History of the Modern Middle East

A digital cultural heritage collection of the Middle East and North Africa, incorporating content from institutions around the world. Includes a wide variety of materials including oral histories, photographs, illuminated manuscripts, maps, letters, serials, books, and more.

Links to secondary sources, primary sources, and educational websites. Includes sources about the Pre-Islamic Arab world; Muhammed and foundations; Islamic faith and theology; Islamic expansion and empire; the Caliphate; The Persians, Turks, and Ottomans; the expansion eastward; Islamic Africa; interactions with the West; the Western intrusion; Islamic nationalism; Islamic world since 1945; Islamic history maps; and more. Part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project in the History department at Fordham University.

Digitized maps, photos, posters, documents, audio, etc. from the American historical experience. Search by terms such as Ottoman or "Middle East" to find primary sources for these areas.

This list of guides provides access to many useful resources at the Library of Congress and elsewhere. Please keep in mind that the listed resources include those that are digital as well as resources that are only available in person at the Library of Congress. Digital resources include maps, some freely accessible databases, images, manuscripts, etc. Some sources are in English; some are in the language of the country.

Full text journals and gazettes indexed and searchable in the language of publication, including Arabic and Western scripts. From Yale University Library.

A digital collection of Islamic manuscripts, published texts, and maps in the original languages. A small number of items are in English. From Harvard Library.

Transcribed full text of documents pertaining to the Middle East from the Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy at the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School.

An archive of (primary source) declassified national security documents. Search by country or region. Of special interest: Go to Postings > Briefing Books > Under Browse, select region: Middle East.
See also the Digital National Security Archive under "Primary Source Databases."

Thousands of images from the holdings of the American Geographical Society (AGS) Library focusing on the countries of Asia and the Middle East. From the digital collections of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Libraries.

Maps of individual countries and regions spanning from ancient times to the 20th century.

Most, but not all, of the posters have been digitized. Look for the "view digitized document" link. From the University of Chicago Library.

Thousands of images from 1892 to present documenting the cultural heritage of countries such as Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and the Sudan.

The collection consists of the personal accounts of 134 individuals who played major roles in or were eyewitnesses to important political events in Iran from the 1920s to the 1980s. Of these, 118 narratives have been digitized and are available to researchers through this database.

Oral history interviews with women from various countries in the Middle East.

Scholarly conversations on all kinds of topics concerning the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. Current and archived podcasts are available.