Princeton University Library is home to one of the most significant North American collections of pre-modern and modern Near Eastern materials. The Near East Collections gained prominence with a remarkable collection of manuscripts from the Islamic world assembled and donated to Princeton by Robert Garrett (class of 1897) in 1942. At over 16,000 titles within 10,000 volumes, this is the largest collection of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish manuscripts in North America, but this manuscript collection is but one part of the overall collections of the Near East.
Researchers utilizing the Near East Collections at Princeton have access to over 540,000 Arabic books, 140,000+ Turkish books with over 11,000 of those in Ottoman Turkish, 130,000+ Persian books, and over 215,000 Hebrew books, as well as numerous books about the Near East and the Islamic world in English, German, French, and other languages. These collections, which also encompass those of our partner institutions in ReCAP, our offsite storage facility shared with Columbia University, the New York Public Library, and Harvard University, are constantly growing. Additionally, the Near East Collections include maps, coins, visual material, music, videos, databases and other formats from and/or about the region. We welcome you to explore and utilize these resources and reach out to our Near Eastern Studies librarian, Deborah Schlein, with any questions.
Along with a rich collection of primary and secondary sources, the Princeton University Library (PUL) is staffed by extremely helpful expert librarians. Do not hesitate to reach out to any of them, they are here to help! See the subject librarian directory to find the personnel available for help or support: Subject Librarians
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