Middle East and Central Asia Internet Gateways
Middle East
Al-Mashriq
This gateway provides a wide variety of general cultural resources on the NME.
Middle East Studies Internet Resources
This site is managed by the Middle East and Jewish Studies department of Columbia University (US) and is a real mine of information and various useful links on the Middle East. It is strongly backed by academics and seems to be one of the most reliable and effective sites for resources on NME.
MENA - The Middle East North Africa Internet Resource Guide
This is a very comprehensive Internet resource guide for the NME, North Africa and Central Asia, hosted by University of Utah.
MENALIB
The Middle East Virtual Library (MENALIB) is an information portal for Middle East and Islamic Studies. It provides access to online information and to digital records of printed and other offline media and thus supports the concept of a hybrid library for Middle East and Islamic Studies.
AL-BAB
This site provides a collection of articles and outside links on a wide range of topics related to Middle East studies. The content is a combination of annotated links to websites, links to previously published articles or book excerpts, and original articles and commentary. It provides a large variety of reliable content appropriate for students and researchers at all levels.
The site's sections include: country briefings for the 22 members of the Arab League; news; reference; and collections of links and articles on specific topics. Along with coverage of political and economic issues, these topics include a number of subjects of interest to arts and humanities students, including: Arabic language; media; architecture; art; cinema; literature; and music. A section of articles on diversity in the Arab world also provides information about ethnic minorities like the Kurds, Berbers and Turkmen, and coverage of special topics like women in the Arab world or gay and lesbian issues.
Princeton University Library Near Eastern Studies Resources
Islam, Islamic Studies, Arabic, and Religion
ِA site developed by Professor Alan Godlas of the Department of Religion at the University of Georgia, with lots of links related to Islam and Islamic studies.
al-Waraq – الوراق
Al-Waraq provides over a million pages of Arabic and Islamic works (the whole site is in Arabic). This is a very good site that provides extensive information on Arabic literature and humanities (philosophy, theology…) and also the full-text version of a number of texts for free. You just need to register first.
Al-Mawsu‘ah al-Shamilah - الموسوعة الشاملة
This site currently gives access to over 5,000 digitised texts in Arabic on a wide variety of subjects, with a particular focus on the Islamic sciences.The search form and the whole site are very clear and user-friendly. You can browse the list of books in each discipline (khizānat al-kutub section, accessible from the main page). The site also includes a 'comprehensive library' (al-maktabah al-shāmilah : المكتبة الشاملة) program that allows users to download a large number of texts at once. The entire site is in Arabic.
Major subjects covered include: aspects of Muslim theology; the Qur'an and Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir); Hadith; biography of the Prophet; Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) in general and by school; and works by specific authors like Ibn Taymiyyah. The site also includes books on Arabic language, literature and history. The texts are available as downloadable .rar files or as online text that can be browsed more easily. This will be a useful resource for advanced students and researchers looking for primary and secondary sources in Arabic and Islamic Studies.
National Library of Israel Digital Library
Much of this site is in Hebrew, but it also has material accessible to English speakers. It contains over 400 digital books, historic newspapers (mainly Jewish European publications from the 19th and early 20th centuries), 1,500 maps and 6,500 photographs of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, the National Sound Archives recordings and YouTube videos of cultural events at the National Library.
Central Asia and Caucasus
History of Civilizations of Central Asia
Oriental Express Central Asia
Central Asia country profiles.
Ancient Near East
ETANA – Electronic Tools and Ancient Near eastern Archives
This site is a cooperative project of several American and Israeli academic institutions, which provides a good range of information for the study of the history and culture of ancient Near East. Their page called “ABZU” is a guide to information related to the Ancient Near East on the web, based on every kind of support (article, book, web-site …)
