Editor’s Digest February 2025: Middle Eastern Studies 

Welcome to the latest edition of the Editor’s Digest. My name is Maria S. Thomas, and I have been the Editor for Middle Eastern Studies since the beginning of this academic year.

I am a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam where I work on the visual and material cultures of medieval Levantine Christian communities. My research integrates computational and digital methodologies with traditional art historical and historical approaches to explore how medieval Eastern Christians used inscribed objects and spaces to construct and articulate notions of community. My research interests include the materiality of pre-modern writing, textual networks and translation cultures, as well as the application of digital methodologies to study the epigraphic traditions of Syriac communities.

I have had the privilege of facilitating the publication of five posts for Middle Eastern Studies so far. These posts highlight the innovative application of digital tools, including Machine Learning, in the study of Middle Eastern textual, visual, and material cultures.

In his post “Artificial Intelligence Gemini for Garshuni,” Ephrem Ishac explores the use of Google Gemini for transcribing and translating Garshuni—Syriac written in Arabic script. Although AI, and Gemini specifically, has made strides in processing Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni, Ephrem advocates for further refinements and training of AI models to enhance their effectiveness in handling Garshuni texts.

Illyes Mechentel authored the next post, “At the Dawn of Digital Studies on Arabic Script in France,” which discusses the transformative impact of digital technologies on the study of Arabic manuscripts, paralleling advancements previously seen in Latin and French paleography. He provides a non-exhaustive list of projects that integrate digital tools in the study of Arabic paleography.

This was followed by another post by Ephrem Ishac, titled “Recent Advancements: Unlocking Syriac and Arabic Texts on Archive.org.” In it, Ishac discusses recent developments in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) that have made extracting and searching right-to-left texts easier. These advancements further establish Archive.org as an important and powerful resource for scholars and students working with Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni material.

The last post for 2024 from Middle Eastern Studies was Aida Alavi’s “Visualizing the Heavens: A Glimpse into the Max Planck Institute’s Database on Astral Knowledge.” It introduces the Visualization and Material Culture of the Heavens Database (VoH Database) and provides a glimpse into its extensive collection of cosmic imagery from various cultures across Eurasia and North Africa, spanning from 4000 BCE to 1700 CE.

Kicking off the new year, we featured an exciting post by Ephrem Ishac announcing the release of the first public Syriac HTR model on the Transkribus platform. Developed during the HTR Winter School 2024 in Vienna and trained on a 16th-century Syriac Serto manuscript, this model offers a valuable tool for transcribing and studying Syriac manuscripts.

These posts highlight the growing role of digital technologies, particularly Machine Learning, in the study of Middle Eastern languages and written artifacts. Advances in OCR and HTR have made it easier for scholars and students to explore, transcribe, and translate textual resources. Additionally, these tools and skills underscore the importance of collaboration both within and beyond Middle Eastern Studies. Future posts from the team will continue to explore and expand on these developments.