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Welcome! 

Breaking news! 

On 1 July 2021 Paul was awarded the very prestigious Brismes Award for Services to Middle Eastern Studies in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Middle Eastern Studies in the United Kingdom over many years. Congratulations to him! For further details please go to https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/award-for-services-to-middle-eastern-studies and the Award Speech is on https://www.brismes.ac.uk/files/documents/Speech%20for%20Paul%20Starkey%20Services%20Award.pdf

 

 

Welcome to our website!

Recent events

2019-2021. Duns U3A Lecture series on the Middle East. These are continuing from 22 October 2021 unil June 2022 with a series of talks based on the theme: The Middle East: Seas and Borderlands. For further information go to https://dunsu3a.com/

2021 ASTENE Spring Lecture Series including papers by Janet and Paul and a book launch. Jne also gave a talk at the ASTENE on-line Summer Conference in July 2021. For more information, click here.

8 April 2021. On-line lecture to the South East Scotland branch of St John Scotland entitled: Hospitals, Humours and Hospitallers: the story of medicine in the Levant'

Forthcoming Events

Apart from U3A lectures, we are giving several lectures in Edinburgh in the next few months. More anon!

We are also on the DCC700 Committee which is organising a two-day seminar on the Egyptologist Robert Hay and his Friends from 10 to 12 April. This will be held in Duns Castle. For further information go to https://www.astene.org.uk/current-events/hay-seminar and further information will be available on the DCC700 website soon.

See also https://www.astene.org.uk/current-events/travellers-in-ottoman-lands about an event we are involved in organising with other colleages in Edinburgh and in ASTENE to be held in Sarajevo in August 2022. More information to follow

Contact Details

For information about our research and publications use pajanstarkey@gmail.com

Keywords in our work: Understanding the Middle East | Arabic literature | Translation | Ethnography| Orientalist art| Botany| Travellers | East India Company | India and the Coromandel | Ottoman Empire | Aleppo | Egypt | Arabian Peninsula. Also | Scottish cookery | Aberdeenshire | Scottish Borders | music |

Welcome to our website! This is what you can find here:

  • Information about Paul and Janet Starkey
  • Full lists of most of our publications
  • Information about our current research projects including Janet's book on Strathbogie and Paul's translations from Arabic to English
  • Our roles in various Associations
  • PDFs of various lectures on the Middle East
  • Pages about culinary traditions in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire
  • Pages dedicated to the Russell family and associates in the 18th century
  • Short accounts about our long journeys in Europe, the Middle East and America.
The Drowning
The Drowning
In Press. dop Fall 2021
Sarajavo Firewood
Sarajavo Firewood
Just published Summer 2021. For a description click the image.
Pious Pilgrims, Discerning Travellers, Curious Tourists
Pious Pilgrims, Discerning Travellers, Curious Tourists
Study of travellers to and from the Middle East across the ages.
Tales from the life of Bruce Wannell
Tales from the life of Bruce Wannell
Volume of dedications in memoriam to our good friend Bruce Wannell containing a chapter by the Starkeys. Published by Sickle Moon in the summer of 2020
The Scottish Enlightenment Abroad
The Scottish Enlightenment Abroad
Janet's book, The Scottish Enlightenment Abroad: The Russells of Braidshaw in Aleppo and on the Coast of Coromandel (Leiden: Brill, 2018), is now available. Click on picture for more details. To order go to https://brill.com/view/title/36276

With many resonances of our present crisis during the CV19 Pandemic of 2020 the chapter Pathology and Epidemics' in Aleppo is available on Open access via 

https://brill.com/view/book/9789004362130/BP000021.xml?body=fullHtml-23239

Also available as an e-book and separate chatpers can even be bought from Brill's website
Journeys Erased by Time
Journeys Erased by Time
Archaeopress, 2019. Paul has a chapter entitled '1 Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela: a 12th-Century Traveller to the Middle East' (pp.1-16) and Janet one called 'Sources of inspiration: Jean-Baptiste Vanmour and other artist-travellers in Ottoman Lands' (189-216). PDFs under "Research & Talks"
Food for Thought
Food for Thought
Journal article in the Book of the Old Edinburgh Club 14 (2018) by Janet entitled 'Coffee, Coffee-Houses and le bon gout in Edinburgh during the Scottish Enlightenment'
Travellers in the Ottoman Empire: the botanical legacy
Travellers in the Ottoman Empire: the botanical legacy
ISBN 978 1 78491 915 3 
ISBN 978 1 78491 916 0 (e-Pdf)
Oxford: Archaeopress, 23 July 2018.
This collection of 20 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. A splendidly illustrated book focuses on the botanical legacy of many parts of the former Ottoman Empire as seen and described by travellers. Click image to order and for more details. See book review on https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/travellers-in-ottoman-lands-the-botanical-legacy-edited-by-ines-ascerictodd-sabina-knees-janet-starkey-paul-starkey-oxford-archaeopress-2018/390F424C1D48D8293BEC90BEC9846370/core-reader
Praise for the Women of the Family
Praise for the Women of the Family
Paul's translation of a novel by Mahmoud Shukair came out in November 2018, published by Interlink Ltd.
"In the wake of resettlement from the desert to the hills overlooking Jerusalem, aging Bedouin patriarch Mannan wants his son Muhammad al-Asghar (the Youngest) to take on leadership and hold the clan together. But the youngest of eighteen sons is unable to follow in his father's footsteps. Like others in the al-Abd al-Lat clan, he is torn between old customs and new choices."
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 48
Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 48
Volume 48 2018 edited by Julian Jansen van Rensburg, Harry Munt, Tim Power, and Janet Starkey. Click image for further information. Available from Archaeopress.
Fractured Destinies
Fractured Destinies
Paul's latest translation from Arabic to English is Fractured Destinies: A Novel by Rabai al-Madhoun published in March 2018. Click on picture for more details.
The Shell Translated by Paul Starkey
The Shell Translated by Paul Starkey
The Shell by Mustafa Khalifa. Translated by Paul Starkey. Interlink, $15 trade paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-56656-022-1. Published 2016. Paul was awarded a prestigious Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding at a ceremony in Qatar in December 2017.
Strathbogie, the Gordons and the 'Land o'Cakes'
Strathbogie, the Gordons and the 'Land o'Cakes'
By Janet Starkey. Cover design by Clare Blois.

ISBN 978-1-907115-31-8

Prices: £17.50 (excl. shipping); £21 (incl. shipping UK); £26.90 (incl. shipping Europe); £31.50 (incl. shipping Rest of the World). Paperback with Flaps pp. 348. Full colour with many illustrations. Glossary. Indexes.
2 SEPTEMBER 2017.
For sale on Amazon from 20 September 2017.
For UK sales only:-
Strathbogie, the Gordons and the 'Land o'Cakes'£21.00
Quantity
Lost and Now Found
Lost and Now Found
Neil Cooke & Vanessa Daubney (eds), Lost and Now Found: explorers, Diplomats and Artists in Egypt and the Near East (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2017). Janet and Paul both have chapters therein
PSAS 47 (2017)
PSAS 47 (2017)
Janet Starkey, Julian Jansen Van Rensburg & Harry Munt, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies; Papers from the Fiftieth Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Held at the British Museum, Paperback, vol 47 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2017).
Sonallah Ibrahim: Rebel with a Pen by Paul Starkey
Sonallah Ibrahim: Rebel with a Pen by Paul Starkey
Sonallah Ibrahim: Rebel with a Pen, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. Paperback edition September 2017,
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