Middle Eastern Studies: Databases

Index Islamicus

The Index Islamicus database indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. It is produced by an editorial team working at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, established to transmit knowledge about Islamic and Middle East studies, which have traditionally been part of the curriculum of SOAS. Records included in the database cover almost 100 years of publications on the world of Islam. Material cited in the Index Islamicus includes not only work written about the Middle East, but also about the other main Muslim areas of Asia and Africa, plus Muslim minorities elsewhere. Over 3,000 journals are monitored for inclusion in the database, together with conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews. Journals and books are indexed down to the article and chapter level. Copyright owner of the Index Islamicus is Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands (Provided by Publisher).

Cambridge Histories Online

The Cambridge Histories series is one of the most respected reference collections in academia. Now extending to over 400 volumes, titles nominally encompass 10 subject areas: American History; Ancient History & Classical Studies; Asian History; British & European History; Global History; Literature; Middle East & African Studies; Music & Theatre; Philosophy & Political Thought and Religion.  However, it is worth noting that the topics addressed extend across the full range of the humanities, encompassing longstanding series, such as those documenting the history of the major global religions, but also recent innovations such as the World History series, which traces the development and chronology of fields as diverse as Food, Medical Ethics, Sexualities and Slavery. 

Often incorporating contributions by University of Manchester academics, the collections offer invaluable contextual introductions for first-time researchers as well as regular monthly updates on developing areas of scholarship.  The library has recently undertaken a review exercise to ensure online access to all available electronic titles and instituted a subscription for the addition of annual releases to ensure consistent and comprehensive access to this flagship reference series. 

The Cambridge Histories also complement other recent state-of-the art and regularly updated reference material recently added to the Library’s holdings – most notably Oxford Bibliographies and Oxford Research Encyclopedias. 

Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969

The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research. The series originated out of a need to preserve the most important papers generated by the Foreign and Colonial Offices. These range from single-page letters or telegrams to comprehensive dispatches, investigative reports and texts of treaties. All items marked ‘Confidential Print’ were printed and circulated immediately to leading officials in the Foreign Office, to the Cabinet and to heads of British missions abroad. The Confidential Print: Middle East 1839-1969 collection consists of the Confidential Print for the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan. Beginning with the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 1830s, the documents trace the events of the following 150 years, including the Middle East Conference of 1921, the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia, the partition of Palestine, the 1956 Suez Crisis and post-Suez Western foreign policy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict (Provided by Publisher).