Middle East and North African Studies

"The Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) offers free and open access to the rich cultural legacy of the Middle East and North Africa by bringing together collections from a wide range of cultural heritage institutions."
Includes manuscripts, photography, serials, etc. from institutions such as universities, archives, Library of Congress, and more.

"The Middle East Materials Project (MEMP) preserves collections in digital and microform format of unique, rare, hard to obtain, and often expensive research material for Middle East studies. It also preserves deteriorating printed and manuscript scholarly materials. The geographic scope of MEMP coverage includes Arab countries, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and related areas not covered by other cooperative materials projects."
This page contains guides to large/prominent collections within MEMP. For all materials, search the full CRL catalog here: https://catalog.crl.edu/

"The African & Middle Eastern Division has an on-going effort, in cooperation with the Library’s digitization initiative and external partners, to digitize select items from its collections of high research value. Many items in the digital collections are rare materials, some of which are the most valuable titles and editions dating back to the 11th or 12th century and are the only extant copies in the world. Also included are contemporary materials in the public domain that cover all manner of topics and offer insights into the study of multiple facets of African, Jewish and Near Eastern countries and peoples."

"One of the world’s largest online repositories devoted to Middle Eastern history and culture, Qatar Digital Library provides anyone free online access to a wealth of historical source materials on the politics, people, places, trade, culture and customs of the Gulf region and the wider Middle East. It includes archives, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings, visual arts and much more, complete with contextualized explanatory articles and links, in both English and Arabic."

"The Arabian Gulf Digital Archives (“AGDA”) is an online archive that has been created to showcase historical and cultural material that tells the story of the rich, intriguing and complex history of the Arabian Gulf. An accessible resource, it serves to offer digital material that spans two centuries, documenting events and personalities that have shaped and defined the region. The contents offer an insight into the past with some material previously unseen by the general public. AGDA contains, among other things, letters, memos, transcripts, photos and official correspondence from leaders and governments that shaped the events of their time. It’s a free and open resource for students, researchers, enthusiasts and anyone who is curious to explore the rich and varied past of the Arabian Gulf."

"The Library's Archives Department houses over 1000 personal archives, the majority of which bear testimony to the activities of outstanding Jewish personalities from a wide variety of spheres: writers and poets, humanists, rabbis, Zionist leaders, scientists, journalists, critics and others. The Library is also in possession of a small number of institutional archives, for example that of the Israel Folklore Society (Yeda Am) and various community archives. The materials contained... are in a wide variety of languages, including Hebrew, Yiddish, German, English, Russian and French."

"NAHAN is a new international project aimed at creating a platform for documents from archaeological archives held in a series of European and North African institutions...Our aim is to provide a resource for all those who hold archives on North African archaeology and wish to make them public, or to provide for their long-term preservation, as well as for scholars who wish to study them."
Includes photographs, notebooks/manuscripts, research documents, etc.

"The Palestinian Museum Digital Archive was launched to collect various documents including identification papers, official records, letters, diaries, manuscripts, maps, photographs, films, and audio recordings that were under threat of loss, damage, or confiscation. Such items were digitized and made widely available on a website open for users inside Palestine and abroad in Arabic and English, to shed light on the different aspects of Palestinian life, history, and legacy."

Collection of digitized documents from various governments and international bodies (including the United Nations) relating to the Middle East from roughly 1916-2003. These include white papers, treaties/official ceremony records, resolutions, etc.

Research institute at Columbia University housing several digital archival projects dedicated to the preservation of Palestinian culture and history. Includes manuscripts, photography, maps, oral histories, etc.

"Explorer, writer, archaeologist, and colonial diplomat Gertrude Bell (1868 - 1926) witnessed and recorded events of significant geopolitical importance throughout her life. The role she played in these events and her experiences of travelling throughout Europe, East Asia and the Middle East in the early 20th century are documented within her extensive archive, held at Newcastle University. This website contains a comprehensive and unique resource of newly digitised images of Bell’s photographs, letters, and diary entries, presented alongside transcriptions and other contextual information. It also contains a bespoke map interface which allows users to view Bell’s archive in modern and historical geographic contexts. This interface includes curated stories which provide ‘deep dives’ into narratives within the archive. In 2017, the archive was added to UNESCO’s International Memory of the World register in recognition of its global significance as a heritage resource."

"The Islamic Manuscripts Collection covers subjects including the Qur’an and its sciences, hadith, theology, jurisprudence (fiqh), Sufism, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, rhetoric, grammar, poetry, history, geography, and medicine.
It consists of more than 1,100 volumes, plus a small number of fragments, dating from the 8th to the early 20th century and containing roughly 1,800 texts primarily in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish. The collection ranks among the largest and most significant such collections in North America."

"The MENAdoc - Digital Collections is one of the central components of the DFG Specialised Information Service for Middle East, North African and Islamic Studies' digital services. MENAdoc provides Open Access digital documents with regard to the MENA-region and to Islamic studies."

"TIMEA provides online access to texts, maps, and images documenting travel to the Middle East (primarily Egypt) between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These materials range from travel guides, travel narratives, and museum catalogs to stereocards, advertisements and postcards.To facilitate access and analysis, the texts are fully searchable, and the images are richly described."

"Yale University holds a wide array of images from the Middle East across its encyclopedic collections. Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) has manuscript paintings from early modern Iran and India, and strong holdings in textiles, ceramics, photography and contemporary art. 18th- and 19th-century highlights include objects that document British travels through the Middle East from the Yale Center for British Art and the Lewis Walpole Library. Sterling Memorial Library offers visual resources from books and periodicals published in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, while the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library houses numerous scientific manuscripts. Beinecke Library's renowned rare book and manuscript collections encompass resources from Safavid Shahnama manuscripts to 20th-century field photographs. Included among the Peabody Museum of Natural History’s collection are archaeological objects from the Islamic world. Artstor also includes the YUAG Gerasa and Dura-Europos collections."

"The Arabic Papyrology Database (APD) gives you access to editions of and research on pre-modern Arabic documents written on papyrus, parchment, paper, etc., an often untapped treasure for almost every aspect of the Islamicate World from the 7th up to the 16th century CE."

"The Emir Farid Chehab Collection offers unparalleled insights into Lebanese history and the broader Middle East during a transformative era. Comprising nearly 2,000 files from the personal archives of Emir Farid Chehab, Lebanon’s chief of intelligence (Sûreté Générale) from 1948 to 1958 and long-time diplomat, this collection features police reports, wiretap transcripts, diplomatic correspondence, personal notes, and diaries. Spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s, the papers document critical moments in the region's history, providing an insider’s view of Lebanese politics, foreign relations, and society."

UN organization dedicated to relief and advocacy efforts targeting displaced Palestinian refugees. This archive collects photos and films from UNRWA's work in the 20th century and up into the 21st.

"The Iranian Oral History Project is a unique resource for the study of modern Iranian history. The collection consists of the personal accounts of 134 individuals who played major roles in or were eyewitnesses to important political events in Iran from the 1920s to the 1980s. Of these, 118 narratives have been digitized and are available to researchers through this database. The collection provides scholars and practitioners the opportunity to listen to and read the personal accounts of many of Iran's former political leaders as they recall the times and events that shaped their lives and the life of their country."

"Beginning in 2010, JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) launched an Oral History Program in California to record and preserve the memories of Jews born in the Arab world and Iran. Inspired and guided by Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation Institute, the project gives former Mizrahi and Sephardic refugees an opportunity to assert and preserve their personal histories and rich traditions in the countries their ancestors lived for over 2,500 years. JIMENA witnesses document their stories of positive memories as well as human rights abuses, displacement and integration in new societies. For many participants, this is the first time they have talked openly about their experiences as Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa."

"The MMETOHP began in Fall 2021...the MMETOHP is interested in the Middle East as a whole and in the experiences of anyone who traveled there regardless of any heritage ties. Rather early on in the project we realized that we going have more expansive definitions of both "Michigan" and "the Middle East." Sometimes it was only the interviewer that was based in Michigan. And some of our interviewees have roots in, or have traveled to, what is sometimes called the Greater Middle East: Eastern Europe, North Africa, South Asia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. This project implicity, and quite explicitly at times, underscores the Detroit Metropolitan area as global site with a myriad of connections to the rest of the world, including the Middle East."

"Middle East Women’s Activism digital archive is a collection of interviews with 96 women of different generations in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon...in 2013-2014 as part of a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship exploring the relationship between gender and geopolitics in the context of the Middle East. The interviews consist of women’s personal narratives of their family background and education, how they became involved in public work (al-‘amal al-‘am), information about their activism and how it has changed over time and the impact of/their involvement in major national events, amongst other details."

"The Palestinian Oral History Archive is a project to digitize, index, catalog, preserve, and provide access (through a searchable digital platform) to an archival collection of around 1,000 hours of testimonies with first generation Palestinians and other Palestinian communities in Lebanon. POHA documents the life stories of Palestinians residing in refugee camps and different communities in Lebanon. The Archive's main focus is personal accounts surrounding the Nakba, a defining moment in Palestinian history and collective experience. Furthermore, the collection contains life narratives of the pre-Nakba period in pre-1948 Palestine, folktales and songs, as well as stories of the women in Ein el-Helwe camp after its destruction in 1982."