Rare artifacts within the vast archives of the Library of Congress (LOC) represent a shift in how our region's history is fundamentally understood. Moving beyond traditional nationalist timelines, Arab World specialist in the African and Middle East division at the LOC, Dr. Muhannad Salhi, explores the transition of diverse items in the library's "Near East" collection, from 3000-year-old economic receipts to unique cultural fragments, into autonomous objects of study that define a global narrative. Reclaiming these stories serves as a resistance against regional erasure and the invisibility often felt in the global cultural landscape.
Rare artifacts within the vast archives of the Library of Congress (LOC) represent a shift in how our region's history is fundamentally understood. Moving beyond traditional nationalist timelines, Arab World specialist in the African and Middle East division at the LOC, Dr. Muhannad Salhi, explores the transition of diverse items in the library's "Near East" collection, from 3000-year-old economic receipts to unique cultural fragments, into autonomous objects of study that define a global narrative. Reclaiming these stories serves as a resistance against regional erasure and the invisibility often felt in the global cultural landscape.
0:00 Introduction
1:52 The "Near East" Section: Geographic and Linguistic Scope
3:02 The Library's Path
4:46 Overview of the Arabic Collection
5:20 The Library's Oldest Items
7:06 Digitization Efforts and Copyright Restrictions
9:10 The Purpose of the Library of Congress
13:24 Regional Context and Cultural Insight
16:00 A Public Resource and Supporting Global Scholarship
18:36 Overseas Offices and Book Dealers
19:17 A Typical Week with Rare Materials and Scholarly Research
22:11 The Oldest Piece of Islamic object in the Americas
25:00 Calligraphy Styles: From Kufi to South Asian and Persian Aesthetics
27:03 The Chinese Quran: A Unique Intersection of Cultures
28:03 The Dalail al-Khayrat and Mantle of the Prophet
31:55 Manuscripts from Gambia
33:24 Arabic Translations of Greek Medicine
35:45 A Unique Work on Petroleum
36:54 Astronomy and Astrology
39:53 Mapping the Region
44:42 Archiving Historic Newspapers and Pop Culture
48:42 Early Arabic Printing
52:10 The Jefferson Quran: Myth vs. Reality in Pop Culture
57:00 Arab-American Literature: Ameen Rihani's The Book of Khalid
58:20 Iraq's Most Wanted Deck of Cards
01:00:22 A Lost Letter from West Africa
01:02:15 Photography Archives
01:03:33 The Items That Got Away
01:06:08 What Policymakers Should Understand About the Region
Muhannad Salhi is the Arab World Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress, where he covers the Arab world, North Africa, and Islam. He received his doctorate in history and his MAs in history and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Palestine in the Evolution of Syrian Nationalism (1918-1920) as well as other book chapters, book reviews, and blogs. His interests include the Ancient Near East, Classical Islam, the Modern Middle East, and Islamic studies. Prior to coming to the Library of Congress, he taught courses on the Arab World and Islam at various colleges and universities in the Chicago area, including the University of Chicago and Governors State University.
Connect with Muhannad Salhi 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/in/muhannad-salhi-09b20549/