Middle East Collection Locations
The Middle East Collection is housed in various locations of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, depending on the type of material and its content. Below is a general orientation:
The Van Pelt Library houses the main contents of the Middle East Collection. The collection is integrated into the main stacks, which is in turn, arranged by Library of Congress Classification system. Floor-by-floor, the layout is as follows:
- First floor: Current periodicals, microfilm.
- Third floor: Arabic literature (PJ), Persian, Turkish, and Central Asian literatures (PK, PL), bibliographies and manuscript catalogues (Z)
- Fourth floor: Islamic studies (BP), social sciences (H), Islamic Law (KBL, KBP)
- Fifth floor: Histories and politics of Turkey (DR), Middle East and Iran (DS), Egypt and North Africa (DT). Middle East Seminar Room. Offices of the Middle East Bibliographer and Middle East Technical Services.
ANNENBERG RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
Located on the 6 th floor of Van Pelt Library, the Annenberg Rare Book and Manuscript Library houses a number of important rare books and manuscripts in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish. Further details can be found by clicking here.
Most of the works dealing with Islamic art and architecture are housed in the Fisher Fine Arts Library.
Within the Museum Library, patrons can find the holdings dealing with archaeology and anthropology of the ancient Middle East, and related topics. Official publications of Middle East-based institutions concerned with archaeological conservation and excavations can also be found here.
CENTER FOR ADVANCED JUDAIC STUDIES
CAJS houses a small collection of reference works and monograph titles related to Arabic and Islamic studies, in addition to a collection of over 80 manuscript codices in Arabic and other languages of the Middle East.
