In this page you will learn more about:
Main databases of interest:
SOAS Library provides access to many databases which support research into the Middle East and Central Asia. The list below includes resources which are restricted access to SOAS students and staff only and also publicly available web-sites. Most databases can be accessed by all Library users on-campus.
SOAS students and staff can cross-search a range of databases relevant to the study of the Middle East and Central Asia via library catalogue
Below is a list of our major databases available for the Middle East and Central Asia. For a full list of our databases please see A-Z list databases
Search a wide range of resources (not just the Middle East and Central Asia) via journal search.
Below you can find a Padlet with a selection of the main electronic resources and databases for what you will need when preparing an assignment or starting your dissertation.
Scroll up and down, left and right, and find out more about where to start your research?, digital archives, scholarship databases, Language resources, encyclopaedias, indexes, and bibliographies, theses repositories, and searching tips.
You can also open the Padlet on a new tab clicking here by clicking on the arrow on the top-right corner.
REFERENCE SOURCES
Brill Online Reference
For all the reference works published by Brill
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second and Third Editions (EI2 and EI3)
The staple reference works for Middle Eastern and Islamic studies
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Index Islamicus
Bibliographic database of books and journal articles about the Islamic World, published since 1906
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Historical Atlas of Islam
Edited by Hugh Kennedy
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
TheEncyclopaedia of the QurʾānThe Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur’ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur’ānic studies. It includes direct access to 62 Early Printed Western Qur’āns Online. This collection includes Korans and Koran translations in eight languages
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Qurʾān Concordance
The Qurʾān Concordance is a unique finding aid which allows users to identify and localize text fragments, or even snippets, of the Qurʾān.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Dictionary of Qur’anic usage
First comprehensive, fully-researched and contextualised Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage, compiled in accordance with modern lexicographical methods.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online (EALL Online)
All relevant fields in Arabic linguistics, both general and language specific are covered and the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online includes topics from interdisciplinary fields, such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and computer science.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Encyclopaedia Iranica
Encyclopaedia Iranica is appearing in parts, and has so far got only as far as A-Harem, but is already an important source for topics covering the entire Iranian world, both ancient and modern. The online version includes articles not yet published in the printed version.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES
Bibliographic databases are databases which gives brief details of journal articles, books, book reviews, etc. They are essential to browse in an exhaustive way what has been published on a subject and to build up a bibliography.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
With over 3 million bibliographic references to journal articles and to books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951, IBSS is unique in its broad coverage of international material.
[On-campus use] / [Off-campus use]
Web of Science
This is a very powerful database which indexes a wide range of journals in various disciplines. You can access to the Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index. This is a particularly useful database if you are looking for specific authors and their citation records
[On-campus use] / [Off-campus use]
OCLC Firstsearch
Access to WorldCat Database (the OCLC Union Catalogue) - a cooperative database of bibliographic records contributed by more than 71,000 libraries around the world.
[On-campus use] / [Off-campus use]
Index Islamicus
A bibliography of books, articles and reviews on Islam and the Islamic world published in Western languages since 1906 to the present.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies
MECAS is a bibliographic database, which provides access to a wide range of material relating to the study of the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Le Maghreb dans les sciences sociales
A website developed by the King Abdul-Aziz al-Saud Foundation for Islamic and Social Sciences Studies in Casablanca. This website is devoted to Maghreb studies and offers free access to five databases in Arabic and in Western languages (mainly French), and links to journals, universities and research centres, libraries, North African publishers. It also gives a good overview of the researches and debates about various social and cultural topics in the Arab world. One of the bibliographic databases, called Ibn Rushd, is dedicated to Islamic Western world (Maghreb and al-Andalus) and has both Arabic and French interfaces. It allows search on names, titles and the type of publication.
Abstracta Iranica
Abstracta Iranica is a selective and critical bibliographical journal of Iranian studies, covering Iran, Afghanistan, and all the areas relevant to Iranian culture at any point of time. Essays are selected among publications of the previous year and analysed by scholars
RAMBI Web - Index of articles on Jewish studies
A selective bibliography of academic articles covering all of the fields of Jewish studies as well as the study of the State of Israel.
Bibliography of Asian Studies
An index of Western language monographs, journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, anthologies and Festschriften on all parts of Asia published since 1971.
[On-campus] /[Off-campus]
The Online Bibliography of Ottoman-Turkish literature
Is a free and extensive database of references to theses, books, articles, papers and projects relating to research into Ottoman-Turkish culture. Available both in English and Turkish.
Oxford Bibliographies Online - Islamic Studies
Online subject bibliographies for Islamic Studies. Combining a research level encyclopedia and the traditional bibliography. The bibliography includes selective lists of citations to useful print and online resources as well as narrative guides.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
JOURNAL ARTICLES DATABASES
The journal articles databases will provide the full-text of journal articles.
JSTOR
JSTOR is the most popular database offering full-text archive collections from over 1000 academic journals.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Academic Search Premier (via EBSCOhost)
This is a multi-disciplinary database providing full text for more than 4,600 journals including peer-reviewed academic journals and magazine style journals.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
IngentaConnect
Access to over 30,000 journals, with bibliographic information and abstracts. Also provides full-text access, where SOAS subscribes to the journal.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Project MUSE
Access to 200+ from the humanities and social sciences collections of journals.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Choose 'UK Federation (United Kingdom)' and ‘SOAS, University of London' to login off-campus.
Ensani : Portal jami' ulum insani پرتال جامع علوم انسانی
This portal [in Persian only] offers free search and access to journal articles in social sciences and humanities fields (literature, economics, history, education, geography, law, psychology, linguistics, social sciences, Islamic science, political science, library science, philosophy and logic, management, women studies, art studies). Most articles are available as full-text and can be freely downloaded.
AWRS Arab World Research Source
Arab World Research Source is a dedicated resource of scholarly journals, quality magazines, trade publications, industry profiles, country reports, market research reports and conference papers published in the Arab World and/or about the Arab World. The database offers full text for over 300 full text publications, including nearly 200 scholarly journals, as well as 85 full text titles in Arabic Language. AWRS reaches across all major subject disciplines, including business, economics, science, technology, humanities and sociology, and includes key publications from renowned universities in the Arab World.
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
THESES REPOSITORIES
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland
Access via Senate House library
Ethos – Electronic Theses Online Service
Database of over 350,000 UK doctoral dissertations providing both high quality metadata and, where possible, access to the full text either by downloading a PDF directly from EThOS or by following a link to the institutional repository
Proquest Theses and Dissertations: Humanities and Social Science Collections
Database of US theses and dissertations dating from 1861 to the present day, with full-text access to most theses added since 1997, plus a growing retrospective full-text coverage
[On-campus] / [Off-campus]
Foreign Doctoral Dissertations (Center for Research Libraries)
800,000 doctoral dissertations (including those of Albert Einstein, Dag Hammarskjold, and other Nobel laureates) from universities outside the U.S. and Canada. CRL acquired the majority of the collection through deposit from member libraries. CRL continues to acquire about 5,000 titles per year from major universities through demand purchase and deposit.
Open Access Thesis and Dissertations
OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes nearly 3 million theses and dissertations.
