Welcome!

For a detailed outline of Paul's translation work see https://www.banipal.co.uk/contributors/523/paul-starkey/

'Professor Paul Starkey is one of the most distinguished scholars of Modern Arabic literature and his work has been foundational to the field and his many publications have hugely enhanced our understanding and love of this field. His book, Modern Arabic Literature, has been a key text in degree courses across the country, if not the world. He is internationally recognised for his translations of Arabic novels, which have opened up the rich and dynamic field of Arabic literature to non-Arabic speaking audiences...' (BRISMES)

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

2022. Travellers in Ottoman Lands: the Balkans, Anatolia and Beyond. 24-26 August 2022. Faculty of Islamic Studies, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Members of the Orgnaising Committee. Currently editing the revised papes for publication with Archaeopress, 2024. https://www.astene.org.uk/current-events/travellers-in-ottoman-lands

2019-2023. 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. Janet is a member of the U3A Duns Committee from 2023. 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

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.

Travellers in Ottoman Lands: the Balkans, Anatolia and Beyond

IN PREPARATION We are delighted to report that the International Seminar, "Travellers in Ottoman lands: The Balkans, Anatolia and beyond" (commonly known as TIOL2), held in Sarajevo on 24-26 August 2022, was a great success and we are now in the process of peer reviewing a varied and fascinating collection of over 24 papers submitted for potential publication in a Seminar volume to be published by Archaeopress. Work on editing these papers has now commenced and it is hoped that the volume will be published in the first half of 2024. As in the previous TIOL volume, Travellers in the Ottoman Empire: the Botanical Legacy, published in 2020 by Archaeopress, the papers are based on a specific theme, in this latest case, on travellers to and from the Balkans, Anatolia and beyond. The Balkans is the region through which the Ottoman Empire first expanded into Europe, and which heralded its eventual downfall. It is a region through which Western travellers often passed on their way further East and the location in which they often first encountered the Oriental ‘other’. Moreover, the region remains crucial to building a better understanding between ‘East’ and ‘West’, between former Ottoman lands and their Western European neighbours, and between Islam and Christianity. The material presented in this volume ranges widely and embody a number of different academic fields: Ottoman Studies, Christian-Muslim relations, literary studies, the Eastern Question, botany and medicine, women travellers, and many more.
The interdisciplinary seminar was organised by the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) in conjunction with the Faculty of Islamic Sciences (FIN) of the University of Sarajevo. The seminar brought together around fifty scholars from over a dozen countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, Turkey, Iraq, and the United States of America. It was a truly interdisciplinary event, with experts ranging from anthropologists, religious scholars, geographers and historians to journalists, and literature specialists. There was a warm and welcome atmosphere of collegiality, scholarship and interest throughout the seminar, in the usual ASTENE tradition. In his opening address, local organiser Dr Aid Smajić drew attention to the significance of the journey in Islamic spirituality and in the lives of Muslims in Bosnia and the area more generally and expressed his delight at cooperating with ASTENE.

The Drowning

2021. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drowning-Hammour-Ziada/dp/162371906
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2183286/lifestyle

Sarajavo Firewood

Just published Summer 2021. For a description click the image.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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'

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

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)

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, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. Paperback edition September 2017,

Starkey Library

Publications and Research

Welcome!

Forthcoming Events