Middle Eastern, Near Eastern and North African Studies

Online version of the fourteen-volume printed work, edited by James M. Robinson.

The Coptic Gnostic Library continues where the Dead Sea Scrolls left off. Our main sources of information for the Gnostic religion are the so-called Nag Hammadi codices, written in Coptic. These were unearthed in 1945 near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. The texts literally begin where the Dead Sea Scrolls end. Their discovery is considered equally significant as the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves, bringing to light a long-hidden wealth of information and insights into early Judaism and the roots of Christianity. Furthermore, these writings clearly show that the Gnostic religion was not only a force that interacted with early Christianity and Judaism in their formative periods, but also a significant religious movement in its own right. 

The Coptic Gnostic Library contains all the texts of the Nag Hammadi codices, both in the original Coptic and in translation. Each text has its own introduction, and full indexes are provided. The Coptic Gnostic Library is the starting point for all research into ancient Gnosticism. It is the result of decades of dedicated research by the most distinguished international scholars in this field.

The Coptic Gnostic Library is the only authoritative edition of many of the Coptic writings of the Gnostics from the first centuries AD. It was originally published by Brill in fourteen hardback volumes as part of the Nag Hammadi (and Manichaean) Studies series between 1975 and 1995.

Public Affairs Index is a bibliographic database covering all aspects of national and global contemporary public policy issues ranging from public health, the environment, housing, human and civil rights, to international commerce and conflict. This database draws from a diverse array of scholarly journals, conference papers, trade publications and government documents to provide up-to-date information on a broad range of topics of concern to the world today.

This archive of photos is part of Rediscovering Shenoute of Atripe (ca. 348-465), a Digital Project from the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan Libraries. It contains 20 parchment leaves written by Shenute of Atripe (also known as Shenoute).

This collection, sourced from the National Archives, Kew, covers a broad sweep of history from c. 1839 to 1969, taking in the countries of the Arabian peninsula, the Levant, Iraq, Turkey and many of the former Ottoman lands in Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt and Sudan. It includes reports, dispatches, correspondence, descriptions of leading personalities, political summaries and economic analyses issued by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices.

CultureGrams Online Database is a leading reference for concise, reliable, and up-to-date cultural information on countries across the globe. It includes four editions: the World Edition (for junior high school and up) and the Kids, States, and Canadian Provinces editions (for upper elementary school students). In addition to the country/state/province reports, the database includes the following features:  images, slideshows, streaming videos, sortable data tables and graphs, interviews with natives from countries around the world, recipes for each country, and more. The World Edition includes 208 country-specific reports. These provide complete coverage of every sovereign country recognized by the United Nations, plus several foreign dependencies.

Each World Edition report is written by a native or long-term resident of the country in coordination with a CultureGrams editor. Writers are selected for their education, knowledge of a national language, experience with different regions and socioeconomic groups, recent residency in the country, and access to current information.

Contains over 3,000 e-books in pdf form, both monographs as well as series titles, by the Dutch publisher Brill, from 2007-present in the following subject areas:

• Asian Studies
• Biblical Studies
• Ancient Near East
• Early Christianity
• Classical Studies
• European History and Culture
• Middle East and Islamic Studies
• Religious Studies and Theology
• Philosophy
• Social Sciences

The database link provides a search engine for the entire corpus. Individual titles will be cataloged in and accessible via Mirlyn.

Note:  Brill revised its subject headings as of 2012, so titles listed under some subject headings may only go back to 2012.  Browsing by Brill's older subject headings can still be done using the older Brill E-Books interface link below.

Cross-search Brill's online reference works, including: Brockelmann Online; Encyclopaedia of Islam; Encyclopaedia of Judaism; Encyclopaeida of the Qur’ān; Encyclopedia Islamica; Encyclopedia of Arabic Language & Linguistics; Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World; Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures; New Pauly; Supplementum Epigraphicum Graeceum

Brockelmann’s Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur offers bio-bibliographic information about works written in Arabic and their authors, with an emphasis on the Classical Period. The multi-volume reference work is divided into chronologically-organized sections, subdivided by literary genre. Individual entries typically consist of a biographical section and a list of the author’s works in manuscript and print, with references to secondary literature. Brockelmann Online consists of both original volumes as well as the three supplement volumes, including the indexes. It is full-text searchable, making it much easier to consult for researchers and students.

A unique collaboration of over 1000 scholars from around the world, Brill’s Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures crosses history, geographic borders and disciplines to create a ground-breaking reference work reflecting the very latest research on gender studies and the Islamic world. No other reference work offers this scale of contributions or depth and breadth of coverage.