Talk on Saudi Arabia

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Talk on Saudi Arabia

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Nov. 3rd, 2006 at 9:53 PM

Today, my Ph.D. student Waleed Al-Jandal gave the International Coffee Hour talk on his home country of Saudi Arabia. In it, he described the history of Arabia from its Islamic roots through the founding of the Saudi kingdom in 1927 and the discovery of oil in 1938.

One of the valuable points of Waleed's presentation, which covered topics from the military history of Arabia to Saudi Aramco to the traditional and modern clothing of Saudis, was a list of cultural taboos observed in many Islamic countries. The link I found is oriented towards Bahrain, but I did not see any conflicts with Arabic conventions.

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Banazir

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music:The Fray - How To Save A Life

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banazir

Nov. 19th, 2006 10:35 am (UTC)

Holistic taboos

Not only that, but the entire set {thumbs up, V for Victory, OK} are all risque.

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Banazir

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thanatos_kalos

Nov. 19th, 2006 08:33 pm (UTC)

I don't suppose his section on military history included any camel-based forces? If so, assuming I ever get into a Ph.D programme, do you think he'd be willing to discuss the topic with me?

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banazir

Nov. 20th, 2006 07:18 am (UTC)

History of Saudi Arabia and camel-based forces

Sure thing, though:

a) He's a computer scientist, and he serves as a cultural liaison only because we have all of 66 Arab students at the whole university, so AFAIK he's anything but an expert on the military history of his country.

b) The section on military history was basically a brief survey of the late King Abdulaziz's campaigns on Riyadh (1902-1927). The history of Saudi Arabia between the founding of Mecca and Medina and the reestablishment of the House of Saud (third Saudi state) was covered very briefly. Waleed mentioned the mamluks of the Abbasid caliphate in about two sentences, and that was it.

OTOH, he might be able to put you in touch with grads who are actually in history. We also have a military science program with students from several countries, so it's conceivable that there will eventually be some Arab students in that.

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Banazir

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December 2008