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Middle East Medievalists (MEM) is an
international professional non-profit association of scholars interested
in the study of the Islamic lands of the Middle East during the medieval period (defined roughly as
500-1500 C.E.). MEM officially came into existence on 15 November
1989 at its first annual
meeting, held in Toronto. MEM is a non-profit organization incorporated in
the state of Illinois; contributions to MEM are considered exempt from
federal income tax by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
MEM has two primary goals. The first is to
increase the representation of medieval scholarship at scholarly meetings
in North America and elsewhere by co-sponsoring panels. The other
principal objective of MEM is to foster communication among individuals and
organizations with an interest in the study of the medieval Middle East. MEM also hopes, in the future, to advance the
study of the medieval Middle
East by undertaking such
projects as scholar exchanges, conferences, etc.
As part of its effort to facilitate
communication among its members, MEM publishes Al-‘Usur
al-Wusta, The Bulletin of Middle East Medievalists, twice
yearly (April and October). All members in good standing receive a
subscription to Al-`Usur al-Wusta. Since 1992, Al-‘Usur
al-Wusta has published short articles, information on scholarly
meetings and resources, and reviews or notices of significant scholarly
books published in the Middle East in local vernaculars (Arabic, Hebrew,
Persian, Turkish), because these works are generally not reviewed in
Western journals and often remain poorly known or unknown to Western
scholars. Members are invited voluntarily to submit brief notices or
reviews of such works they may have read, and to submit news of new
resources, future conferences, or other items deemed of interest to MEM's
membership, for publication in Al-‘Usur al-Wusta.
News items, suggestions, or queries about Al-`Usur
al-Wusta should be sent to the current editors: Nancy Khalek (email: nancy_khalek@brown.edu) and Antoine Borrut (aborrut@umd.edu). Review Editor is Michael G. Morony, email: morony@history.ucla.edu, Department of History,
405 Hilgard Avenue, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024, U.S.A.
Archaeology Editor is Donald Whitcomb, e-mail: d-whitcomb@uchicago.edu, The Oriental Institute,
1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, U.S.A.
MEM has two categories of membership,
regular and honorary. Regular membership is open to all persons
interested in any aspect of the history and civilization of the Middle East
in the medieval period. A schedule of annual
membership dues and an application form can be printed from the Membership Form and Schedule of Dues page. Membership is for calendar years; the annual
regular membership renewal for a given calendar year is normally
solicited in January of that year. Honorary membership is awarded by the Board of Directors of MEM to a few senior
medievalists who have distinguished themselves in their teaching and
research. MEM's honorary members are David Ayalon (d. 1998), Robert S.
Bell, Jr., Claude Cahen (d. 1991), ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Duri (d. 2011), Ann K.S.
Lambton (d. 2010), Bernard Lewis, George Makdisi (d. 2002), Franz Rosenthal (d.
2003), and Oleg Grabar (d. 2011), Josef van Ess, Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Peter Borwn, William Zieske, Hichem Djaït, and Dominique Sourdel. Honorary membership is for life and is gratis.
Institutions (libraries, academic publishers, research institutes, etc.)
pay the same dues as regular members, but receive only Al-‘Usur
al-Wusta and a selection of other publications of MEM.
Membership applications, dues payments,
and queries concerning membership should be sent to Antoine Borrut, Secretary of MEM, History Department, University of Maryland, 2115 Francis Scott Key Hall, College Park, MD 20742-7315, USA. E-mail: aborrut@umd.edu; Phone: 301-405-2120.
MEM conducts its business meeting annually
in the autumn, normally in conjunction with the meeting of the Middle
East Studies Association (MESA), which is usually held in November. The
general business meeting is open to all current members of MEM and to
those considering membership. The Board of Directors of MEM is elected
annually at the general business meeting, or by mail ballot.
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