LibGuides: Middle Eastern Studies: Indexes & Databases

Modern Foreign Affairs

Carter Administration and Foreign Affairs This link opens in a new window
Memos, letters, and other documentation from the Carter administration and earlier (1972-1981) pertaining to foreign policy.
Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969 This link opens in a new window
"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...This collection consists of the Confidential Print for the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan."
The following classes from The National Archives, Kew are included in their entirety:

CO 935/1-25 Middle East General, 1920-1956
FO 402/1-33 Afghanistan, 1922-1957
FO 406/1-84 Eastern Affairs (Middle East), 1812-1946
FO 407/1-237 Egypt/Sudan, 1839-1958
FO 416/1-113 Persia, 1899-1957
FO 423/1-70 Suez Canal, 1859-1947
FO 424/1-297 Turkey, 1841-1957
FO 437/1-9 Jordan, 1949-1957
FO 464/1-12 Arabia, 1947-1957
FO 481/1-17 Iraq, 1947-1969
FO 484/1-11 Lebanon, 1947-1957
FO 487/1-11 Middle East General, 1947-1957
FO 492/1-11 Israel/Palestine, 1947-1957
FO 501/1-10 Syria, 1947-1956
Country Watch: Website of the World (CountryWatch) This link opens in a new window
Contains detailed textual, data and graphic information for countries and regions. Topics include: country overviews, political history and conditions, economic status, investment overviews, social background, and environmental situation and issues.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports (FBIS) This link opens in a new window
"As the United States' principal historical record of political open source intelligence for more than half a century, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Report is an indispensable source for insights into decades of turbulent world history."
Foreign Office Files for the Middle East, 1971-1981 This link opens in a new window
"This collection is an essential resource for understanding the events in the Middle East during the 1970s. It addresses the policies, economies, political relationships and significant events of every major Middle East power."
Keesing's Record of World Events This link opens in a new window
"Keesing's Online is the web-based version of Keesing's Record of World Events / Keesing's Contemporary Archives. It is the authoritative monthly digest of worldwide political, diplomatic and economic affairs. Published continuously since 1931, Keesing's is the standard for thorough, objective coverage of significant events for every country as well as the major international organizations."
Middle East Online: Iraq, 1914-1974 This link opens in a new window
"The Middle East Online: Series 2: Iraq 1914–1974 presents British government and diplomatic documents — dispatches, monthly and annual reports, minutes, official correspondence and other primary source documents — covering the political history of [Irak] in the 20th century... [from] the outbreak of World War I to the emergence of Saddam Hussein as a leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath party in the 1970s..."
The Middle East, its division into countries and the creation of Israel, 1879-1919 This link opens in a new window
This database is divided into 4 volumes: 1) Foreign affairs and travel, 1888-1919; 2) Papers regarding the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Zionist movement, and British policy in Islamic countries, 1914-1918; 3) Papers of Sir Mark Sykes formerly on display at Sledmere House, 1915-1917; and 4) Miscellaneous other papers.

United Nations Treaty Reference Guide
"This Reference Guide seeks to provide a basic - but not an exhaustive - overview of the key terms employed in the United Nations Treaty Collection, such as treaties, agreements, conventions, charters, protocols, declarations, memoranda of understanding, modus vivendi and exchange of notes. " A glossary of terms relating to treaty actions is also included.

U.S. Declassified Documents Online This link opens in a new window
These U.S. government documents are from presidential libraries, CIA, FBI and other agencies spanning the 20th and 21st century (Gale). Fondren Library owns access to the 2017 through 2023 online annual supplements.
U.S. Intelligence on the Middle East, 1945-2009 This link opens in a new window
US Intelligence on the Middle East "sheds light on the United States intelligence community’s spying and analytic efforts in the Arab world, including the Middle East, the Near East, and North Africa. It covers the time period from the end of World War II to the present day, up until the 2002-2003 Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) assessments, the Global War on Terror, the Iraq War, and Iran’s nuclear program (Brill)."

Dissertations

Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new window
Citations for doctoral dissertations from 1861 to the present. Some master's theses are also available. The full texts of dissertations and theses added since 1997 (since 1918 for Rice theses) may be downloaded.

Religion

ATLA Religion Database This link opens in a new window
"The ATLA Religion Database is a comprehensive database designed to support religious and theological scholarship in graduate education and faculty research. The file contains citations from international titles and 13,000 multi-author works in and related to the field of religion."
Index Islamicus This link opens in a new window
International bibliography of publications in European languages on Islam and the Muslim world.
Islam in the Modern World, 1804-1918 This link opens in a new window
Islam in the Modern World, 1804-1913 contains 150 titles, 172 volumes and more than 52,000 pages. The content includes biographies of the prophet Muhammad; works comparing Christianity and Islam’s key theological and philosophical texts, including the Quran; relevant mystical and spiritual works; and texts surveying the history of Islam.

Historical Databases

Early Arabic Printed Books from British Library, 1475-1900 This link opens in a new window
This collection covers "religious literature, law, science, mathematics, astrology, alchemy, medicine, geography, travel, history, chronicles, and literature, and including European translations of Arabic works and Arabic translations of European books (Gale)." Rice University owns access to Part 1: Literature, Grammar, Language, Catalog, and Periodicals; Part 2: Religion and Law; and Part 3: Sciences, History, and Geography.
● Part 1: Literature, Grammar, Language, Catalog, and Periodicals, which "includes early Arabic printed books of folktales, pre-Islamic literature, Islamic poetry and prose, proverbs and sayings, language and lexicography, dictionaries, grammar, syntax, rhetoric, manuscript catalogs, and periodicals;"
● Part 2: Religion and Law, which "is a digital archive of early Arabic printed books on Islamic religious texts and literature, including numerous editions of the Qur’an with translations and commentaries, traditions (Hadith), and works of the religious life;"
● Part 3: Sciences, History, and Geography, which "presents the range of Arab learning that influenced scholarship and scientific development in Europe through the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. It features works on medicine and physiology, classical sciences, mathematics, astrology, chemistry, natural history, philosophy, logic and ethics, politics, history and genealogy, biography, travel, geography, and topography (Gale)."
International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) This link opens in a new window
The discipline areas to which the IMB is relevant include Classics, English Language and Literature, History and Archaeology, Theology and Philosophy, Medieval European Languages and Literatures, Arabic and Islamic Studies, History of Education, Art History, Music, Theatre and Performance Arts, Rhetoric and Communication Studies. Dates of coverage: 1981 - .
Iter: gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new window
Bibliography comprised of secondary source material pertaining to the Middle Ages and renaissance (400-1700). Citations for books and journal material (articles, reviews, review articles, bibliographies, catalogues, abstracts and discographies) are included, as are citations for dissertation abstracts and essays in books (including entries in conference proceedings, Festschriften, encyclopedias, and exhibition catalogs).
Kotobarabia: Arab Leaders, Historians and Philosophers Collection This link opens in a new window
"A compendium of early works of an astounding variety of disciplines from important Arab writers, spanning fields from feminism and social theory, to classics of literature, history, and the sciences. Includes works by the Four Imams of the Sunni Sect, the Al Azhar Modern Sheikhs, various authors of the Modern Arab Enlightenment, and rare works by the former Egyptian royal family."
Kotobarabia: Modern Arab Renaissance Collection This link opens in a new window
"The Kotobarabia Modern Arab Renaissance Collection is an electronic archive of books published 1820-1914 from Egypt, Syria, and other regions of the Islamic World. The collection is comprised of over 2,500 titles in the humanities and the sciences, including writings from Mahmoud Abdo, Gamal El Din El Afgahany and Rashid Reda."
Making of the Modern World (the) This link opens in a new window
This collection focuses on economics interpreted in the widest sense, including political science, history, sociology, and special collections on banking, finance, transportation and manufacturing. Rice University owns access to Part I, 1450-1850; Part II, 1851-1914; Part III, 1890-1945; and Part IV: 1800-1890.
The Making of the Modern World consists of:
● Part 1: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850, "this collection provides full-text searching of many rare primary source materials: monographs, serials, political pamphlets and broadsides, proclamations, and more;"
● Part II: 1851-1914, this collection is "comprised mainly of monographs, reports, correspondence, speeches, and surveys, this collection broadens Gale's international coverage of social, economic, and business history as well as political science, technology, industrialization, and the birth of the modern corporation;"
● Part III: 1890-1945, "this collection is comprised largely of monographs and periodicals, offering transnational coverage in an area of vital interest to historians: political economy. The archive supports research on critical topics, such as world trade, finance and capital formation, transportation and the growth of cities, industrialization, imperialism and colonialism, socialism, labor and poverty, and other areas of study;" and
● Part IV: 1800-1890, "offers definitive coverage of the 'Age of Capital,' the industrial revolution, and the High Victorian Era, when the foundations of modern-day capitalism and global trade were established (Gale)."
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Index to resources on the history of the world from 1450 to the present, excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life.

Anthropology and Sociology

Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
Scholarly literature and indexed titles in anthropology, archaeology, and related interdisciplinary research.
Compilation of the databases Anthropological Index and Anthropological Literature.
Anthropological Index Online (AIO) This link opens in a new window
Index of articles on all areas of anthropology from over 900 journals held in the Museum of Mankind Library in London.
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) This link opens in a new window
ICPSR provides access to a vast archive of social science data. ICPSR is a membership organization; as an "ICPSR Direct" member (courtesy of Rice's membership), you can register for a personal password and download information directly from ICPSR.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
SocIndex (formerly Sociological Abstracts) covers 3,000 journals (and some books) in sociology, social planning/policy, and related subjects. It offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study.