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Near Eastern and Islamic Studies

Primary Source Search Options

Databases by Subject: Near Eastern Studies

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Primary Source Databases and Collections divided by Access

Princeton University Library

Princeton University Library’s Arabic Movie Posters and Lobby Cards Collection was acquired in Lebanon in 2008 and is comprised of 1,748 posters and 768 lobby cards.

The Early Arabic Printed Works project showcases thirteen of Princeton University Library’s Arabic printed items from Europe and the Islamic world, selected from a collection of more than sixty books produced between the years 1500 and 1800. These publications represent the development of Arabic movable type and its usages in the early modern period. Featured are dictionaries, religious tracts, grammars, and geographies printed in Arabic with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac explications of the Arabic text.

While the Princeton's Manuscripts of the Islamic World selections emphasize rare or unique texts of academic research interest, it also includes a selection of Persian illuminated manuscripts and Mughal miniatures, such as a magnificent 18th-century Indian album of miniatures and calligraphy.

Manuscripts of the Islamic World offers a curated selection of extraordinary manuscripts hosted or held by Princeton University Library. The manuscripts are predominantly in Arabic, but there are also many in Persian and Ottoman Turkish. To learn more about the collection, visit the Manuscripts of the Islamic World at Princeton University Library libguide.

The purpose of this series is to provide reasonably priced translations into English of Middle Eastern sources. The first volume to appear is a partial translation of Kâtip Çelebi’s Tuhfet ül-Kibar fi Esfar il-Bihar, or The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks, a seventeenth-century account of Ottoman naval history from the conquest of Constantimople to the author’s death in 1657. The second volume is an edition of Heinz Halm’s The Arabs: A Short History, which has been expanded to include the addition of 150 pages of annotated documents. The third volume is a collection of fatwas on Muslims living under non-Muslim rule.

This set of pages points to reliable English translations of the sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A few of these texts are available online. Most of them are in print and all are available through the Princeton University Library. Locations, call numbers, and links to the SearchIt Books+ catalog are included.

Digital artwork created by protesters in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran and the Iranian diaspora and posted online, these materials were collected with artists' consent to be showcased in this digital space. Explore the artists and their artwork at this digital collection site.

The Middle Eastern and North African Ephemera (MENAE) collection consists of ephemeral materials in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and other languages of these regions. The collection includes items in diverse formats, such as posters, broadsides, newspapers, cards, and artwork.

The Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Initiative (YMDI) is a collective of leading scholars of classical Islam, Middle Eastern history, and Arabic Literature from North America, Europe, and the Middle East whose mission is to preserve the Arabic manuscripts in the private libraries of Yemen.

This digital exhibition showcases numismatic evidence from the Cairo Geniza. They are all preserved in the Princeton Numismatic Collection and the images of documents are from the Geniza collections of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Cambridge University Library.

This database includes fourteen manuscripts containing different versions of Sefer Hasidim and its fragments.

Primary Source Databases 

From Brill's Primary Sources database, this remarkable collection demonstrates the impact of the holy book of Islam in Europe. Long before printing with movable type became common practice in the Islamic world, Korans had been printed in Arabic type in several European cities. The collection includes Korans and Koran translations, printed between 1537 and 1857, and is of interest to book historians, theologians, philologists, and scholars of Islamic Studies alike.

The world’s foremost private collection of early and rare Hebraica housed in the Valmadonna Trust Library is the basis for this collection. It comprises a resource for the study of oriental printing, Hebrew liturgical history, Judeo-Arabic literature, and the history and culture of the most ancient Jewish Diaspora community. All of these bibliographic treasures are reproduced here for the first time.

Access more than 76,000 documents from nongovernmental human rights organizations (NGOs) such as Arab Organization for Human Rights, Central American Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared, Association of African Women for Research and Development, The World Health Organization (WHO), and nearly 700 others worldwide. Timely topics such as public health climate change, children’s rights, and technology, are among the 300 subject areas covered in the database.

This collection introduces the uniquely varied and poorly explored Russian Muslim population during one of the most dynamic periods of their history (1861-1918). It presents works written by and about Muslims. The value of this heritage is especially clear now that the historical and spiritual past of Muslims in Russia is being actively reconsidered.

Brill presents a unique collection of rare primary sources on a vital and dynamic part of the history of Turkey, Russia, the Middle East and Western Europe. These sources provide detailed insights not only in the military ebb and flow of Russian-Ottoman relations, but also in their effects on European public opinion.

Brill hosts four major digitized collections of Middle Eastern Manuscripts: 1) Pioneer Orientalists: this includes manuscripts from the Scliger, Golius, and Raphelengius Collections at Leiden University Library, 2) The Ottoman Legacy of Levinus Warner: Ottoman, Arabic, and Persian volumes from the Warner Collection, 3) Arabic Manuscripts from the Hungarian Academy, and 4) The Shangoda Collections from Dagestan: manuscripts in Arabic and Persian

Digital library of early printed books in Arabic script. Covering religious literature, law, science, mathematics, astrology, alchemy, medicine, geography, travel, history, chronicles, and literature, and including European translations of Arabic works and Arabic translations of European books, it exemplifies the long exchange of ideas and learning between Europe and the Arabic-speaking world, 1475-1900.

Digital edition of the Goldsmiths'-Kress collections of books on that document economic and business activity in the West, from 1450 to 1945. Materials include books, pamphlets and ephemera and cover a broad range of topics in political science, history, sociology, and banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing.

Daily email newsletter of concise, translated briefs covering some of the key political, cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing in the media of the 22 Arab countries, Iran and the Arab Diaspora.

Researchers will find a wealth of unique content from the Middle East and North Africa, much of which has never been digitized or available as open access material. Content in the Middle Eastern & North African Newspapers collection is predominantly in Arabic, but also includes key titles in English and French. The collection comprises mostly out-of-copyright, orphaned content.

Provides access to legal content (including legislation, case law and more) from several Arab countries including Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority-Administered Territories (plus several Gulf States are scheduled to be added). Most of the content is in Arabic, but some English translation is provided. To access, select "Direct Login" below login boxes after you authenticate. Alternatively, you can register for a personal account using your Princeton NETID.

Open Access External Databases 

An online archive of photographs from the Middle East and North Africa, Akkasah explores the histories and contemporary practices of photography in the region. Akkasah investigates these histories and practices of documentary, vernacular, and art photography in the Middle East and North Africa in dialogue with other photographic cultures and traditions from around the world.

Searchable digital database comprising information about, as well as transliterations and pictures of, all the Turkish, Arabic and Persian architectural inscriptions created in the Ottoman lands during Ottoman times.

The purpose of the Filāḥa Texts Project is to publish, translate and elucidate the written works collectively known as the Kutub al-Filāḥa or ‘Books of Husbandry’ compiled by Arab, especially Andalusi, agronomists mainly between the 10th and 14th centuries.

Created in March 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, the Archive documents regional, social responses to the pandemic, which are critical in understanding the scope of the pandemic’s humanitarian, socioeconomic, and cultural impact. Includes material from the Middle East and North Africa. Check out the Research guide to the Global Social Responses to Covid-19 Web Archive for more information.

This web archive preserves material on, about, and from the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of Iran, which emerged in the wake of the 2022 police killing of Mahsa Jîna Amini. 

Provides a pilot study of the Islamic history in Africa as it is reflected in the literary traditions of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia). The database searches for texts, manuscripts, and people (names).

Information portal for Middle East and Islamic Studies which provides access to online information and to digital records of printed and other offline media. Created by the State- and University Library of Saxony-Anhalt in Halle, Germany and integrates the efforts of many institutions and individuals.

This overview aims at assisting in locating relevant sources for those doing research on, in particular, the (late) Ottoman Empire and the early Republic of Turkey. Some sources of a later date are also added. It is meant to be used not only by experienced researchers, but also, and even more so, by young and new researchers or even prospective researchers and students.

This archive sheds light on the different aspects of Palestinian life, history, and legacy. It includes documents including identification papers, official records, letters, diaries, manuscripts, maps, photographs, films, and audio recordings that were under threat of loss, damage, or confiscation. These items have been digitized and made widely available on this website, which is open for users inside Palestine and abroad in Arabic and English.