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Middle East and Central Asia

 

The SOAS collections relating to the Middle East and Central Asia are unique in that while the British Library and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University have similar coverage, only SOAS Library keeps the bulk of its materials on open access and thus available to browse or borrow.

The Islamic Middle East covers a very wide area both geographically, stretching over three continents, and linguistically, with languages that are spoken from the western tip of North Africa to the farthest reaches of Siberia.

For more information see SOAS Library: Why is it special?

 

YALE-SOAS ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT GALLERY (YS-IMG) DIGITISATION PROJECT 

Yale-SOAS Islamic Manuscript Gallery (YS-IMG) Digitization Project
This project was a pilot to create an archive of and a gateway to Islamic manuscripts.  The materials selected comprise important manuscripts, related manuscript catalogues and language dictionaries held separately in their two library collections. 

The digital collection is now available via the SOAS Digital Archives and Special Collections website

 

MANUSCRIPTS AND RARE BOOKS

The Library possesses over 400 Arabic manuscripts, some 400 Persian and 45 Turkish, and a few in Coptic and Ethiopic. 

Some of these are especially rare and beautiful, the finest example being perhaps Husayn Va’iz Kashifi’s Anvar-i Suhayli which contains 27 exquisite Persian miniatures.  Other manuscripts are interesting for their illustrations and calligraphy, particularly some of the Qur’an, and for their history, such as the Persian Guide of Kings composed by Jeronimo Xavier, S.J., and addressed to the Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, in 1609 A.D.

In addition, the Library was able to acquire microfilm copies of the remaining five books needed to complete its holdings of the limited editions from the press of that most fascinating printer, Ibrahim Muteferrika, a Hungarian by birth who fell into slavery but later became the founder of the very first Turkish press in Istanbul in 1729.

The personal bookplate of Ras Tafari (afterwards Emperor Haile Selassie I) is to be found on several early printed Ethiopian works.

 

Dr CYRUS ALA'I RARE PERSIAN MAP COLLECTION 
A significant collection of specialist maps of Persia has been donated to the Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS by Dr Cyrus Ala'I in early 2013.

The collection is digitised and accessible from the SOAS Digital Collections repository. 

 

PERSONAL PAPERS

In recent years the Library has been building up its collections of unpublished documents and records, in addition to individual manuscripts and such papers as came with original collections like those of William Marsden.  The extensive missionary records which have been received are concerned with areas other than the Middle East, but some personal archives should certainly be noted.

  • The Paget Collection comprises papers of William Paget, sixth Lord Paget, Ambassador Extraordinary to Turkey, 1693-1702 and 1705-06, and were deposited on permanent loan by the Marquess of Anglesey in 1964.
  • The papers of Lt.-Col. D.L.R. Lorimer (1876-1962) cover historical, geographical and particularly linguistic topics arising out of his career in India and southern Persia.
  • The archives of General Fereydoun Djam (1914-2008) were donated to the Library Special Collections in 2012. They are composed of publications, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, audio cassette tapes, artwork, artefacts, and span over five decades (ca.1950-2002), hence bringing great support to Iran historiographical studies.

 

                             

                                      Kâtip Çelebi, Dünya Haritası, 1850-1900: https://digital.soas.ac.uk/LOAA005872/00001