Middle East

See Also: Africana | Art | Asian Resources | Directories - Countries | International | Islam | Judaism | Religion

British Museum - View highlights by galleries, culture, people, place. Other resources include:

Collection Database Search - "844,762 objects are available online. 255,686 of these have one or more images." (November 2008)

Images - "Digital image website of the British Museum catering primarily for the image-buying professional."

Department of the Middle East

Ashurbanipal Library Project

Arabic Script: Mightier than the Sword

The Kingdoms of Ancient South Arabia

Iran before Islam: The Sasanians

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - Publisher of Foreign Policy Magazine. They have a Middle East section and a list of related publications. There is also a list of Carnegie Papers. Recent papers include: In the Shadow of the Brothers: The Women of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood by Omayma Abdel-Latif, October 2008; and Iran: Is Productive Engagement Possible? by Karim Sadjadpour, Policy Brief No. 65 October 2008.

Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement (CRCC) - University of Southern California.

Chroniques Yéménites - Ceased publication in 2008? Annual journal published by the Centre français d’archéologie et de sciences sociales de Sanaa . Although the majority of the full-text (texte intégral) articles are in French there are a few in English and many of the articles have English abstracts. The journal is also accessible via Revues.org. Includes such articles as Manuscrits de provenance yéménite donnés à la Bibliothèque nationale par Pierre Bardey en 1930, A Pact of Brotherhood from Sufyân (Northern Yemen) and Building the Body Politic: Emerging Corporatism in Saudi Arabia.

Corsair - "Thousands of digital images from the Pierpont Morgan Library’s renowned collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts are now available in CORSAIR. The collection spans some ten centuries of Western illumination, and contains manuscripts from all the major schools, including some of the great masterpieces of medieval manuscript art. The images and accompanying descriptions are the product of an extraordinary collaboration between the Library and the Index of Christian Art to photograph, digitize, and describe all significant illustrations within the Morgan’s medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. CORSAIR currently offers more than twenty thousand medieval images, and the number is constantly growing." You can search by country: Egypt, Iran, Turkey.

Culture et politique arabes

Cuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III - "presents clay tablets, cones, and brick fragments inscribed using the ancient writing system known as cuneiform from the Library of Congress’ collections. The Sumerians invented this writing system, which involves the use of a wedge-shaped reed stylus to make impressions in clay. Cuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III includes school tablets, accounting records, and commemorative inscriptions. This online presentation features 38 cuneiform tablets, presented with supplementary materials. The 38 tablets are dated from the reign of Gudea of Lagash (2144-2124 B.C.) to Shalmanassar III (858-824 B.C.) during the New Assyrian Empire (884-612 B.C.)." (African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.)

Damascene family library Refaiya - University Library of Leipzig. The Refaiya contains 487 manuscripts from the 10th to the 19th century; digital access is provided to a group of about 55 Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts. See Project for the Cataloguing and Digitising of 55 Islamic Manuscripts. “A key place in the collection will be taken by one of the oldest known Ismaili manuscripts in the world, the Kitāb al-Zīna by the Ismaili author Abū Hātim al-Rāzī (d. 322 H. / 934 AD). The manuscripts contain texts in Arabic, Persian and Ottoman-Turkish and show an amazingly broad spectrum as far as the content is concerned, which comprises almost all traditional Islamic fields of knowledge. With a few exceptions, the manuscripts are mostly complete and well preserved. That many of these manuscripts came from the libraries of private scholars or families is suggested in several manuscripts by the many comments, some of which span over several generations, from the previous owners. The place of origin seems to be the gulf region, Yemen and Iran.” You can browse the index and there is a Keyboard for Arabic and transliteration. “The project aims at the scholarly exploration, database development and digital presentation of the private Arab-Islamic library of the Damascene Rifā'ī family. This library, called “Refaiya” (Rifā'īya), comprising 458 carefully preserved volumes, handed down over several centuries until the 19th Century, is the precious core of the approximately 3,200 Oriental manuscripts, that are being kept at the University Library in Leipzig. It is probably an unique example of a cohesive, traditional Arab-Islamic family library. It could be secured undamaged in its historical condition due to the purchase by the Prussian Consul and Arabist Johann Gottfried Wetzstein from its last owner, 'Umar Efendi al-Rifā'ī al-Ḥamawī, in 1853.” See Brinkmann, Stefani. From Codicology to Technology: Islamic Manuscripts and Their Place in Scholarship, Verlag Frank & Timme, Berlin 2008, 215 p. (ISBN-10: 3865961711; ISBN-13: 978-3865961716). See p. 200 - The Outside View: Using the Database. Examples:

Ms. or. 379b - Persian poetry. “calligraphic style; tiny; delicate; densely written.” See illumination

al-Qur’ān القرآن Quranic text - Ms. or. 322 - “symmetrically illuminated opening double page in gold, blue, red and green with a horizontal panel above and below the central area, and the whole surrounded by a broad frame with a lobed outline.”

Digital Egypt for Universities - University College London

Directory of Development Organizations - Lists over 50,000 contacts of organizations, ("international organizations, governments, private sector institutions, development agencies, universities, research and training institutes, NGOs/PDOs, grantmakers, banks, microfinance institutions and development consulting firms"). See Middle East.

Doha Debates - "Chaired by the award-winning former BBC correspondent and interviewer Tim Sebastian, who founded them in 2004 and secured their editorial independence." Sponsored by the Qatar Foundation. With archive of past debates.

Doing Business - "Database provides indicators of the cost of doing business by identifying specific regulations that enhance or constrain business investment, productivity, and growth. The indicators are developed by the Finance and Private Sector Vice Presidency of the World Bank Group." Hundreds of Reports are available online including:

Doing Business in the Arab World

Early Islamic Tiles - Images of 102 tiles from the collection of Lockwood de Forest II (1850-1932) currently owned by dealer Anthony Slayter-Ralph of Santa Barbara

ECSSR - Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research

Egypt State Information Service - Has information on literature, museums, history etc.

Egyptian Universities Network

Embassy of Jordan - Washington, D.C.

Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain

Embassy.Org - With links to Foreign Embassies of Washington D.C.

EMR - Library of Medical Arabic Books

Encyclopaedia Iranica - Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University. Try a search for Safavid.

Ethnologue: Languages of the World - With Country Index, Bibliography and Tools.

Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World

Food From the Arab World - Marie Karam Khayat and Margaret Clark Keatinge

Fresh Air - National Public Radio. Interviews with:

Ahmed Rashid Offers An Update On The Taliban - February 17, 2010.

Inside Al-Jazeera, as It Plans an English Version - March 14, 2005.

Stephen Kinzer - July 28, 2003.

Salar Abdoh - October 2, 2001.

Asma Gull Hasan

Imam Sayed Hassan Qazwini

Karen Armstrong - November 1, 2000.

Thomas Friedman

Houston Smith

Gallica - Text and image digitization project undertaken by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Among the digitized images is Richelieu Manuscrits Arabe & Persan (example: Hâfiz à la fête 1309, Fol. 23 Hâfiz, Dîvân, Iran, Shîrâz, XVIe siècle) and Description de l'Egypte ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française par Edme- François Jomard... et al. 2e éd. Paris : impr. de C.-L.-F. Panckoucke, 1821-1830. 24 t. en 26 vol. + 11 atlas ; in-8 + in-fol. Comprend : T. 1-9, Antiquités-descriptions; T. 10., Explication des planches ; T. 11-18, Etat moderne ; T. 19-24, Histoire naturelle Autre(s) forme(s) du titre : - : "Voyages en Afrique" Titre alternatif: Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française Sujet(s) : Égypte -- Descriptions et voyages -- 19e siècle Égypte -- Antiquités -- 19e siècle.

Gardens of Tranquility - Hesham Al-Jehani's description of two Islamic gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show: Carpet Garden created by Michael Miller (now reconstructed for HRH Prince of Wales at Highgrove House) and The Garden of Tranquility commissioned by His Highness Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan.

Ghraoui Chocolate - Damascus, Syria.

German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA)

Google Web Directory14 - Arabic version

Google Books

Gregorian-Hijri Dates Converter

Gulf News Online

Gulf Times - “Qatar's top-selling English daily newspaper.”

Groupe de recherche et d'étude sur la Méditerranée et le Moyen-Orient (GREMMO) - "The scientific activity of the GREMMO is focused on Arab and Muslim societies from the Islamic period to the present. The unit is composed of researchers and lecturer-researchers from several disciplines: anthropology, sociology, geography, political science, history, archaeology, Arab literature and civilisation, Islamic studies"

Haddad manuscript collection: An on-line Catalogue of the Wellcome Arabic Manuscripts (Al-Haddad Collection)

Harvard University Institute of Politics Forum Archives - Outstanding collection of archived forums includes Forum: Clash of Misperceptions: U.S. and the Middle East Since 9/11, a panel discussion on October 20, 2005.

H-Bahai Home Page - "Encourages scholarly discussion of the culture and history of millenarian and/or esoteric religious traditions originating in modern Iran, such as Shaykhism, Babism and the Baha'i faith, and makes available diverse bibliographical, research, and teaching aids."

Harvard University Center for Mideastern Studies - Has Links to related resources.

Holy Qur'an Resources on the Internet - Dar al Tableegh

Houbara Bustard (Chlamydotis undulata macqueenii) - Endangered desert bird that migrates in November from the steppes of Central Asia to countries in the Middle East. The bird is the target of Arab royal hunts, a tradition dating back hundreds of years. The mission of the National Avian Research Center located in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, according to Olivier Combreau, NARC Director, "is to promote bustard, falcon, and bird conservation and reconcile the tradition of Arab falconry with sustainable use of the resources throughout the bustards and falcons range. The mission is to be achieved through breeding in captivity, research, advice, international co-operation, habitat conservation, and co-operation with falconers, in order to preserve both natural and cultural heritage and to save falcons, bustards and other bird species from extinction." (Extinction Swoops Down on the Bustard, NARC steps up Efforts, City Times, Khaleej Times, 11/06/2004.) See also Hunting with the Sheiks by Mary Anne Weaver, New Yorker Magazine, December 14, 1992, pp. 51-64. This chapter also appeared in Weaver's book Pakistan: in the shadow of jihad and Afghanistan (2002). You can search inside the book at the Amazon site, if you are a registered user and you can obtain biographical information, the publisher's description and the Table of Contents from the Library of Congress.

Wildlife Hunting in Pakistan: The Houbara Bustard by by Almas Tulepov and Nurjamal Asanova, TED Case Studies, Number 710, 2003; and Propagation of the Houbara Bustard (1996).

Human Development Reports - United Nations Development Programme issues global, regional and national reports with statistics on a wide variety of quality of life issues: life expectancy, adult literacy, underweight children, health expenditure, low birth-weight, sanitation facilities, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, cigarette consumption, telephone mainlines, Carbon dioxide emissions etc. For an example or a recent report, see Egypt.

Institut du Monde Arabe - Paris. With information about individual countries (in French).

International Directory of Middle East Scholars - Middle East Studies Department, Area Studies Division, Columbia University Libraries

International Development Research Centre - "Canadian Crown corporation that works in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies." Offers Free online books. Examples of titles: Research for Development in the Middle East and North Africa (2000) edited by Eglal Rached and Dina Craissati; Managing Water Demand: Policies, Practices, and Lessons from the Middle East and North Africa Forums(2005) by Ellysar Baroudy, Abderrafii Abid Lahlou, and Bayoumi Attia; and Water Management in Islam (2001) edited by Naser I. Faruqui, Asit K. Biswas, and Murad J. Bino.

International Monetary Fund - See Site Index for reports on countries in the Middle East:

Bahrain

Kuwait

Oman

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates

Iranian Cultural & Information Center

Iranian Oral History Project - Transcripts and audio recordings of interviews in English and Persian with Index by subject(pdf file) and by Index by narrator. (Dr. Habib Ladjevardi, Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies.)

IRCICA: Research Centre for Islamic History Art and Culture

IRNA: Islamic Republic News Agency

Islam Research Directory - Created by the German Orient Institute (Deutsche Orient-Institut) in Hamburg and the Goethe Institute, the site provides information on and links to, when available, scholars/exprests, libraries, institutions, documentation centres, periodicals, and projects.

Islamic & Arabic Arts & Architecture - Khalid Mubireek's site covers architecture, calligraphy, carpets & coins

Islamic Architecture in Isfahan - Illustrated guide to the architecture of the Iranian city of Isfahan, searchable by building type; includes bibliography and maps.

Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Islamic Calligraphy with Mohamed Zakariya - U.S. National Library of Medicine which also has an online exhibition on Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts.

Islamic Development Bank

Islamic Institute - Washington, D.C.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting - Top news, some in English.

Islamic Republic News Agency

Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies (JAIS) - Project of the Section of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Bergen and the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Charles University, Prague.

Kalima - United Arab Emirates-based nonprofit. “Every year we will select 100 candidate titles of classic, contemporary and modern titles from around the world to be translated into Arabic.” There are pages in English. See first list of 100 candidate titles selected November 21, 2007.

King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST) - Saudi Arabia. Provides a useful collection of Internet Resources and Links of Interest.

King Abdullah II - Jordan.

Koran - Searchable by keyword and browsable by chapter. Electronic version of M. H. Shakir's translation of the Holy Qur'an, as published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia.

Kuwait Stock Exchange - See also English version

Lamsa - "Located in four cities in Saudi Arabia, Lamsa is a trading establishment which specializes in traditional and modern Saudi and Arabian dresses and fashion. It also offers a wide range of Arabic and Oriental silver antiques and jewelry."

Languages of the Middle East - Cornell University Library, Collection Development, Middle East & Islamic Studies.

Libraries & Culture - With selected full-text archive in pdf format. Of particular interest is the Summer 1998 issue (Volume 33, No. 3), Orientalist Libraries and Orientalism with Proceedings of an International Workshop, 17-18 August 1995 held at the University of Istanbul. Articles inlcude Libraries in the Late Ottoman Palestine between the Orient and the Occident by Dov Schidorsky, Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the School of Oriental and African Studies Library by Peter Colvin and German Librarians in Exile in Turkey, 1933-1945 by Hildegard Müller, The Library of the Royal Asiatic Society and Its Collections Relating to Southeast Asia by M. J. Pollock.

Libraries on the Web: Africa and the Middle East - Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE.

Library of Congress Country Studies - Area Handbooks - Provides extensive information on countries, describing and analyzing political, economic, social, and national security systems and institutions, and examining the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors. and includes photographs, maps, and charts. See also the World Factbook, with country listing and map.

Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Reading Room - African and Middle Eastern Division, Area Studies. See also:

Near East Collections

Middle East and Religion

ALA-LC Romanization Tables - For Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kurdish Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Pushto, Uighur, Urdu.

Library of Congress Webcasts - See also Library of Congress Podcasts and Library of Congress Center for the Book Webcasts. Lectures (most recent first) include:

America in the Middle East - Michael Oren, 7 February 2008 [62 minutes].

Lawrence and Aaronsohn: T.E. Lawrence, Aaronsohn and the Seeds of the Arab-Israel Conflict - Ronald Florence, 3 December 2007.

Discovery! Wallace Stegner and the Search for Arabian Oil - 28 November 2007. Timothy Barger and Thomas Lippman discuss Wallace Stegner's book Discovery!: The Search for Arabian Oil, the story of the discovery oil in Saudi Arabia. Stegner was commissioned to write the book by Aramco in 1955, but the book was shelved and did not appear until 1968 when it was serialized in Saudi Aramco World Magazine. The Aramco World website provides the entire series - Discovery! The Story Of Aramco Then online in chapter form: Chapter 1: Contact (January/February 1968), Chapter 2: The Crucial Corner (March/April 1968), Chapter 3: Beachhead (May/June 1968), Chapter 4: The Plane (July/August 1968), Chapter 5: The Pioneers (September/October 1968), Chapter 6: The Wildcatters (November/December 1968), Chapter 7: Dammam No. 7 (January/February 1969), Chapter 8: Into Production (March/April 1969), Chapter 9: The Second Wave (May/June 1969), Chapter 10: The Ten Days at Dammam 12 (July/August 1969), Chapter 11: The Unicorns of Dahna (September/October 1969), Chapter 12: Air Raid (January/February 1970), Chapter 13: The Time of the Hundred Men (March/April 1970), Chapter 14:The Frontier Closes (July/August 1970).

Sama Ensemble - 25 April 2007. Traditional Iranian music and dance [55 minutes].

Iranian Writers - 25 April 2007. "Iranian novelist Moniro Ravanipour, author and publisher Babak Takhti, author Shahryar Mandanipour and playwright Ezzat Goushegir..."

Mir Ali Shir Symposium - 27 March 2007. Panel 1, Panel 2, Panel 3 .

Celebrating Rumi: An Evening of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi's Poetry and Sufi Music with Whirling Dervishes - Talat Sait Halman, Ahmet Ozan, 14 March 2007 [140 minutes].

Islamic Science and the Making of Renaissance Europe - George Saliba, 27 April 2006 [84 minutes].

Sacred Truth and Secular Agency: Shari'ah Norms and Political Enforcement - Lamin Sanneh, 7 April 2005 [47 minutes].

Symposium on the War in Iraq, Scholars Explore Whether War is a Major Turning Point - 4 December 2003

Armenian Ambassador discusses his book British Diplomacy and the Armenian Question: 1830-1914 30 October 2003

Islam, Science and Cultural Values - 9 October 2003

Abdel Kader Haidara presented a lecture, Timbuktu Manuscipts and the Efforts to Maintain the Desert 3 September 2003

Vardanants Day Armenian Lecture Program - 20 May 2003

Fareed Zakaria discussed his latest book, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad 16 April 2003

Mission to Baghdad: Toward Rebuilding a National Library - November 2003

Globalization and Women in Muslim Societies - 2 November 2000

Link.tv - "Global and national news, uncompromising documentaries and diverse cultural programs...." With an archive of Mosaic: World News from the Middle East , which "features selections from daily TV news programs produced by national and regional broadcasters throughout the Middle East. The reports are presented unedited and translated, when necessary, into English. Mosaic includes news from Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, and Iran, among others..."

Links to Internet Resources on the Middle East and Judaica - University of Michigan Library. See also their Near East Division. There are many links to sources of Arab World News.

Mamluk Bibliography - Project of the Middle East Documentation Center at the University of Chicago "to compile all research and discussion, scholarly and popular, germane to the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt and Syria. The project takes the form of two bibliographies: the primary and the secondary."

Mathaf Gallery - London gallery "still leads the world in 19th century paintings of Arabia, known as Orientalism". See Melik Kaylan 's description of the Gallery in the December 14, 2000 Forbes.

Medieval Sourcebook: Islam - Links to full-text resources. (Paul Halsall)

MEMRI: Middle East Media Research Institute

MENALIB: Middle East Virtual Library - Created by the State and University Library Saxony-Anhalt in Halle (Germany). Almisbah is a "database providing access to selected Internet resources on the Middle East and on Islam respectively."

MERIA - Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) is a publication of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies of of Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York. Has a collection of Islamic Art. Check, too, the current and past exhibitions. The museum's Collection, which is searchable, also includes Ancient Near Eastern Art and Egyptian Art.

The Middle East 1916 - 2001 : A Documentary Record - The Avalon Project, Yale Law School

Middle East & Islamic Studies Collection - Cornell University. With a Modern History of the Middle East - Current Political Issues page. The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies has a Terrorism and War page.

Middle East Librarians Association

Middle East Network Information Center - Comprehensive collection of resources from the University of Texas, Austin. Includes links to News & Media and Islamic Resources. The Middle East Outreach Council has links to members.

Middle East North Africa Internet Resource Guide

Middle East Studies - Columbia University subject directory provides links to resources on Political Violence in the Middle East.

Middle East Research and Information Project - Publishes the Middle East Report

Middle East Studies Association of North America - Provides access to their publication, the Middle East Studies Association Bulletin. There is also a list of Institutional Members.

Middle Eastern Cook Book - Sabria Farid Toma

Minassian Collection of Persian, Mughal, and Indian Miniature Paintings - John Hay Library, Brown University. Primarily Persian miniature paintings from the 15th to the 18th century, many from the Shahnama of Ferdowsi. There is a map of the Safavid Empire. This is an honors thesis by Alanna Benham for a Bachelor of Arts. The database is searchable by text, language, image, date and even pigment. Image i091, for example, is from the 17th century, School of Shah Jahan, Mughal.

MIT Arab Student Organization

MIT World - "Free and open site that provides on-demand video of significant public events at MIT." Lectures of interest include Hafez Mirazi: The Arab Discourse and the International Role , April 25, 2005 (video length: 1:22:32) and Islam and the Challenge of Democracy, May 12, 2003 (1:21:32).

Le Monde Diplomatique - French publication has Country Index and subject index. The Un cahier spécial sur le Proche-Orient, published in May 2001, has maps, a chronology, an article archive, country information and links to resources on Proche-Orient, La Déchirure. The Glossaire Conflits includes the Camp David Accords of 17 September 1978, the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum of 4 September 1999 and many other agreements and accords (in English and in French).

Mosques in the United States - Images of mosques in the US designed by architects, organized alphabetically and geographically; Rotch Library Visual Collections, MIT.

MSNBC NTV - Turkish news in English. See also Turkish News Network and Salih Armagan's web site

MTVA - MTV Arabia

Musée du Louvre - Paris. There is a Département des Arts de l'Islam (see Département Arts de l'Islam, Histoire des collections). Search the collection in Atlas, a database of nearly 20,000 images. Fruitful search terms include: Islam, Égypte, Iran, Syrie, Palestine, Proche-Orient, Damas, Turquie, Iznik, Suse, Mosquée, Sultan, Shah, Arabe, Mekke etc. For example, a simple search (recherche simple) for Islam, (check the box Seulement les œuvres illustrées), retrieves over 1000 results including:

Lampe au nom du sultan al-Malik al-Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Qala'un

L'ange Gabriel révèle la surate VIII du Coran à Muhammad Siyar-I Nabi

Portrait d'Ardashîr Mîrzâ, gouverneur de Téhéran (1854) - by Abû l-Hasan Ghaffârî

Shâpûr joue au polo

Aiguière (1190)

Bague d'archer

Base de houka

Bassin

Boucle de ceinture

Horloge aux paons

Hanap à décor floral (vers 1575)

Plat au bouquet composite

Rondeau orné d'un lion attaquant un taureau

Élément de frise

Plaque représentant la mosquée de la Mekke

Carreaux de revêtement

Panneau de revêtement

Le poisson géant - Page d'un Livre des Merveilles - 'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat - d'al-Qazwini

Ruines de la mosquée du khalife Hakem au Caire (vers 1840?) - Prosper Marilhat

Caïd visitant un douar (1849) -Théodore Chassériau.

Expédition d'Egypte sous les ordres de Bonaparte (1835) - Léon Cogniet

Museum of Islamic Art - Doha, Qatar. See Art's New Oasis by Kelly Crow, Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2008. “The architect Mr. Pei, inspired by the geometric forms of a 13th-century fountain at a mosque in Cairo, shaped the five-story museum like a staggered set of creamy building blocks, each cube adjusted just enough to catch a triangle of harsh light or deep shadow. Visitors can reach it by boat -- there is a dock for dhows, an Arabian-style fishing vessel made of wood -- or by traveling a palm-lined path and crossing a small bridge.”

Muslim Directory Online

Muslim Students Association MSANEWS LaunchPad - "One-Stop page of links to news and information on the Muslim World."

NPR's Mideast Coverage: Reports and Transcripts from NPR's Recent Coverage

National Library of Turkey

NewsHour: Middle East

Neareast Studies Resources - Princeton University Library

New York Times: Middle East

1001 Sites: Arab Internet Directory

Orient Institute - German research institution is headquartered in a 19th-century villa in Zoqaq al-Blat, Beirut and with an office in Istanbul

Oiling the learning machine - By John Gill, 21 August 2008, Times Higher Education. "In a sector traditionally seen as lacking prestige, staffing is another issue. As Davidson explains: "You can't have indigenous professors and lecturers when you barely have any degree-holders, so for years most of the academics in the Gulf have been foreigners. They've tended to go for Western PhD holders, normally expat Arabs who are bilingual in English and Arabic and have a PhD from the United States or Britain."

Payvand News of Iran

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection - University of Texas, Austin. Has a large collection of online maps. See, in particular, their Maps of the Middle East.

Persian Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania - Images from The Eleven Illustrations, a.k.a. The Illustrated Book About Makers Of Glassware, etc., And A Description of Their Tools by Ghulam Yahya. "Indo-Persian manuscript, written by Ghulam Yahya, son of Maulvi Imad-ud-din Lepakni, around 1820, in Bareilly District (United Provinces), India, for British magistrate, Mr. Robert Glyn, desc ribes eleven trades or occupations current at the time. The text contains important ethnographic, economic and technological data."

Petra - Ancient Nabatean city discovered in Jordan in 1812 by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817), also known as Sheik Ibrahim or Ibrahim Ibn 'abd Allah. See description by the Kingdom of Jordan: Petra. In the Archnet Digital Library you can see additional images of the Taybet Zaman Hotel and Resort and the Mövenpick Hotel in Petra.

Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran - Official site

Quran Browser - Searchable by passage, word, or word part; Richard L. Goerwitz, Brown University Scholarly Technology Group

Recipes from Najmieh Batmanglij - Persian recipes for Lentil Dip (Adasi), Yogurt & Cucumber Dip or Soup (Mast-o khiar), Noodle Soup (Ash-e reshteh), Saffron Steamed Plain Basmati Rice (Chelow), Smothered Rice (Kateh), Rice With Lentils & Dates (Adas Polow), Sweet & Sour Stuffed Chicken (Morgh-e tu por-e torsh-o-shirin), Fish Stuffed with Fresh Herbs (Mahi-ye tu por ba sabzi), Herb & Tamarind Shrimp (Ghalieh Maygu), Cardamom Rice Cookies (Nan-e Berenji) and Honey Almonds (Sohan asal).

Regional Information Technology & Software Engineering Center (RITSEC) - Egypt

Repositories of Primary Sources - Terry Abraham's listing of over 3500 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar. There is a section for Africa and the Near East.

Republic of Turkey

Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia

Sahafa - Arabic newspaper resource.

Saudi Aramco - Among their publications is Saudi Aramco World with archives and a subject index. Another rich resource provided by Aramco the Public Affairs Digital Image Archive (PADIA). "Comprising some 30,000 photographs, it is one of the world's largest royalty-free photographic archives specializing in contemporary cultural and geographical images of the Middle East and the Islamic world." (Try a search for Hajj or Makkah.)

Semetic Studies - Heidelberg University Department for Languages and Cultures of the Near East. The Semetic Languages Archive and Sound Documents contain audio files.

Shahnamh Manuscripts (Book of Kings)

Shangri La - "Honolulu home of Doris Duke. Built in 1937, Shangri La houses an impressive collection of Islamic art and is considered one of Hawaii’s most architecturally significant homes." You can view the collection.

Shahnama Project - University of Cambridge received a "five-year research grant to produce an electronic corpus of paintings in Shahnama manuscripts", Provides data on known copies of Shahnama manuscripts as well as links to Shahnama resources on the Web.

Sindibad Films and Multimedia

Society of Arab Universities Faculties of Arts - Located at Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan. Provides a list of members listed by country.

Splendeurs Persanes - Bibliothèque nationale de France

Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey - Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington, D.C.

Symmetry and Pattern: the Art of Oriental Carpets - Collaborative project of The Textile Museum and The Math Forum at Swarthmore College.

Terrorism: Near Eastern Groups and State Sponsors (PDF format) - Kenneth, Katzman, Congressional Research Service, September 10, 2001. Provided by the Federation of American Scientists which also provides a list of Liberation Movements, Terrorist Organizations, Substance Cartels, and Other Para-State Entities.

Terrorist Group Profiles - Dudley Knox Library, Naval Postgraduate School

Country Reports on Terrorism

Topkapi Palace Museum - Former home of the Ottoman sultans and their courts in Istanbul, Turkey. See images in Archnet Digital Library.

Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA) - Rice University. "Online access to texts, maps, and images documenting travel to the Middle East (primarily Egypt) between the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These materials range from travel guides, travel narratives, and museum catalogs to stereocards, advertisements and postcards. To facilitate access and analysis, the texts are fully searchable, and the images are richly described." [DSpace description]

Turkish Poetry Homepage - Sibel Adali

Turkish Studies Association

TurkoTek: Oriental Rugs - This "comprehensive site devoted to collectible Turkoman, Caucasian, Baluch, and other tribal weavings" is maintained by Tom Stacy, a law professor at the University of Kansas.

United Arab Emirates University - Al-Ain. Web site is in English. Other UAE universities include Higher Colleges of Technology and Zayed University.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - With Country Index and section on the Middle East.

United States Institute of Peace - Has a Digital Collection of Peace Agreements and Middle East: In-Depth.

Victoria and Albert Museum - London. There is a site map. The National Art Library provides access to the Catalogue. You can search the Collection Database "for 27,000 works and over 43,000 images." A search for Iran, for example, retrieves over 400 images.

Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Washington Post: Middle East

Women in the Middle East - Collection of Internet Resources compiled by Frank Unlandherm, Middle East Studies Librarian, Columbia University.

World Bank: Middle East and North Africa

World Congress of Muslim Librarians and Information Scientists (wCOMLIS)

World Health Organization - Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean

World Heritage List - UNESCO's list of cultural and natural heritage World properties recognized as exhibiting "outstanding universal value", arranged alphabetically by country. Included are cities, structures, parks, archaeological sites, monuments, canals, historic routes, landscapes, and fortifications.

World Heritage Tour - "World Heritage sites in panography - 360 degree imaging." Try a search for Petra or Aleppo. There is a clickable map.

World Wide Web Virtual Library: Islamic and Middle Eastern Law - School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Yahoo! Middle East Studies

YourDictionary.com - With an Arabic section.