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
Printed books, periodicals and newspapers, manuscripts and a range of other materials
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
Ethiopian collections
The Ethiopian collections include over 600 manuscripts in addition to recent monographs and serials
Judeo-Persian
The British Library has a small but important collection of Judeo-Persian manuscripts and printed books
India Office Records: Resources for Iran
Archival sources for the study of Iran

View all related guides

Help

Asian & African Studies Reading Room

Find information on the shelves
Access online databases and electronic books and 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 or contact the Asian & African Studies Reference Team.

We offer free Discovery and 1-2-1 Sessions to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

You’ll need a Reader Pass

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

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

Blog posts

Two recent flight-related additions to the Map Collection

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Today’s commercial pilots are well equipped to detect and fly over or around meteorological obstacles such as thunderstorms that lie in their path, so that as passengers behind we are rarely troubled by them. But imagine if you were flying...

Pouring wine on Haggadot: a Passover exception

Friday, April 19, 2019

Why are these Haggadah manuscripts different from all other Hebrew manuscripts? On all other nights we avoid spilling wine in our books, But on this particular night, it is unavoidable. Reading the Haggadah and pouring wine. Brother Haggadah, Spain, 14th...

Musicians and Dancers in the India Office Records

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

This guest post by Katherine Butler Schofield houses the illustrations for the podcast “A Bloody Difficult Woman: Mayalee Dancing Girl vs. The East India Company” produced by Chris Elcombe. It was part of a series of presentations at the British...

BL Labs 2018 Commercial Award Runner Up: 'The Seder Oneg Shabbos Bentsher'

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

This guest blog was written by David Zvi Kalman on behalf of the team that received the runner up award in the 2018 BL Labs Commercial category. The bentsher is a strange book, both invisible and highly visible. It is...