"Strike a blow for Wissenschaft!"
What is MEDOC?
MEDOC is a research unit supporting scholarly work in Middle Eastern Studies. It is currently undertaking a number of projects to this end.
MEDOC is coordinating the development, through the cooperative efforts of many libraries, of a microfilmed collection of resources pertinent to Middle Eastern Studies. The Catalogue of Microforms Projects in Ottoman, Persian and Arabic represents the fruits of this ongoing project.
MEDOC publishes and serves as the editorial focal point for Mamluk Studies Review.
The most well-known online project of MEDOC is the The Chicago Online Bibliography of Mamluk Studies, two searchable databases listing primary and secondary literature from or relating to the Mamluk period.
Most recently, MEDOC has undertaken several online projects:
The Chicago Online Encyclopedia of Mamluk Studies will be a definitive
reference source for topics having to do with the study of Egypt and Syria from
1250 to 1517, and complements the existing resources. It will fill lacunae in
existing resources such as the Encyclopedia of Islam. As an online resource,
rather than print, the Encyclopedia is able to grow indefinitely and change.
The Encyclopedia will eventually provide, in addtition to an unlimited number
of articles, materials which are difficult--or even impossible--to contain and
update in printed resources. These include interactive maps, architectural plans
and photos, archaeological results and diagrams, searchable full-text Arabic
sources from the Mamluk period (including hundreds of documents and manuscripts
which remain unpublished and therefore unavailable to the scholarly community),
an ever-growing glossary of Mamluk terminology in Arabic and English, and an
index of names, terms, and other items in all back issues of Mamluk Studies
Review. The Encyclopedia is fully searchable, and will feature topic indexes
for browsing and hyperlinked cross-references within articles.
Interactive online and freely printable maps of the Mamluk Sultanate and the wider region during the Mamluk period are currently being drawn. When complete, these high resolution maps will be available for scholarly use, free of charge, via downloads from this site. They will be integrated with The Chicago Online Encyclopedia of Mamluk Studies and this website, and users will be able to zoom in or out and choose what details to display. The maps will also be published in Mamluk Studies Review in 2006.
The Mamluk Mint Series Web Resource was inaugurated in 2003 with support from the U.S. Department of Education. The goal of this project is to create a classification system for Mamluk coins to supercede that given by Paul Balog in his 1964 book The Coinage of the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt and Syria, which cannot be conveniently expanded, and to provide online images of the Mamluk coins held in various museums and research institutes around the world. The results of this endeavor, in the form of a searchable online database, will be available in due course on this site.
The Arabic Translation Databank is an attempt to identify all translations of modern and classical Arabic literature (broadly defined) into English. Compilation of the database is in progress. When a sufficient mass of items is reached, the database will be available on this site. The further intention is to make available online as many of these texts as possible, including both those which are in the public domain and those whose copyright holders grant permission. This project is being undertaken in cooperation with Mideast Medievalists.
MEDOC publishes Chicago Studies on the Middle East, on behalf of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at The University of Chicago.
MEDOC has also created the Mamluk Listserv as a discussion forum for
scholars interested in the history and culture of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt
and Syria.
To subscribe, see https://listhost.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/mamluk