LibGuides: History: The Middle East & Islamic World

Key Databases and Journals

Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
*Key database for History* Indexes and abstracts articles in 2000+ journals, plus books and dissertations on the history of all parts of the world from 1450 to the present.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,650 serials, including full text for more than 3,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. This database is updated on a daily basis
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Dalhousie subscribes to JSTOR's Arts and Sciences I-VII, Business, Ecology and Botany, Language and Literature, and Life Sciences collections. These databases cover hundreds of journal title backfiles from 41 academic disciplines. It is a unique digital archive of journals, starting with the very first issues. The collection covers material from the 1800s up to a 'moving wall' of between zero and 8 years before current publication.
Research Library This link opens in a new window
Indexes and abstracts 2300+ journals and newspapers in many subject areas including: arts, business, education, general interest, health, humanities, international, law, military, multicultural, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and women's studies. Full-text for hundreds of journals.
Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window
Index to literature on Islam, the Middle East and Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, and Muslim minorities elsewhere. Includes citations to over 2,000 journals, conference proceedings, monographs, and book reviews from 1906 to present.
International Medieval Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Indexes articles, notes, and similar literature on medieval subjects in journals, Festschriften, conference proceedings, and collected essays. Covers all aspects of medieval studies within the date range of 400 to 1500 for the entire continent of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for the period before the Muslim conquest and parts of those areas subsequently controlled by Christian powers. Includes more than 300,000 articles published 1967- , all of which are fully classified by date, subject and location.

Reference Works

JJ Stewart Reference Room (main floor Killam Library)

Reference materials in the JJ Stewart Reference Room are for in-library use only.

This is a selection of materials on the Middle East and Islamic Studies in the Killam Reference Collection. Please visit the JJ Stewart Reference Room and explore sections DS-DT to see the full collection.

Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa	REF DS 43 E53 2004
Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Middle East and North Africa	REF DS 44 C37 1988
Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World (2 vols.)	REF BP 40 E525 2004
Encyclopedia of Islamic Civilization and Religion	REF BP 40 E526 2008

Online Reference Works

Primary Sources

Arabic Manuscripts (British Library)
Arabic manuscripts in the British Library cover a broad subject scope including the Holy Qur'an, Qur'anic sciences and commentaries, Hadith, Kalam, Islamic jurisprudence, mysticism and philosophy, Arabic grammar and philology, dictionaries, poetry and other literary genres, history, topography and biography, music and other arts, sciences and medicine, texts relating to the Druze and Bahais, and miscellania including magic, archery, falconry and the interpretation of dreams.
Princeton Digital Library of Islamic Manuscripts
Digitized collection of Princeton's Islamic manuscripts holdings.
Syriac.org
The publications of Syriaca.org feature information history and philology on the Medieval Middle East. Several key works form part of this web resource: The Syriac Gazeteer, The Syriac Biographical Dictionary, A New Handbook of Syriac Literature and Gateway to the Syriac Saints.
Islamic Heritage Project (Harvard University)
Hundreds of digitized Islamic manuscripts, maps, and published texts from Harvard’s renowned library and museum collections.
University of Michigan Guide for Islamic Manuscript Studies
In-depth guide by Evyn Kropf, Islamic manuscript specialist at the University of Michigan.
Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Studies
Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation,
more...less...
"Al-Furqan’s Digital Library Portal gives scholars and researchers across the globe access to this wealth of newly-discovered material, much of which has been vastly underexploited to date. In doing so, the Foundation brings together the many communities who share a common interest in the preservation of Islamic heritage."
Arabic Manuscripts Digital Library of Jerusalem
“Developed within the framework of project Manumed, financed by the European Union and the region Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, ‘The Arabic Manuscripts Digital Library of Jerusalem’ aims to promote the written heritage of East Jerusalem and to make this heritage accessible to all with the sole caveat of an internet connection. It relies on the latest technology to provide access which is simple, multimedia and multilingual.
Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Selected Sourcebook: The Crusades
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project, a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. Primary sources are available here primarily for use in high-school and university/college courses.
Internet Islamic History Sourcebook
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project, a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. Primary sources are available here primarily for use in high-school and university/college courses. From the outset the site took a very broad view of the sources that should be available to students and as well as documents long associated with a "western civilization" approach to history also provides much information on Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history. You will also find many documents especially relevant to women's history and LGBT studies.
Manuscripts of the Muslim World
Manuscripts of the Muslim World will include digital editions of more than 500 manuscripts and 827 paintings from the Islamicate world broadly construed. Together these holdings represent in great breadth the flourishing intellectual and cultural heritage of Muslim lands from 1000 to 1900, covering mathematics, astrology, history, law, literature, as well as the Qur'an and Hadith. The bulk of the collection consists of manuscripts in Arabic and Persian, along with examples of Coptic, Samaritan, Syriac, Turkish, and Berber.