Encyclopaedia of the Orient

August 19, 2006 6:59 AM

From Abadan to Zurvanism, The Encyclopaedia of the Orient is your one-stop shopping mecca for bite-sized info-bits on North Africa and the Middle East.
posted by flapjax at midnite (8 comments total)

Very nice. Moreish. But who calls North Africa the Orient anyway?
posted by riotgrrl69 at 7:08 AM on August 19, 2006

"But who calls North Africa the Orient anyway?"

Yeah, if I was running this site I think I'd change "Orient" to "the Islamic World". Or something else... I do like how they use the "ae" spelling of ecyclopaedia, though. Hey, they're old world!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:17 AM on August 19, 2006

Good point about the use of the word Orient. A little about the evolution of the Encyclopaedia. Excellent post, useful site.

That site offers a free online course in Arabic for beginners. LexicOrient has a "loose cooperation" with AfrolNews, a portal for info about the rest of Africa. There are practical definitions of things, like Hamas.
posted by nickyskye at 7:45 AM on August 19, 2006

Yummy bite-sized bits! Thanks!
posted by owhydididoit at 7:54 AM on August 19, 2006

Flapjax:
If you called it the islamic world, you'd be leaving out substantial regions of the world where the bulk of the muslim population is, including countries such as pakistan, indonesia, china, and malaysia.

Maybe you mean Arab world? (but then you'd need to remove Turkey and Iran)
posted by mulligan at 8:00 AM on August 19, 2006

Mulligan: Good point! Maybe "Orient" is the best word after all.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:05 AM on August 19, 2006

How about "Encyclopedia of North Africa and the Middle East"
posted by thirteenkiller at 8:20 AM on August 19, 2006

'Orient' has become a dirty word in recent years, probably due to Said's 'Orientalism' ideas. Some organizations with 'Orient' in their names have changed names because of this.

At one time, even North Africa fell under the term 'Orient' in the Western popular imagination. In the era of the pulps, there was sub-genre of pulp fiction called 'Oriental Adventure', in which the story setting could be anywhere from North Africa to China.

Good resource, flapjax. Thanks for the post!
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:32 AM on August 19, 2006