From Right to Left: Pictures from an exhibition in Woodruff Library, May-October 2024
Top image: shelves with exhibited books in Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian, with charts on top. Lower left image: media wall with music and movie recommendations. (We found that students of Persian especially favor to watch movies as part of their language studies. Students in all three groups like music and they listen to songs as part of their language studies.) Lower right image: the writing corner: a small library cart now doubling as a table holding the guestbook, where visitors can write their names in four scripts (the three and the Latin alphabets), and as shelves for additional books and musical notes. Above the cart are the scribal instructions, please read them in the next tab.
Pictures and Panels from an Exhibition
من اليمين الى اليسار
מימין לשמאל
از راست به چپ
From Right to Left: Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian Study Resources at Woodruff Library, May–October 2024—an exhibition curated by Middle East and Islamic Studies Librarian Neda Zeraatkar and Jewish Studies Librarian Katalin Rac and designed by John Klinger
This exhibition presented the Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian collections from a unique perspective: that of the students learning these languages at various levels on the Atlanta campus. We compiled a survey to learn more about language learners’ preferences when choosing study resources. Thanks to their and their instructors' support, our survey yielded abundant information. The charts included in the exhibition visualize the data we collected. The students’ preferences also defined the range of the types of resources featured in the exhibition. The specific titles, however, reflected our choices, and they highlighted the richness and diversity of the library offerings. The findings will continue to play an important role in our work also beyond the exhibition: they will help us shape our collection development and management efforts in the future.
We hoped that this exhibition would inspire students who were not learning any of the three languages (yet). We asked visitors to sign their names in our guestbook and take the opportunity to learn about the Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian alphabets. The printouts and examples displayed in the exhibition are included in the writing guides under the next tab. They help making the first steps in learning to write from right to left in Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian.
Thank you for visiting the exhibition, whether in person in the Woodruff Library or here in this guide. Please let us know if you have questions, suggestions, or comments regarding the exhibition and/or the collections.
Selected Arabic Titles from the Exhibition
The Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla Wa-Layla) from the Earliest Known Sources by ISBN: 9789776926868Publication Date: 2014-01-01Translated title: One thousand and one nights.
Scents and Flavors by ISBN: 9781479856282Publication Date: 2017-05-02Collecting 635 meticulous recipes, Scents and Flavors invites us to savor an inventive cuisine that elevates simple ingredients by combining the sundry aromas of herbs, spices, fruits, and flower essences. This popular thirteenth-century Syrian cookbook is an ode to what its anonymous author calls the "greater part of the pleasure of this life," namely the consumption of food and drink, as well as the fragrances that garnish the meals and the diners who enjoy them. Organized like a meal, it opens with appetizers and juices and proceeds through main courses, side dishes, and desserts, including such confections as candies based on the higher densities of sugar syrup--an innovation unique to the medieval Arab world. Apricot beverages, stuffed eggplant, pistachio chicken, coriander stew, melon crepes, and almond pudding are seasoned with nutmeg, rose, cloves, saffron, and the occasional rare ingredient like ambergris to delight and surprise the banqueter. Bookended by chapters on preparatory perfumes, incenses, medicinal oils, antiperspirant powders, and after-meal hand soaps, this comprehensive culinary journey is a feast for all the senses. With the exception of four extant Babylonian and Roman specimens, cookbooks did not appear on the world literary scene until Arabic speakers began compiling their recipe collections in the tenth century, peaking in popularity in the thirteenth century. Scents and Flavors quickly became a bestseller during this golden age of cookbooks, and remains today a delectable read for epicures and cultural historians alike. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.- Maḥmūd Darwīsh : riḥlat al-shiʻr wa-al-ḥayāh by Call Number: PJ7820 .A822 A6 2002Publication Date: 2002
- ikāyāt al-amthāl wa-al-ḥikam al-ʻArabīyah by Call Number: PN6519 .A7 A55 1998ISBN: 9789772810574Publication Date: 1998Some proverbs also in English.
Selected Hebrew Titles from the Exhibition
A History of the Hebrew Language by Call Number: PJ4545 .S2313 1993ISBN: 0521431573Publication Date: 1993-12-16A History of the Hebrew language is a comprehensive description of Hebrew from its Semitic origins and the earliest settlement of the Israelite tribes in Canaan to the present day. Although Hebrew is an 'oriental' language, it is nonetheless closely associated with Western culture as the language of the Bible and was used in writing by the Jews of Europe throughout the Middle Ages. It has also been newly revived in modern times as the language of the State of Israel. Professor Angel Saenz-Badillos sets Hebrew in the context of the Northwest Semitic languages and examines the origins of Hebrew and its earliest manifestations in ancient biblical poetry, inscriptions, and prose written before the Babylonian exile. He looks at the different mediaeval traditions of printing classical biblical Hebrew texts and the characteristic features of the post-exilic language, including the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He gives particular attention to Rabbinic and mediaeval Hebrew, especially as evidenced in writings from Spain. His survey concludes with the revival of the language this century in the form of Israeli Hebrew.
Hebrew in Ashkenaz by Call Number: PJ4515 .H44 1993ISBN: 0195062221Publication Date: 1993-07-08Hebrew in Ashkenaz is a pioneering attempt to reverse an age-old academic prejudice against the legitimacy of Ashkenazi Hebrew. Glinert has gathered philosophers, historians, sociologists, and linguists to address such contentious issues as the role of Hebrew in Jewish life and the evolving shape of the language, over the period of 1000 years from the dawn of Ashkenazi life in Germany through contemporary Jewish society in Britain and Russia. This book finally abolishes the myth that Ashkenazi Hebrew was solely a language of religious study and prayer. Instead, it is shown to be a language with vibrancy and creativity all its own, from which today's Hebrew emerged with remarkably little effort.
Loving in Hebrew = לאהוב בעברית : מכתבי האהבה של איתמר בן אב"י ולאה אבושדיד by Call Number: DS125.3.B366 H68 2023Publication Date: 2023
Selected Persian Titles from the Exhibition
The Divan of Hâfez by Call Number: PK6465 .Z32 S32 2001ISBN: 9780761822462Publication Date: 2002-07-29Khâja Shamsuddin Mohammad Hâfez (1327-1390 C.E.) was born in Shiraz, a city in Southwest Iran where he lived his entire life. The elegance, beauty, and delicacy of his poetry have made him the most beloved poet of the Persian-speaking world. Hâfez composed the bulk of his poetry in the form of ghazal, a lyrical poem similar to an English sonnet whose length ranges from seven to thirteen couplets. Ghazals often deal with love and beauty and may occasionally be interspersed with philosophical, ethical, didactic, or critical lines about life and the universe. Reza Saberi has produced a new English translation of the complete Divan of Hâfez, using Dr. Parviz N. Khânlari's Edition. The text of The Divan of Hâfez is an authentic translation of all of the poems of Hâfez complete with their Persian originals.- Tārīkh-i jāmiʻ-i Īrān = The comprehensive history of Iran by Call Number: DS272 .T37 2014ISBN: 9786006326368Publication Date: 2014
- Jāmiʻ al-tavārīkh : tārīkh-i Īrān va Islām by Call Number: DS19 .R342 2013ISBN: 9786002030689Publication Date: 2013
