Arabic and Islamic Studies Internet Resources

The purpose of this guide is to list relevant sites relating to the Arabic and Islamic studies on the Internet. This is not a comprehensive guide or gateway but rather a starting point to information in the area.

Subject Directories and Search Engines

ALMISBAH
This is a database providing access to selected Internet resources on the Middle East and on Islam respectively. Websites and online resources on Israel are included only if they are related to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Almisbah is produced by MENALIB. The link to Almisbah appears in the left frame.
*url: http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/html/

Ayna
Ayna, which means "where" in Arabic, is a subject directory and search engine serving the Arabic speaking people of the Middle East and North Africa. It is the Arabic equivalent of Yahoo!
*url: http://www.ayna.com/

Islam and Islamic Studies Resources
Created by the University of Georgia, the site has links to current affairs, religious essays, a subject directory Koran, sects, women, philosophy, science, art, music, literature, language, bibliographies, glossaries, departments and associations.
*url: http://www.uga.edu/islam/

IslamicSydney.com
A non-sectarian, non-profit web site run by volunteers, now known as muslimvillage.com. It was established to provide a focal point for Muslims living in Sydney, to bind the community together and be an extensive source of information for locals and visitors.
*url: http://muslimvillage.com/

Middle Eastern Studies: World Wide Web Virtual Library, Columbia
Columbia University's on-going compilation of electronic bibliographic resources and research materials on the Middle East and North Africa.
*url: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/mideast/cuvlm/

Middle East Network Information Center, MENIC
MENIC, the Middle East Network Information Center, guide to links to the major information sources about and from the Middle East. Connections may be made to servers with material on the Middle East and North Africa, specific countries in the Middle East, Islam, Judaism, and Arabic. Subject guides and information about subscribing to listservs and newsgroups are also available. MENIC is a public service of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas.
*url: http://menic.utexas.edu/

MENALIB: Middle East Virtual Library
An information portal for Middle East and Islamic Studies. It provides access to online information and to digital records of printed and other offline media and thus supports the concept of a hybrid library for Middle East and Islamic Studies. Based in State and University Library Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.
*url: http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/html/

The Shi'a Homepage
A subject directory of links on Shia including, organisations, newsgroups, education resources and texts.
*url: http://www.shia.org/

Departments, Organisations and Associations

EURAMES: European Association for Middle Eastern Studies
An academic association of national scholarly societies. Their activites are linked and presented on this website.
*url: http://www.hf.uib.no/smi/eurames/default.html

MEMRI: Middle East Media Research Institute
This site explores the Middle East through the region's media. It provides translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East. MEMRI was founded in 1998 to inform the debate over US policy in the Middle East, and is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization.
*url: http://www.memri.org/

Internet sites and reference sources in full text

Encyclopedia of Islam
This authoritative encyclopedia presents information on all aspects of the Islamic World, from religion and history to politics and culture. Its geographical and historical scope encompasses the old Arabo-Islamic empire, the Islamic countries of Iran, Central Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Indonesia, the Ottoman Empire and all modern Islamic states.
NB If using a computer in your office or home, you must download the Baskerville for Brill fonts in order to read the articles. Fonts can be downloaded from the search page.

Arabic-English Lexicon
Edward William Lane's eight volume dictionary.
*url: http://www.studyquran.co.uk/LLhome.htm

Encyclopaedia of the Orient
Brief articles on history, politics, art and culture of countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Articles are aimed at high school and undergraduate university students.
*url: http://lexicorient.com/e.o/

Grove Dictionary of Art
Contains in depth articles on Islamic art and artists with bibliographies for further reading. Follow this link.

Internet Islamic History Sourcebook
Fordham University's website containing translations of primary sources from the pre-Islamic Arab world to the present. There is also a link to historical maps.
*url: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html

Al-Islam.org
This site is a work of a work of the Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project (DILP). The project is digitising important Islamic resources and making them available through the Internet, with particular emphasis on Twelver Shia Islamic school of thought.
There are two urls for this site:
*url: http://www.al-islam.org/
*url: http://al-islam1.org/

Islamic and Arabic Art
Created by the Islamic Arts and Architecture (IAAO) is a non-profit organization, this site explains in detail the historical and cultural significance of hundreds of Islamic and Arabic artifacts. The site is illustrated with photographs of dozens of works of art, from massive Islamic shrines and buildings to tiny silver coins.Divided into Architecture, Calligraphy, Coins, History and Oriental Rugs.
*url: http://www.islamicart.com/

Islamic (and other) Calendar Conversion Sites
A list of sites compiled by the University of Michigan Library.
*url: http://www.lib.umich.edu/area/Near.East/CalendarConversion.html

MERIA: Current contents of periodicals on the Middle East
MERIA is the Middle East Review of International Affairs. The website provides Research guides and a quick alert publication, reporting on articles on the Middle East in specialized and general journals.
*url: http://meria.idc.ac.il/currentcontents/ccv24n3.html

Al Muhaddith Islamic Library
This free service includes Islamic software, books, dictionaries, English translation, and all the major hadith texts. These can be downloaded (not read online).
*url: http://www.muhaddith.ORG/

Sacred Texts of Islam
A freely available, non-profit archive of electronic texts of the Qur'an, Hadith, Sufi and other texts.
*url: http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/index.htm

News and Current affairs

ArabDataNet.Com
A focused gateway to information on the Arab world, established and maintained by the National US Arab Chamber of Commerce. There is country information, news, events and links to other sites.
*url: http://www.arabdatanet.com/

Egypt Daily.com
This site is part of the World News network. It provides frequently updated news stories and links to leading English-language news resources for the Arabic-speaking world and to online newspapers in Arabic.
*url: http://www.egyptdaily.com/

Al Jazeera
Television news service from Qatar.
*url for Arabic site: http://www.aljazeera.net/
*url for English site: http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage