The Major Lacuna in Palestinian historiography is the lack of social and economic histories, especially for the Ottoman period.

Sijillāt al-maḥākim airshar‘īya (records of the Islamic religious courts), preserved in the major cities and towns of historic Palestine, are local Palestinian archives which can go a long way towards filling this gap. These records, some of which date from the first decades of the Ottoman occupation to the present, are akin to a people’s history. Literally hundreds of volumes illustrate in a concrete and detailed manner nearly every aspect of daily human interaction – be it in the personal, social, economic, religious, or administrative fields.

In the past fifteen years, the MESA Bulletin has published numerous reports about research facilities in various Middle East countries, including several on Arab states (Zartman 1970; Williams 1970; Brown, Rollman, and Waterbury 1970; Coury 1971; Raccagni and Simmons 1972; Hudson 1972; Bechtold 1973, Zghal and Karoui 1973; Miller 1973; Hale and Hale 1975; Rassam 1976; Mandaville 1979; Anderson 1980; Reinhart 1980; Clancy-Smith 1984; Crystal 1984). None of these, however, has focused on doing survey research in the region. In part, this seemed to indicate a lack of interest in, and/or feasibility for, carrying out this type of research. In fact, when in 1973 MESA members were asked to share with their colleagues the data from surveys they had carried out, only twenty-one individuals responded, and in only nine cases were there survey data gathered in Arab states (“A Preliminary Listing …” 1974). Since then, the situation has improved somewhat. Thus, Palmer et al. (1982) have compiled an analytical index detailing more than 350 studies using survey research techniques in different Arab countries. Also in 1983, an international conference on the evaluation and application of survey research in the Arab world was held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy. The Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation sponsored the conference, which was attended by twenty-four individuals from the United States and seven Arab countries. A book based on the papers and proceedings of the conference will be published soon, edited by Tessler et al. (forthcoming).

In Recent Years and on several occasions Eugen Wirth (1977; 1983a; 1983b), probably the leading German geographer on the Near and Middle East, has given critical evaluations and assessments of German geography related to the Near and Middle East. One of his findings, published in a volume by the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), on the state of art of research in the Federal Republic of Germany reads as follows: “Thus one may possibly say that the geographical Middle East research of the Federal Republic of Germany in terms of number and breadth, as well as in terms of contents and depth of its publications, may be considered internationally leading” (Wirth 1983a; translated by E. E.).