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African and Middle Eastern Reading Room (African and Middle Eastern Division)
 
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Notice: All Library of Congress research centers are closed to the public (including researchers and others with reader identification cards) until further notice to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19 coronavirus. All Library-sponsored public programs are also postponed or cancelled until further notice. Online resources and reference services, such as Ask a Librarian, will continue to be available during this time. For more information, see: www.loc.gov/coronavirus.

About the Division

About the Collections:
  Online Illustrated Guides
  The African Section
  The Hebraic Section
  The Near East Section

Research and Reference:
  Reference Assistance & Contacts
  Research a Country or Language
  Use the Reading Room
  Transliteration Tables

Internet Resources:
 Selected Internet Resources

Webcasts:
 African Section
 Hebraic Section
 Near East Section

Search our Databases:
  LC Databases & E-Resources
  LC On-line Catalogs

Of Interest:

Egypt 2008 Web Archive
"In 2008 Egypt witnessed a remarkable experience rich in political and democratic practices, and the sites captured back then should be revisited in the context of current events... All in all, this collection of websites represents emerging expressionism by Egyptian political parties and movements, along with blogs and news media sites of the time. These sites may be considered a form of virtual ephemera, appearing prior to the advent of popular social media channels."

North Africa &
the Middle East 2011 - 2012 External Link
This collection documents the events in Northern Africa and the Middle East in 2011 after the Tunisian uprising. Content includes blogs, social media and news sites about Egypt, Yemen, Sudan and other African countries. The content of these sites is in Arabic, English, and French and was collected by the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division and Cairo Field Office, and by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the British Library, and Stanford University.
It was archived by Archive -IT.

Jasmine Revolution -
Tunisia 2011- 2012 External Link
This collection consists of websites documenting the revolution in Tunisia in 2011, and is  in French, Arabic, and English. The websites were collected by the Library of Congress’ African and Middle Eastern Division and Cairo Field Office, and by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the British Library, and Stanford University and archived by Archive -IT.

From left: 18th century Middle East book binding; The Washington Haggadah; Kente Cloth
From left: 18th century Middle East book binding; The Washington Haggadah;
Kente Cloth

Of Special Interest:

African Section:

Africana Historic Postcard Collection

Conversations with African Poets and Writers Series

Digital Collection: Islamic Manuscripts from Mali

Obama Memorabilia from Africa
[PDF, 214 KB]

Omar Ibn Said Collection

Hebraic Section:

 Checklists of Items from Past Displays

Illustrated Children's Books
and Periodicals in
Hebrew and Yiddish, 1900-1929
[PDF, 14 MB]

 Sixteenth-Century Hebrew Books at the Library of Congres
[also in PDF version, 1MB]

Words Like Sapphires: 100 Years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress, 1912–2012

Yizkor-Memorial Book Collection: A New and Expanded Finding Aid

Near East Section:

Abdul-Hamid II Digital Collection of Books and Serials Gifted to the Library of Congress

 Armenian Rarities

Eltaher Collection - Palestinian Pamphlets

Finding Aids for Manuscripts from Mt. Sinai, Mt. Athos, and the Greek and Armenian Patriarchates in Jerusalem

The Holy Koran in the Library of Congress:
a bibliography

Online Exhibition “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book(Exhibition brochure)

Online Exhibition:
"To Know Wisdom and Instruction: the Armenian Literary Tradition at the Library of Congress"

Persian Language Rare Materials

Friends Groups:
Support the African Section
Support the Hebraic Section
Support the Near East Section

Upcoming Events

Location:
101 Independence Ave. SE
Thomas Jefferson Building,LJ 229
Washington, D.C. 20540-4660
2nd Floor Jefferson Building
View Maps and Floor Plans

Hours:
Monday - Friday: 8:30am - 5:00pm
Closed Saturdays, Sundays &
Federal Holidays External Link

Using the Reading Room
(important information
prior to your visit)


Overseas Offices:
Cairo, Egypt
Islamabad, Pakistan
Jakarta, Indonesia
Nairobi, Kenya
New Delhi, India
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Ask A Librarian
Want to ask our reference staff a question about the African and Middle Eastern collections?
The African & Middle Eastern Reading Room is the primary public access point for materials housed in the the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) which include a variety of vernacular scripts, such as Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Yiddish. Covering 77 countries from Morocco to Southern Africa to the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union, the division's three sections--African, Hebraic, and Near East--offer in-depth reference assistance, provide substantive briefings on a wide range of subjects relating to these languages and cultures, produce guides to the Library's vast resources and cooperate in developing and preserving the Division's unparalleled collections.
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