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On the 464th anniversary of the Naval Battle of Djerba, the Ottoman Empire's decisive victory under Captain-General Piyale Pasha is commemorated, highlighting their supremacy in the Mediterranean and the strategic significance of defending Djerba Island against the Spanish Crusader Navy...

Abstract This study describes the petrographic and geochemical characteristics of pottery collected from Mugharat al‐Kahf and WTN02 in Wadi Tanuf, north‐central Oman, to clarify interregional similarities and differences in pottery production techniques and examine the existence of interregional trade in pottery with respect to changes in mobile communities. Potsherds from these sites were characterised using thin‐section petrography and instrumental neutron activation analysis. Results revealed that several clay fabrics and tempers were used during the Wadi Suq period (2000–1600 BCE). A region‐wide similarity exists in pottery‐making techniques in terms of the tempering of specific minerals (Oman ophiolite) used in the Early Iron Age (1300–300 BCE). Geochemical results indicate differences in clay sources between the Wadi Suq period and the Early Iron Age in Wadi Tanuf and the unlikelihood of the interregional trade of domestic pottery.

When Jimmy Carter became the U.S. president in January 1977, the United States and Oman did not have any formal security arrangements, apart from occasional landings of U.S. military aircraft on Oman's Masirah Island. Although Oman's leader, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, hoped to establish closer security ties with the United States, the Carter administration chose to continue President Richard Nixon's policy of relying on the “twin pillars” of Iran and Saudi Arabia to reinforce Western security in the Persian/Arabian Gulf region. Oman remained mostly a strategic afterthought until a series of crises unfolded in the greater Middle East: a Communist coup in Afghanistan in April 1978, the fall of the Shah of Iran in January 1979, and a war between Marxist South Yemen and North Yemen shortly thereafter. In November 1979, Iranian terrorists backed by the Islamic regime stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and seized dozens of hostages. This was followed a month later by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. With the fall of the Shah and the collapse of the “twin pillars” policy, the Carter administration began a sustained effort to create a Rapid Deployment Force for the Middle East and to gain access to Oman's strategic military facilities. After several months of arduous negotiations, Carter and his team were able to conclude a Facilities Access Agreement with Oman in June 1980, a transformative process that gave Washington the ability to insert U.S. military personnel into the Gulf and Indian Ocean on a contingency basis. The Carter administration's effort stands as a significant achievement, converting Oman into the most reliable U.S. ally in the Gulf region in the 1980s.

The abolitionist principles were foreign to Algerian society that was being brought to the colonial realm, between 1830 and 1871, in a sense that there was no public discourse on the issue of possessing humans by other humans. It was a practice that had its foundations in the very religious texts used at the time. The colonial officials considered the abolition of slavery as one of the sites of imposing their world views on the colonized population, challenging the very foundations of their socio-religious structures. The debates between officials at the center, those at the periphery on the one hand, and between the colonial minds, and the learned elite of the Algerian Muslims on the other, will be the focus of this presentation. It will concentrate on the intricacies of a colonial endeavor that was humanitarian and uninterested on the surface, but as I will show it was highly connected to the political, economic, social and religious goals of the colonial enterprise in French Algeria.

تتناول هذه الدراسة العلاقات العثمانية-العُمانية أثناء حصار حاكم إيران كريم خان الزند للبصرة العثمانية، بناءً على الرسالة الهمايونية من السلطان العثماني عبد الحميد الأول إلى حاكم عُمان الإمام أحمد بن سعيد البوسعيدي.وقد جاءت الرسالة ضمن جُمْلة من المراسلات المتبادلة بين حاكمي الدولتين،وهي تُعَدُّ دليلًا على العلاقات التليدة بين الدولة العثمانية والدولة العُمانية، التي كانت تقوم على التنسيق والتعاون المشترك لخدمة المصالح العُليا في كلا البلدين، على أساسمن الاحترام المتبادل، وإقرار كل طرف وتقديرهلِما يؤدّيه الطرف الآخر من دور في حفظ الأمن، والتصدّي للمخاطر المُحدِقة بهما. وممّا يزيد من أهمية الدراسة هو اشتمالها على العديد من الوثائق الأرشيفية التي تُؤرِّخ للعلاقات السياسية والعسكرية بين الدولة العثمانية والدولة العُمانية وَفق رؤية جديدة ونظرة استشرافية.

This study aims to describe the aspects of socio-cultural transformation from old to modern and to explain the process of socio-cultural change in Oman through Sayyidātul Qomar's novel by using a socio-cultural approach and socio-cultural theory by Koentjaningrat. The object of this research is the novel Sayyidātul Qomar by Jukhah Al-ḥāriṡy, which was published by the publisher Dār al-Ādāb in 2010 in Beirut, Lebanon. The method used in this research is a descriptive qualitative method using data collection techniques in the form of a literature study. The results showed that the aspects of socio-cultural transformation that occurred in Oman in the novel were the religious/belief system, society, education/knowledge, economy, government and technology, and life equipment. The process of socio-cultural transformation from old to modern is divided into two, namely, the driving factors for the transformation and the problems/conflicts in the transformation process. These driving factors include political factors (changes in the power system), economic crises (trade crises), feminism (women's struggles for their rights as women), and open society systems (birth of new generations). These problems/conflicts include the conflict between science and the supernatural, the rebels and the Omani government, the human world and the Jinn, and the enslaver and enslaved person.

La Tunisie, qui est connue comme étant une destination du tourisme de masse, a été peu résiliente face aux crises. Ainsi, en rapport au changement de la demande qui est devenue plus sensible à l’authenticité de lieux, nous assistons à des challenges de lancement des destinations par les territoires. À cet effet, un nouveau paradigme de développement touristique est en train de challenger, il s’agit des DMO qui se présentent comme de nouvelles structures de gouvernance qui permettent le développement touristique par le territoire : en termes de marketing et de gestion. La « destination Dahar » s’avère une expérience pionnière pour développer un tourisme durable dans un territoire authentique à l’intérieur de la Tunisie. Par ailleurs, la « Destination Djerba » constitue un challenge de relancer une nouvelle image d’une zone du tourisme balnéaire de masse en fin de cycle. Ces deux expériences sont portées par les acteurs territoriaux qui sont soutenus par des organismes étrangers de coopération internationale.

The island of Djerba is a tourist destination in the southeastern semi-arid region of Tunisia. Especially during peak tourism seasons, it experiences severe pressure on its water supply. Given the island’s historical water scarcity, locals have developed solutions to address the shortage, with one of the most notable being the rainwater harvesting and storage system. This system has evolved intricately over time, with meticulous attention to construction details, material selection, maintenance, and management strategies. This article posits that embracing and disseminating traditional rainwater harvesting knowledge can play a pivotal role in achieving sustainable water management. It also raises the question of whether fostering cultural heritage through a sustainable tourism orientation, aimed at highlighting heritage, aligns with this objective.