2019 Public Seminar “History, Culture, and Society in the Arabian Peninsula” (8th session) 　Family businesses owned and operated by specific families are deeply rooted in the economies and societies of Middle Eastern countries. Some family businesses have expanded and diversified their operations to form conglomerates that occupy oligopolistic positions in their respective industrial sectors. Many of these family businesses […]

Special Lecture Already in Pre-Islamic times people from South-East Arabia were known as navigators and settlers in the Indian Ocean rim. Written as well as archaeological sources prove Omani maritime activities in the Indian Ocean which connected Oman with the Ancient Oriental civilization as well as with the Hindus valley civilization from the 3rd millennium […]

Special Lecture Over recent years Ibadi siyar have attracted increasing interest among Islamic scholars in the West for three reasons: 1) Up to the 2nd/8th century they continued to be written in the ‘original’ Arabic literary style. 2) Their interpretation of early Islamic history is markedly different from that of the Sunni/Shiite tradition. 3) They […]

Public Seminar Series UTCMES is pleased to present the public seminar “History, Culture, and Society in the Arabian Peninsula” in the FY of 2019. The seminar will be a series of 14 lectures by leading scholars on the Arabian Peninsula, which is undergoing a period of great transformation. The seminars are open to the public, […]

2019 Public Seminar “History, Culture, and Society in the Arabian Peninsula” 6th session) 　In recent years, scholars of Middle Eastern politics have sought how to delicately depict political structures and processes from intricate data, while based on area studies methods that clarify local concepts and political history through the collection and scrutiny of materials and fieldwork. In wading […]

Public Lecture The constitutional order in Middle Eastern countries, with a few exceptions, maintains an “intermediate group” that modern Western constitutions are supposed to have dismantled. In the context of the Middle East constitutional order, the intermediate group is the religious community, which is not only subject to personal law (the personal status law), but […]

2019 Public Seminar “History, Culture, and Society in the Arabian Peninsula” (5th session) 　Yemenis’ favorite indulgence is khat. In Yemen, where recreational facilities are scarce, a few hours spent chewing fresh kart leaves harvested early in the morning with close friends and acquaintances in the afternoon provides an opportunity for socializing for men and women of all ages. This […]

2019 Public Seminar “History, Culture, and Society in the Arabian Peninsula” (4th session) 　In Kuwait, about two-thirds of the population are foreign workers, and they have been important players in the country’s economy. However, especially since the oil price slump in 2014, there have been further criticisms, especially from the National Assembly, that the employment of foreign workers should […]

2019 Public Seminar “History, Culture, and Society in the Arabian Peninsula” (3rd session) 　While the Gulf states are well known for their high percentage of foreign population, the ethnicity of Oman’s population is diverse, including “old immigrants” who came from Indo-Persia centuries ago and “new immigrants” who repatriated from East Africa after 1970. This seminar examines national integration in […]