Arabic Language and Literature Commons^™

United States Middle East Policy In The Age Of Donald Trump, Gary Prevost

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay on the foreign policy of the United States in the Middle East in the middle of the second Trump administration and the continuing conflict in Gaza and the West Bank makes the case for decades of consistency in US policy but also some nuances from the current US administration. The author makes the case that there have been three constants in US policy since the era of the Second World War. First, is the guarantee the flow of reasonably priced oil to the United States and its allies.  Second, the maintenance of the state of Israel as a …

Geopolitical Transformation In The Post-October 7 Middle East (2023–2025): Power Shifts Vs. Structural Shifts, Nael Shama

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay investigates the geopolitical shifts that unfolded in the Middle East from October 2023 to the end of 2025, stimulated by the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent events it triggered. These included military confrontations between Israel and each of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. The essay demonstrates that these developments have reshaped power positions and alliances in the Middle East, leading to a more complex and unpredictable geopolitical landscape. It sketches out the new regional balance of …

Countering Social Encounters: Darwish’S “Speech Of The Red Indian”, J. Kristen Urban

The Journal of Social Encounters

In June 2025 the Washington D.C. Arab Center held a conference at the National Press Club titled, “A Historic Juncture: Israel’s Destruction of Gaza and the Palestinian Future.”  The discussion sparked an incisive question: Would such a future follow a Palestinian-owned trajectory?  Incisive, because Palestinians have not owned their trajectory since the 1915 Sykes-Picot Agreement, have consistently been defined in negative terms, and have lived with the ambiguity of existing while remaining unrecognized.  Growing up within Israel, Palestine’s national poet, Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), experienced this paradox firsthand, and explored it directly in “Speech of the Red Indian,” a poem written …

Gender Justice Lessons From North-East Syria Amidst Patriarchal Perpetuation In The New Syrian Arab Republic?, Theresa Wagner

The Journal of Social Encounters

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, whose family had ruled Syria for over sixty years, and his government by Hai’at Tahrir asch-Scham (HTS) signified for many the beginning of a new era of democracy and freedom after thirteen years of civil war. People in the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), a self-governing region that had not been ruled by the Syrian state since 2012, joined in with the celebrating crowds. However, they remained skeptical of HTS, which originated as a branch of al-Qaeda, known back then as Jabhat al-Nusra. Since taking on government responsibilities in the new …

Introduction: The Arab World And Middle East In An Age Of Dynamism And Change, Eslam Elbahlawan, Mawa Mohamed, Ron Pagnucco

The Journal of Social Encounters

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel began a massive joint military attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran to which Iran has responded. At the time of the publication of this issue, the fighting continues and could become more widespread; the ultimate outcome of the conflict is unknown.  This conflict highlights the importance of a deeper understanding of the region.

In the shadow of these events, people of the Middle East once again find their lives reordered by decisions taken far above their heads and far beyond their borders. The current war not only devastates cities, infrastructure, …

بلاغة الدائرة الحمراء في تجسيدات لجين العيسى البصرية, Fatima Al Breiki

CoHSS Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

Parallel Concepts Found In The Thousand And One Nights And Sufi Hagiography, Walaa Kamal Emam Kamel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that The Thousand and One Nights functions as more than mere populist entertainment; rather, it constitutes a literary corpus imbued with Sufi mystical epistemologies that reflect the spiritual quests and Sufi concepts evident in hagiographical traditions. Through discourse and intertextual analysis of two Nights stories, “The City of Brass” and “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad,” alongside Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s Tadhkirat al-awliyāʾ, this study demonstrates how shared rhetorical strategies—specifically David Pinault’s Leitwörter analysis and L.A. Paul’s Transformative Experience concept—reveal a narrative and rhetorical emphasis on the metamorphosis of the self from worldly attachment toward …

The Religious Groups Of Mecca And Medina In The Sixth And Seventh Centuries Ce, Ilkka Linstedt

Abdou Filali-Ansary Occasional Paper Series

Ancient and modern urban centres have been important loci for encounters between individuals of different identities. In this article, I present Mecca and Medina as multi-religious towns in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods of the sixth and seventh centuries ce. Mecca was a very small town, but the Kaaba shrine there served as a regional pilgrimage site that drew people from different faith communities. Medina was a larger settlement with a significant Jewish population. Jews, Christians and others (‘pagans’) lived in both towns. Some of these ‘others’ had also adopted some of the basic ideas of monotheism, although they …

Literature Review: Crowdfunding And Political Fundraising, Saiful Ahmad, Palupi Lindiasari Samputra

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Crowdfunding is an effort to raise relatively small amounts of money involving many individuals to support a specific project. Typically, crowdfunding is conducted online through fundraising platforms. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyse the utilisation of crowdfunding in fundraising activities that are related to or have political goals carried out by certain organisations or political groups. The method used in this paper is qualitative in the form of narrative analysis carried out through in-depth reading of several scientific literatures that discuss political fundraising through crowdfunding. The sources of scientific literature collection were obtained through the Google …

How A Stay-At-Home Father Plays A Role In Family Resilience?, Fatimah Fatimah, Eko Daryanto

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

One of the impacts of modernization is the loss of barriers between job and particular gender. This also happens in the family unit, more specifically in the role of husband and wife. The husband's job which is identical to earn money and the wife's job is to manage the household should be able to be done more flexibly according to family conditions. This adaptation process is needed in order to strengthen family resilience. Non-traditional family composition that usually consist of a stay-at-home father and a working mother can be used as a family adaptation strategy. This study uses the results …

Implementation Of Zero Trust Architecture On Local Server Management In Educational Institutions, Joko Purwanto, Safar Dwi Kurniawan

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Educational institutions are facing increasingly complex cyber threats, particularly as they continue to rely on on-premises servers with limited cybersecurity resources. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) offers a security model that rejects implicit trust and requires strict verification of each access request. This study aims to examine the applicability of ZTA in managing local servers within educational institutions through a qualitative literature review approach. Relevant literature from 2014 to 2025 was analyzed using thematic synthesis to identify recurring concepts, strategies, and gaps. The results show that ZTA, when integrated with Identity and Access Management (IAM), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), …

Representasi Demonstrasi Di Indonesia Dalam Media Internasional Berbahasa Arab, Irfandi Fiqra Husodo

Multikultura

The demonstrations that took place in Indonesia from late August 2025 to early September 2025 attracted global attention and were reported by Arabic-language international media. News media can produce meaning and shape international public perception in their representation of demonstrations in Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the representation of the demonstrations in Indonesia in Arabic-language international media, namely Al-Jazeera Mubasher, Al-Araby Al-Jadid, Al-Arabiya, and BBC Arabic. This study uses a qualitative approach with Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis method combined with van Dijk's ideological square. The research data consists of four news articles selected based on the focus of …

Program Makan Bergizi Gratis Indonesia Dalam Pandangan Media Internasional Berbahasa Arab, Said Muhammad Hasan Al Syarif

Multikultura

This study examines how Indonesia’s Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) Program is represented in Arabic language media, focusing on the construction of ideology and the framing of public policy within discourse. As a quick-win initiative of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration in 2025, the MBG Program aims to improve nutrition and human capital quality, yet it has sparked controversy and drawn significant international media attention. This research addresses a gap in existing studies by critically analyzing the representation of Indonesian social policy in Arab media. The study employs a descriptive qualitative method using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), encompassing three dimensions: …

Makna “Bodoh” Dalam Kitab Akhbar Al-Ḥamqa Wa Al-Mughafallin Karya Ibn Al-Jauzi, Sahla Nurul Saniyyah

Multikultura

The term “foolish” often appears in literary works and social interactions, but it is rarely the focus of academic study. This study departs from Md. Akbar Ali Biswas's (2007) Life and Works of Ibn al-Jawzi with Special Reference to His Book Akhbar al-Hamqa wa al-Mughaffilin, which asserts that the theme of foolishness in Ibn al-Jauzi's work is universal because it can be understood across cultures and eras. However, this study has not examined its relevance to the phenomenon of modern human foolishness. Based on this gap, this study aims to reexamine the forms of stupidity in Akhbar al-Hamqa and assess …

Ideologi Di Balik Pidato Kenegaraan Peringatan Masirat Al-Hadraa Ke-49, Muhammad Sidqon Siroj

Multikultura

This study examines the 49th anniversary speech of the Green March (Masirat Al-Hadraa) as an ideological instrument within the political framework of the Kingdom of Morocco. The research reveals that the historical narrative of the Green March is reproduced not merely as collective memory, but as a strategic mechanism to consolidate monarchical legitimacy and assert territorial sovereignty over Western Sahara. Utilizing a qualitative methodology grounded in Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the findings demonstrate that King Mohammed VI’s discourse serves three primary functions: first, reinforcing the monarchy’s historical-religious and institutional authority amidst domestic and regional political pressures; second, …

Visual Word Recognition And The Role Of Diacritics: Evidence From Arabic Vowelization., Maram Alharbi

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the role of vowelization diacritics in Arabic visual word recognition and their contribution to early stages of lexical processing. Across writing systems, diacritical marks differ in their functional role and in whether they are part of letter identity, raising fundamental questions about how such features are encoded during word recognition. Arabic provides a particularly informative testing ground for these questions: vowelization diacritics in this language carry rich phonological information yet are systematically absent from the texts that skilled readers encounter daily. This interaction between the linguistic value of vowelization and its near-total omission in naturalistic reading positions …

An Analysis Of Narratives Representing Women’S Agency And Role In The Public Space In Najd In The Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, Hanan Alazaz

Journal Of Middle East and Islamic Studies

This paper is a review and analysis of historical narratives and poems to propose a framework of the agency of women in one of the most conservative regions in Arabia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Najd. These narratives include examples of recorded historical oral accounts and poems by women that exhibit women’s contribution to the public life and participation in the decision-making within their tribal communities. The narratives and literature discussed in the paper reflect these women’s involvement in the fields of education, politics, trade and military activity. Moreover, a reading of poetry that broadcasts their resistance to …

Arabic Video Production Assignment, Bret Windhauser

Open Educational Resources

This provides the instructions and rubric for a group activity for a language class. The idea is to make a video using skills learned in the class.

Pronunciación, Repetición E Identificación De Los Sonidos Del Español Por Aprendices Qataríes De E/Le En Su Primer Semestre, Ramsés Ortín, Javier Sánchez-Mesas

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Este estudio explora las dificultades en pronunciación y percepción de sonidos del español por un grupo de estudiantes qataríes en su primer semestre. Las participantes completaron tres actividades (lectura, repetición de palabras, identificación de palabras) que requieren diferentes tipos de conocimiento (producción de sonidos con y sin presencia de ortografíae identificación de sonidos) al inicio y final de su primer curso. Los resultados revelan que esta población presenta dificultades con los contrastes de vocales medias y altas, la nasal palatal, las consonantes oclusivas bilabiales y las vibrantes. Estas dificultades no aparecen de igual manera en actividades con y sin presencia …

Bridging Machine Learning And Islamic Scholarship: A Study In Hadith Translation And Similarity Analysis, Asiyah R. Speight

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Translation of Islamic religious texts poses unique challenges requiring both linguistic and theological expertise. This study explores the application of neural machine translation (NMT) models to Arabic-English hadith translation while analyzing semantic similarity patterns across different human translations. Using the complete Sahih Bukhari corpus (7,550 hadiths) as the primary dataset, we adopt a dual approach combining transfer learning and comprehensive neural network analysis to demonstrate the critical impact of corpus size on model performance.

First, we fine-tune a pre-trained MarianMT Arabic-English translation model on the full Sahih Bukhari corpus, comparing models trained on 40 hadiths versus 7,550 hadiths. Performance is …