Since 2000, Duke University Libraries have been building and expanding their Middle East and Islamic Studies collection. While collecting comprehensively in all subject areas in English, the collections in the three main regional languages, Arabic, Persian, modern Turkish/Ottoman Turkish, as well as Urdu, (for Hebrew, see the collection description on the Jewish Studies guide) center on the humanities and social sciences, with a particular focus on materials on Islam (jurisprudence, law, exegesis, theology), Arabic language (grammar) and literature (both classical and modern), as well as history (history of Islam, contemporary history) and politics. Duke faculty’s interests, curricular and programmatic development, and the Libraries’ consortial responsibilities towards their partners within the framework of the Triangle Research Library Network (TRLN) form the basis for Duke’s strong holdings in Arabic and Turkish. The figures in the table below are from 2018.
Resources for Middle East and Islamic Studies
Middle East & Islamic Studies: Getting Started
Sean Swanick, Middle East & Islamic Studies Librarian
Digital Collections and Blogs at Duke
Greetings from Selanik/Salonica/Thessaloniki!
Welcome to the Abode of Happiness!
İzmir (Smyrna) postcards and photographs collection, approximately 1890-1950
Arabic and Persian Manuscripts
Blogs and Independent Publications
Hazine: a gudie to researching the Middle East and beyond
Media/Oral History Resources
The 1947 Partition Archive records
Recordings of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust
Muslims in Brooklyn oral histories 2018
Graphic Arts and Visual Culture
The Palestinian Poster Project
University of Chicago's 1979 Revolutionary Poster Collection
Other Resources
What are the best Arabic series and dramas on Netflix?
Novel Coronavirus outbreak: help us collect websites
Access to Mideast and Islamic Resources (AMIR)
Art and coronavirus: Middle Eastern galleries to view on lockdown
