Opening the Closet

The Essay provides space for scholars to present peer-reviewed research in a manner that uses data studies and critical reflection as occasions for advancing currents in the broader academic study of religion. We are pleased to bring you two such pieces in this issue. Maroun El Houkayem looks at the Smith Sisters’ work in cataloging Syriac manuscripts and looking at the West’s view of the Middle East. El Houkayem brings to light the ways in which archives, and those who control and create them, redirect anyone looking for them, to not see the ways in which these works are preserved and why they are preserved, but only that they are saved.