Volume Contents: The Qatar National Historic Environment Record: a bespoke cultural resource management tool and the wider implications for heritage management within the region (Rebecca Beardmore et al.); Preliminary pottery study: Murwab horizon in progress, ninth century AD, Qatar (Alexandrine Guérin); Excavations and survey at al-Ruwaydah, a late Islamic site in northern Qatar (Andrew Petersen & Tony Grey); Al-Zub�rah and its hinterland, north Qatar: excavations and survey, spring 2009 (Alan Walmsley et al.); A possible Upper Palaeolithic and Early Holocene flint scatter at Ra's Ushayriq, western Qatar (Faisal Abdulla Al-Naimi et al.); The dhow’s last redoubt? Vestiges of wooden boatbuilding traditions in Yemen (Dionisius A. Agius et al.); Building materials in South Arabian inscriptions: observations on some problems concerning the study of architectural lexicography (Alessio Agostini); Conflation of celestial and physical topographies in the Omani decorated mihr�b (Soumyen Bandyopadhyay); Al-Balīd ship timbers: preliminary overview and comparisons (Luca Belfioretti & Tom Vosmer); Fouilles à Mas�fī-3 en 2009 (Émirat de Fujayrah, Émirats Arabes Unis): premières observations à propos d’un espace cultuel de l’Âge du Fer nouvellement découvert en Arabie orientale (Anne Benoist); First investigations at the W�dī al-Ayn tombs, Oman (poster) (Manfred Böhme); Glass bangles of al-Shīhr, Hadramawt (fourteenth–nineteenth centuries), a corpus of new data for the understanding of glass bangle manufacture in Yemen (Stéphanie Boulogne & Claire Hardy-Guilbert); L’emploi du bois dans l’architecture du Yémen antique (Christian Darles); Once more on the interpretation of mtl in Epigraphic South Arabian (a new expiatory inscription on irrigation from Kamna) (Serge A. Frantsouzoff); New evidence on the use of implements in al-Mad�m area, Sharjah, UAE (Alejandro Gallego López); The first three campaigns (2007-2009) of the survey at Ādam (Sultanate of Oman) (Jessica Giraud et al.); A new approach to central Omani prehistory (Reto Jagher & Christine Pümpin); Umm an-Nar settlement in the W�dī Andam (Sultanate of Oman) (Nasser al-Jahwari & Derek Kennet); Mapping Masna at M�ryah: using GIS to reconstruct the development of a multi-period site in the highlands of Yemen (Krista Lewis et al.); Written Mahri, Mahri fusha and their implications for early historical Arabic (Samuel Liebhaber); How difficult is it to dedicate a statue? A new approach to some Sabaic inscriptions from Mahrib (Anne Multhoff); The semantic structure of motion verbs in the dialect of Zabīd (Yemen) (Samia Naïm); Preliminary results of the Dhofar archaeological survey (Lynne S. Newton & Juris Zarins); An early MIS3 wet phase at palaeolake Κaqabah: preliminary interpretation of the multi-proxy record (Ash Parton et al.); South Arabian inscriptions from the Faras�n Islands (Saudi Arabia) (Solène Marion de Procé & Carl Phillips); The ‘River Aftan’: an old caravan/trade route along W�dī al-Sahb�m (Nabiel Y. Al Shaikh & Claire Reeler); The W�dī Sūq pottery: a typological study of the pottery assemblage at Hili 8 (UAE) (Sabrina Righetti & Serge Cleuziou); A Βarf talisman from Ghayl B� Wazīr, Hadramawt (Mikhail Rodionov); The Qalh�t Project: new research at the medieval harbour site of Qalh�t, Oman (2008) (Axelle Rougeulle); Irrigation management in pre-Islamic South Arabia according to the epigraphic evidence (Peter Stein); A detective story: emphatics in Mehri (Janet C.E. Watson & Alex Bellem); Shell mounds of the Faras�n Islands, Saudi Arabia (M.G.M. Williams); The Almaqah temple of Meqaber Ga'ewa near Wuqro (Tigray, Ethiopia) (Pawel Wolf & Ulrike Nowotnick).

Contents: V.M. Azzarà, Domestic architecture at the Early Bronze Age sites HD–6 and RJ–2 (JaΚal�n, Sultanate of Oman); Mark Beech, Marjan Mashkour, Matthias Huels & Antoine Zazzo, Prehistoric camels in south-eastern Arabia: the discovery of a new site in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region, United Arab Emirates; Mohammed Ali Al-Belushi & Ali Tigani ElMahi, Archaeological investigations in Shenah, Sultanate of Oman; Lucia Benediková & Peter Barta, A Bronze Age settlement at al-KhiΡr, Failakah Island, Kuwait; Olivier Brunet, Bronze and Iron Age carnelian bead production in the UAE and Armenia: new perspectives; Ingo Buchmann, Tobias Schröder & Paul Yule, Documentation and visualisation of archaeological sites in Yemen: an antique relief wall in Zaf�r (poster); Fabio Cavulli, Emanuela Cristiani & Simona Scaruffi, Techno-functional analysis at the fishing settlement of KHB–1 (RaΜs al-Khabbah, JaΚal�n, Sultanate of Oman); Julien Charbonnier, Dams in the western mountains of Yemen: a Дimyarite model of water management; Christian Darles, Les monolithes dans l’architecture monumentale de l’Arabie du Sud antique; Daniel Eddisford & Carl Phillips, Kalb� in the third millennium (Emirate of Sharjah, UAE); Bat-Zion Eraqi-Klorman, Yemen: religion, magic, and Jews; Francesco G. Fedele, Sabaean animal economy and household consumption at Yal�, eastern Khawl�n al-Кiy�l, Yemen; Serge A. Frantsouzoff, The status of sacred pastures according to Sabaic inscriptions; Jessica Giraud & Serge Cleuziou, Funerary landscape as part of the social landscape and its perceptions: 3000 Early Bronze Age burials in the eastern JaΜl�n (Sultanate of Oman); Alexandrine Guérin & Faysal al-NaΜimi, Territory and settlement patterns during the Abbasid period (ninth century AD): the village of Murwab (Qatar); Mária Hajnalová, Zora Miklíková & Tereza Belanová-Štolcová, Environmental research at al-KhiΡr, Failakah Island, Kuwait; Hani Hayajneh, Ancient North Arabian–Nabataean bilingual inscriptions from southern Jordan; Marco Iamoni, The Iron Age ceramic tradition in the Gulf: a re-evaluation from the Omani perspective; Manfred Kropp, “People of powerful South Arabian kings� or just “people of their kind we annihilated before�? Proper noun or common noun in QurΜ�n 44:37 and 50:14; Johannes Kutterer & Sabah A. Jasim, First report on the copper-smelting site HLO-1 in W�dī al-Hilo, UAE; Romolo Loreto, House and household: a contextual approach to the study of South Arabian domestic architecture. A case study from seventh- to sixth-century BC Yal�/ad-Durayb; Louise Martin, Joy McCorriston & Rémy Crassard, Early Arabian pastoralism at Manayzah in W�dī Сan�, Hadramawt; Giovanni Mazzini & Alexandra Porter, Stela BM 102600=CIH 611 in the British Museum: water regulation between two bordering estates; Anne Multhoff, “A parallel to the Second Commandment…� revisited; Khudooma al-NaΜimi, The discovery of insect remains associated with a Bronze Age tomb in the United Arab Emirates: a preliminary study (poster); Andrew Petersen, Islamic urbanism in eastern Arabia: the case of the al-ΚAyn–al-Buraymī oasis; Valeria Fiorani Piacentini & Christian Velde, The battle of Julf�r (880/1475); Alexandra Porter, Rebecca Stacey & Brendan Derham, The function of ceramic jar Type 4100: a preliminary organic residue analysis; C.N. Reeler, N.Y. Al-Shaikh & D.T. Potts, An historical cartographic study of the Yabrīn oasis, Saudi Arabia; Katrien Rutten, South-east Arabian pottery at ed-Dur (al-Dūr), Umm al-Qaiwayn, UAE: its origin, distribution, and role in the local economy; Abdulrahman al-Salimi, The Wajīhids of Oman.

The Proceedings of Red Sea Project III held in the British Museum, London, in October 2006. Contents: 1) Environment, landscapes and archaeology of the Yemeni Tihamah (R. Neil Munro and Tony J. Wilkinson); 2) The formation of a southern Red Sea seascape in the Late Prehistoric Period: Tracing cross-Red Sea culture-contact, interaction, and maritime communities along the Tihamah coastal plain, Yemen, in the third to first millennium BC (Lamya Khalidi); 3) Products from the Read Sea at Petra in the Medieval Period (Stephan G Schmid and Jacqueline Studer); 4) Continuing studies of plants and animals and their Arabic names from the Royal Danish Expedition to the Red Sea, 1761-1763 (F. Nigel Hepper); 5) Coral reef conservation and the current status of reefs of the Ras Mohamed National Park in the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqabah (Steve McMellor and David J Smith); 6) How fast is fast? Technology, trade and speed under sail in the Roman Red Sea (Julian Whitewright); 7) Warships in the Red Sea, An Outstanding Phenomenon (Sarah Arenson); 8) Features of Ships and Boats in the Indian Ocean (Norbert Weismann); 9) Decorative Motifs on Red Sea Boats: Meaning and Identity (Dionisius A. Agius); 10) The Red Sea Jalbah. Local Phenomenon or Regional Prototype? (James Edgar Taylor); 11) Charting a Hazardous Sea (Sarah Searight); Red Sea Harbours, Hinterlands and Relationships in Preclassical Antiquity (Kenneth A. Kitchen); 12) Sea port to punt: new evidence from Marsa Gawasis, Red Sea (Egypt) (Kathryn A. Bard, Rodolfo Fattovich and Cheryl Ward); 13) The Arabaegypti Ichthyophagi: Cultural Connections with Egypt and the Maintenance of Identity (Ross Iain Thomas); 14) Aila and Clysma: The Rise of Northern Ports in the Red Sea in Late Antiquity (Walter Ward); 15) Shipwrecks, Coffee and Canals: the Landscapes of Suez (Janet Starkey); 16) What is the Evidence for External Trading Contacts on the East African coast in the first millennium bc? (Paul J.J. Sinclair); 17) The 'Arabians' of pre-Islamic Egypt (Tim Power); 18) Red Sea and Indian Ocean: Ports and their Hinterland (Eivind Heldaas Seland); 19) Bishops and Traders: The Role of Christianity in the Indian Ocean during the Roman Period (Roberta Tomber); 20) Arabic Sources for the Ming Voyages (Paul Lunde); 21) From the White Sea to the Red Sea: Piri Reis and the Ottoman conquest of Egypt (Paul Starkey).

Pious Pilgrims, Discerning Travellers, Curious Tourists: Changing patterns of travel to the Middle East from medieval to modern times comprises a varied collection of seventeen papers presented at the biennial conference of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) held in York in July 2019, which together will provide the reader with a fascinating introduction to travel in and to the Middle East over more than a thousand years. As in previous ASTENE volumes, the material presented ranges widely, from Ancient Egyptian sites through medieval pilgrims to tourists and other travellers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The papers embody a number of different traditions, including not only actual but also fictional travel experiences, as well as pilgrimage or missionary narratives reflecting quests for spiritual wisdom as well as geographical knowledge. They also reflect the shifting political and cultural relations between Europe and the Near and Middle East, and between the different religions of the area, as seen and described by travellers both from within and from outside the region over the centuries. The men and women travellers discussed travelled for a wide variety of reasons — religious, commercial, military, diplomatic, or sometimes even just for a holiday! — but whatever their primary motivations, they were almost always also inspired by a sense of curiosity about peoples and places less familiar than their own. By recording their experiences, whether in words or in art, they have greatly contributed to our understanding of what has shaped the world we live in. As Ibn Battuta, one of the greatest of medieval Arab travellers, wrote: ‘Travelling — it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller!’

Contents: 1) New perspectives on Minaean expiatory texts (Alessio Agostini); 2) Investigating an early Islamic landscape on Kuwait Bay: the archaeology of historical Kadhima (Andrew Blair, Derek Kennet & Sultan al-Duwish); 3) The early settlement of HD-5 at Ras al- add, Sultanate of Oman (fourth-third millennium BCE) (Federico Borgi, Elena Maini, Maurizio Cattani & Maurizio Tosi); 4) Known and unknown archaeological monuments in the Dumat al-Jandal oasis in Saudi Arabia: a review (Guillaume Charloux); 5) Prehistory and palaeo-geography of the coastal fringes of the Wahiba Sands and Bar al-Hikman, Sultanate of Oman (Vincent Charpentier, Jean-Francois Berger, Remy Crassard, Marc Lacaze & Gourguen Davtian); 6) Unlocking the Early Bronze Age: attempting to extract Umm an-Nar tombs from a remotely sensed Hafit dataset (poster) (William Deadman); 7) Iron Age impact on a Bronze Age archaeological landscape: results from the Italian Mission to Oman excavations at Salut, Sultanate of Oman (Michele Degli Esposti & Carl Phillips); 8) Late Palaeolithic core-reduction strategies in Dhofar, Oman (Yamandu Hilbert, Jeffrey Rose & Richard Roberts); 9) Reflexions sur les formes de l'ecrit a l'aube de l'Islam (Frederic Imbert); 10) Getting to the bottom of Zabid: the Canadian Archaeological Mission in Yemen, 1982-2011 (Edward J. Keall); 11) New perspectives on regional and interregional obsidian circulation in prehistoric and early historic Arabia (Lamya Khalidi, Krista Lewis & Bernard Gratuze); 12) The Saudi-Italian-French Archaeological Mission at Dumat al-Jandal (ancient Adumatu). A first relative chronological sequence for Dumat al-Jandal. Architecture and pottery (Romolo Loreto); 13) Excavation at the 'Tree of Life' site (Mohammed Redha Ebrahim Hasan Mearaj); 14) The origin of the third-millennium BC fine grey wares found in eastern Arabia (S. Mery, R. Besenval, M.J. Blackman & A. Didier); 15) Building H at Mleiha: new evidence of the late pre-Islamic period D phase (PIR.D) in the Oman peninsula (second to mid-third century AD) (M. Mouton, M. Tengberg, V. Bernard, S. Le Maguer, A. Reddy, D. Soulie, M. Le Grand & J. Goy); 16) An overview of archaeology and heritage in Qatar (Sultan Muhesen, Faisal al-Naimi & Ingolf Thuesen); 17) The construction of Medina's earliest city walls: defence and symbol (Harry Munt); 18) Landscape signatures and seabed characterization in the marine environment of north-west Qatar (poster) (Faisal al-Naimi, Richard Cuttler, Ibrahim Ismail Alhaidous, Lucie Dingwall, Garry Momber, Sadd al-Naimi, Paul Breeze & Ahmed Ali al-Kawari); 19) Towards an annotated corpus of Soqotri oral literature: the 2010 fieldwork season (Vitaly Naumkin, Leonid Kogan & Dmitry Cherkashin (Moscow); A mad Isa al-Darhi & Isa Guman al-Darhi (Soqotra, Yemen); 20) Palace, mosque, and tomb at al-Ruway ah, Qatar (Andrew Petersen & Tony Grey); 21) The origin and development of the oasis landscape of al- Ain (UAE) (Timothy Power & Peter Sheehan); 22) Evidence from a new inscription regarding the goddess (t)rm and some remarks on the gender of deities in South Arabia (Alessia Prioletta); 23) Archaeological excavations at the settlement of al-Furay ah (Freiha), north-west Qatar (Gareth Rees, Faysal al-Naimi, Tobias Richter, Agnieszka Bystron & Alan Walmsley); 24) The 2010-2011 excavation season at al-Zubarah, north-west Qatar (poster) (Tobias Richter, Faisal Abdulla al-Naimi, Lisa Yeomans, Michael House, Tom Collie, Pernille Bangsgaard Jensen, Sandra Rosendahl, Paul Wordsworth & Alan Walmsley); 25) The Great Mosque of Qalhat rediscovered. Main results of the 2008-2010 excavations at Qalhat, Oman (Axelle Rougeulle, Thomas Creissen & Vincent Bernard); 26) A new stone tool assemblage revisited: reconsidering the 'Aterian' in Arabia (Eleanor M.L. Scerri); 27) Egyptian cultural impact on north-west Arabia in the second and first millennia BC (Gunnar Sperveslage & Ricardo Eichmann); 28) The Neolithic site FAY-NE15 in the central region of the Emirate of Sharjah (UAE) (Margarethe Uerpmann, Roland de Beauclair, Marc Handel, Adelina Kutterer, Elisabeth Noack & Hans-Peter Uerpmann); 29) Ka imah remembered: historical traditions of an early Islamic settlement by Kuwait Bay (Brian Ulrich); 30) Yemeni opposition to Ottoman rule: an overview (Abdol Rauh Yaccob).

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 41 2011, Papers from the forty-fourth meeting, held at the British Museum, London, 22–24 July 2010. Contents: 1) Some observations on women in Omani sources (Olga Andriyanova); 2) Archaeological landscape characterization in Qatar through satellite and aerial photographic analysis, 2009 to 2010 (Paul Breeze, Richard Cuttler & Paul Collins); 3) Fishing kit implements from KHB-1: net sinkers and lures (poster) (Fabio Cavulli & Simona Scaruffi); 4) The distribution of storage and diversion dams in the western mountains of South Arabia during the Himyarite period (Julien Charbonnier); 5) Assessing the value of palaeoenvironmental data and geomorphological processes for understanding Late Quaternary population dynamics in Qatar (Richard Cuttler, Emma Tetlow & Faisal al-Naimi); 6) Les fortifications de Khor Rorī – ‘Sumhuram’ (poster) (Christian Darles); 7) Places of contact, spheres of interaction. The Ubaid phenomenon in the central Gulf area as seen from a first season of reinvestigations at Dosariyah (Daws�riyyah), Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia (Philipp Drechsler0; 8) khushub musannadah (Qur�n 63. 4) and Epigraphic South Arabian ms3nd (Orhan Elmaz); 9) Walled structures and settlement patterns in the south-western part of Dhofar, Oman (poster) (Roman Garba & Peter Farrington);10) The wall and talus at Bar�qish, ancient Yathill (al-Jawf, Yemen): a Minaean stratigraphy (Francesco G. Fedele); 11) Through evangelizing eyes: American missionaries to Oman (Hilal al-Hajri); 12) Quantified analysis of long-term settlement trends in the northern Oman peninsula (Nasser Said al-Jahwari); 13) Yeha and Hawelti: cultural contacts between Saba and DMT – New research by the German Archaeological Institute in Ethiopia (Sarah Japp, Iris Gerlach, Holger Hitgen & Mike Schnelle); 14) The Kadhima Project: investigating an Early Islamic settlement and landscape on Kuwait Bay (poster) (Derek Kennet, Andrew Blair, Brian Ulrich & Sultan M. al-Duwīsh); 15) Typology of incense-burners of the Islamic period (Sterenn Le Maguer); 16) A geomorphological and hydrological underpinning for archaeological research in northern Qatar (Phillip G. Macumber); 17) Recent investigations at the prehistoric site RH-5 (Ras al-Hamr�, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman) (Lapo Gianni Marcucci, Francesco Genchi, Émilie Badel & Maurizio Tosi); 18) Geoarchaeological investigations at the site of Julf�r (al-Nudūd and al-Mat�f), Ras al-Khaymah, UAE: preliminary results from the auger-hole survey (poster) (Mike Morley, Robert Carter & Christian Velde); 19) Conserving and contextualizing national cultural heritage: the 3-D digitization of the fort at al-Zub�rah and petroglyphs at Jabal al-Jus�siyyah, Qatar (poster) (Helen Moulden, Richard Cuttler & Shane Kelleher); 20) Reassessing W�dī Debayan (W�dī al-Dabay�n): an important Early Holocene Neolithic multi-occupational site in western Qatar (poster) (Faisal al-Naimi, Kathryn M. Price, Richard Cuttler & Hatem Arrock); 21) Research on an Islamic period settlement at Ras Ushayriq in northern Qatar and some observations on the occurrence of date presses (Andrew Petersen); 22) Relations between southern Arabia and the northern Horn of Africa during the last millennium BC (David W. Phillipson); 23) Bayt Bin Ātī in the Qatt�rah oasis: a prehistoric industrial site and the formation of the oasis landscape of al-Ain, UAE (Timothy Power & Peter Sheehan); 24) The Sabaic inscription A–20–216: a new Sabaean-Seleucid synchronism (Alessia Prioletta); 25) Al-Suwaydirah (old al-Taraf) and its Early Islamic inscriptions (Saad bin Abdulaziz al-Rashid); 26) Investigations in al-Zub�rah hinterland at Murayr and al-Furayhah, north-west Qatar (poster) (Gareth Rees, Tobias Richter & Alan Walmsley); 27) Pearl fishers, townsfolk, Bedouin, and shaykhs: economic and social relations in Islamic al-Zub�rah (Tobias Richter, Paul Wordsworth & Alan Walmsley); 28) Contemporary tribal versions of local history in Hadramawt (Mikhail Rodionov); 29) A view of the defence strategy of Muharraq, a tribal town in the Gulf (poster); 30) Solaiman Abd al-Rahm�n al-Theeb, New Nabataean inscriptions from the site of al-Sīj in the region of al-Ul�, Saudi Arabia (Abdulla Al-Sulaiti); 31) Al-Zub�rah Archaeological Park as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site – a master plan for its site management, preservation, and presentation (poster) (Ingolf Thuesen & Moritz Kinzel); 32) Oman and Bahrain in Late Antiquity: the Sasanians’ Arabian periphery (Brian Ulrich); 33) From the port of Mocha to the eighteenth-century tomb of Im�m al-Mahdī MuΉammad in al-Maw�hib: locating architectural icons and migratory craftsmen (Nancy Um); 34) Drummers of the Najd: musical practices from W�dī al-Daw�sir, Saudi Arabia (Lisa Urkevich); 35) The Jewel of Muscat Project: reconstructing an early ninth-century CE Shipwreck (Tom Vosmer, Luca Belfioretti, Eric Staples & Alessandro Ghidoni); 36) Lateral fricatives and lateral emphatics in southern Saudi Arabia and Mehri (Janet C.E. Watson & Munira Al-Azraqi).

This collection of around twenty papers has its origins in a two-day seminar organised by the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) in conjunction with the Centre for Middle Eastern Plants at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (RBGE), with additional support from Cornucopia magazine and the Turkish Consulate General, Edinburgh. This multi-disciplinary event formed part of the Ottoman Horizons festival held in Edinburgh in 2017 and attracted a wide range of participants from around the world, including several from Turkey and other parts of the Middle East. This splendidly illustrated book focuses on the botanical legacy of many parts of the former Ottoman Empire - including present-day Turkey, the Levant, Egypt, the Balkans, and the Arabian Peninsula - as seen and described by travellers both from within and from outside the region. The papers cover a wide variety of subjects, including Ottoman garden design and architecture; the flora of the region, especially bulbs and their cultural significance; literary, pictorial and photographic depictions of the botany and horticulture of the Ottoman lands; floral and related motifs in Ottoman art; culinary and medicinal aspects of the botanical heritage; and efforts related to conservation.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies has come a long way since 1968 when it was first convened, yet it remains the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. This is clearly reflected in the ever-increasing number of researchers from all over the world who come each year to the three-day Seminar to present and discuss their latest research and fieldwork. The Seminar has covered, and continues to cover, an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922/1923). Papers presented at the Seminar have all been subjected to an intensive review process before they are accepted for publication in the Proceedings. The rigorous nature of the reviews undertaken by a range of specialists ensures that the highest academic standards are maintained. A supplementary volume, 'Languages, scripts and their uses in ancient North Arabia' edited by M.C.A. Macdonald (ISBN 9781784918996, Archaeopress, 2018), is also available containing the proceedings from the special session held during the seminar on 5 August 2017.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. First convened in 1968, it is the only annual academic event for the study of the Arabian Peninsula that brings together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss current fieldwork and the latest research. The Seminar covers an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more besides, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922). The Seminar meets for three days each year, with an ever-increasing number of participants coming from around the globe to attend. In 2016 the fiftieth meeting took place, in which sixty papers and posters were presented in London at the British Museum, where this prestigious event has been hosted since 2002. The Seminar also regularly hosts a special session focusing on a specific aspect of the Humanities on the Arabian Peninsula, enabling a range of experts to present their research to a wider audience. In 2016 this special session was entitled 'Textiles and Personal Adornment in the Arabian Peninsula', which provided a fascinating overview of research on dress, textiles, and adornment in the Middle East.

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the only international academic forum that meets annually for the presentation of research in the humanities on the Arabian Peninsula. It focuses on the fields of archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, and numismatics from the earliest times to the present day. A wide range of original and stimulating papers presented at the Seminar is published in the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies and reflects the dynamism and scope of the interdisciplinary event. The Proceedings present the cutting edge of new research on Arabia and include reports of new discoveries in the Peninsula. They are published each spring in time for the subsequent Seminar, which is held in July. The main foci of the Seminar in 2015, in descending order of the number of papers presented in each session were North Arabia, South Arabia and Aksum, Archaeological Survey and Field Methods, Bronze and Iron Ages in Eastern Arabia, Islamic Archaeology, and Neolithic Archaeology. In addition, there were sessions on Recent Cultural History in Arabia, and Heritage Management in Arabia, as well as a special session on the Nabataean world titled 'Beyond the "rose-red" city: the hinterland of Petra and Nabatean rural sites', which featured a total of six papers. This volume also includes notes in memoriam on Professor Andrzej Zaborski (1942-2014), Professor Ordinarius at the Jagellonian University of Cracow, who specialized in Afro-Asiatic linguistics, Semitic and Cushitic in particular.