Middle East

The anthropological milieu around Professor Fredrik Barth and his work on Iran and the Sudan was fundamental for the development of Middle Eastern reserach in Bergen in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Teaching and research related to the Middle East developed at several departments at the Faculty of Humanities: History concentrated on East Africa, the Sudan, Muslim Africa and the Middle East in general; Archaeology emphasised the Sudan, East Africa and later the Levant; while Classical Studies focused on Egypt and the Sudan. Studies of Arabic, Islam and other Mid-Eastern religions were included in the 1980s.

The growing interest in the Middle East and Islam by the late 1980s waranted a Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. It involved both the Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Today, it has become a meeting point for staff and students interested in the Middle East. A new interdisciplinary Bachelor programme in Middle Eastern Studies started in 2002.