The African & Middle Eastern Division has an on-going effort, in cooperation with the Library’s digitization initiative and external partners, to digitize select items from its collections of high research value. Many items in the digital collections are rare materials, some of which are the most valuable titles and editions dating back to the 11th or 12th century and are the only extant copies in the world. Also included are contemporary materials in the public domain that cover all manner of topics and offer insights into the study of multiple facets of African, Jewish and Near Eastern countries and peoples.
Digital Collections
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CollectionAbdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress In 1884 Sultan Abdul-Hamid II gifted the Library of Congress with a collection of Ottoman Turkish, Persian, Arabic works that he had richly embossed with this inscription in English, French and Ottoman: "Gift made by H.I. M. the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II to the national library of the United States of America through the Honorable A.S. Hewitt Member of the House of Representatives A.H. 1302-1884…Collection Items: View 325 Items
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CollectionAfricana Historic Postcard Collection The African Section of the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division has amassed a unique collection of more than 7000 historical photographic postcards documenting an important visual record of Africa and its people during the historically intensive years of European colonialism, from 1895 to 1960.Collection Items: View 1,300 Items
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CollectionArmenian Rarities Collection The lands of the Armenians were for millennia located in Eastern Anatolia, on the Armenian Highlands, and into the Caucasus Mountain range. First mentioned almost contemporaneously by a Greek and Persian source in the 6th century BC, modern DNA studies have shown that the people themselves had already been in place for many millennia. Those people the world know as Armenians call themselves Hay…Collection Items: View 59 Items
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CollectionCuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III Cuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III presents clay tablets, cones, and brick fragments inscribed using the ancient writing system known as cuneiform from the Library of Congress’ collections. The Sumerians invented this writing system, which involves the use of a wedge-shaped reed stylus to make impressions in clay. Cuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to…- Contributor: Kirkor Minassian Collection (Library of Congress) - Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division
Collection Items: View 44 Items
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CollectionEltaher Collection The Eltaher Collection consists of more than 2,000 items in various formats, including books, pamphlets, photographs, personal correspondence, and newspaper clippings among other documents. The majority of the collection is in Arabic, with some in English. The collection documents the history of the Arab world from 1912 to 1974, with a focus on the life of a well-known Palestinian Arab journalist and newspaper editor,…Collection Items: View 107 Items
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CollectionHebraic Manuscripts A Digital Project Funded through the Generosity of the David Berg Foundation The Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress houses some 230 manuscripts written in Hebrew and in cognate languages such as Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, and Yiddish. It is a highly diverse collection with materials ranging from rabbinic responsa and commentary to poetry, Jewish magic, and folk medicine, and together they offer a rich,…Collection Items: View 227 Items
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CollectionHidden Treasures at the Library of Congress This Week's Hidden Treasure in Partnership with HISTORY This Week's Hidden Treasure is an exciting opportunity to examine historically meaningful and culturally relevant artifacts from the treasured collections of the Library of Congress. It's a unique chance to learn more about some of the pieces of history that have shaped our nation.Collection Items: View 27 Items
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CollectionIslamic Manuscripts from Mali This online collection contains over 30 digitized manuscripts from the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Library of Cheick Zayni Baye of Boujbeha, both located in Timbuktu, Mali. This collection was originally made available as Islamic Manuscripts from Mali, as part of the Global Gateways initiative.Collection Items: View 40 Items
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CollectionManuscripts from the Monasteries of Mt. Athos The twenty monasteries which comprise the historic and legendary yet largely inaccessible monastic complex on Mt. Athos in Greece house a rich collection of over 11,000 manuscripts. In 1952 and 1953, the Library of Congress and the International Greek New Testament Project filmed the largest group of manuscripts in the history of Athos. This collection included 209 Greek and Georgian manuscripts of the Bible…- Contributor: Library of Congress
- Date: 1952
Collection Items: View 258 Items
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CollectionManuscripts in St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai The renowned Eastern Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine’s on Mt. Sinai was constructed by the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, in the late sixth century AD over the relics of the martyred saint and the place of the biblical burning bush as identified by St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor, Constantine. It is home to reputedly the oldest continuously run library in existence…- Contributor: Saint Catherine (Monastery : Mount Sinai) - Clark, Kenneth Willis
- Date: 1950
Collection Items: View 1,691 Items
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CollectionManuscripts in the Libraries of the Greek and Armenian Patriarchates in Jerusalem As Jerusalem, the location of Christ’s Passion, has been central to the Christian religion since its inception, all the early churches sought a presence in that storied and holy city. The Greek Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church, for example, both maintain ancient patriarchates in Jerusalem and both have created renowned libraries in them.- Contributor: Stone, Michael E.
- Date: 1969
Collection Items: View 1,009 Items
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CollectionOmar Ibn Said Collection The Omar Ibn Said Collection consists of 42 digitized documents in both English and Arabic, including an 1831 manuscript in Arabic on "The Life of Omar Ibn Said," a West African slave in America, which is the centerpiece of this unique collection of texts. Some of the manuscripts in this collection include texts in Arabic by another West African slave in Panama, and others…- Contributor: American Bible Society - See, Sheikh Sana - Thomson, William Hanna - Dukur, Muḥammad - Cotheal, Alexander Isaac - Kebe, Lamine - Omar Ibn Said Collection (Library of Congress) - Library of Congress. Rare Book and Special Collections Division - American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions - Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division ... American Bible Society - See, Sheikh Sana - Thomson, William Hanna - Dukur, Muḥammad - Cotheal, Alexander Isaac - Kebe, Lamine - Omar Ibn Said Collection (Library of Congress) - Library of Congress. Rare Book and Special Collections Division - American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions - Library of Congress. African and Middle Eastern Division - Bird, Isaac - Said, Omar Ibn - Rothman, Adam - Dwight, Theodore - Beard, Derrick Joshua - American Ethnological Society
- Date: 1741
Collection Items: View 46 Items
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CollectionPersian Language Rare Materials The Library of Congress is home to a noteworthy collection of rare Persian language manuscripts, lithographic books and early imprints, as well as printed books, housed in the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Most of these Persian manuscripts and lithographic books were procured for the Library in the 1930s by Kirkor Minassian (1874-1944), a renowned…Collection Items: View 492 Items
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CollectionRare Illustrated Children's Books in Hebrew and Yiddish, 1900 - 1929 Figure 1 In Vald [In the Forest]. New York, 1918 The Library of Congress is home to a superb collection of rare children’s books and periodicals in Hebrew and Yiddish, among them the very first ever printed for children in these languages. Most of the sixty titles in this collection are still under copyright according to international law or presumed to be under copyright…Collection Items: View 10 Items
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CollectionSelections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy “Whoever writes the bismillah in a beautiful writing enters Paradise without judgment.” (1-84-154.56) Scholars and practitioners of Islamic calligraphy have long considered the written word the quintessential medium for expressing religious sentiment and personal piety. Indeed, as noted in the calligraphic fragment above (1-84-154.56), a beautiful handwriting (husn al-khatt) that includes the bismillah (“In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful”) is believed…Collection Items: View 273 Items
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CollectionSelections of Prayer Materials from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) holds a sizable collection of prayer materials from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Prayers commonly serve as a supplication, confession, or praise, among other functions. Prayer traditions are passed down through generations in various formats – such as oral, written, etc. – capturing the rich culture of belief systems. The Selections of Prayer Materials in…Collection Items: View 118 Items
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CollectionWorld Digital Library This collection contains cultural heritage materials gathered during the World Digital Library (WDL) project, including thousands of items contributed by partner organizations worldwide as well as content from Library of Congress collections. The original World Digital Library site (preserved in LC’s Web Archives here) and all descriptive metadata were translated from English and made available in six additional languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Russian,…Collection Items: View 19,407 Items
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CollectionYiddish Language Play Scripts from the Lawrence Marwick Collection The Yiddish theater developed as a uniquely American form in the Eastern European Jewish immigrant community in New York City, and other urban centers, during the early twentieth century. The 77 unpublished manuscripts presented here include light comedies and dramas, and have been selected from the more than 1,290 playscripts in the Lawrence Marwick Collection of Copyrighted Yiddish Plays, housed in the Hebraic Section,…Collection Items: View 82 Items