oic research centre for islamic history, art and culture - ircica

EditorialDuring the period since the last issue of the Newsletter, ourCentre hosted both administrative and academic meetingsrelated to the various fields of its mandate. The first meetingwas the twenty-second session of the Governing Boardof IRCICA. The Board is comprised of nine specialistsappointed by the OIC Member States on basis of theirauthority in the Centre’s fields of activities, together withthe Secretary General of the OIC or his representative andthe Director General of IRCICA. The countries currentlyrepresented in IRCICA’s Governing Board are Egypt,Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. In this session, theBoard reviewed and approved the Centre’s activity reportfor 2007 and its proposed work plan for 2008 before theiradoption by the Member States at the next session of theIslamic Conference of Foreign Affairs Ministers. Themeeting of the Board, particularly its opening ceremony thatwas followed by the press and an interested audience, wasan excellent opportunity to highlight the diverse aspects ofour present activities: recent symposiums, publications, andespecially the two major long term projects undertaken bythe Department of Architecture of IRCICA since last year,namely the “Prince Sultan bin Selman Data Bank of IslamicSites and Monuments” and the “Al-Quds 2015” program ofstudies and architectural workshops.A last part of the opening ceremony was devoted to thepresentation of calligraphy diplomas (Ijaza) to trainees fromvarious countries having successfully completed the coursescoordinated by IRCICA since last year. Previously, on theoccasion of Centre’s 25th Anniversary commemorated inNovember 2005, a number vof calligraphy diplomas werepresented to six calligraphers from five countries. Thistime, thirteen calligraphers from seven countries receiveddiplomas. This raised the total number of calligraphershaving received diplomas through the Centre over the pastdecades to fifty-five persons from twenty-two countries.We had the pleasure of taking part in the cultural programtitled “Saudi Arabia Cultural Days” which was organisedjointly by the Governments of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabiaand the Republic of Turkey during the last week of October.On this occasion we hosted a series of lectures which werefollowed with interest by a learned audience. During the sameperiod, the visit of the Minister of Culture and Informationof the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mr. Iad Madani gave us theopportunity to define some new projects to be undertakenjointly by the Ministry and IRCICA in the near future.The congress on “Egypt in the Ottoman Era”, held duringthe last week of November, brought together sixty-threeparticipants from eleven countries and from Egypt itself. Itwas the third congress of IRCICA to be devoted specificallyto the period of the Ottoman State, after the congresses on“Learning and Education in the Ottoman State” (on theoccasion of the 700th anniversary of the Ottoman State,Istanbul, 1999) and “Bilad al-Sham in the Ottoman Era”(Damascus, 2005). We include in this issue news of thecongress and a list of the papers presented. The latter will becollected in a book, which we expect to publish in 2008.A major scholarly event, next in this series of congresses, isthe international congress on “The Second ConstitutionalPeriod/Meşrutiyet on its Centenary” to be held in Istanbulon 7-10 May 2008. Another event scheduled for 2008 isrelated to our Craft Development Program: an internationalcongress on “Employment of Traditional Handicrafts inArchitectural Projects” will be held in Tunis, on 2-7 June.Lastly, I would like to announce that by decision of IRCICA’sGoverning Board, the application period of the competitionfor the Prince Faisal bin Fahd Award for the Preservation ofIslamic Architectural Heritage has been extended, in orderto make a new call for participation especially from regionsfrom where no applications were received. Interested partiescan find information on the competition in this issue of theNewsletter.Dr. Halit ErenSEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 2007, NO: 74 Newsletter 1