Category Archives: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

New Library e-resource: Noor Digital Library (Noorlib)

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The Library is pleased to announce the addition of the Noor Digital Library (Noorlib) to its growing collection of electronic resources. This comprehansive e-book database, curated by the Computer Research Center of Islamic Sciences in Iran, provides a rich repository of scholarly materials primarily focused on Islamic Studies.

Noorlib offers thousands of digitized volumes in Arabic and Persian, covering a broad spectrum of humanities disciplines. Researchers and students interested in Islamic history, theology, philosophy, and related fields will find Noorlib an invaluable tool for their research.

Noorlib can be accessed via the link Noorlib. It is also listed on our Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies databases and Databases A-Z pages for easy discovery.

Qur’an Tool

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Qur’an Gateway, a digital tool for the critical study of the Qurʾanic text and its early manuscripts, ceased to operate by last November. The good news is that this useful resource has now a reincarnation in the form of Qur’an Tool, which is an open source thanks to Melbourne School of Theology hosting the service. The landing page of Qur’an Tool (www.quran-tools.com) provides a link to the open source version at the hosting institution directly:

This is a powerful tool for the critical study of the text, construction, and language of the Qur’an. Formulaic analysis is based upon the tools and techniques in An Oral-Formulaic Study of the Qur’an (New York: Lexington, 2017 [2014]) by Dr. Andrew G. Bannister. You can simply look up a verse or browse the list of all Suras, root usage by Sura, word lists, word associations and intertextual connections. There is also a searchable dictionary derived from Project Root List, which has digitised several classical Arabic dictionaries (al-Mufradāt fī gharīb al-Qurʾān, Lisān al-ʿarab, Tāj al-ʿarūs min jawāhir al-qāmūs, and An Arabic-English Lexicon by E.W Lane) and made the data publicly available. (Information above is extracted from the Qur’an Tool site at Melbourne School of Theology)

For first time users, it is necessary to sign up for a personal account to use the service.

Encyclopaedia Iranica Online

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The 15-volume set of Encyclopaedia Iranica, edited by Ehsan Yarshater (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982 – ) and available in the Main Library, is the most renowned reference work in the field of Iran studies. This important work has now been made available online for open access on the Brill Online platform:

Founded by the late Professor Ehsan Yarshater and edited at the Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies at Columbia University, this monumental international project brings together the scholarship about Iran of thousands of authors around the world.

Miras Maktoob: Persian E-books Collection

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The Library has purchased the Miras Maktoob Persian e-book collection available via Brill Online.

The Collection consists of 249 volumes (189 works) originally published by the Written Heritage Research Institute (Miras Maktoob), a non-governmental organisation in Tehran. These e-books, which are exclusively available from Brill, include works in both Persian and Arabic on Islamic history and culture in the broadest sense. Detailed title information will be made available for the entire collection.

Features
– Languages: Persian and Arabic
– English title descriptions available
– 249 volumes (189 titles) on the Persianate and Islamic World
– High-level academic texts and resources
– All volumes appearing in digital format for the first time

How to access

You can access these e-books directly on the Brill Online platform with your UoE login:

All the individual titles can be retrieved in DiscoverEd by title or author searches in Persian script or transliteration. Title search by series title Miras Maktoob will retrieve all the titles at once, or simply click here.

Qurʾan Gateway – database trial

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The Library has arranged a database trial for Qur’an Gateway. The database can be accessed from https://web.qurangateway.org/auth/login.php on the University network or via VPN for off-campus access. The trial can also be accessed from the E-resources Trials website.

The trial is valid until 30 September 2020.

Qur’an Gateway is a digital tool for the critical study of the Qurʾanic text and its early manuscripts. Based on the latest academic research, the tool allows you to explore and analyse data from thousands of records. Features include the ability to examine linguistics and formulaic construction, track scribal changes from hundreds of original manuscripts, check meanings and references from the original Arabic and much more.

Database trial – Global Newsstream

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The Library has just arranged a free trial of Global Newsstream from ProQuest. The trial has been advertised in the Library’s E-resources Trials website http://edin.ac/e-resources-trials and can be accessed on and off campus via University login.

Global Newsstream enables users to search the most recent global news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring content from newspapers, newswires, and news sites in active full-text format. This product provides one of the largest collections of news from the US, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia. All titles are cross-searchable on the ProQuest platform allowing researchers easy access to multiple perspectives, resources, and languages on the topic they are researching.

Coverage: 1980 – current. Trial ends: 7th Aug 2020.

It includes the following sub-databases:

Canadian Newsstream

Full text of over 190 Canadian newspapers from Canada’s leading publishers. This full text database includes the complete available electronic backfile for most newspapers, providing full access to the articles, columns, editorials and features published in each. Some backfiles date as far back as the late 1970s. View title list.

Global Breaking Newswires

Provides timely access to the best newswire content available globally as well as growing archive of news that may not be captured in any of the traditional print sources. View title list.

International Newsstream

Provides the most recent news content outside of the US and Canada, with archives which stretch back decades featuring newspapers, newswires, and news sites in active full-text format. View title list. It consists of the following Nesstreams:

  • Asian Newsstream — more than 60 of the most respected national and regional sources of news and current affairs information in Asia and the Far East. View title list.
  • Australia & New Zealand Nesstream — offers access to leading Australian and New Zealand newspapers. View title list.
  • European Newsstream — contains 552 national and regional newspapers and other news sources from across Europe. View title list.
  • Latin American Newsstream — includes titles from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Latin American Newsstream provides newspapers in Spanish and Portuguese. Key newspaper titles include: El Universal (Mexico City);O Globo (Brazil);La Nación (Argentina);and El Mercurio (Chile). View title list.
  • Middle East & African Newsstream — newspapers, news wires, websites, and blogs from leading publishers throughout the region. Sources include The Jerusalem Post, the Gulf Daily News, Kuwait Times, Cape Times, and Yemen Times, among many others. It includes backfiles as far back as 1988. View title list.

U.S. Newsstream

Provides the most recent premium U.S. news content, as well as archives which stretch back into the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, blogs, and news sites in active full-text format. For academic and public libraries, U.S. Newsstream offers exclusive access to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and co-exclusive access (with Factiva) to The Wall Street Journal. View title list.

We already subscribe to two full-text global newspaper databases: Factiva and Nexis UK. It’d be useful to compare these sources. Feedback welcome.

e-Marefa Arabic databases for trial

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E-Marefa is an integrated database of full-text academic journals, statistics, articles, dissertations, e-books, book reviews, conference proceedings and abstracts about the Arabic World. The database is produced by Knowledge World Compahy for Digital Content in Jordan in partnership with many universities in the Arab world.

The database contains 1900 academic & statistical periodicals (full text) in English & Arabic, 400,000 articles & statistical reports (full text) in English & Arabic, 25,000 theses & dissertation, 14,000 e-books & book reviews, 6500 Arabic Reviews for International Theses, and e-Marefa DataBank for Islamic Economics and Finance which Offers a broad range of full text and bibliographic databases.

The trial of these databases can be accessed on the University network from the web links below:

Trial ends: 20 June 2018

Gale Primary Sources drop-in session Monday 30th Jan in Main Library

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gale-primary-sources

Get the most from our digital archives through Gale Primary Sources

Gale Primary Sources is an extensive digital archives programme spanning multiple disciplines and cultures. The platform uses specialist technology and tools to cross-search the Gale digital archives that our institution has access to.

See for yourself!

We have access to Gale Primary Sources through the Library. Join us to see how you can use this platform to enrich your research and improve your grades:

Monday 30th January
10am – 4pm (drop in)
Main Library – George Square

Want to know more about Gale Primary Sources?

When you explore Gale Primary Sources, you’ll discover original, first-hand content – meticulously cross-referenced to bring the facts into focus and the information to life in remarkable new ways. This digital platform provides an enhanced research experience with reliable search results. You can conduct one search and easily see related resources from extensive digital archives in one place. Find out more here » For more information about this drop-in workshop or on Gale Primary Sources, please email emea.marketing@cengage.com

Iranian archives at Durham

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Durham University is now home to three important archives containing materials relating to Iranian History, Culture and Politics. The archives originate in the work of three British scholars who worked extensively in Iran in the last century.  The collection combines the work of the late Anne Lambton, the late David Brooks and Sue Wright. In future years the collection will mark Durham out as an important destination for researchers interested to know more about Iran in the 20th century.

Professor Sue Wright, Danish School of Education, Aarthus University, will give a personal reflection herself on the content and significance of these three collections on 31 January 2017, 17:00 in The Learning Centre, Palace Green Library. The public lecture is entitled: Iranian archives at Durham: A personal reflection on people, places and the public record.

Contact Professor Bob Simpson ( robert.simpson@durham.ac.uk ) for more information.