Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies Volume 47 2017: Papers from the fiftieth meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held at the British Museum, London, 29 to 31 July 2016

The Seminar for Arabian Studies is the principal international academic forum for research on the Arabian Peninsula. First convened in 1968, it is the only annual academic event for the study of the Arabian Peninsula that brings together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss current fieldwork and the latest research. The Seminar covers an extensive range of diverse subjects that include anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art, epigraphy, ethnography, history, language, linguistics, literature, numismatics, theology, and more besides, from the earliest times to the present day or, in the fields of political and social history, to around the end of the Ottoman Empire (1922). The Seminar meets for three days each year, with an ever-increasing number of participants coming from around the globe to attend. In 2016 the fiftieth meeting took place, in which sixty papers and posters were presented in London at the British Museum, where this prestigious event has been hosted since 2002. The Seminar also regularly hosts a special session focusing on a specific aspect of the Humanities on the Arabian Peninsula, enabling a range of experts to present their research to a wider audience. In 2016 this special session was entitled ‘Textiles and Personal Adornment in the Arabian Peninsula’, which provided a fascinating overview of research on dress, textiles, and adornment in the Middle East.