BADOMEL. Melhoun poetry database

Over the past years of research and data collection conducted within various CRASC institutional projects and National Research Programmes (PNR), we have accumulated a substantial body of data on popular poets of the Maghreb. These data consist primarily of an almost exhaustive bibliography on the subject, as well as previously unpublished manuscript archives. An initial processing of our bibliographical resources enabled us to produce a Dictionary of Poetry and Popular Poets in the Maghreb as part of the most recent PNR.

In parallel, and within the same framework, we made use of the material and financial resources made available to us to initiate a large-scale digitisation project of these manuscript archives.

At this stage of our research trajectory, we felt the need to integrate all of these data into a computerised research database capable of serving both as a tool for the consolidation and preservation of a rare and endangered type of archive, and as an accessible and user-friendly research instrument. Making available to future researchers first-hand material collected in the field — given the well-known difficulties involved in gathering such documents — and which remains largely unexplored, is our primary concern in terms of enhancing and disseminating the work carried out over these many years. It should be noted that this project is unprecedented and represents a novelty across the Maghreb and the Arab world as a whole.