Beginning on this page, you will find a group of carefully selected links to useful information about the fields of Middle East and Islamic Studies.
1) The Middle East:The term Middle East defines a general geographic area that does not have precise borders. For purposes of the collections and services provided by Columbia University Libraries, the term broadly refers to the area extending from the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It is taken to include Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, Azerbayjan, Armenia, Iran, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
2) Islamic Studies: Topics included under the rubric of Islamic Studies are exceptionally diverse, ranging over an extended period of time and extensive lands in which Muslims have lived. The field of Islamic Studies covers a plethora of different aspects of Islamic life and culture, including but not limited to literature, art, history, and religion. Every method of dividing these topics has its drawbacks. The approach hereby adopted to introducing resources in the field is purely pragmatic.
