New Challenges Affecting Bibliographical Projects The Aga Khan University (BRISMES 2017)
MCA Project and Mandate: Challenges and Responses
In an era of globalisation, the Middle Eastern cultures and academia have been marginalised and neglected and that endangered the local sources and made them increasingly voiceless on international levels. Generally, extant primary sources have the advantage of being preserved by being archived and explored by several researchers;however, secondary sources are often neglected or overlooked. As such, scholarship in Europe and North America is impoverished because of its lack of awareness of contemporary Middle Eastern academic endeavours.
In 2003, the Aga Khan University launched the Muslim Civilisations Abstracts project in order to fill this gap. The aim was to give free access to invaluable academic works, mainly books, published by Middle Eastern scholars in their local languages. However, due to the magnitude of the publications available and the massive systematic efforts needed, it was decidedto begin with collecting short book reviews (abstracts) on certain themes and make them available to external users in English, Arabic, and Turkish.
The MCA strives to bring to the forefront often overlooked publications and to facilitate dialogue between scholars from the region themselves.[1]Therefore, the MCA steadily seeks to reinforce collaboration with the Middle Eastern researchers to promote scholarship produced in their area.[2] As a result, the MCA has been able to collect more than 1400 book reviews from all Muslim majority countries, on six themes.[3]70%-80% of the reviewed books are from the Middle East. Out of 224, 126 contributors in the first three volumes were Middle Eastern academics, mainly from Iran, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon.
Since 2011, the Middle Eastern tangible and intangible intellectual assets have been endangered by the socio-political upheavals in the region. Libraries and precious collections of books have disappeared and hordes of academics and writers have been killed, imprisoned, emigrated or simply dropped silent due to censorship or wars. Such situation led later onacademics to question the feasibility of building cultural bridges when West Asian states are collapsing[4] and to lose hope in any international academic support. Considering the urgency of the situation, it was incumbent on the MCA team to broaden the project’s mandate, fromsharing knowledge topreserving and documenting its existance.
Nevertheless, three types of challenges have been hindering the endeavours to achieve the newly developed objectives;firstly, technological challenges;secondly, inaccessibility tothe publication landscape of the Middle Eastwhere publishing industry is very limited and the translation process from or into local languages is extremely poor; thirdly, the fatal threat to the existence of academic institutions and scholars in the Middle East.
Technological Challenges
Since the inception of the MCA in 2003, its online presence has been an integral part of the project’s ambitions and plans. Thathas been considered the ultimate methodto present its content to worldwide users. Althoughat that time, the global digital divide meant an international disparity in access to the Internet between industrialised and developing countries,[5] it was predicted that this scheme will enable free worldwide accessibility to the MCA abstracts. While searching for anadequate platform, collected abstracts were published thematically in three hardcopy volumes, as a temporary alternative.
However, after 14 years of technological advancement in the field of communication, the internet still suffers from a technological discrimination against non-Western local languages.[6] Accurate indexing of contents, searching within texts and displaying their contents in different languages at the same platform have not been available to a project that deals with 8 languages such as the MCA. Other supporting techniques and features such as Search Engine Optimization and referring the multilingual searches in search engines to the project content need substantial resources, which are not available to small scale projects. Moreover, the sudden technological jumbsin the Middle East from PC desktops to smartphones and optimising the texts’ adaptability to be multi-device friendly have added another level of complexity. Additionally, the ever expanding social media platforms and their different designated functionalities impose a necessity to rethink the online presence of the project.
Inaccessibility to the Publication Landscape of the Middle East
The publication landscape of the Middle East is characterised by low local readership,seclusion and limited translation activities from and into their local languages; lack of up-to-date accurate qualitative and quantitative data and statistics of publication industry especially in the Arab Middle Eastern countries; and misleading classification and statistical reporting of genres.
Although, the publications of the Middle Eastern countries multiplied generally 1.5-4.5 times between 1991 and 2016, in 2007, the accessibility rate of books was: one book for every 5449 Lebanese citizens, 4678 Egyptians, 8145 Syrians, or 11134 Saudi citizens, comparedto one book for every 491 British citizens or 731 Spanish citizens.[7]
A glance at the latest available statistics of the main genres of publications shows that in Turkey 2016, the Educational Publications constituted the main segment, 27% of the total publications.[8] However, it should be noted that it includes school and university textbooks as well. The main genre in the Arab Middle Eastern countries was Social Sciences, 22.94%, in 2007, however, in 2009, it was surpassed by religious books that reached 35%.[9] In Iran, Applied Sciences 17.65% was the main genre, equal to Children & Teenagers' books and slightly above religious books (14.9%).[10]
In terms of translation from or into localMiddle Eastern languages, it is significantly poor.Although Iran’s performance was salient (19% of total Iranian publications in 2014),[11]translation projects in Turkey 2016 (only 7.11%)[12] and other Arab Middle Eastern countries 2007 (just 4.53%)[13] were relativelyscarce. On the international level, the total translated publications in the USA in 2009 was 2-3%, whileonly 1.5-2% in the UK,[14]which gives an indication ofthe low penetrability of two of the largest publication markets around the world by foreign languages.For instance, the overall translation of the Middle Eastern literary works in the UK between 2000-2012 did not exceed 237 titles i.e. only 4% of the total literary works translated in the same period of time.[15] For further examples, please see appendix 1 and 2.
Biblioclasm[16] in the Middle East
The prevalence of biblioclasm in the Middle East has raised serious concerns about preserving the printed books and their hosting places for the next generations. An early manifestation of this phenomenon was materialised during the fury of the Cold War and the time of anti-communist Turkish Nationalists who attacked the leftist journal, Tan gazetesi, and caused the expulsion of the leftist academics from Ankara University in the 1950s.[17] However, the currentscale and frequency of purging academics are unprecedented and shockingly alarming.
The twenty-first century started with Iraq's “Cemetery of Books”[18] which left nothing of the National library's archive.[19] This historical incident has no worse precedent than the burning of the Library of Alexandria.[20] 60% of the Ottoman and royal Hashemite-era documents along with thehuge bulk of Ba‘ath-era documents were lost for good from the Republican Archive.[21] Approximately 25% of the book collections were looted or burned.[22] Another sad example is the favoured institution of Sadam’s regime, Bayt al-Hikma, which had been badly looted and partially torched.[23]Awqaf Library in Basra faced similar fate by losing up to 90% of its printed books.[24] University libraries had not better luck. The central library of the University of Mosul was vandalised and looted and lost 10%-30% of its books.[25] The people had set fire to most of the buildings including the libraries in different colleges and departments of the school in Basra University,[26] which led to a huge loss. In fact, the best university libraries in Iraq 2004, had in maximally 7 books for every student. Their collection ranged from 700,000-30,000 books, compared to more than 6 million books in the University of Strasbourg.[27]
Not only famous libraries but also bookshops were subject to biblioclasm. The explosion in and burning of Al-Mutanabbi Street book market in August 2005 and the subsequent changes of its literary cafe, the Shahbandar, exhibit the serious risk that books are facing in the Middle East. “I had two shops with books on Iraqi folklore and they were both burnt”[28] one bookseller describes. This incident led Iraqi writers to “head underground, retreating to protected offices. Because literary culture is so bound to a particular neighbourhood of Baghdad, an attack on Al Mutanabbi Street is an attack on Iraqi culture itself”.[29]
Threats to Scholars and Academic Institutions in the Middle East
Freedom of Expression
Since freedom of expression is vital for academics to function effectively in their profession,[30] its absence impedes their creativity and transferring their knowledge to students.[31]Lately, following the failure of the 2016 coup and until February 2017, Turkey witnessed an “intellectual massacre.”[32] More than 4000 academics were expelled from their universities across the country, which followed the dismissal of more than 300 scholars who signed the Peace Declaration of January 2016.[33] It was not a sudden isolated incident but a continuation of earlier similar occurrences since 2007 or even before. An assistant professor of social science explains: “I think content of a study that takes different cultures and values into consideration and rebuts official ideology(ies) would not be assented to and would be pressured. In my latest study, I replaced many words with more appropriate ones or deleted some of the words I chose because my colleague and I agreed that neither society, state nor universityare ready for those remarks.”[34]
Another example of aviolation of academics’ freedom of expression occurred in Iraq after the British-American invasion in 2003. 3000 university professors were expelled because of their partisanship or political leanings,[35]and that raised fears over the continuation of the research process in the entire Middle East.[36]
Unfortunately, these political developments have been hindering our partnerships with projects and academics, as they need to be extremely cautious to keep their jobs and income.
Imprisonment and Pressure
Pressure over academics in the Middle East severed and even escalated to imprisonment. For example in Iran, after the 2009 election, some academics were given 5 year prison sentences due to their political opinions, as it was reported in 2014.[37] In Turkey, although the number of universities was more than doubled under the AKP rule, from 76 in 2002 to 178 in 2016,[38] in 2016, Police detained 27 academics over alleged “terror propaganda.”[39] The state prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against them and they were described as unpatriotic.[40]
Use of force is not the only way to destroy academia. The establishment of pro-governmental ideological environments ruins it as well. Julian de Medeiros elaborates: “When totalitarian politics becomes cemented, it does not do so through force alone, but by a hegemonic takeover of democratic institutions, and then conveniently blankets itself in the comforting notion of being a legitimate populist democracy.”[41] This could explain why, in 2016, some Turkish professors were singled out, their office doors were labelled with special signs and some campaigns and petitions emerged requesting firing them, which led one professor to describe it: “It is really dangerous, some people have gone into hiding. I’ve been threatened.”[42]
Assassination of Academics
In 2003, Mohammad al-Rawi, the newly-reinstated president of Baghdad University, was killed in his medical clinic[43] without any clue about the reason behind it. His blood opened the door to the assassinations of over 413[44] other faculty members, which constituted %2.2 of faculty members in Iraq by 2009.[45]The common method to threaten was to slip a note under the office door saying: “Stop teaching from your book”; “Denounce this sect”; “Wear a hijab”; or “Incorporate religious doctrine into your lesson,”[46] as a former lecturer at Baghdad University described.[47] She had to flee to London after assassins murdered her sister by mistake instead of her in 2007. In 2006/2007, the Iraqi scholars were the main target of assassination, according to UNESCO.[48] 80% of the assassinations targeted people working in universities. More than half of the people killed were professors or associate professors, 62% of them were doctorate holders.[49]
With the emergence of ISIS, academics were less secure than any time before. An Iraqi academic describes the situation following ISIS attack on Al-Ramadi, 2014: “They targeted Anbar University. Those of us who spoke out were beaten or killed by ISIS and student sympathisers. Our books and research were burned and laptops taken. Our colleges became our prisons and torture chambers. I am sad to say that we lost some of our best lecturers, killed by ISIS.”[50] In order to spread ISIS propaganda of terror, it was more rewarding to attack learning centres and universities. They have become a target and a battleground rather than an incidental victim of war, along with killing professors that they consider “intimidating a whole lot more people, than if just fighting a regular army”[51] as the president of the Institute of International Education noted. Unfortunately, the Islamic fundamentalism and the sectarian polarity did not endanger the life of the academics only, but the existence of the national state in Syria and Iraq as well.[52]
Deterioration of Academic Institutions
Due to the deterioration of the socio-political situation and targeting academics and educational centres, a noticeable decline was witnessed in the educational sector of the Middle East. For example, in 2016, Ankara University lost 100 faculty members who had signed the previously mentioned Peace Declaration, which endangered the university’s prestigious Faculty of Political Sciences, as 23 courses were left without lecturers and 50 postgraduate students without advisers.[53]
In 2005, the United Nations estimated looting, burning, or destroying of %84 of Iraqi educational institutions and in 2008 more than 31,500 attacks on universities and schools were recorded, which turned them under-equipped, understaffed and increasingly factional.[54] Furthermore, the universities were paralysed by increasing loss of their high-rank faculty members, as by 2007, the University of Baghdad lost (15%), the University of Technology (17%) and Babel University (25%)[55] of their professors. Therefore, measuring the productivity of Iraqi academia indicated that 65%-68% of the faculty members, inside and outside Iraq, have not undertaken any academic activity. The proportion of hours devoted to research by them did not exceed 1.5% of total weekly hours spent on discharging university duties. 7% of Iraqi universities published scientific results while other universities stopped publishing.[56]
The destruction of these Educational institutions also shattered the memories of their users who might have witnessed imprisonment or torture inside them[57] by armed groups. This could createpermanent psychological gaps between these places and their people.
Brain Draining, Migration, Emigration, and Immigration
Migration and emigration have been another draining factor of the Middle Eastern academic world. In 2008, the World Bank’s Knowledge Assessment Methodology showed that the academics of Syria, Egypt and Lebanon were the least of Arab academics likely to stay in their countries (2 of 7), while the Qataris and the Emiratis were the most likely (6 of 7).[58] Looking for brighter academic future and seeking better standards of life and freedom were amongst various reasons for such trends.
However, with the upheaval of such magnitude affecting the Middle East, academics and students are being forced to migrate and seek refuge at a level not seen since World War II.[59] Out of 8000 Syrian faculty members, 2000 became refugees abroad,[60] and in a governmental estimation about the third of Syrian professors,[61] along with 100,000 university students, dropped out.[62] Ammar Al-Ibrahim, an agriculture professor at the University of Aleppo, had a house situated in an area of conflict and was forced to seek refuge in Turkey. He says, “[a]ny available job opportunity would determine my future…[and] If this situation persists, I will have to seek asylum in any European country to save my family.”[63] This multiphase journey of seeking safety and opportunity, from a country to another, could be reversed as well. In some cases,Iraqi immigrant professors in Syria had to join the waves of the Syrian refugees and go back again to Iraq.[64]
Although since 2003, 3000 Iraqi professors had to flee their countries,[65] in 2014, over 40% were able to return to their country to contribute to the higher education community.[66]However, this situation suddenly changed afterwards as Wilcox, the director of the Scholar Rescue Fund, mentioned that the spread of ISIS, however, put such plans on hold.[67]
Wars and violence are not the only reasons for immigration, political persecution has turned the safe Middle Eastern countries, such as Turkey, into a major emigration country. Turkey has become the “number one country for applications from under-threat scholars seeking safety in Western universities [which] exceeded the recent spike in demand that followed the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011”[68] Wilcox comments. Cara[69] is also receiving 15 to 20 applications a week for help, increasing from four or five a week last year, as its executive director Stephen Wordsworth said: “The largest number is now coming from Turkey.”[70] With such circumstances, it is becoming very hard for Turkish researchers to go back, as the astrophysicist, Ali Alpar,[71] describes.
Challenges Related to Changes in the International Politics
Several years of collaborative international academic efforts could be ruined at the stroke of a pen. For example, following Trump’s travel ban on people of certain origins including Iran, and the subsequent Iranian counter-ban on American citizens,[72] the Eighth Biennial Conference of Association of the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) had to cancel its conference, as 45 contributing scholars were holding U.S. passports.[73] This cancelation has affected 150 scholars from 22 countries other than Iran and the United States as well, as Saeid Amir Arjomand, the President of the association, announced.[74]Moreover, dual nationality academics suffered the consequences of such unpredicted development, such as Mohsen Kadivar,[75] a well-known research professor of Islamic studies at Duke University in North Carolina, who got stuck in Berlin, away from his family, until the ban was overturned.