Lancaster Middle East expert to judge book prize

Gerd Nonneman, reader in Politics and International Relations is to be on the panel of judges for the £10,000 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies.

A prize, or prizes, to a total of £10,000 will be awarded for the best book on a Middle Eastern subject, published in its first English edition during 2000.

Last year's prize-winners were Andrew George for The Epic of Gilgamesh (Allen Lane, The Penguin Press) and Julie Scott Meissami for Persian Historiography (Edinburgh University Press). Previous winners include Yezid Sayigh for 'Armed Struggle and the Search for State' (Oxford University Press) and 'Islamic Inscriptions' by Sheila Blair (Edinburgh University Press).

The Prize is administered by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, For which Dr Gerd Nonneman is an Executive Director

This year, the field was again very strong, with some 30 books being submitted from around 15 publishers. Sir Roger Tomkys will announce this year's winner or winners at the award ceremony at the Playfair Library, University of Edinburgh on the 17th July.

BRISMES, was founded in 1973 to encourage and promote the study of the Middle East in the United Kingdom and beyond. It brings together teachers, researchers, diplomats, journalists and others who deal professionally with or who have an interest in the Middle East.

Other judges are Dr Noel Brehony, President of BRISMES, Dr Charles Melville (Cambridge) and Dr Ahmed Al-Mokadem on behalf or the Abdullah Moubarak Trust, under the Chairmanship of Sir Roger Tomkys, Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge and a former President of BRISMES.

The award is administered by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) and funded by the Abdullah Moubarak Trust. Shaikh Mubarak Abdullah al Sabah will represent the Trust.