Links to Middle East Studies Resources

Abdul Hamid II Collection. This monumental collection portrays the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II. The 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire, featuring images of educational facilities and students; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included.

Arabic Collections Online: A publicly available digital library of public domain Arabic language content. ACO currently provides digital access to 10,042 volumes across 6,265 subjects drawn from rich Arabic collections of distinguished research libraries.

JSTOR Open Content on Middle East. More than 6,500 Open Access ebooks from 90 publishers, including Brill, Cornell University Press, De Gruyter, and University of California Press, are now available for free from JSTOR. On Middle East topics, there are more than 90 000 search resource available including primary source contents (images, serials, etc.), journals, book chapters and research reports.

Library of Congress Webcast Related to Near East Studies. Library of Congress Webcasts are talks (2010-2019) given by experts on various topics which include scribal practices in texts found in the Judean Desert, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syro-Palestine, Anatolia, Turfan and Khurasan . Other interesting topics are how Persian manuscripts contribute to the study of language, literature, culture and art history and a lot more.

National Security Archive. Files on the Middle East and South Asia provide a valuable insight into US policy particularly regarding Iran and Iraq. Documents available include the Future of Iraq project, the Secret CIA History of the Iran Coup in 1953, the October War and US Policy, and the September 11th Sourcebooks which give a unique view of America’s War on Terror.

Princeton University Library have produced digital versions of their four major Islamic manuscript catalogues (1938-87) as well as A Preliminary Checklist of Uncatalogued Islamic Manuscripts.

Proquest Database Middle East and Africa. The Middle East & Africa Database features ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in the countries of these regions.

FIHRIST Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World. FIHRIST is a free on-line catalogue for manuscript descriptions. This is a combined holdings of the contributing Libraries of the UK are of considerable intellectual and cultural significance. All participating libraries have been selectively collecting manuscripts from all subject areas, and of various geographical origins, dating from the 7th to the 19th century CE. If a digital copy of a works exists on-line, a link is provided and maintained by the institution holding the manuscript. To request digital copies, or contact the institution directly, you may use the field Comment on this record at the bottom of every description.

Wellcome Library Haddad Manuscript Collection catalogue. Prepared by Nikolaj Serikoff, this collection contain an array of topics relating to health and the human experience in many forms, from recently published books to historical manuscripts and objects.