Middle Eastern and North African Studies
Resources relevant for the study of the Middle East (Southwest Asia) and North Africa from the ancient to the modern period
Iranian Studies @ U-M
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Iranian Studies at the University of MichiganDetails on faculty, programs, curriculum, and events for Iranian Studies at U-M
Scholarly Societies and Initiatives
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Roshan Initiative in Persian Digital Humanities at the University of Maryland (PersDig@U-MD)Persian Digital Humanities initiative currently developing three projects: the Persian Digital Library (PDL) (part of the multi-institutional Open Islamicate Texts Initiative), the Persian Manuscript Initiative (PMI), and the Lalehzar Digital Project (LDP).
Find materials in our library
In our Catalog Advanced Search, select Subject from the drop down menu and search on terms such as
- Persian language
- Persian literature
- Persian poetry (fiction, drama, etc)
- Iran (or particular cities) with terms such as Intellectual life, Social conditions, Politics and government, History, Education, etc. You may also browse the titles with call numbers DS251-DS326.
For titles in Persian, select Persian under Language on the Advanced Search page. For literary works, select Persian under Language and search using terms such as Poems, Short stories, etc or search for particular authors or titles. Use ALA-LC Romanization / Transliteration or search in Persian (for example Firdawsī or فردوسی). You can also browse the titles with call numbers PK6001-PK6996 . For studies, specify particular titles or authors or specify particular genres with historical periods / events and / or geographic terms. For Avestan, Old Persian, and Pahlavi select under Language, search on language, or browse PK6001-PK6199.5
For a broader search across book and article length literature, try Library Articles Search
Get more familiar with the transliteration / transcription system used to describe many of our Persian materials by browsing this comparison table.
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Transliteration of Persian / Farsi (Thomas Pedersen)Comparison of different transliteration / transcription systems for Persian / Farsi, including the Library of Congress system (ALA-LC) used by our library
Assorted Online Bibliographic Resources
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Noormags | پایگاه مجلات تخصصی نوربزرگتــرین بانـک مقــالات علـوم اسـلامی و انســانی
(Valuable for literature search even if content not fully accessible)
Reference Works
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Encyclopædia IranicaOnline version of this comprehensive research tool dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization
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Cambridge History of Iran (online)v. 1. The land of Iran / edited by W. B. Fisher -- v. 2. The Median and Achaemenian periods / edited by Ilya Gershevitch -- v. 3. The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian periods / edited by Ehsan Yarshater (2 pts.) -- v. 4. The period from the Arab invasion to the Saljuqs / edited by R. N. Frye -- v. 5. The Saljuq and Mongol periods / edited by J. A. Boyle -- v. 6. The Timurid and Safavid periods / edited by Peter Jackson and Laurence Lockhart -- v. 7. From Nadir Shah to the Islamic Republic / edited by Peter Avery, Gavin Hambly, and Charles Melville.
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Storey Online (Persian Literature: A Bio-biliographical Survey)Open access online version of this important reference work on the Persian literary tradition
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A Literary History of Persia (Browne)Scans of all four volumes (first edition & reprint) available for download via the Bahá'í Library Online. Additional digital versions available via Archive.org
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Iranologie.com (Khodadad Rezakhani)“Iranologie.com is meant as a comprehensive site to provide information about Iranian history and culture. The site features basic information about Iran as a modern nation-state, a History Page that forms the main contents of the website, as well as research and popular articles on the subject of history. The site also functions as the host for the History of Iran podcast project.”
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Bibliographia Iranica | کتابشناسی مطالعات ایرانی“Over several years Dr. Hooshang Chehabi has collected a large bibliographic database of academic research, books, and articles on Iran. This database is unique in including book-chapters and books that are not included in commercial databases, and therefore provides a very valuable resource for researchers around the world."
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Bibliographia Iranica (Arash Zeini et al)A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies
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Naval Kishore Press Bibliographie"Bibliographic database for records of books and journals published by the north Indian publishing house Naval Kishore Press (est. 1858). The bibliography aims to provide access to bibliographic records of works printed by the Naval Kishore Press [including several hundred in Persian]."
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Muqawwim.com Calendar Converter for Near East Historians (T. S. Beers)"This is a simple calendar conversion utility that displays a given date according to five primary standards: Gregorian, Julian, Hebrew, Islamic, and Persian (i.e., Solar Hijri)..."
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Iranian Calendar Converter (Iranian Chamber Society)Jalali / Jalaali / solar Hijri, Gregorian, Hijri
Dictionaries
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لغتنامهٔ دهخدا | Dekhoda Lexicon(لغت نامه دهخدا) Online version from the Dekhoda Lexicon Institute
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A Comprehesive English-Persian Dictionary (Steingass)Via Digital Dictionaries of South Asia
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New Persian-English Dictionary (Hayyim)Via Digital Dictionaries of South Asia
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واژه یاب | Word FinderCross-search for a collection of Persian dictionaries, including Persian lexicons, dictionaries for various dialects, and several bilingual dictionaries (English-Persian, Arabic-Persian, Persian-English, and Persian-Arabic).
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Farsi 123دیکشنری (انگلیسی به فارسی) و (فارسی به انگلیسی) | Dictionary (English-Farsi) & (Farsi-English)
News and Data
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Nashriyah: digital Iranian historyDigital versions of Iranian newspapers and periodicals held by the University of Manchester
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Iran Data PortalEnglish- and Persian-language online portal that features social science data on Iran, including socioeconomic data, electoral data, information on political parties, and translations of selected laws and regulations.
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Global Census Archive : Iran (East View)data for 1956, 1966, 1976
Text Collections / Corpora
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Persian E-Books Miras MaktoobPersian and Arabic books on Islamic history and culture, published by the Written Heritage Research Institute (Miras Maktoob).
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پایگاه دادگان پارسیگ (Pārsīg Database)Middle Persian (Sassanid Pahlavi) language database with Middle Persian Zoroastrian texts
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Shahnama Project (Cambridge)Online corpus of illustrated manuscripts of the Shahnama
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آسمانه وبگاه تاریخپژوهی و نظریهپژوهی معماری و هنرNetwork and digital platform for critical information and knowledge sharing in art and architecture, humanities, culture, and history
Archival Collections
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Islamic Manuscripts Collection (U-M)1,103 volumes (codices and rolls) and a small number of single leaves, dating from the 8th to the 20th century CE and carrying roughly 1,800 titles. Includes 218 volumes with 260+ texts in Persian and numerous manuscripts produced in Iran and the Persianate world
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Maps of Persia : The Dr Cyrus Ala'i Collection (SOAS)"The Collection consists of 255 old maps and 5 facsimile maps which have been fully described alongside many other maps of Persia in two large volumes of the map-history of that county by Dr. Cyrus Ala’i: General Maps of Persia, 1477-1925 (Leiden, Brill, 2004) and Special Maps of Persia 1477-1925 (Leiden, Brill, 2010)."
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Persian Language Rare Materials (Library of Congress)Digitized 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 of the Library of Congress
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Persian language lithographic printed books from AfghanistanPart of the Persian Language Rare Materials digital collection from the Library of Congress
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Women's Worlds in Qajar IranExplore the lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925) through a wide array of materials from private family holdings and participating institutions. Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran provides bilingual access to thousands of personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, publications, everyday objects, works of art and audio materials, making it a unique online resource for social and cultural histories of the Qajar world.
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Iranian Oral History Project (Harvard)Collection consists of the personal accounts of 134 individuals who played major roles in or were eyewitnesses to important political events in Iran from the 1920s to the 1980s. Of these, 118 narratives have been digitized and are available to researchers through this database.
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Voices from Zoroastrian Iran (Endangered Languages Archive SOAS)"An oral studies project that maps the remaining Zoroastrian communities in Iran. In this deposit of 330 interviews Zoroastrians speak about their lives before and after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Topics include religious and devotional life as well as issues such as emigration, education and marrying outside the community."
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Lawforms: Digitised Legal Documents from the Indo-Persian Worldpre-modern legal documents from South Asia and the Indian Ocean, mainly in Persian, the principal language of administrative and legal record-keeping in the Mughal Empire
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Islamic Lithographs Digital Collection (Islamic Studies Library, McGill University)Browse by language and place of publication
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Confidential Print: Middle East, 1839-1969Digital collection of documents issued by the British Foreign and Colonial Offices.
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Woman, Life, Freedom Movement of Iran (web archive)"This web archive preserves material on, about, and from the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of Iran, which emerged in the wake of the 2022 police killing of Mahsa Jîna Amini." Submit additional sites for inclusion via the form.
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ARSHEEF (Princeton University)"ARSHEEF is a collaborative project that aims at promoting research in North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and South Asia. Based on first-hand experiences of scholars and graduate students, ARSHEEF makes available up-to-date guides to libraries and archives across North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and South Asia."
Performing Arts
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Golistan Project“Aims to create a dedicated portal that will be a virtual museum for the performing arts of Iran, from 1880 through the twentieth century.”
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Music of Iran (Iran Chamber Society)Survey articles and bibliographies
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Golha (Jane Lewisohn, SOAS & Iran Heritage Foundation)Project to digitally archive the Golhā radio programmes (comprised of literary commentary with the declamation of poetry, also sung with musical accompaniment and interspersed with solo musical pieces) broadcast on Iranian National Radio for 23 years from 1956 through 1979.
Palaeography / Manuscript Studies
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Islamic Manuscript Studies (Evyn Kropf)Bio-bibliographical sources, reading lists, catalogs and digitized manuscripts, palaeography resources, etc
For an excellent introduction to work with Persian manuscripts cf Iraj Afshar, "Manuscripts in the Domain of the Persian Language," In General Introduction to Persian Literature, Ed. J.T.P.de Bruijn (London: I. B. Tauris, 2009): 408-429
Last Updated: Nov 22, 2025 1:52 AM
Subjects: International Studies