Middle Eastern and North African Studies

We collect materials in a wide range of European and Middle Eastern languages in support of scholarship on the languages, literatures, civilizations, and cultures of the Middle East (Southwest Asia), North Africa, and their diasporas.

Highlights include literature and scholarship in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, as well as a significant number of rare lithographed books published in Iran and India.

Print and electronic holdings related to Middle Eastern and North African studies include monographs and monographic series, journals and periodicals, reference works, reproductions of manuscripts, and archival collections.

Important related collections 

This collection is complemented by those in Asian studies, Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies, Judaic studies, and religious studies.

Other notable related collections include the Jewish Heritage Collection, the Islamic Manuscripts Collection, and the Papyrology Collection.

A seminar collection is also available in the Thayer Building to graduate students and faculty in the Department of Middle East Studies.

Collections in the university’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology complement the library’s holdings.