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Middle Eastern and North African Studies

Resources relevant for the study of the Middle East (Southwest Asia) and North Africa from the ancient to the modern period

Learned Societies in Near Eastern Studies (compiled by Jonathan Rodgers)

International Congress of Asian and North African Studies

This series began life under the briefer title International Congress of Orientalists. It has endured at least two breakaway movements, and two name changes, during its long existence. The temporary change to "Human Sciences" may have been prompted by respect for the Japanese term "jimbun kagaku." The inclusion of North Africa from 1976 onwards chiefly legitimizes the addition of Egypt to other Islamic subjects. 

Name changes:

  • International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS) (1984-)
  • International Congress of Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa (1976-1983)
  • International Congress of Orientalists (1873-1973)

Conference proceedings have not invariably been published. Names and venues have been as follows.

International Congress of Orientalists
I (1873) Paris
II (1874) London
III (1876) St Petersburg
IV (1878) Florence
V (1881) Berlin
VI (1883) Leiden
VII (1886) Vienna
VIII (1889) Stockholm and Christiana
IX (1892) London
X (1894) Geneva
XI (1897) Paris
XII (1899) Rome
XIII (1902) Hamburg
XIV (1905) Algiers
XV (1908) Copenhagen
XVI (1912) Athens
A long interval follows, for WW1 and its aftermath
XVII (1928) Oxford
XVIII (1931) Leiden
XIX (1935) Rome
XX (1938) Brussels
Another interval, for WW2
XXI (1948) Paris
It was in this same year that the first of the breakaway Junior Sinologues meetings was held in Cambridge and London
XXII (1951) Istanbul
XXIII (1954) Cambridge
XXIV (1957) Munich
XXV (1960) Moscow
XXVI (1964) New Delhi
Several Indian scholars, distressed at the scant space given to Sanskrit at this Congress, petitioned the Indian Ministry of Education to establish an alternative venue. The result was the first International Sanskrit Conference in March 1972.
XXVII (1967) Ann Arbor
XXVIII (1971) Canberra
The first of the breakaway World Sanskrit Conferences meets in New Delhi in March 1972
XXIX Paris 1973
At this meeting, Sanskritists agreed to form the International Association for Sanskrit Studies, with the mandate to organize a series of World Sanskrit Conferences at different venues.
International Congress of Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa
XXX (1976) Mexico City
XXXI (1983) Tokyo and Kyoto
International Congress for Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS)
XXXII (1984) Hamburg
XXXIII (1990) Toronto
XXXIV (1993) Hong Kong
XXXV (1997) Budapest
XXXVI (2000) Montréal
XXXVII (2004) Moscow
ICANAS-38: 38th ICANAS Ankara, Turkey in September 10-15, 2007.