Library and the scope of the development of its collections. Until the four-hundredth anniversary of the Gdansk Library (the establishment of Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis), descriptions of the history of the Gdansk PAS Library were mainly based on reports drawn up by the heads of the institution. It is on their basis that one may trace the difficult space and storage and warehouse conditions in which employees of the Library carried out their statutory tasks, with the constantly growing collections and the increasing load of services. The paper also reports the scientific works of employees of the Library as well as the editorial activity of the institution, including works documenting the collections of the Library. An important way of familiarising the general public with knowledge on the Gdansk Library and its collections was through exhibitions and displays organized by employees of the information and special collections departments.
On 9 April 1945, Polish authorities officially took over one of the most valuable library holdings in Europe collected at the Danziger Stadtbibliothek (previously Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis). The most important tasks included the protection of the building and the bringing back of the most valuable items which towards the end of the war were taken away from Gdansk. They were found in the cellars of the Old Town Hall, in the Malbork Castle, and in the Pelplin Seminary. The team of devoted librarians headed by dr. Marian Pelczar, director, spent the first year of their work on the tidying of the interior of the building, cleaning and shelving the relocated book collections and safeguarding the abandoned libraries in Gdansk and in its vicinity. Despite the extremely difficult conditions, it was as early as on 22 June 1946 that the readers and Polish science were provided with access to the Library’s resources which, in particular as regards Polonica, to that date were little known to scholars, not only Polish ones. The tasks of the reborn Municipal Library were determined in its Organisational Charter adopted by the College of the City Board on 25 April 1946. The facility had a double nature: it functioned both as an educational library (the centre of a network of public reading rooms and libraries) and a scientific library (which included an information and bibliography centre). These two directions of activity determined the history of the Library until the end of 1954, when its scientific department was taken over by the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the educational one was merged with the Provincial Library.
The engraving presenting a view of the interior of the Library of the Council of the City of Gdansk was made in 1687 – just like the other 56 engravings showing the city in Reinhold Curicke’s work Der Stadt Dantzig historische Beschreibung (Amsterdam and Gdansk 1687). The author of the article analysed the view in terms of its style, technique and iconography. Reaching back to 1596, she presented the circumstances in which the Library of the Council of the City of Gdansk was established in its initial location, referring to the political situation in the Commonwealth after Sigismund III Vasa, a supporter of the counter-reformation directed at the Protestant Gdansk, ascended to the throne. Analysing the artistic value of the view on the interior of the Library, the author accentuated the appropriate decorum, differentiating the engraving in question from Curicke’s other illustrations forming a part of his work. According to the author, the above resulted from the fact that the city authorities wanted to highlight the role of child-rearing, education and science in the development of Gdansk. The message was expressed in a baroquising style allegorizing the image of science. It is this intention which makes the view of the interior of the Library different from the other realistic views of the structures, fragments of the city and suburban areas of Gdansk.
The article presents a selection of 15th century printed matters on the topic of broadly understood medicine, which are currently kept by the Gdansk PAS Library. They testify to the Gdansk culture in the area of the knowledge on health and hygiene in the 15th century and in a slightly later period. The majority of the said printed matters originate from the collections of Gdansk church libraries, while the presence of items of other origin (private owners) makes it possible to trace the road medical incunabula came to Gdansk to finally find their way to the resources of the Gdansk library. The author of the article explains the modesty of the Gdansk medical literature resources with the fact that there was not a single university functioning in the city by the River Motlawa in the early modern period. The presence of this kind of incunabula in church libraries and private collections of books indicates that the knowledge they contained was applied for personal use rather than in professional medical practice, although some of the items in question originate from book collections belonging to doctors.
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