SAALG Summer gathering, 8 September 2022

The South Asia Archive and Library Group Summer gathering will take place on Thursday, 8 September 2022 at the Ancient India & Iran Trust.

Address: 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8BG (view on Google maps)

The charge will be £15 per person (in cash or cheque on the day). 

Places limited; please e-mail antonia.moon@bl.uk if you intend to come.

 Programme

Arrival and coffee, 11.30 – 11.40

11.40 – 11.45	Welcome	Ursula Sims-Williams, Ancient India & Iran Trust
11.45 – 12.15	Some Collections at the Ancient India & Iran Trust	Joanna Salisbury, Ancient India & Iran Trust
12.15 – 12.45	Alexander the Great in South Asia	Ursula Sims Williams, British Library
12.45 – 1.00	Display of collection items from the Ancient India & Iran Trust
1.00 – 2.00	Lunch (provided) and networking
2.00 – 2.30	Sources for Military Ancestry in the East India and India Office Records	Hedley Sutton, British Library
2.30 – 3.00	Tilya Tepe and Taliban: Bactrian Gold's Afghantsy Past	Burzine Waghmar, SOAS
3.00 – 3.30	Tea
3.30 – 4.30	Updates from all and SAALG Committee meeting
4.30	End

The History of Lahore and the Preservation of its Historic Buildings

Cross-posted from the Ancient India & Iran Trust blog, original post by Ursula Sims-Williams

‘The History of Lahore and the Preservation of its Historic Buildings’A Symposium to be held 13^th and 14^th October 2017 at Cambridge


The Ancient India & Iran Trust, in association with the Centre of South Asian Studies (University of Cambridge), is holding a symposium in Cambridge on the history of Lahore and the preservation of its historic monuments, 13-14 October 2017.

The presentations will cover a wide range of subjects, from the earliest history of Lahore and the walled city, via the glory of Mughal architecture, to the colonial period. Keynote lectures will be given by Prof Robin Coningham, Durham University: ‘Lahore’s Rich Architectural Monuments and their Current Threats’ and Fakir Syed Aijazuddin, author and researcher: ‘Lahore: Past, Present and Future’.

This will be a two-day symposium, and it is hoped that delegates will stay for both days. Sessions will take place at the Lee Seng Tee Hall, Wolfson College, Cambridge CB3 9BB and the Riley Auditorium, Clare College Memorial Court. If you would like to attend, please reserve your place by completing the registration form and sending it as an attachment to conference@indiran.org or by mail to the Conference Administrator, Ancient India & Iran Trust, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 8BG

Provisional Programme

Registration form

The Conference organisers are grateful for support from The Bestway Foundation, Kirsten Rausing, The Malaysian Commonwealth Studies Centre, The Pakistan Society and the Thriplow Charitable Trust


Conference organisers: Nicholas Barrington, Trustee AIIT
Abdul Majid Sheikh, Wolfson College, Cambridge

Image: A picture showing the Lahore Fort and Hazuri Bagh Pavilion in 1870

Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean: the exhibition

I am delighted to announce that the Ancient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge is hosting a travelling photographic exhibition to accompany the British Academy-funded research project 'Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean' http://www.ottomansoutheastasia.org/.
An exhibition leaflet may be downloaded at: http://www.ottomansoutheastasia.org/exhibition.php

The exhibition runs from 7th-21st November 2012 and is open from 9-1, Monday-Thursday; 9.30-1.30 Friday. Afternoon visits by appointment only (please contact the Librarian on 01223 702095, or library@indiran.org to arrange).

Location: Ancient India & Iran Trust, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8BG
Tel: +44 (0)1223 356841, Fax: +44 (0)1223 361125

Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean

On Friday 6 July the Ancient India and Iran Trust (AIIT) in Cambridge was a most convivial venue for the joint annual meeting of SAALG and SEALG (Southeast Asia Library Group), where I spoke on the British Academy-funded research project 'Islam, Trade and Politics across the Indian Ocean', investigating Ottoman links with Southeast Asia: http://www.ottomansoutheastasia.org/.   These links date back to the sixteenth century, when the sultanate of Aceh in north Sumatra contacted the Ottoman emperor to ask for help against the Portuguese who were disrupting the Indian Ocean pepper trade.

The project set out to study all forms of interaction between these two regions, from political, religious, literary and commercial exchanges to mutual influence in material culture.  A nice example of these interactions was evident among the exhibits that the AIIT's Honorary Librarian, Ursula Sims-Williams, had put out on display for the meeting: some rare 19th-century Malay lithographed poems from Singapore, which bore on the back cover the name of the publisher, Haji Muhammad Amin, modelled on the Ottoman tughra or calligraphic royal emblem.

Syair Sinar Alam, Singapore, 1914

AIIT A14E40(1)

Dr Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator for Southeast Asian Studies, and curator of Indonesian and Malay collections, the British Library.

Sri Lankan photographic archive published online

The Ancient India and Iran Trust is delighted to announce that the Sri Lankan Photographic Archive of Professor Howard Wilson is now live on the Trust’s website.  The archive has been kindly donated to the Trust and digitised by Mrs Marti Wilson and can be accessed by  following the links from the Home page at www.indiran.org to the  ‘Photo Archives’ page and the ‘Howard Wilson Collection’, or clicking on the link below.

http://www.indiran.org/HW/

SAALG Summer Conference 2012 - 6th/7th July - Cambridge

We are very pleased to announce the next SAALG conference which will take place in Cambridge on Friday 6^th and Saturday 7^th July at the Ancient India and Iran Trust. 

Copyright - Ancient India and Iran Trust

The conference will explore crossovers in South Asia and Southeast Asian Studies and this year we are delighted to be joined by our colleagues from SEALG, so it will be an excellent opportunity to network and make new connections.

Friday 6^th includes several fascinating talks, as well as the SAALG business meeting, for those who wish to attend:

10.45 - 11.00        Arrival, networking and refreshments

11.15 - 12.00        Dr Sue Sutton (Archivist, Henry Martyn Centre, Cambridge) 'Operation Nip-Off'. 

Some aspects of the repatriation of Japanese troops from Southeast Asia at the end of the Second World War in the Far East.  

12.00 - 12.35        Dr Sujit Sivasundaram (University Lecturer in World and Imperial History since 1500, University of Cambridge) 'The British invasion of Ceylon in the conflicting cultures of palm-leaf texts.'

12.35 - 13.05       Mrs Ursula Sims-Williams (Librarian, Ancient India and Iran Trust and Curator of Iranian Collections, British Library) 'An introduction to Southeast Asian collections in the AIIT'

                             Mr Edward Proctor (Librarian for South and Southeast Asia at Duke University & South Asian Studies Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) 'Recent Developments in South Asian Collections in the United States'        

13.05 - 14.15       Lunch and networking

14.15 - 14.55       Dr Annabel Gallop (Curator for Indonesian and Malay collections, British Library) ‘Islam, trade and politics across the Indian Ocean: investigating Ottoman links with Southeast Asia’

14.55 - 15.15       Dr Sud Chonchirdsin (Curator of Vietnamese collections, British Library) ‘Cartoons and propaganda from North Vietnam during the early stage of the Vietnam War’

15.15 - 15.55       Dr Mark Elliott (Curatorial Research Fellow, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge) ‘The Eyes of the Ancestor: Returning photographs to an Indian village’

15.55 - 16.15       Refreshments

16.20 - 17.00       SAALG Business Meeting

For the evening of Friday 6th we have booked a table at St. Johns Chophouse for a conference dinner http://www.stjohnschophouse.co.uk/ 

On Saturday 7^th there is an opportunity for a guided tour of the newly refurbished University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology by Mark Elliot (Curatorial Research Fellow, MAA) and Jocelyne Dudding (Curator, Photographic collections, MAA).

Places for our main conference day on Friday at the AIIT are limited to 35 so if you would like to attend we recommend early booking, as places will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. For a confirmation form and accommodation options please contact our Secretary, Helen Porter hp@royalasiaticsociety.org Bookings will close on Friday 29th June.

To attend our Friday programme the fee is £20.00 payable on the day and to attend the Saturday programme it is an additional £10.00. Attendance on Saturday only, is also possible and we encourage you to bring guests, family or friends, there is no limit to numbers for our Saturday programme. The price of the meal at the restaurant is not included in the conference price and again family and friends are welcome.

If you have any questions or need any further information please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Helen or Rachel Rowe our Chair rmr29@cam.ac.uk

Please spread the word to colleagues/students or friends who might be interested in attending.

Ancient India & Iran Trust: New issue of INDIRAN

A new issue of the Ancient India and Iran Trust's newsletter, INDIRAN, is now available.

This issue includes an account by Bi Bo, visiting scholar from Renmin University of China, Beijing, of her work on Sogdian manuscripts from Khotan, Xinjiang. Ian Proudfoot, Australian National University, describes exciting finds of unique Malay printed books. Deborah Sutton, University of Lancaster, examines the Hindu temple in terms of political and cultural encounter during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The newsletter also includes reports of a joint presentation by Annabel Gallop and Venetia Porter which accompanied their travelling exhibition 'Lasting impressions: the world of Islamic seals', Frantz Grenet's Bailey memorial lecture 'The rediscovery of the court culture of the Qarakhanids', and events held in Cambridge to celebrate 1000 years of Firdawsi's epic poem the Shahnama.

Download a digital version of INDIRAN from: http://www.indiran.org/Indiranapril2011.pdf

Lions and dragons: the new RAS blog

Copyright RAS MS Malay Maxwell 15

Readers are encouraged to take a look at the Royal Asiatic Society's new blog which provides timely information about forthcoming lectures and events at the Society, plus podcasts for those unable to attend them.

Regular posts also feature items from the Society's art collections, library and archives.  I particularly enjoyed the rich illustrations in the guest post Malay Magic and Divination Manuscripts, including the dragon illustrated above.

Another relatively new blog which deserves an RSS feed or bookmark is that of the Ancient India and Iran Trust, launched in October 2010. The Society, an independent charity concerned with the study of early India, Iran & Central Asia, promoting both scholarly research & popular interest in the area, uses its blog to post information about grants and scholarships, conferences, seminars and lectures, library acquisitions and exhibitions.  As with the Royal Asiatic Society's blog, there are quick links to the Society's specialist library and archive resources.

Lumbini: preserving and protecting a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Nepal

Professor Robin Coningham (University of Durham) will be giving a lecture at the Ancient India and Iran Trust, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge on Tuesday 19th April 2011 at 5.30 pm.  Admission is free and the lecture will be followed by a reception.

The lecture is being held in association with the Britain-Nepal Academic Council (BNAC), the Centre of South Asian Studies (CSAS) and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) Nepal Study Day http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1580/

News from the Ancient India & Iran Trust

The Ancient India and Iran Trust newsletter has been relaunched as Indiran, and the Spring/Summer 2010 issue is now available for download in pdf format at http://www.indiran.co.uk/news.htm. 

The Trust is to be congratulated on this impressive publication, which opens with an obituary of Raymond Allchin, a legend in South Asian archaeology, and includes an interview with Christine van Ruymbeke on Persian poetry, an article on the conservation of Asian vultures and a report on their recent conference on Sri Lanka.

A hot night in Bengal

Banyan tree with Hindu shrine at Gaya, Bihar. Coloured aquatint by T. Daniell, 1796 (Wellcome Library, Creative Commons)

If you haven't yet read this Sunday's posting on the Wellcome Library's blog, I can promise you an entertaining read!  Chris Hilton quotes from an East India Company letterbook for Dinapore District, dating from 1840-1841, which is currently undergoing conservation in the Library.

Ancient India & Iran Trust Lectures

Friday Lectures, Easter Term 2010
5pm, 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 8BG (info@indiran.org)

ALL WELCOME, ADMISSION FREE; LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

7 May Professor Stanley Insler (Yale University)
The Oldest Zoroastrian Calendar

14 May Dr Sethuraman Suresh (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, Chennai, India)
From Kanchipuram to Kampuchea – A Millennium of Trade and Cultural Exchanges between South India and Cambodia

28 May Dr Rosemary Crill (Senior Curator, Victoria & Albert Museum, London)
The Indian Portrait 1560–1860

4 June Professor Vicente Dobroruka (University of Brasilia)
Hellenistic Political Propaganda and Zoroastrian Oracles

Cambridge Conference on Sri Lanka

Recent research on the cultural history of Sri Lanka will be explored in an all day conference at the Ancient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge on Saturday 15th May 2010.

Please refer to the poster for more details.

SAALG 81st conference, July 2009

SAALG had a successful and enjoyable summer conference at the Ancient India & Iran Trust in Cambridge (you can tell by our smiling faces...!)

81st SAALG Conference

This will be held on Friday 3rd July 2009 at the Ancient India and Iran Trust at 23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 2BG (see map above - click on it for larger image).

As usual we have an interesting and varied programme. Registration and coffee is at 10.30, then:

11.00-11.45
Bill Noblett (Cambridge University Library): "Material for the study of Indian history in the Official Publications Collection".

11.45-12.30
Chris Gill (Strathclyde University): "Civil veterinary material in the National Library of Scotland India Papers Collection – a previously neglected resource for research into environmental history and the social history of medicine in a colonial context".

12.30-2.00
Lunch (in the garden, weather permitting)

2.00-2.45
Sam van Schaik (British Library): "The International Dunhuang Project:
Tibetan manuscript research and the cataloguing of manuscripts using Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) guidelines".

2.45-3.30
Keren Mills (Open University): "Digilab – the latest tools and technologies for teaching and learning and their application in libraries and archives".

3.30-3.40
Jan Usher (NLS): Practical session on how to contribute to SAALG’s blog.

A charge of £10 per person will be made for attendance. Please send all notes of interest in attending to: j.usher@nls.uk by 25th June, please.

SAALG Summer Conference

Date for your diary: Our summer conference will be held in Cambridge, at the Ancient India and Iran Trust, on Friday 3rd July 2009. New members are welcome to attend. More details will be posted on this blog in June.