Acknowledgements:

My thanks to Nada Abo Arisha, Neelam Bharat Raval, and the staff of the University of Edinburgh Archives for their help in putting this exhibition together; also to Henry Dee who provided material from an earlier study. Anja Pogačnik from the LLC Research Office offered valuable advice and encouragement. I would also like to thank the Moray Endowment Fund for its financial support.

 

References:

Primary Sources

University of Edinburgh Archives, Minutes, Faculty of Arts, Department of Arabic (1946-54)

Edinburgh University Calendar (Edinburgh: Thomas Constable, 1858/59-1861/62; Edinburgh: James Thin 1884/5-1960/61)

University of Edinburgh Journal

 

Secondary Sources:

Abdennour, Samia, ‘Samha El-Kholi (1925-2006)’, al-Ahram Weekly 2-8 Feb 2006

Bell, Richard. The Qur’an, Translated, with a Critical Re-Arrangement of the Surahs. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937, 1939.

Bell, Richard, and W. Montgomery Watt. Bell’s Introduction to the Qur’an. ed. by W. Montgomery Watt. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.

Cachia, Pierre. Taha Husayn: His Place in the Egyptian Literary Renaissance. London: Luzac, 1956.

Cachia, Pierre. An Overview of Modern Arabic Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990.

Cachia, Pierre. ‘A Road-Map of Opportunities Made and Missed.’ Paths to the Middle East. Ed. by Thomas Naff. Seattle, WA: SUNY Press, 2012. 1–26. Web.

Cater, Jeremy J. ‘James Robertson, 1720-1795 an Anti-Enlightenment Professor in the University of Edinburgh’. PhD dissertation, New York University, 1975.

Fell-Smith, Charlotte, revised by Philip Carter. ‘Robertson, James’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, https://doi-org.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/10.1093/ref:odnb/23797

Gairdner, W. H. T. (William Henry Temple) and Kurayyim Sallam. Egyptian Colloquial Arabic: a Conversation Grammar and Reader. Cambridge: Heffer & Sons, 1917 [2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1926].

Gorman, Anthony. ‘For God and Empire : Arabic at the University of Edinburgh: Its Development, Character and Mission’ Colonial Vocabularies. vol. 15. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2025,  29–54.

Grant, Alexander. The Story of the University of Edinburgh During Its First Three Hundred Years. 2 vols, London: Longmans, Green, 1884.

Green, Arthur O. A Practical Arabic Grammar. 3rd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893.

Hillenbrand, Carole (ed.). The Life and Work of W. Montgomery Watt. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.

Marsham Andrew. ‘R. B. Serjeant (1915–93) (Trustee 1967–92)’ in Charles Melville (ed.) A Short History of the Gibb Memorial Trust and Its Trustees: A Century of Oriental Scholarship. Gibb Memorial Trust. Edinburgh University Press; 2023, 158-169.

Padwick, Constance E. Temple Gairdner of Cairo. 2nd edition. London: SPCK, 1930.

Powell, Avril A. Scottish Orientalists and India: the Muir Brothers, Religion, Education and Empire. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2010.

‘Subhi Taher Dajani’, Jerusalem Story. https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/bio/subhi-taher-dajani (accessed 22 August 2025)

Watt, William Montgomery. Muhammad at Mecca. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953.

 

Images

William Muir                Taken from From Macpherson, J. I. Twenty-One Years of Corporate Life at Edinburgh University: Being a Short History of the Students’ Representative Council and an Account of Its Majority Celebrations. Edinburgh: s.n., 1905, opp. p. 62]
Montgomery Watt Retirement Party, With thanks to Abdulrafi Oyewumi Omotosho
James Robertson        After Tassie [https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/3574]
Grave, David Liston    Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh © Anthony Gorman
John Dobie                   The Times 25 October 1892
Archibald Kennedy      Portrait from University of Edinburgh Journal 9 (1937-38)
William Montgomery Watt © University of Edinburgh
Pierre Cachia               © University of Edinburgh
Elwell-Sutton               Taken from Laurence P. Elwell-Sutton, Qajar Iran. Clifford Edmund Bosworth and Carole Hillenbrand (eds). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983.
Temple Gairdner          Taken from Constance E. Padwick, Temple Gairdner of Cairo. Second edition. London: SPCK, 1930.
Hamilton Gibb              [https://timeline.islamicstudies.harvard.edu/hamilton-gibb]
Robert B. Serjeant       © University of Edinburgh
Serjeant desk inscription © Anthony Gorman
Arthur Jeffrey              © Joan Mitchell [https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/islamicbooks/cumeishistory/]
Majid Fakhry
‘Abdin Mahmud Dajani (Middletown Journal, Ohio, 13 Dec 1970)
Sylvia Kedourie           [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/12/02/sylvia-kedourie-historian-middle-east-obituary/]
‘Abd al-Razzaq Sidqi
Subhi Dajani                 Edinburgh Provincial Training Centre: Student Record Card, Edinburgh University Archives (EUA IN10)
Ibrahim Helmi Abdel-Rahman   https://sigedon.com/vintage-photos/after-1945/1967-original-press-photo-i-h-abdel-rahman-athens-greece-symposium-portrait-un/
Samha Alkholy             © Basma Abdel Rehim (cc) BY-SA 3.0