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Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

 

The books collection of the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (formerly Middle East Centre) is shelved around the central reading area of the Library. The journals collection was amalgamated some years ago with the Middle Eastern collections of the Faculty Library. There is a separate CMEIS reading room on the ground floor of the Faculty for newspapers and ephemeral journals.

The collection was founded with the aim of covering aspects of the countries of the modern Middle East. This includes politics, economics, modern history and development which were never collected consistently by the Faculty Library which is predominantly based on classical and cultural studies. The collection contains publications in Arabic, Persian and Turkish as well as in English and European languages. It covers all countries of the Middle East and Islamic North Africa.

The collection was set up by Professor Arthur Arberry in 1960, originally in rooms in Pembroke College, with the aim of stimulating in the University at large interest in the subject of the Middle East in general and in its modern aspects in particular. Financial support was initially provided by Shell and by BP. The collection came to be regarded as one of the 'area study centres' established as a result of the Hayter report. These centres agreed to specialise in certain subjects or areas of the Middle East and the Cambridge Centre took on the responsibility for books on the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf region. There has been little funding available over recent years and the collection has not been added to in a consistent way since about 1990.

The major strengths of the section lie aspects of the politics and economics of the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf area in the twentieth century. There are many Russian publications included in the collection.