The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encourages public understanding of the region and its peoples through programs, publications and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom in accordance with its status as a 501(c)(3) scientific, educational, literary, and charitable organization. Work include: The Incoherence of the Philosophers, The Deliverance From Error Al-munqidh min al-all, The Revival of Religious Sciences Ihya. MESA is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors elected by the membership. Source: Al-Ghazali, Deliverance from error: An annotated translation of: al-Munqidh min al Dalal, 3rd edition, 2006, p54 Eventually, his depression became so severe that Al-Ghazali felt that he was left with no other alternative but to leave his status in Baghdad in pursuit of ‘that which would restore peace to his heart’. An awards program recognizes scholarly achievement, service to the profession and exemplary student mentoring. It is responsible for the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the premiere journal on the region, the MESA Review of Middle East Studies and a biannual newsletter.
The association is a constituent society of the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Council of Area Studies Associations, and a member of the National Humanities Alliance.Īs part of its goal to advance learning, facilitate communication and promote cooperation, MESA sponsors an annual meeting that is a leading international forum for scholarship, intellectual exchange and pedagogical innovation. From its inception in 1966 with 50 founding members, MESA has increased its membership to more than 2,700 and now serves as an umbrella organization for more than sixty institutional members and thirty-nine affiliated organizations. Other regions, including Spain, Southeastern Europe, China and the former Soviet Union, also are included for the periods in which their territories were parts of the Middle Eastern empires or were under the influence of Middle Eastern civilization. MESA is primarily concerned with the area encompassing Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Israel, Pakistan, and the countries of the Arab World from the seventh century to modern times. After the young Ghazali had spent some years of study under the greatest theologian of the age, al-Juwayni, Imam al-Haramayn, his outstanding intellectual gifts were noted by Nizam al-Mulk, the all-powerful vizier of the Turkish sultan who ruled the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad, and he appointed him professor at the university he had founded in the capital. The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is a private, non-profit learned society that brings together scholars, educators and those interested in the study of the region from all over the world.