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The MENARAH Initiative (Middle Eastern and North African Research of Art and History Initiative) at the University of Texas at Dallas is a pioneering research lab within the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities and Technology. It explores the intersection of history, art history, and digital humanities, focusing on the Islamic world and its surrounding regions. MENARAH aims to reshape scholarship on these areas by integrating cutting-edge tools like VR, 3D modeling, and digital media to create open-access educational resources. We welcome research on, but not limited to, the historic and modern Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe. As both a digital and physical hub, MENARAH promotes engagement with the rich material culture of Islamic civilizations, empowering students and scholars to explore diverse societies through modern, collaborative methods.
PROJECTS
The Umayyads of Al-Andalus Capital Study
Umayyad capitals from the palatial city Madinat al-Zahra are dispersed across the museums and private collections worldwide. This projects aims to study the inscribed capitals collectively, offering new insights into the history of Umayyad palatial epigraphy.
The Muqqadimah
The Great Mosque of Kairouan is one of the oldest standing mosques in the Islamic world. This project seeks to create an educational video game, allowing scholars and students to explore the mosque’s key architectural features.
Documenting the Material Culture of Muslim Sicily
Italian Orientalist scholars from the 18th to 20th centuries have recorded a fair amount of Islamic material cultural inscriptions from the era of medieval Islamic rule over Sicily. This project collectively studies their records of inscribed objects, architecture, and art from the Aghlabid, Fatimid, and Kalbid eras spanning the 9th to 11th centuries.
The Fatimid Tiraz Project
Fatimid Tiraz textiles demonstrate an intricate history of art, material culture, and social history of the tenth to twelfth centuries. This project aims to create a platform that closely examines the techniques, designs, inscriptions, production, and cultural history related to these textiles.
Ibn Jubayr Mapping Project
The Travels of Ibn Jubayr Project visualizes and maps the traveler’s journey from Spain to Mecca by plotting space, time and narrative.
Documenting Historic Fez
Fez has been a historic spiritual and cultural center of Morocco for over a millennium. The city has a history of migrants from Muslim and Jewish communities. This student directed and produced documentary explores the diverse facets of art, architecture, and cultural history that define Fez from the medieval to modern world. Faculty and students from the university will conduct on-site filming in Morocco, engaging with scholars and artisans from Fez to capture its rich heritage.
Ghalin History
Ghalin History is a student project that catalogs carpets and textiles from the Islamic period and analyzes their geographic region of production in relation to climate. It was compiled and researched by Golsa Egbali, a master’s student at the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History.
Finding Albarelli
Finding Albarelli is an online database that aims to collect and consolidate information on physical albarelli, their visual depictions, and literary references to these objects. Designed to continue academic scholarship on these vessels, it provides tools for more nuanced searches and generates maps that trace albarelli production centers, find spots, and current locations. By offering these features, the database seeks to deepen understanding of the albarello’s historical journey and its transformations across the Mediterranean.
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