Aceh BooksThis digital collection offers full-text access to more than 1200 publications on Aceh, the province located at the northern end of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. The books form part of the collection of the Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden which is kept at the Leiden University Library. The titles date from the 17th till the turn of the 21th century and are in a variety of languages such as Indonesian, Acehnese, English and Dutch. Due to copyright issues titles published after 1900 can only be accessed from desktop computers situated in the University Library.
Akis 1954-1967Archive of the Turkish weekly political magazine.
Al-Tafsīr (Arabic and English)This website provides access to the largest collection of Qur’anic Commentary (tafsir or tafseer), translation, recitation and essential resources in the world.
Arabic and Persian Medical Books and ManuscriptsThis digitized collection of selected volumes of medical books and manuscripts, dating from 1300 to 1921, is drawn from the Medical Historical Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. This collection reflects the Arabic and Persian intellectual efforts that translated, augmented, and transmitted Greek and Roman medical knowledge to Western societies during the Renaissance. It includes iconic works by authors such as Avicenna and al-Razi.
The Dar al-MasnaviThe Masnavi is the great masterpiece of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi, who lived in the 13th century. The Masnavi consists of mainly of sufi teaching stories with profound mystical interpretations. This site also has information about the Whirling Prayer Ceremony (Sema) and the International Mevlana Foundation led by the hereditary leader of all Mevlevi sufis, the 22nd generation direct descendent of Mawlana Rumi and the 33rd Maqâm-i Chelebi. Below is a photo of Mevlana Rumi's tomb in Konya, Turkey.
Gertrude Bell ArchiveCopies of photos, diaries, and letters from Gertrude Bell, who traveled extensively in the Middle East during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Hakki Tarik US CollectionA digital archive of Ottoman periodicals, included in the Hakkı Tarık Us Collection, which is currently kept at the Beyazıt State Library in Istanbul.
The Internet Classics Archive at MITThis archive at MIT provides full-text collections of more than 400 works of classical literature. They are mainly Greco-Roman, but also include Chinese and Persian works.
The Internet Sacred Text ArchiveThe Internet Sacred Text Archive is a free internet archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, occult, and similar topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in original languages.
Islamic Manuscripts Collection at the University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, through HathiTrust Digital Library, has generously provided access to more than one thousand volumes for electronic viewing and full download as PDF. Log in is not required to view or download the manuscripts.
Persian Philological TextsThe South Asia Collection at Yale began in earnest in the 1840s after Prof. Edward Salisbury began teaching Sanskrit and consequently endowed the Edward E. Salisbury Professorship of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology. Through the Arcadia grant, the South Asia Collection at Yale University is expanding its digital presence. Twenty Persian philology books, some of which were signed by Salisbury himself, were cataloged, preserved, and digitized. These 20 older Persian philology texts range in date from 1726-1900, and either originate from India, are rare European translations, or are reprints. This unusual collection holds important information for any scholar interested in the literary aspects of the Mughal Empire in India or the history of Muslims in India.
Princeton Digital Library of Islamic ManuscriptsAs a result of generous support from the David A. Gardner '69 Magic Project, the Princeton University Library created Voyager cataloging records for most of the approximately 9,500 Islamic manuscripts in the Manuscripts Division, which are from Robert Garrett (Class of 1897) and other sources. This is the premier collection of Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, and other Islamic manuscripts in the Western Hemisphere. Initially, more than 200 of these manuscripts were digitized as the core of the Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts. Separate support from the the Virginia and Richard Stewart Memorial Fund, through the Princeton University Council of the Humanities, has supported digitization of an additional 1,400 other Islamic manuscripts from existing black-and-white microfilm, produced in the 1970s with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Title II-C. The manuscripts digitized from microfilm include all texts (chiefly New Series) on Shia law and theology; texts related to other non-Sunni sects, such as the Druze and Kharijites; and more than 750 other manuscripts (Garrett Yahuda Series) on a variety of subjects. Also added are PDFs of Islamic manuscripts digitized in response to photoduplication requests. In all, approximately a sixth of the Library's Islamic manuscripts have now been digitized and put online for the benefit of scholars worldwide.
Svoboda Diaries ProjectThe Joseph Mathia Svoboda diaries capture over 40 years of trade on the Tigris, life, politics, and the landscape of Ottoman Iraq through the perspective of a British steamship purser with a rich family history and local connections.
Yemeni Manuscript Digitization IntiativeThe private manuscript libraries of Yemen, estimated at 50,000 codices, constitutes the largest and most important set of unexamined Arabic manuscripts in the world today. The Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Initiative presents, for the first time, access to manuscripts from three private libraries in Sanaa, Yemen, and virtually conjoins them to additional Yemeni manuscripts held by the Princeton University Library and Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. The texts in this archive were composed, copied, studied, and preserved by Zaydi scholars from the tenth century to the present. Zaydism is a leading school of Islam in Northern Yemen known for forms of rationalist theology that were abandoned in other regions. The Yemeni Manuscript Digitization Initiative is made possible by a Enriching Digital Collections Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The grant is administered by Princeton University Library and the Free University, Berlin in conjunction with a Yemeni NGO. Information on this grant and related projects to preserve and disseminate the manuscripts of Yemen can be found at ymdi.uoregon.edu.
المجموعات العربية الانترنت - Arabic Collections OnlineArabic Collections Online (ACO) is a publicly available digital library of public domain Arabic language content. ACO currently provides digital access to 7,908 volumes across 5,043 subjects drawn from rich Arabic collections of distinguished research libraries. Supported by New York University in Abu Dhabi, this mass digitization project aims to feature up to 23,000 volumes from the library collections of NYU and partner institutions. These institutions are contributing published books in all fields—literature, business, science, and more—from their Arabic language collections.
Ancient Middle East
Cuneiform Digital Library InitiativeAn archival library of cuneiform tablet collections from various universities, museums, and private collections. The site includes images of the tablets as well as information on their discovery and transliterations of the cuneiform into the English alphabet.
Digital Dead Sea ScrollsSearchable, high-resolution images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history.
Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives (ETANA)A multi-institutional collaborative electronic publishing project providing resources relevant to the study of the history and culture of the ancient Near East. ETENA Includes three databases: Abzu is a guide to resources relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world, including articles, websites, books and presentations. Core Texts includes digitized versions of ancient texts selected as valuable for teaching and research relating to ancient Near Eastern studies and eTact is a repository for translations of religious, legal, literary and historical works in the Akkadian language.
Papyri.infoIncludes the Papyrological Navigator, which supports searching, browsing, and aggregation of ancient papyrological documents and related materials and the Papyrological Editor, which enables multi-author, version controlled, peer reviewed scholarly curation of papyrological texts, translations, commentary, scholarly metadata, institutional catalog records, bibliography, and images.
Qatar Digital LibraryIncludes archives, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs and more, complete with contextualized explanatory notes and links, in both English and Arabic.
Egypt
Tahrir DocumentsMaterials gathered in and around Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, between March 2011 and May 2012.
Travelers in the Middle East ArchiveExtensive collection of images, texts, and maps documenting European and American travels to Egypt in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Iran
Persian Digital ArchiveGrowing archive of Persian historical deeds and documents, both published and unpublished.
Iranian Oral History ProjectPersonal accounts of over 100 individuals who played major roles in or were eyewitnesses to important political events in Iran from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Iran-Soviet RelationsContains Soviet documents related to Soviet-Iranian relations, Soviet interests in Iran, and Soviet support for the separatist movement in Iranian Azerbaijan.
Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran (Harvard University)Provides bilingual access to thousands of personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, publications, everyday objects, works of art and audio materials, relating to the lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925).
Iraqi Jewish ArchiveStartling evidence of the once vibrant Jewish life in Iraq came to light in May 2003 — over 2,700 books and tens of thousands of documents were discovered in the flooded basement of the Iraqi intelligence headquarters by a US Army team. The remarkable survival of this written record of Iraqi Jewish life provides an unexpected opportunity to better understand this 2,500-year-old Jewish community.
Targeting Iraq, Part 1: Planning, Invasion, and Occupation, 1997-2004 (via the Digital National Security Archive database)Documents on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, providing historical background on U.S. policy debates over Iraq dating to the Clinton administration; internal records that detail the Bush administration's decision-making leading to Operation Iraqi Freedom, including the controversial use of false intelligence to justify military action; materials that flesh out the campaign to build domestic and international support for the operation; and documentation covering the first 18 months of U.S.-led occupation.
Center for Palestine Studies ProjectsHoused at Columbia University, the collections include oral history projects, films, maps, digitized newspapers, and more.
JDC ArchivesOnline collections – and curated exhibits – from the records of the Jewish overseas rescue and relief organization. This rich trove of photos, artifacts, films, oral histories, name indexes is a valuable resource for the study of modern Jewish history.
National Library of Israel Digital CollectionsMain page for the National Library’s rich digital resources, including: Historical Jewish Press and Bibliography of the Hebrew Book, as well as the Visual Memory photo collection, and more.
Palestinian Digital ArchiveSite dedicated to documenting the life of Palestinians over the past century. Documents collected include texts, photographs, videos, and recordings.
Palestinian Oral History ArchiveA project to digitize, index, catalog, preserve, and provide access to an archival collection of around 1,000 hours of testimonies with first generation Palestinians and other Palestinian communities in Lebanon.
Recognition of the State of IsraelThe collection includes 87 documents totaling 351 pages covering the years 1943 through 1974. Supporting materials include photographs, oral history transcripts, audio clips and a chronology of events.
Abdul Hamid II Collection (via the Library of Congress)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.
The Afghanistan Digital Library at NYUThe Afghanistan Digital Library retrieves and restores works published in Afghanistan between 1870 and 1930. The long-term objective is to collect, catalogue, digitize, and provide access to as many of this period's publications as possible.
Arab Image FoundationThe Arab Image Foundation is a non-profit organization established in Beirut in 1997. Its mission is to collect, preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora.
The AIF’s expanding collection is generated through artist and scholar-led projects. The Foundation makes its collection accessible to the public through a wide spectrum of activities, including exhibitions, publications, videos, a website and an online image database.
The ongoing research and acquisition of photographs include so far Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Iran, Mexico, Argentina and Senegal. To date, the collection holds more than 600,000 photographs.
Digital Library of the Middle EastIn response to the tragic displacement of people and losses of life in conflict zones, and to ongoing threats to the cultural heritage of the Middle East through destruction, looting, and illegal trade, the Digital Library of the Middle East (DLME) proposes to federate Middle Eastern collections from around the world, creating a publicly accessible, seamlessly interoperable digital library of cultural material.
The DLME is a worldwide effort to federate all types of cultural heritage material, including archives, manuscripts, museum objects, media, and archaeological and intangible heritage collections. The core principle of our collaboration is that of service to partners and peoples across the Middle East and North Africa—to help reveal, share, honor, and protect collections of cultural materials and the living and historical cultures they represent.
Harvard Iranian Oral History ProjectThe Iranian Oral History Project (IOHP) 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.
Lenkin Family Collection of PhotographyOver 5,000 original photographs, primarily of Jerusalem and Palestine taken from 1850 to 1937. This photography collection is part of Penn Libraries' Holy Land Collections.
Iraqi Jewish ArchiveOver 2,700 books and tens of thousands of documents were discovered in the flooded basement of the Iraqi intelligence headquarters by a US Army team. The remarkable survival of this written record of Iraqi Jewish life provides an unexpected opportunity to better understand this 2,500-year-old Jewish community. Ceated by NARA and partners.
Islamic Heritage Project at HarvardThe Islamic Heritage Project (IHP) at Harvard University has cataloged, conserved, and digitized hundreds of Islamic manuscripts, maps, and published texts from Harvard's libraries and museum collections. These rare and unique materials are now freely available to Internet users worldwide. This online archive has digital copies of more than 280 manuscripts, 275 printed texts, and 50 maps, totaling more than 156,000 pages.
Jack G. Shaheen Collection on Arabs in U.S. Film and TelevisionDr. Jack G. Shaheen (1935-2017) was a professor, author, and consultant who dedicated his career to identifying and contesting stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims in American media. The Jack G. Shaheen Papers date from 1943 to 2012 and document Shaheen’s scholarly and popular writing and research in media analysis; his media accountability activism through the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); and his consultation work on legal cases as well as the entertainment industry. The collection includes printed and born-digital draft and revised writings, speeches, notes, research and subject files, reports, correspondence, and sound and video recordings of Shaheen’s speeches. The collection also contains material collected by Shaheen, including comic books; editorial cartoons; recordings of movies, television shows, and cartoons; magazines; posters; advertisements; toys; games; and other ephemera, which depict Arabs and Muslims in American popular culture and mass media from the late 19th to the 21st centuries.
Middle Eastern Film Posters Digitization InitiativePrinceton University Library’s Arabic Movie Posters and Lobby Cards Collection was acquired in 2008 from a Lebanese collector, Abdelmassih Abou-Jaoudeh of al-Furat Publishing and is comprised of 1,748 posters and 768 lobby cards. Egyptian posters predominate with 1,474, reflecting the unchallenged prominence of Egypt in the production of Arabic feature films. Some 150 posters are for Lebanese films, 113 Syrian and 11 Iraqi. The purpose of the posters was to advertize coming attractions, and they represent films produced from 1935 to 2007. Most of the posters are on standard Arab single-sheet size paper. However, many are on non-standard sheets. Similarly, there are posters that are composed on multiple sheets, including some on twenty-four sheets meant for display on the side of multi-story buildings. The lobbies cards, also for coming attractions and meant for display in theater lobbies, are composed of multiple still shots taken on movie sets and affixed to standard–sized cardboard. They represent 172 films produced in Egypt (145), Lebanon (13) and Syria (14) from 1964 to 2007.
Middle East Photograph Archive (University of Chicago)The Middle East Photograph Archive consists of over 400 photographic prints dating primarily to the second half of the nineteenth century. At this time, the spread of the art of photography and the influx of Europeans into the lands of the Middle East led to the creation of a large number of photographs produced by professional photographers. During these decades, the versatility of photography was enhanced through the development of a variety of chemical techniques, enabling photographers to produce images in relatively large numbers, intended chiefly to satisfy the tourism trade burgeoning in the Middle East and the European thirst for images of the Orient. The archive is particularly strong in photographs of nineteenth-century Cairo. Europeans were attracted to Egypt by its Pharaonic monuments, but once there, visitors came to appreciate Cairo as the largest and best-preserved medieval metropolis in the world. The scores of Islamic monuments built between the ninth and fifteenth centuries in and around Cairo provided a huge number of subjects for photography.
The Qatar Digital LibraryThe Qatar Digital Library (QDL) is making a vast archive featuring the cultural and historical heritage of the Gulf and wider region freely available online for the first time. It includes archives, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs and much more, complete with contextualised explanatory notes and links, in both English and Arabic.
Sultanate of Oman Electronic LibraryThe Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Oman recently published this collection of Ibadi manuscripts, newspapers, and other sources from Oman, Zanzibar, and the Mzab.
Available in Arabic, French, and English.
Tehran Propaganda Murals (Harvard University)A part of daily life in contemporary Iran, propaganda murals appear throughout Tehran on both public and private buildings and contain powerful iconographic imagery. This selection of over 130 propaganda murals photographed in the capital city during the summer of 2006 is among the first “born digital” special collections to come to the library and represents one of the first efforts to systematically document such public murals.
Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran (Harvard University)Explore the lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925) through a wide array of materials from private family holdings and participating institutions. Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran provides bilingual access to thousands of personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, publications, everyday objects, works of art and audio materials, making it a unique online resource for social and cultural histories of the Qajar world.
Irica Farabi Digital LibraryIncludes Ottoman periodicals, maps, historical photographs, literature, travel books, Turkish State yearbooks, and many other collections.
Krikor Guerguerian ArchiveDocuments collected by the scholar Krikor Guerguerian that are being digitized and in part translated. They include Ottoman materials, his personal works, and materials related to Armenians collected from European and American archives.
Portals to Aggregated Resources
Al-Islam.orgA free digital library of full texts of Islamic books, translations of texts, audio/video resources, journal archives, and research projects.
Early Printed Material in Arabic ScriptA survey of some online collections of printed books and other materials in the Arabic script, dating from before 1923.
Digitized Books
Arabic Collections OnlineA digital library of public domain Arabic language content that currently provides access to 12,795 volumes across 7,466 subjects drawn from rich Arabic collections of distinguished research libraries.
Filāḥa Texts ProjectOngoing project 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.
Islamic Lithographs Digital CollectionOngoing digitization project at McGill University Library to digitize volumes printed in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century in the Middle East and South Asia.
Cairo GenizahOngoing project to digitize medieval Jewish manuscripts held at the Cambridge University Library. Over 18,000 manuscripts are available online, including letters and legal deeds and liturgical texts.
Cairo Minasian Collection of Persian and Arabic ManuscriptsOngoing project of UCLA to digitize a collection of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts, primarily in the fields of medicine, literature, philology, theology, law, and history, and ranging from the 11th through the 19th centuries.