To present “who is working where and on what within the German academic world” was the task set for this article. The attempt to fulfill this requirement requires a few preliminary and urgent remarks. To draw a complete picture of research on the Modern Arab World in the FRG within the scope of a rather short article is impossible for various reasons. The German Research Foundation has just initiated the same project—a publication of around two hundred pages is forthcoming in 1991. Unlike the United States, where the concept of area studies has led to the creation of “Middle East Centers” at various universities, the FRG has no such institutional framework, with the exception of two projects of this kind in Berlin and Erlangen (see below). Research on the Modern Arab World thus takes place in various departments of various universities. The concluding remark made by Eckarf Ehlers in his article on “German geography of the Middle East” still holds true: “Thus, one may say that almost all activities are based on personal and individual engagement.” Yet, it is not only the institutional factor but also, interwoven with it, traditional historical factors within the academic disciplines as well as the foreign policy of the FRG itself which contribute to making research on the Modern Middle East a rather young discipline in the FRG.

Cet article se veut une présentation rapide des archives internationales, récemment créés, concernant l’histoire de l’art et l’archéologie islamiques. Après une introduction évoquant quelques unes des motivations qui ont conduit à cette création, j’expliquerai le fonctionnement actuel et à venir des archives, en insistant notamment sur le stockage des documents (traditionnel ou par vidéodisque) et sur l’élaboration et l’utilisation de la banque de données qui accompagne les archives.

The SSRC’s Joint Near and Middle East Committee has been organizing a series of workshops on the State in its Middle Eastern context. Its aim is to continue the discussions initiated at the Conference on State and Society which it organized at Aix-en-Provence in March 1988. The first workshop was held at Büyükada, Istanbul, in September 1989 under the general title of “State Creation and Transformation” and the second at Hanover, New Hampshire, in March 1990 under the title “Vocabularies of the State.” A third and last workshop will be held in Oxford in December 1990, after which it is hoped to publish most of the papers in book form.