We are pleased to announce that the MIAH Foundation has been awarded the Arab British Centre’s Arab Britain project commission 2022. MIAH will deliver a community history engagement project documenting more than one thousand years of history, interactions and exchanges between the British Isles and the Arab world.* The project will explore this history, stretching from the 8th century to present-day Britain, through a series of online and in-person talks, articles by researchers and community historians, and an open call for contributions towards an oral history archive, book and digital exhibition. This project will also contribute to the Arab British Centre's Arab Britain** digital story archive.
Arab Britain is a long-term programme by the Arab British Centre which explores the history, achievements and experiences of Arabs in Britain, past and present. We are grateful to the Arab British Centre for their generous funding and support for this project.
Planned Events:
History Talk 1
Title: Early Medieval Exchanges Between England and the Arab World
Date: Thursday 20th October 2022, 6pm (online)
Why did King Offa of Mercia produce a coin copied from a dinar minted for the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 136–58/754–775)? What are the earliest links between England and the Arab world? What does Dudley Castle have to do with the First Crusade? Which local landmarks and historical figures from the West Midlands can help us trace this history?
Join us for an online talk where historian Dr Neelam Hussain explores the early exchanges between medieval England and the Arab world between the 8th and 11th centuries.
History Talk 2
Title: Crusading and Exchanging Knowledge in the Middle Ages
Date: Thursday 17th November 2022, 6pm (online)
Did King John really offer to convert to Islam when he sent an embassy to the Almohad Caliph, al-Nasir in 1215? Which scholars helped translate Arabic works from Arabic into Latin and how did this influence the curriculum at English universities? Why did so many Arabic words enter the English language in the medieval period? What did Salah al-Din and Richard the Lionheart think of each other? Find out which Midlands’ families joined the Third Crusade and what local landmarks served as a base for the Knights Templar.
Join us for an online talk where historian Dr Neelam Hussain explores these questions and much more as she discusses encounters between the 12th and 15th centuries with historians and experts.
You can find updated details about guest speakers under our 'Events' page or you can register here
History Talk 3
Title: Diplomacy & Scholarship in the Early Modern Period
Date: Thursday 15th December 2022, 6pm (online)
Why did Queen Elizabeth I want to keep friendly relations with the Moroccan Sultan? What do we know about the Moroccan ambassador who visited London in 1600 and inspired the famous painting of the ‘Moorish Ambassador’? Was he really the inspiration for Othello? When was the Quran first translated into English and what did the English think of it? The 17th century saw the establishment of ‘Oriental’ libraries and chairs in Arabic at Oxford and Cambridge universities – what is the significance of this?
Join us for an online talk where historian Dr Neelam Hussain explores these questions and much more as she discusses encounters between the 16th and 18th centuries with historians and experts.
You can find updated details about guest speakers under our 'Events' page or you can register here
History Talk 4
Title: Arab Merchants, Lascars and the first Arab Communities
Date: Thursday 19th January 2023, 6pm (online)
Many of the earliest Arabs who lived, worked and settled in Britain were merchants and traders from Syria, or lascars from Yemen who laboured on the trade ships of the British East India Company and eventually settled in Britain. What records do we have of this history in the West Midlands? What attracted the Yemeni community – which had traditionally settled around port cities - to Birmingham? Who was Alphonse Mingana? What was his relationship with the Cadburys and what gift did they leave to Birmingham? What was Britain’s role in the Arab world during this time?
Join us for an online talk where historian Dr Neelam Hussain explores these questions and much more as she discusses events and movement between the 19th and early 20th centuries with historians and experts.
You can find updated details about guest speakers under our 'Events' page or you can register here
History Talk 5
Title: Arab Migration after WWII
Date: Thursday 16th February 2023, 6pm (online)
What makes people leave their country and move to another? Like many of the major cities in Britain, Birmingham became home to people from many different countries after World War II. Although the Yemeni community has the longest history in the city, the second half of the 20th century saw the arrival of other Arab communities: Egyptians, Syrians, Sudanese, Somali, Iraqi, Algerian and Moroccan, amongst others. Some came to study and decided to settle, some came seeking opportunities and work, whilst others came in search of sanctuary.
Join us for an online talk where historian Dr Neelam Hussain explores these questions and much more with historians, experts and those who lived through these changes. We’ll explore the different waves of migration from Arab nations to Birmingham after WWII, how the city has offered sanctuary to those fleeing civil war, and the experiences and lives of the next generations that have been raised here.
You can find updated details about guest speakers under our 'Events' page or you can register here
History Talk 6
Title: Birmingham: City of Hope, Ambition & Sanctuary
Date: Thursday 16th March 2023, 6pm (in-person event, Birmingham – venue tbc)
Birmingham and the West Midlands have served as a place of hope, ambition and sanctuary to many communities over its history. But history is not made from statistics and patterns – it is made from individual stories and experiences. This final talk of the series will focus on the unique stories of those left their country of birth and made Birmingham and the West Midlands their home. We will be talking to selected participants who entered our oral history competition who will tell their own stories or that of their loved ones.
This final talk of the series is a an in-person event. The event will begin by summarising previous talks on the history of Arab-British encounters from the 8th century to the present day before focussing on individual stories, local personalities and winning entries of the oral history competition.
You can find updated details about guest speakers under our 'Events' page or you can register here
*The Arab world is defined as the 22 countries who are members of The Arab League: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
**Arab Britain is inclusive of all people from or with heritage from these countries and cultures. While for some this may refer to nationality, for others the reference might be to identity and/or regionality.
