Collections (Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies)

The collection is integrated into the Herman B Wells Library research collection and consists primarily of materials in the three major vernacular languages of the area: Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian. It includes current serials in all languages and encompasses all the major scholarly publications related to the subject. A core, specialized reference collection of more than 200 titles is integrated into the general reference collection (see the Annotated Bibliography of Reference Sources for Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Indiana University Libraries).

Most vernacular language materials are located in the PJ (Semitic) and PK (Indo-Aryan) language and literature call number classifications on the 9th floor of the Wells Library and in the BP (Islam) classification on the 4th floor. IU holdings in the vernacular languages of the region are extensive, including Ancient/Byzantine Greek (8,000 titles), Arabic (50,000), Hebrew (19,000), Kurdish (125), Persian (5,000), Ottoman Turkish (500), Syriac (275), Turkish (8,000), and Urdu (250).

The Middle Eastern collection is also supported by a large number of works in related fields, such as African studies, anthropology, Central Eurasian studies, fine arts, folklore, history, Jewish studies, political studies, religious studies, and sociology. These materials are primarily in English and European languages and include titles in religious studies relating to Islam, Judaism, and Biblical studies (27,000); the history of the Middle East and North Africa (16,000); and the languages and literatures of the Middle East (40,000).

Until recently, the Middle Eastern Studies collection consisted almost entirely of print materials supplemented by some microforms. For the past several years, we have been adding significant electronic resources and anticipate major additions to the collection in this area as advances in technology and growing support from Middle Eastern scholars, governments, and private organizations result in the production of sophisticated online sources for the study of Islam and the Middle East. Currently, we have a substantial number of specialized reference and full text resources on CD-ROM (including the Encyclopedia Judaica, the Islamic Computing Databases, Ma’agarim: The Hebrew Language Historical Dictionary Project, and Middle East Abstracts and Index). In addition, we have online access to two important internet databases: the Encyclopaedia of Islam and Index Islamicus.