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

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

Oil, storms and knowing part 1: Seafarers Calm Waves with Oil

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

This post is to mark the period of the 25th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and is contributed by Andrea Deri, Cataloguer. A storm at sea is one of the most feared experiences, as...

Buddha From Kashgar to Istanbul

Thursday, November 21, 2019

This is the eighth of a series of blog posts accompanying the British Library exhibition on Buddhism, 25 Oct 2019 – 23 Feb 2020. In 1911-12, Ahmet Refik (Altınay) published the Büyük Tarih-i Umumî, a compendious history of the world....

Annals of the Middle Eastern Press in the India Office Records (Part II)

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The India Office Records (IOR) that are related to the Gulf and the Middle East contain some articles, clippings and extracts from the region’s early press materials. Here at the BL-Qatar Foundation partnership programme, we created a list of Middle...

A testament to diversity: Kurdish manuscript collections at the British Library

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

In the exhibition Writing: Making Your Mark, we explored the connections between power and the written word. The use of writing can be an exceptionally efficient means of expanding a state's sovereignty far beyond the reach of its armies. Similarly,...