Middle East

Our Middle East collections comprise manuscripts, printed books, newspapers and journals from countries in today's Middle East as well as from Iran and Central Asia from the 5th century AD to the present day.

Collection guides

Arabic collections
Over 100,000 volumes of printed books, periodicals and newspapers; more than 15,000 manuscript works in about 14,000 volumes; and a range of other materials
Christian Middle East collections
Around 4,000 manuscripts and some 14,700 printed books and periodicals
Persian collections
Over 40,000 volumes of printed books, periodicals and newspapers, more than 11,000 manuscripts, and a range of other materials.
Hebrew collections
Manuscripts copied over 1,000 years ago to the most recent monographs and serials
Turkish and Turkic collections
Over 25,000 volumes of printed books, periodicals and newspapers, more than 4,000 manuscript texts, and other materials
India Office Records: Middle East resources
A wealth of information relating to British activities in the Middle East from the 17th to 20th centuries

View all related guides

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Asian and African Studies Reading Room

Find information on the shelves
Access online databases and electronic journals
Order collection items to the Reading Room via our catalogues

If you need help, just ask our Information Specialists at the Reference Enquiry desk.

We offer workshops to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

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Mon: 10.00 – 17.00
Tue – Sat: 09.30 – 17.00
Sun & English Public Holidays: closed

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

For enquiries, please contact the Reference Service

Blog posts

Ascetics and Yogis in Indian painting

15 August 2016

Yogis and other types of ascetics are found in Mughal illustrated historical manuscripts showing encounters recorded in Mughal histories between the emperors Babur, Akbar and Jahangir; and also in indivdual album paintings.

Rivals past and present: Global powers converge on the Gulf of Aden

08 August 2016

While media attention has focussed on the thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, a similar crisis has been taking place in the Gulf of Aden. Almost 90,000 Yemeni refugees have crossed the Gulf to the Horn...

A Drunken Russian Pilot and the Bombing of Mecca 1925

02 August 2016

In August 1924, the Sultan of Nejd, Ibn Sa’ud, launched an invasion of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz, in the west of the Arabian Peninsula. Meeting little resistance, his Ikhwan forces swiftly captured – and brutally plundered – the city...

Desert Encounter - Knud Holmboe

12 July 2016

On 10 November 1929 the Colonial Office received a letter from Philip Perceval Graves of The Times asking whether the Government held any information on a Danish author and traveller named Knud Holmboe. Holmboe had written to The Times the...