ResearchGuides: African and Middle Eastern Studies: Middle East & North Africa : Databases and other resources

Find a Database (Helka)

Multi-Content Databases

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO) Multi-disciplinary database. Provides indexing and abstracts for over 12 500 scholarly journals in a variety of disciplines, and full text for over 8500 of these journals.
more...less...
In addition, this database offers indexing and abstracts for a total of more than 13 200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1400 journals.
ATLA with ATLASerials (ATLAS) Online (EBSCO) This index with 1,4 million records is a tool for the study of religion and theology, indexing journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion.
more...less...
Links are provided to 120,000 full text articles from more than fifty journals. --- ATLASerials is an online collection of major religion and theology journals. Users can read articles or research the history of a topic from 1949 to the present.
Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) (AsiaPortal) Bibliography of Asian Studies™ (BAS) contains nearly 900,000 records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present
JSTOR A fulltext database containing earlier volumes of mainline journals mostly in the fields of social sciences, arts and business. The collection packages which are enabled at University of Helsinki are: Arts & Sciences I, Arts & Sciences II, Arts & Sciences III and Biological Sciences
MLA international bibliography Consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore and includes coverage from 1926 to the present. --- The MLA International Bibliography provides access to scholarly research in nearly 4,000 journals and series. It also covers relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats.
Project MUSE A searchable database that provides online access to current issues of selected scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. A list of the journals contained in this database can be found at the Project Muse homepage

Useful Resources in Arabic and Islamic Studies

Arabic and Islamic Manuscripts: Digitized Manuscripts [open access] Find digitized collections of Arabic and Islamic Manuscripts (American University of Beirut)
Middle East and Islamic Studies Classic Arabic Texts Online Classic Arabic Texts Online offers approx. 19,000 pages of classic Brill editions of Arabic texts in a full-text searchable format and accessible from one single point of entry. --- Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum (with indices and glossaries!) edited by M.J. de Goeje and J.H. Kramers -- De Goeje's edition of al-Ṭabarī's Ta'rīkh al-rusul wa l-mulūk -- De Goeje's edition of al-Balādhūrī's Kitāb Futūḥ al-buldān -- Origins of the Islamic State by Murgotten and Hitti, the English translation of al-Balādhūrī's Kitāb Futūḥ al-buldān.
Encyclopaedia of Islam Three Periodicals - Islam - Muslims -Islamic civilization Brill's Third Edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam (EI3) is an entirely new work with new articles reflecting the great diversity of current scholarship. The EI3 appears in four substantial parts each year, both online and in print. The new scope includes comprehensive coverage of Islam in the twentieth century, attention to Muslim minorities all over the world, full attention to social science as well as humanistic perspectives.--Publisher
Muslims in Russia This collection of digitized periodicals introduces the Russian Muslim population during one of the most dynamic periods of their history (1861-1918). Materials published in Russia both at the center and on the periphery reflect the picturesque palette of life of Muslims in the Russian Empire, as well as the positions of their public and political figures. This collection presents works written by and about Muslims.
The Quranic Arabic Corpus [open access] Quranic Arabic Corpus is an annotated linguistic resource which shows the Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology for each word in the Holy Quran. The corpus provides three levels of analysis: morphological annotation, a syntactic treebank and a semantic ontology..
Behind the Name: Arabic Names [open access] This website looks at the etymology and history of all types of given names.
Onomasticon Arabicum [open access] Onomasticon Arabicum (OA) is a long-living database project. This new online-version informs on more than 27000 scholars and celebrities from the first Muslim millenary. Its entries in Arabic are compiled from ancient biographical dictionaries, a veritable treasure of Islamic culture. Crossed search allows separate interrogation on any of the different elements of the Arabo-Muslim names, dates and places, reconstructing the identity of a person, trace ways of knowledge transmission and frame historical contexts.
Europeana Collection: Arabic manuscripts [open access] A good collection of Arabic manuscripts.

Useful Resources in Near Eastern Studies

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day.
Encyclopaedia Iranica
Encyclopaedia Judaica Encyclopaedia Judaica is a comprehensive reference book on the history and culture of the Jewish people. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history in all eras, culture, holidays, language, scripture, and religious teachings.
Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Non-Biblical Texts Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library contains the texts and images of all the Dead Sea Scrolls - both Biblical texts and Non-Biblical texts. The databases are based on the Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library CD-ROM, published by Brill and Brigham Young University. Both databases present a complete Hebrew transcription and English translation of texts, together with high-resolution images.
Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Biblical Texts
International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) - Online Reference database covers books, articles, book reviews, and more, dealing with late-antique and medieval (date range 400-1500 AD) Europe and the Mediterranean World, the Middle East and North Africa. 00,000 citations.
more...less...
All subjects relating to the Middle Ages are included. Database contains over 300,000 citations.
Pars Times {open access] Extensive and well organized collection of links about the Middle East. Particularly rich is its Middle East media section. Also a strong section for governmental reports of interest to political scientists and others in the social sciences.
RAMBI - The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies RAMBI – The Index of Articles on Jewish Studies – was founded by Dr. Issachar Joel in 1966. It is a selective bibliography of academic articles covering all of the fields of Jewish studies as well as the study of Eretz Israel and the State of Israel.
Rav-Milim online Hebrew dictionary A leading online Hebrew dictionary, the only one offering a complete morphological analysis, which makes it possible to find every Hebrew word, in every conjugation and every form of spelling. The dictionary encompasses the entire modern Hebrew vocabulary, in all its layers and dimensions. The dictionary updates regularly, new words coined by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, alongside foreign terms and even new slang are added.
Sefaria [open access] A library of Jewish texts and their interconnections, in Hebrew and in translation. Bible, Talmud, Zohar, modern texts and the traditional commentaries.
The Oxford handbook of Persian linguistics This handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the field of Persian linguistics, discusses its development, and captures critical accounts of cutting edge research within its major subfields, as well as outlining current debates and suggesting productive lines of future research. Leading scholars in the major subfields of Persian linguistics examine a range of topics split into six thematic parts.
Lietuvos Karaimai [open access] A website of the Lithuanian Karaims Culture Society.
MERIP --Middle East Research and Information Project [open access] The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) was established in 1971 to educate and inform the public about contemporary Middle East affairs. A registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, MERIP publishes a quarterly magazine, Middle East Report, as well as frequent articles, updates and educational primers on its website.
Mandean Assosiation Union [open access] Mandean language and culture
Khayam Persian Calendar [open access]

Ethnologue: Languages of the World

An encyclopedic reference database cataloging all of the world’s 7000 known living languages.