With a collection numbering some 330,000 works, the British Museum possesses the world's largest and most important collection of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq. A collection of immense importance, the holdings of Assyrian sculpture, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world with entire suites of rooms panelled in alabaster Assyrian palace reliefs from Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad. The collections represent the civilisations of the ancient Near East and its adjacent areas. These cover Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, the Holy Land and Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean from the prehistoric period and include objects from the beginning of Islam in the 7th century.
Department of the Middle East
British Museum
British Museum | Department of the Middle East
Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria etc Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, the Holy Land and Phoenician settlements, to name a few. Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria Iraq, Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria and the Holy Land are some of them.
what advantages does england seem to have to start the industrial revolution
user
It transformed  its society into the world's first industrialised nation.
assistant
which age can its history be traced back to?
user
780,000 years ago
assistant
what are some of the rivers found in this country?
user
Thames, Mersey, Tyne, Severn etc
assistant
any well-known museums here?
user
London's British Museum
assistant
where is this museum located?
user
Bloomsbury area of London, United Kingdom
assistant
who was the founder?
user
Sir Hans Sloane
assistant
which was the new building constructed at the start of the 1900s?
user
A conservation laboratory
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what are the middle eastern countries that it has departments for?
user
The Department of the Middle East, numbering some 330,000 works, forms a significant part of the collections of the British Museum, and the world's largest collection of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq. The collections represent the civilisations of the ancient Near East and its adjacent areas. These cover Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, the Holy Land and Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean from the prehistoric period and include objects from the beginning of Islam in the 7th century. A collection of immense importance, the holdings of Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world with entire suites of rooms panelled in alabaster bas-reliefs from Assyrian palaces at Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | Introduction
"Department of the Middle East" "Department of Greece and Rome"
British Museum | Galleries
Thousands of objects were excavated after the war by professional archaeologists at Iranian sites such as Siraf by David Whitehouse and Alamut Castle by Peter Willey. The collection was augmented in 1983 by the Godman bequest of Iznik, Hispano-Moresque and early Iranian pottery. Artefacts from the Islamic world are on display in Gallery 34 of the museum. A representative selection from the Department of Middle East, including the most important pieces, are on display in 13 galleries throughout the museum and total some 4,500 objects. A whole suite of rooms on the ground floor display the sculptured reliefs from the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh, Nimrud and Khorsabad, while 8 galleries on the upper floor hold smaller material from ancient sites across the Middle East.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | Collections
Only the Middle East collections of the Louvre and the Pergamon Museum rival it in the range and quality of artefacts.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | Introduction
The remainder form the study collection which ranges in size from beads to large sculptures. They include approximately 130,000 cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia. Key highlights of the collections include:
British Museum Department of the Middle East | Collections
The Keeper of the Middle East is head of the Department of the Middle East (formerly Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities, then Department of Ancient Near East).
List of keepers of the British Museum | Keepers of the Middle East
The John Addis gallery (room 34) houses the museum's collection of Islamic art, which now officially forms part of the Department of Middle East. This includes objects from the earliest centuries of Islam to the 20th century, and geographically from Egypt to Spain to India. The gallery's arrangement is mainly chronological, with western Islam — Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Turkey — on the left of the descending staircase, and eastern Islam — Iran, Afghanistan and India — on the right. Highlights of the collection are a ceramic lamp from the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the unique Jade Terrapin from Allahabad, a Mughal work of art from northern India, and a group of foundation inscriptions from Gaur, West Bengal in eastern India.
British Museum Department of Asia | Islam collection
With a collection numbering some 330,000 works, the British Museum possesses the world's largest and most important collection of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq. A collection of immense importance, the holdings of Assyrian sculpture, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities are among the most comprehensive in the world with entire suites of rooms panelled in alabaster Assyrian palace reliefs from Nimrud, Nineveh and Khorsabad. The collections represent the civilisations of the ancient Near East and its adjacent areas. These cover Mesopotamia, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Anatolia, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, Syria, the Holy Land and Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean from the prehistoric period and include objects from the beginning of Islam in the 7th century.
British Museum | Department of the Middle East
Phoenician antiquities come from across the region, but the Tharros collection from Sardinia and the large number of Phoenician stelae from Carthage are outstanding. Another often overlooked highlight is Yemeni antiquities, the finest collection outside that country. Furthermore, the museum has a representative collection of Dilmun and Parthian material excavated from various burial mounds at the ancient sites of A'ali and Shakhura in Bahrain.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | History
Although the collections centre on Mesopotamia, most of the surrounding areas are well represented. The Achaemenid collection was enhanced with the addition of the Oxus Treasure in 1897 and objects excavated by the German scholar Ernst Herzfeld and the Hungarian-British explorer Sir Aurel Stein. Reliefs and sculptures from the site of Persepolis were donated by Sir Gore Ouseley in 1825 and the 5th Earl of Aberdeen in 1861. Moreover, the museum has been able to acquire one of the greatest assemblages of Achaemenid silverware in the world. The later Sasanian Empire is also well represented by ornate silver plates and cups, many representing ruling monarchs hunting lions and deer.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | History
The museum's collection of Islamic art, including archaeological material, numbers about 40,000 objects, one of the largest of its kind in the world. As such, it contains a broad range of pottery, paintings, tiles, metalwork, glass, seals, and inscriptions from across the Islamic world, from Spain in the west to India in the east. It is particularly famous for its collection of Iznik ceramics (the largest in the world), a highlight of which is the mosque lamp from the Dome of the Rock, mediaeval metalwork such as the Vaso Vescovali with its depictions of the Zodiac, a fine selection of astrolabes, and Mughal paintings and precious artwork including a large jade terrapin made for the Emperor Jahangir.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | Collections
E. Lawrence. The Mesopotamian collections were greatly augmented by excavations in southern Iraq after the First World War. From Tell al-Ubaid came the bronze furnishings of a Sumerian temple, including life-sized lions and a panel featuring the lion-headed eagle Indugud found by H. R. Hall in 1919–24. Woolley went on to excavate Ur between 1922 and 1934, discovering the 'Royal Cemeteries' of the 3rd millennium BC. Some of the masterpieces include the 'Standard of Ur', the 'Ram in a Thicket', the 'Royal Game of Ur', and two bull-headed lyres. The department also has three diorite statues of the ruler Gudea from the ancient state of Lagash and a series of limestone kudurru or boundary stones from different locations across ancient Mesopotamia.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | History
This office administers seven curatorial departments which exhibit and care for the objects in the AQR Museum. Ever since the Museum Department's establishment in 2003, the Curatorial Departments Office has supervised the clerical staff and personnel issues, each department's holdings, the museum's revenue and the collections' maintenance.
Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum | The Curatorial Departments Office
Most of the Department of Asia is located in the King Edward's Building, which forms the northern section of the museum. It is split into several rooms and four main geographic areas:
British Museum Department of Asia | The layout and collections of the department
In 1933, a department was founded within the Ministry of National Education for the conservation of the ruins of antiquity. After the establishment of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1971, the department became an office of this new ministry. Following a series of name changes, finally in 2003, it was renamed "Cultural Assets and Museums Department" (). The Committees on Conservation of Cultural Assets are province-based subdivisions of this department at the ministry.
Committee on Conservation of Cultural Assets in Turkey | History
He also discovered the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, a large collection of cuneiform tablets of enormous importance that today number around 130,000 pieces. W. K. Loftus excavated in Nimrud between 1850 and 1855 and found a remarkable hoard of ivories in the Burnt Palace. Between 1878 and 1882 Rassam greatly improved the Museum's holdings with exquisite objects including the Cyrus Cylinder from Babylon, the bronze gates from Balawat, important objects from Sippar, and a fine collection of Urartian bronzes from Toprakkale. In the early 20th century excavations were carried out at Carchemish, Turkey by D. G. Hogarth and Leonard Woolley, the latter assisted by T.
British Museum Department of the Middle East | History
During the First World War, the Arab Bureau was set up within the British Foreign Office as a section of the "Cairo Intelligence Department". During the early cold war an important department was the Information Research Department, set up to counter Soviet propaganda and infiltration. The Foreign Office hired its first woman diplomat, Monica Milne, in 1946.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | Twentieth century
Active support by the museum for excavations in Egypt continued to result in important acquisitions throughout the 20th century until changes in antiquities laws in Egypt led to the suspension of policies allowing finds to be exported, although divisions still continue in Sudan. The British Museum conducted its own excavations in Egypt where it received divisions of finds, including Asyut (1907), Mostagedda and Matmar (1920s), Ashmunein (1980s) and sites in Sudan such as Soba, Kawa and the Northern Dongola Reach (1990s). The size of the Egyptian collections now stand at over 110,000 objects.
British Museum | Department of Egypt and Sudan
The Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory is responsible for collections that cover a vast expanse of time and geography. It includes some of the earliest objects made by humans in east Africa over 2 million years ago, as well as Prehistoric and neolithic objects from other parts of the world; and the art and archaeology of Europe from the earliest times to the present day. Archeological excavation of prehistoric material took off and expanded considerably in the twentieth century and the department now has literally millions of objects from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods throughout the world, as well as from the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age in Europe.
British Museum | Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory
At the end of the gallery are cases on Islamic Spain, science, arms and armour, coinage and a changing exhibition of contemporary graphics. The British Museum is actively collecting 20th century material from the Islamic world, including calligraphy, popular religious prints, political posters, studio pottery and a rare 11th century Qur'an.
British Museum Department of Asia | Islam collection
In the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term "Middle East" gained broader usage in Europe and the United States, with the Middle East Institute founded in Washington, D.C. in 1946, among other usage. The corresponding adjective is "Middle Eastern" and the derived noun is "Middle Easterner".
Middle East | Terminology
The collection of Asian material was greatly expanded during the tenure of Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks as Keeper of the Department of Antiquities from 1866 to 1896, and in 1921 the Sub-Department of Oriental Antiquities was established. In 1933, the Asian collections of the Prints and Drawings Sub-Department were united with the Department of Oriental Antiquities, forming one of the most significant collections of art and antiquities of Asia in the northern hemisphere. In 2003, the Department of Oriental Antiquities and the Department of Japanese Antiquities merged to become the current Department of Asia. The Keepers of the Department of Asia include: Jessica Rawson, Robert Knox (1994-2006), Jan Stuart (2006-2014) and Jane Portal (2014-).
British Museum Department of Asia | History of the Department
The Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan is a department forming an historic part of the British Museum, housing the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of Egyptian antiquities (with over 100,000 pieces) outside the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan | Introduction
The Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of Government, popularly known as the Hoover Commission, had recommended that certain offices be upgraded to bureau level and after Congress increased the number of Assistant Secretaries of State from six to ten. The Department of State established a Division of Near Eastern Affairs in 1909, which dealt with Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe as well as with the Middle East. The final remnant of this practice ended on April 18, 1974, when the Department transferred responsibility for Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus to the Bureau of European Affairs. The Division of Near Eastern Affairs included Egypt and Abyssinia (Ethiopia) from its inception, and acquired responsibility for the rest of Africa (except Algeria and the Union of South Africa) in 1937.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs | Introduction
It includes an important collection of prehistoric material from the Nilgiri mountains in southern India . As well as ancient artifacts, the Indian collections include excellent examples of pottery, art (including many rare Mughal paintings), traditional scriptwork, and a large display of sculpture, including carvings from the Great Stupa at Amaravati. South Asia is also represented in the money collections, with a large number of coins dating back to the 4th century BC. The collection previously included some objects from the Islamic world, but these were merged with the collections of the Department of the Ancient Near East to form the Department of the Middle East.
British Museum Department of Asia | China, South and South East Asia collection (including India)
The Department of Asia in the British Museum holds one of the largest collections of historical objects from Asia. These collections comprise over 75,000 objects covering the material culture of the Asian continent (including East Asia, South and Central Asia, and Southeast Asia), and dating from the Neolithic age up to the present day.
British Museum Department of Asia | Introduction
A large number of Chinese antiquities were purchased from the Anglo-Greek banker George Eumorfopoulos in the 1930s. In the second half of the twentieth century, the museum greatly benefited from the bequest of the philanthropist PT Brooke Sewell, which allowed the department to purchase many objects and fill in gaps in the collection. In 2004, the ethnographic collections from Asia were transferred to the department. These reflect the diverse environment of the largest continent in the world and range from India to China, the Middle East to Japan. Much of the ethnographic material comes from objects originally owned by tribal cultures and hunter-gatherers, many of whose way of life has disappeared in the last century.
British Museum | Department of Asia
This department was founded in 1920. Conservation has six specialist areas: ceramics & glass; metals; organic material (including textiles); stone, wall paintings and mosaics; Eastern pictorial art and Western pictorial art. The science department has and continues to develop techniques to date artefacts, analyse and identify the materials used in their manufacture, to identify the place an artefact originated and the techniques used in their creation. The department also publishes its findings and discoveries.
British Museum | Department of Conservation and Scientific Research
In March 1917, the War Cabinet had set up the "Mesopotamian Administration Committee". Besides Lord Curzon as chairman and Mark Sykes as secretary, members included Lord Alfred Milner, Charles Hardinge, Sir Arthur Hirtzel, Sir Thomas Holderness, Sir Ronald Graham and Sir George Clerk. Sir Henry McMahon also became a member. In July, its powers having been expanded to cover Middle Eastern matters, its name was changed to the "Middle East Committee". Edwin Montagu, Arthur Balfour and Robert Cecil also joined the new Committee. After failed attempts to create a separate overarching Middle East Department, the Cabinet merged the Middle East Committee with the Foreign Office "Russia Committee" and the interdepartmental "Persia Committee", to become the "Eastern Committee".
Eastern Committee | History
The Department of Antiquities is a government department in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan with responsibility for archaeological research and cultural heritage management. It is part of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The department was established in 1923 in what was then the Emirate of Transjordan, a protectorate of the British Empire. Its responsibilities are legislated for in laws no. 24 of 1934, no. 21 of 1988 and no. 22 of 2004. The department has published an academic journal, the "Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan", since 1951, and has organised an international conference on the history and archaeology of Jordan every three years since 1980.
Department of Antiquities (Jordan) | Introduction
The department's collection began with a donation from Sir Hans Sloane, which contained a small number of objects from the Asian continent, including a collection of Japanese material acquired from the family of the German traveller and physician Engelbert Kaempfer (who had led an expedition to Japan). Only a few objects were acquired from Asia between 1753 and the 1820s, but the collection expanded in the late 19th century to become one of the world's largest. This was mainly through a donation of a number of South Asian objects, such as the gilded bronze figure of Tara from Sri Lanka in 1830, the Bridge Collection of East and Central Indian sculpture in 1872, and the Amaravati Collection in 1880.
British Museum Department of Asia | History of the Department
The scope of the Department of Asia is extremely broad; its collections of over 75,000 objects cover the material culture of the whole Asian continent (from East, South, Central and South-East Asia) and from the Neolithic up to the present day. Until recently, this department concentrated on collecting Oriental antiquities from urban or semi-urban societies across the Asian continent. Many of those objects were collected by colonial officers and explorers in former parts of the British Empire, especially the Indian subcontinent. Examples include the collections made by individuals such as James Wilkinson Breeks, Sir Alexander Cunningham, Sir Harold Deane, Sir Walter Elliot, James Prinsep, Charles Masson, Sir John Marshall and Charles Stuart.
British Museum | Department of Asia
The secretariat had 11 departments: the Military and Armaments Department, Vocational Schools Department, Courses Department, Finance Department, Organisational and Political Department, Party Affairs and Information Department, Personnel and Administrative Department, Technical Department, Information and Studies Department, Legal Department and the Audit Department. The only non-department under the direct responsibility of the secretariat was the Saddam Institute for the Study of the Qur'an.
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region | Regional (central) level
It also maintains a comprehensive public geographic information system and database of archaeological sites in the country, developed in cooperation with the Getty Conservation Institute, the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities – Jordan (MEGA-J).
Department of Antiquities (Jordan) | Introduction
Middle East Command controlled all the forces based in: Sudan, Aden, Somaliland, Palestine, Transjordan, and Egypt.
Structure of the British Army in 1939 | Middle East Command
In 1938, a weak armoured division was established in Egypt and further army and air force reinforcements were dispatched from Britain. With rising tension in Europe, in June 1939, the United Kingdom established Middle East Command (MEC) in Cairo to provide centralised command for British army units in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre. All three branches of the British military were made equally responsible for the defence of the area. The authority of MEC included Aden, British Somaliland, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Greece, Libya, Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, Tanganyika, Transjordan, Uganda and the shores of the Persian Gulf. If necessary, command would be exerted as far away as the Caucasus and the Indian Ocean.
Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II | Britain
In 1944, at the age of 39, Samylovskii was promoted and appointed Head of the Near East Department of the NKID. The Near East Department emerged in 1944 from the larger Middle East Department headed by Sergey Kavtaradze. In 1944 it comprised the Arab countries, the territory of Palestine and countries of Northern Africa.
Ivan Samylovsky | Head of the Near East Department
The publication department has published many books regarding Iranian arts and collections.
Reza Abbasi Museum | Publication department
Key highlights of the collections include the following: Predynastic and Early Dynastic period (c. 6000 BC – c. 2690 BC) Old Kingdom (2690–2181 BC)
British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan | Collections
Between 1965 and 1966, he was Deputy Director of the Office of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. In 1966 and 1967, he was Country Director for Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. From 1967 to 1970, he was Country Director for Israel and Arab-Israel Affairs. From 1970 to 1974, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. From 1974 to 1978, he was Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.
Alfred Atherton | Middle East Affairs (1965-1978)
The building was constructed on a piece of land in front of National Museum of Iran. In December 2005 the building was officially opened and housed the Research Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Relics (RCCCR), an institution he had established after creation of the Central Laboratory for Conservation. Management of the Bureau for International Relations was among his other responsibilities in the cultural heritage section of the country. Vatandoust was retired from the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organisation of Iran in 2009.
Rasool Vatandoust | Career
The Middle East Centre for Arab Studies was established by the British Army during World War II in Jerusalem. Between 1944-1946 it functioned in the requisitioned Austrian Hospice (), where it was headed by the English Arabist Bertram Thomas. Its purpose was to teach officers Arabic language and culture. After a short post-war intermezzo in the town of Zarqa in Transjordan, in 1947 it moved to its final location in Shemlan, in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon. In Lebanon the college was reopened by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government. The college gained notoriety as a "spy school" after it was publicly denounced as such by Kamal Jumblatt speaking in the Lebanese Parliament.
Middle East Centre for Arab Studies | History
It comprises the following curatorial departments: The AQR Museum Building Number 2 (The Carpet Department) The AQR Museum Building Number 3:
Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum | The AQR Museum Building Number 1 (the Central Museum)
There is some material from the Roman Republic, but the collection's strength is in its comprehensive array of objects from across the Roman Empire, with the exception of Britain (which is the mainstay of the Department of Prehistory and Europe).
British Museum | Department of Greece and Rome
DID is a department focusing on middle income developing countries or ‘emerging economies’ with close connections to King's College London's Global Institutes who are also housed in the School of Global Affairs, offering programmes at undergraduate and graduate level.
Department of International Development, King's College London | Structure
The late mediaeval collection includes a large number of seal-dies from across Europe, the most famous of which include those from the Town of Boppard in Germany, Isabella of Hainault from her tomb in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, Inchaffray Abbey in Scotland and Robert Fitzwalter, one of the Barons who led the revolt against King John in England. Other groups of artifacts represented in the department include the national collection of (c.100) icon paintings, most of which originate from the Byzantine Empire and Russia, and over 40 mediaeval astrolabes from across Europe and the Middle East. The department also includes the national collection of horology with one of the most wide-ranging assemblage of clocks, watches and other timepieces in Europe, with masterpieces from every period in the development of time-keeping.
British Museum | Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Active support by the museum for excavations in Egypt continued to result in important acquisitions throughout the 20th century until changes in antiquities laws in Egypt led to the suspension of policies allowing finds to be exported, although divisions still continue in Sudan. The British Museum conducted its own excavations in Egypt where it received divisions of finds, including Asyut (1907), Mostagedda and Matmar (1920s), Ashmunein (1980s) and sites in Sudan such as Soba, Kawa and the Northern Dongola Reach (1990s). The size of the Egyptian collections now stand at over 110,000 objects. In autumn 2001 the eight million objects forming the Museum's permanent collection were further expanded by the addition of six million objects from the Wendorf Collection of Egyptian and Sudanese Prehistory.
British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan | History
The proposal won approval and support of the Director of antiques, Emir Maurice Chehab. Thus, contacts were established between the parties concerned, namely the directorate of the antiques at the Ministry of Interior and the municipality of Beirut through the Ministry of Education to assign an area of 2600 m south of the current museum in the eastern part of Beirut racetrack. The new building, which was to be attached to the National Museum, was called "The Museum of the Middle Ages and the Army" and exhibited medieval and contemporary objects. Contacts continued in the 1950s and early 1960s, until the Council of Ministers approved the construction of the museum, and entrusted the implementation of construction projects, in agreement with the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Education.
Lebanese Military Museum | History
METU has 42 academic departments, most of which are organized into 5 faculties. These are responsible for the undergraduate programs. In addition to these, there are the "Department of Basic English" and the "Department of Modern Languages" in the School of Foreign Languages; the Technical Vocational School of Higher Education; and, bound directly to the President's Office, the "Department of Turkish Language" and the "Department of Music and Fine Arts".
Middle East Technical University | Faculties and departments
During the first phase of the project, workers landscaped the museum grounds, installed new doors, windows and gates, and restored the facade of the palace. In the second phase of the project, display cases and other appropriate furniture was installed in the museum. The Department of Antiquities used them to exhibit some items from their collection, including Neolithic, Ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman artifacts. The smaller building in front of the palace was also renovated for use as a gateway to the museum.
Qasr al-Basha | Modern period
The Arab Bureau was a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department established in 1916 during the First World War, and closed in 1920, whose purpose was the collection and dissemination of propaganda and intelligence about the Arab regions of the Middle East. According to a Committee of Imperial Defence paper from 7 January 1916, the Arab Bureau was established to "harmonise British political activity in the Near East...[and] keep the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Committee of Defence, the War Office, the Admiralty, and Government of India simultaneously informed of the general tendency of Germano-Turkish Policy." Brian Westrate wrote in his 1992 history of the Arab Bureau that "the agency has subsequently borne much of the blame for Britain's terrible mishandling of Middle Eastern policy during and shortly after World War I."
Arab Bureau | Introduction
The AQR Museum is among a few museums in Iran to have a dedicated Research Office. Established in 2003, it works with experts in different fields and a range of external partners on research projects and publications as well as cataloguing and documenting the museum's holdings and acquisitions. The Research Office's archives are accessible to Museum staff and to qualified scholarly researchers by appointment and with proper identification.
Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum | The Research Office
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
List of WHO regions | Eastern Mediterranean Region <a href="WHO%20Regional%20Office%20for%20the%20Eastern%20Mediterranean">(EMRO)</a>
In addition, a unique and valuable group of objects from Java, including shadow puppets and a gamelan musical set, was assembled by Sir Stamford Raffles. The principal gallery devoted to Asian art in the museum is Gallery 33 with its comprehensive display of Chinese, Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asian objects. An adjacent gallery showcases the Amaravati sculptures and monuments. Other galleries on the upper floors are devoted to its Japanese, Korean, painting and calligraphy, and Chinese ceramics collections.
British Museum | Department of Asia
The British Middle East Command was based in Cairo with responsibility for Commonwealth operations in the Middle East and North Africa, and also those in East Africa, Persia, and the Balkans, including Greece. In August 1942 forces in Persia and Iran (known as Paiforce) were detached and brought under the separate, newly formed Persia and Iraq Command under General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson (the post having been turned down by Auchinleck, the outgoing Middle East Command C-in-C). The Commanders-in-Chief (C-in-C)s were
Middle East Theatre of World War II | Command Structure
Established February 27, 1776. Continued to close of war. The Middle Department was originally created as a military administrative district embracing New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. When the Main Army moved from Boston to New York in April 1776 and Washington opened his headquarters in New York City, he assumed direct command of the department. As a result, the Main Army became, for the remainder of the war, the field army associated with the Middle Department. At the same time New York and the Northern Department became practically coextensive; only the Hudson Highlands and parts of New York to the south remained in the Middle Department.
List of Continental Army units | Middle Department
Near Eastern antiquities, the second newest department, dates from 1881 and presents an overview of early Near Eastern civilization and "first settlements", before the arrival of Islam. The department is divided into three geographic areas: the Levant, Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Persia (Iran). The collection's development corresponds to archaeological work such as Paul-Émile Botta's 1843 expedition to Khorsabad and the discovery of Sargon II's palace. These finds formed the basis of the Assyrian museum, the precursor to today's department. The museum contains exhibits from Sumer and the city of Akkad, with monuments such as the Prince of Lagash's "Stele of the Vultures" from 2450 BC and the stele erected by Naram-Sin, King of Akkad, to celebrate a victory over barbarians in the Zagros Mountains.
Louvre | Near Eastern antiquities
The building of the Ministry was completed in 1939.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Iran) | Building
The Middle Department was an administrative military district created by the United States War Department early in the American Civil War to administer the troops in the Middle Atlantic states. The department was created on March 22, 1862 by the Adjutant General's Office in Washington, D.C.. It combined all Federal troops in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and the counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, and Harford in Maryland, with headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. Maj. Gen. John A. Dix was designated as its first commander. The Middle Department was dissolved July 22, 1862, when it was renamed VIII Corps.
Middle Department | Introduction
The United States' relationship with the Middle East prior to World War I was limited, although commercial ties existed even in the early 19th century. President Andrew Jackson established formal ties with the Sultan of Muscat and Oman in 1833. (The Sultan saw the U.S. as a potential balance to Britain's overwhelming regional influence.) Commercial relations opened between the U.S. and Persia in 1857, after Britain persuaded the Persian government not to ratify a similar agreement in 1851. Britain and France took control of most of the former Ottoman Empire after defeating it in World War I. They held mandates from the League of Nations.
United States foreign policy in the Middle East | History
The Division of Near Eastern Affairs handled relations with most Central, Eastern, and Southern European countries until after World War I. During the interwar period, responsibility for much of Central and Eastern Europe shifted to the Division of European Affairs, although Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus were handled as part of the Near East until April 18, 1974. Following World War II, the Department completed the transfer of responsibility for the former colonies of European nations, except Canada, to the Bureaus of Near Eastern, South Asian, African Affairs, and Far Eastern Affairs. The Department of State later established the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs in 1949.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs | Introduction
After 1945, the Middle East Command was reformed as Middle East Land Forces. Middle East Land Forces commanded the forces in Libya (25th Armoured Brigade, which was later subsumed into 10th Armoured Division) until 1957, and the 1st Infantry Division, 3rd Infantry Division, two armoured regiments and other forces, in the Suez Canal Zone until the early 1950s. In 1959 Middle East Command was divided into two commands split by the Suez Canal. The two parts were "British Forces Arabian Peninsula", which was based at Aden, and the rump of the former Command which was based in Cyprus and which in 1961 was renamed Near East Command.
Middle East Command | Middle East Land Forces from 1945
Dubai has emerged as the major re-export center for the entire Middle East region.
Re-exportation | Examples
The Language Department's mission is to promote cultural understanding by offering evening and weekend language classes in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and Pashto. The classes are taught by experienced native as well as non-native instructors, many of whom also teach at nearby universities such as Georgetown and the University of Maryland. Students include those from government officials to university students to private-sector employees.
Middle East Institute | Department of Languages
The Middle East was more advanced than Western Europe in 1000 CE, on par by the middle of the 16th century, but by 1750, leading Middle-Eastern states had fallen behind the leading Western European states of Britain and the Netherlands. An example of a Middle-Eastern country that had an advanced economy in the early 19th century was Ottoman Egypt, which had a highly productive industrial manufacturing sector, and per-capita income that was comparable to leading Western European countries such as France and higher than that of Japan and Eastern Europe. Other parts of the Ottoman Empire, particularly Syria and southeastern Anatolia, also had a highly productive manufacturing sector that was evolving in the 19th century.
Great Divergence | Middle East
The Department of Antiquities was a department of the British administration of Mandatory Palestine from 1920 to 1948 that was in charge of the protection and investigation of archaeological remains and artefacts in Palestine.
Department of Antiquities (Mandatory Palestine) | Introduction
The Department of the East was a military administrative district established by the U.S. Army several times in its history. The first was from 1853 to 1861, the second Department of the East, from 1863 to 1873, and the last from 1877 to 1913.
Department of the East | Introduction
The first significant addition of Mesopotamian objects was from the collection of Claudius James Rich in 1825. The collection was later dramatically enlarged by the excavations of A. H. Layard at the Assyrian sites of Nimrud and Nineveh between 1845 and 1851. At Nimrud, Layard discovered the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, as well as three other palaces and various temples. He later uncovered the Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh with 'no less than seventy-one halls'. As a result, a large numbers of Lamassu's, palace reliefs, stelae, including the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, were brought to the British Museum.
British Museum | Department of the Middle East
Affiliated with the library are eleven different museums which are located in different buildings near each other. They collectively form the Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum: The bureau of museums maintains an office for the preservation and repair of historical objects of the Museum and library by a technical staff of specialists.
Central Library of Astan Quds Razavi | The Bureau of Museums of Astan Quds
The Middle Department was established on February 27, 1776. Originally it included all of the colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. In April 1776, the Main Army moved from Boston to New York, and became the field army associated with the Middle Department for the remainder of the war. On April 14, 1776 that portion of New York north of the Hudson Highlands, and the present state of Vermont were separated from the Middle Department and organized as the Northern Department. The Middle Department then comprised the Hudson Highlands in the state of New York, the rest of New York south of the Highlands, and the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.
Departments of the Continental Army | Middle Department
British foreign policy in the Middle East has involved multiple considerations, particularly over the last two and a half centuries. These included maintaining access to British India, blocking Russian or French threats to that access, protecting the Suez Canal, supporting the declining Ottoman Empire against Russian threats, guaranteeing an oil supply after 1900 from Middle East fields, protecting Egypt and other possessions in the Middle East, and enforcing Britain's naval role in the Mediterranean. The timeframe of major concern stretches from the 1770s when the Russian Empire began to dominate the Black Sea, down to the Suez Crisis of the mid-20th century and involvement in the Iraq War in the early 21st.
British foreign policy in the Middle East | Introduction
The archaeologists counted Iran as "the Near East" because Old Persian cuneiform had been found there. This usage did not sit well with the diplomats; India was left in an equivocal state. They needed a regional term. The use of the term "Middle East" as a region of international affairs apparently began in British and American diplomatic circles quite independently of each other over concern for the security of the same country: Iran, then known to the west as Persia. In 1900 Thomas Edward Gordon published an article, "The Problem of the Middle East", which began:It may be assumed that the most sensitive part of our external policy in the Middle East is the preservation of the independence and integrity of Persia and Afghanistan.
Near East | Origin of the concept of Middle East
From 28 January 1944, the last two British Ministers Resident in the Middle East, concerned with former British protectorate Egypt, were styled Ministers of State in the Middle East.
Minister of State | British diplomacy
The "Wirth Gallery of the Middle East" explores civilizations from the Palaeolithic Age to 1900 AD found within the Fertile Crescent, which stretches from the Eastern Mediterranean and Persia (Iran) and Iraq to the Arabian Peninsula. The over 1,000 artifacts relate to the writing, technology, spirituality, everyday life and warfare of the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. These Mesopotamian civilizations made major advances in writing, mathematics, law, medicine and religion, which are represented throughout the gallery. Pieces from the museum's collection that are featured at the "Wirth Gallery of the Middle East" include plastered human skulls made in the Levant circa 8000 BC.
Royal Ontario Museum | Middle Eastern
The art trade reflects modern usage of the term; Christie's "Department of Antiquities" covers objects "from the dawn of civilization to the Dark Ages, ranging from Western Europe to the Caspian Sea, embracing the cultures of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Near East." Bonhams use a similar definition: "...4000 B.C to the 12th Century A.D. Geographically they originate from Egypt, the Near East and Europe ..." Official cut-off dates are often later, being unconcerned with precise divisions of art history, and using the term for all historical periods they wish to protect: in Jordan it is 1750, in Hong Kong 1800, and so on.
Antiquities | Definition
. In 1919 the department was renamed the Civil Engineer in Chief's Department. In January 1960 it became the Navy Works Department under a Director-General, Navy Works. In April 1963 the department ceased to exist when responsibility for building and civil engineering works for the armed services was transferred to the Ministry of Public Building and Works, later Department of the Environment.
Architectural and Engineering Works Department | History
The Ministry is divided into three units, The Directorate General of Cultural Affairs, The Directorate General of Antiquities and The Joint Administrative Service. It also runs The Baakleen National Library, the General Authority for Museums and the National Higher Institute of Music. It is also attached to the National Committee for Education, Knowledge and Culture.
Ministry of Culture (Lebanon) | Structure
In the early 1970s, the Druze section, including the Druze Archive, was integrated into the JAC. The Druze section is headed by Prof. Kais Firro of the department of Middle East History. A major task of the Druze section is to study, preserve and present Druze history, tradition and culture. Since its establishment, the archive has become an international source of information on Druze culture and tradition. It contains one of the finest collections of its kind in the Middle East, including books, periodicals and chronicles acquired from archives all over the world. Another key goal is education for the Druze and the advancement of young leadership.
Jewish-Arab Center | The Druze section
The Assyrian people of south east Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia and north western Persia also threw in their lot with the Russians and British, under the leadership of Agha Petros and Malik Khoshaba. In 1914, there were some British Indian Army units located in the southern parts of Persia. These units had extensive experience in dealing with dissident tribal forces. The British later established the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, British Dardanelles Army, Egyptian Expeditionary Force, and in 1917 they established Dunsterforce under Lionel Dunsterville, consisting of less than 1,000 Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand troops accompanied by armoured cars, to oppose Ottoman and German forces in the Caucasus.
Middle Eastern theatre of World War I | Entente nations
Some evidences are the University of Gilan which was constructed jointly by the governments of Iran and West Germany about 40 years ago, the building of IRIB representatives in Rasht which was constructed jointly by the Iranian and Belgian engineers.
Rasht | Modern day
As well as a Director, the department had an Archaeological Advisory Board that included representatives of the major archaeological bodies and the main ethnic communities in Palestine. The department included subdivisions for inspectors, a records office and library, a conservation laboratory, a photographic studio, and the museum.
Department of Antiquities (Mandatory Palestine) | Operation
The Demographics of the Middle East describes populations of the Middle East or the Greater Middle East that includes Northern Africa. "Encyclopedia Britannica" stated in 2018 that "by the mid-20th century a common definition of the Middle East encompassed the states or territories of Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, and the various states and territories of Arabia proper (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial States, or Trucial Oman [now United Arab Emirates])."
Demographics of the Middle East | Introduction
By 1700, the Ottomans had been driven out of the Kingdom of Hungary and the balance of power along the frontier had shifted decisively in favor of the Western world. The British Empire also established effective control of the Persian Gulf, and the French colonial empire extended its influence into Lebanon and Syria. In 1912, the Kingdom of Italy seized Libya and the Dodecanese islands, just off the coast of the Ottoman heartland of Anatolia. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Middle Eastern rulers tried to modernize their states to compete more effectively with the European powers. A turning point in the history of the Middle East came when oil was discovered, first in Persia in 1908 and later in Saudi Arabia (in 1938) and the other Persian Gulf states, and also in Libya and Algeria.
History of the Middle East | Introduction
Later, the holdings of the Department of the Ancient East were enhanced through gifts, archaeological excavations, and regular acquisitions.
Pushkin Museum | Egypt
On January 3, 1863, the Department of the East was revived, to administer the many districts and posts created by the Civil War in New York, New Jersey and the states of New England. It became subordinate to the Military Division of the Atlantic, from 1865 to 1866 and the Division of the Atlantic, in 1868 until this department was discontinued in 1873. Again the Department of the East was revived in 1877, once again subordinate to the Division of the Atlantic, until the Division was discontinued in 1891. In 1911, it became subordinate to a new Eastern Division, until the Department of the East was discontinued 1913, being replaced by the Eastern Department.
Department of the East | History
Created in 2008 from the Kanem region's former Barh El Gazel department.
Departments of Chad | <a href="Bahr%20el%20Gazel%20%28region%20of%20Chad%29">Bahr El Gazel</a>
The Middle Department was created on February 27, 1776, as a military administrative district embracing New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. When the Main Army moved from Boston to New York in April 1776 and Washington opened his headquarters in New York City, he assumed direct command of the department. As a result the Main Army became, for the remainder of the war, the field army associated with the Middle Department. At the same time New York and the Northern Department became practically coextensive; only the Hudson Highlands and parts of New York to the south remained in the Middle Department.
List of Continental Army units (1776) | Middle Department units
The Keeper of Ancient Egypt and Sudan is head of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan (formerly Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities and then Department of Egyptian Antiquities).
List of keepers of the British Museum | Keepers of Ancient Egypt and Sudan
The British Mandate established the country's first survey department in 1920, known as the Survey Department of Palestine. In 1930, a building was erected to house the department at the southern end of a 30-acre plot near the German Templar cemetery in Tel Aviv. During World War II, it was used by the British Army. Today, the main office of the Survey of Israel is located in Tel Aviv with branches in Jerusalem, Be'er Sheva, Haifa and Nazareth.
Survey of Israel | History
The Middle East Centre for Arab Studies (MECAS) was an Arabic language college created by the British Army during World War II in Jerusalem, and relocated afterwards as a civilian institution to Lebanon near Beirut where it functioned between 1947–1978.
Middle East Centre for Arab Studies | Introduction
The Department of Prints and Drawings holds the national collection of Western prints and drawings. It ranks as one of the largest and best print room collections in existence alongside the Albertina in Vienna, the Paris collections and the Hermitage. The holdings are easily accessible to the general public in the Study Room, unlike many such collections. The department also has its own exhibition gallery in Room 90, where the displays and exhibitions change several times a year. Since its foundation in 1808, the prints and drawings collection has grown to international renown as one of the richest and most representative collections in the world.
British Museum | Department of Prints and Drawings
The RAF presence in the Middle East from the time of the First World War was similar to that of the Middle East Command of the British Army, with operational responsibility for Egypt, the Sudan and Kenya, and administrative responsibility for Palestine and Transjordan. Separate RAF Commands held operational responsibility for Iraq and Aden while RAF Mediterranean held responsibility for Malta. However, interwar planning held that in times of war, Middle East Command would assume control over all of these commands. A small Royal Flying Corps presence was deployed to the Middle East in late 1914. By 1 July 1916 this force had grown sufficiently to be raised to a brigade as Middle East Brigade.
RAF Middle East Command | RAF History in the Middle East
In her role, Powell traveled worldwide with Secretary Rice, but mostly focused on going to the Middle East. During this period, Powell established several public-private partnerships between American corporations and foreign entities, including a U.S.-Lebanon partnership in the wake of the 2006 war that sought to help rebuild the local economy. These may have been under the protection of the Middle East Partnership Initiative. She helped create some cultural exchanges between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, including Iranian doctors coming west and a U.S. wrestling team going east. She was also responsible for bringing in scholars from other nation-states.
Dina Powell | Department of State
Middle East Command was established in Cairo, during June 1939, due to the rising tensions in Europe. Its purpose was to provide a centralised command structure in times of war for the three separate army commands based within the Mediterranean and Middle East areas: Egypt, Sudan and Palestine/Transjordan. During periods of peace the command exerted authority over land forces based within Egypt, the Sudan, Palestine, Transjordan, and Cyprus. However, if war broke out, the Command's area of responsibility would be extended to include British Somaliland, Aden, Iraq and the shores of the Persian Gulf. As the war progressed, Middle East Command authority was extended over further areas including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Libya and Greece.
Middle East Command | Role of Middle East Command
From the beginning, HMANE was the home of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, a departmental library, a repository for research collections, a public educational institute, and a center for archaeological exploration. Among the museum's early achievements were the first scientific excavations in the Holy Land (at Samaria in 1907–1912) and excavations at Nuzi and Tell el-Khaleifeh in the Sinai, where the earliest alphabet was found. The museum's artifacts include pottery, cylinder seals, sculpture, coins, cuneiform tablets, and Egyptian mummy sarcophagi. Many are from museum-sponsored excavations in Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Cyprus, Israel, and Tunisia. The museum holds plaster casts of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the Laws of Hammurabi, and the Stele of Esarhaddon, as well as a full-scale model of an Iron Age Israelite house.
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East | Description
1-925...History of Low Countries. Benelux Countries
Library of Congress Classification:Class D -- History, General and Old World | DH - History of <a href="Low%20Countries">Low Countries</a> - <a href="Benelux">Benelux</a> Countries
The IFPO was created in 2003 by bringing together three existing French Institutes in the area : IFEAD (French Institute for Arab Studies in Damascus, established in 1922), IFAPO (French Institute of near Eastern Archaeology established in Syria and Lebanon in 1946) and CERMOC (Centre for Study and Research on the Contemporary Middle East, est. 1977 in Lebanon and 1988 in Jordan). The IFPO has the status of a "Joint Entity of French Research Institutes Abroad" (UMIFRE no6, Unité Mixte des Instituts français de recherche à l’étranger) and is under the aegis of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research).
Institut français du Proche-Orient | History
Since its founding in 2003, the Conservation and Restoration Office has been responsible for the preservation, investigation and restoration of the AQR Museum's collections. Combining an expert knowledge of material science, outstanding practical expertise and underpinned by scientific analysis and research, the staff in this office are able to identify and interpret deteriorated objects, evaluate the objects' provenance and authenticity, and preserve and restore a wide range of the museum collections.
Astan Quds Razavi Central Museum | The Conservation and Restoration Office
Since 1948, archaeology in Israel has been under control of the Israel Department of Antiquities. Between 1948 and 1967, the Jordanian Department of Antiquities supervised excavations in the West Bank. The Palestinian Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage has conducted work in the West Bank since 1994.
Department of Antiquities (Mandatory Palestine) | Successors
The Secretariat is divided into the Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of International Affairs, Department of Executive Affairs, Department of Economic Affairs, Office of the Secretary General and the Planning and Supervision Office.
Ahl Al-Bayt World Assembly | Secretariat