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
Turkish and Turkic collections
Over 25,000 volumes of printed books, periodicals and newspapers, more than 4,000 manuscript texts, and other materials
Judeo-Persian
The British Library has a small but important collection of Judeo-Persian manuscripts and printed books
Ethiopian collections
The Ethiopian collections include over 600 manuscripts in addition to recent monographs and serials

View all related guides

Help

Readers at desks in the Asian and African Reading Room

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 a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations 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

Football in the Gulf – some snippets from the early years

Monday, November 21, 2022

With the start of FIFA World Cup 2022 in which Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran will be competing, here is a look at a few mentions of football in the Gulf from the 1930s to the early 1950s from the...

Alexander, Meet İskender: Turkic Manuscripts on Alexander the Great

Monday, November 14, 2022

A map of the world taken from the Nevadirü'l-garâip ve mevaridü'l-acayip with the Wall of Gog and Magog in the bottom right quadrant, north-east of Istanbul. (Mahmud el-Hatip el-Rumi, Nevadirü'l-garâip ve mevaridü'l-acayip. 972 AH [1564-65]. British Library Or 13201 ff...

An Early Modern Khavarnamah from Bijapur

Monday, October 31, 2022

This week’s post is by guest writer Namrata B. Kanchan, PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation examines the courtly Dakhni literary and manuscript culture between 1500 CE and 1700 CE. One of the most ambitious...

Alexander the Great in Firdawsi's Book of Kings

Monday, October 24, 2022

The legendary life of Alexander the Great is the subject of the British Library’s new exhibition Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth which opened on Friday 21 October. A visual feast of stories spanning more than 2000 years,...