HSTAFM 361 - Middle East 1453-1800, Winter 2015: Home

Resources on the history of the Middle East from 1453-1800.

UW Libraries Search

UW Catalogs

Google Books

See the box in the right column to search.

Google has partnered with several large academic libraries to help them digitize, if not all, certainly large portions of their collections, and make the digitizations available and searchable online. Google has also made efforts to work with publishers to put their materials online. Many books have been scanned and are available in full text. Google Books provides the best searching mechanism for finding information withint these books. However, due to unresolved copyright issues, unless a reader is from one of the libraries whose book was scanned, it may be possible to see only a portion of the scan, for example, perhaps 10 pages of the books. As time passes, this issue may be resolved.

Database Starting Points

There are two databases in particular that are critical for the Middle East: the Encyclopaedia of Islam and Index Islamicus.

Due to the lack of comprehensive works on the Middle East, the Encyclopaedia of Islam is generally the starting point when researching a topic. Articles in the Encyclopaedia are written by leaders in the field and provide an overview of the state of each topic. They also provide a bibliography of the core works on that topic.

Index Islamicus is the only database that focusses 100% on the Middle East. It covers some, but not all Western language journals published in the U.S. and Europe, and some books.

Encyclopaedia of Islam This link opens in a new window
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Major research tool for all topics relating to Islam; only 2nd & 3rd edition online, 1st edition print only
Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window
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Bibliography of books and index of articles in periodicals on Islam and the Muslim world.

Main Databases with Content on the Near East

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
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A scholarly, multidisciplinary database providing indexing and abstracts for over 10,000 publications, including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and others. Also includes full-text access to over 5,000 journals

Africabib.org
Helpful for North Africa. Includes several databases specifically on African. One is an Index to over 415 English language journals that specialize in African studies.
ArtStor
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Search over one million digital images in the fields of the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials PLUS This link opens in a new window
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Full text databases. Use for articles on Islam, Judaism, etc. Includes citations on archaeology & antiquities, Bible, church history, human culture & society, missions & ecumenism, pastoral ministry, philosophy & ethics, religious studies, theology, world religions; coverage 1949-current.

CEEOL - Central and Eastern European Online Library
Includes digital periodicals from Turkey and other parts of the former Ottoman Empire.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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Index to doctoral dissertations and selected masters theses from 1861 to the present; includes 2 million+ full text dissertations published since 1997.

Encyclopaedia Iranica

Hathi Trust This link opens in a new window
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A shared digital repository for U.S. universities. It is still in the early stages of construction. For more recent books, it is similar to Google Books. For books in the public domain, including many books and journals in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish, are available full text.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
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This database will pick up articles from journals not specifically on the Middle East. Recently some French and Turkish journals have been added, although the number of articles this provides is relatively small.
International Medieval Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Citation only database indexing primarily European journals on the Middle Ages.

JSTOR
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Full text database covering back runs of journals usually up through three to five years before the current year.
Mamluk Bibliography Online
University of Chicago project to compile bibliographies of all primary and secondary sources on the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria.
MENALIB Periodical Contents
The only online index to Middle Eastern vernacular periodicals in languages other than Turkish.
Ottoman History Podcast
An experiment aimed at finding an alternative form of academic production that explores new and more accessible media and allows for a collaborative approach. Our recorded interviews and lectures, while still largely academic in tone, provide serious and constructive academic discussion in an accessible and almost human format that is easy on the brain and eyes.

Project Muse This link opens in a new window
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Full text database covering the Humanities and Social Sciences. Strong in publications of University presses.

Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies
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Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies covers the social sciences and humanities over the past 25 years.

Comprehensive Bibliographies on Central Asia

Bregel, Yuri, 1925-
Bibliography of Islamic Central Asia / compiled and edited by Yuri Bregel. Bloomington, IN : Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University, 1995.
3 v.
Suzzallo Reference
Z3411 .B73 1995

Central Eurasian reader. Paris : Oxiana Foundation ; Berlin : K. Schwarz. v.
Began with 1 in 2008.
Biennial
Suzzallo Reference
DS327 .C43