Middle East and North Africa Studies (MENA Studies)

SEARCH TIPS

When searching for books and audio-visual resources about the history of a specific place, be it a city, a country, or a region, try searching the subject heading index starting with the current name of the place, followed by subdivisions of the sort --History; --History--20th century; --History, Military;--Foreign relations; --Politics and government--20th century

Samples:

Africa, North--History
Algeria--Politics and government
Arabian Peninsula--History
Cairo (Egypt)
Iran--History--Revolution, 1979
Israel--History--1948-1967
Israel--Foreign relations
Istanbul (Turkey)--History
Middle East--History, Military
Palestine--History
Saudi Arabia--Foreign relations
Turkey--Politics and government

Specific Historical Events including Wars, Conflicts, Revolutions may have specific subject headings:

Algeria--History--Revolution, 1954-1962
Arab-Israeli conflict
Arab Spring, 2010-
Armenian massacres, 1915-1923
Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988
Iraq War, 2003-2011
Libya--History--Civil War, 2011-
Persian Gulf War, 1991
Syria--History--Civil War, 2011-

Sometimes it is most effective to use a keyword search to find works on a topic for which you do not know the exact subject terminology

Arab spring
Armenian genocide
Battle of Algiers
Suez crisis
Yemen civil war

Try keyword searching when looking for historical treatment of other topics as in the following examples

clothing history middle east
communism history lebanon
​constantinople
​crusades history
food history middle east
king cyrus
Kurds history
ottoman empire
Sephardim history
water history middle east

For works on ancient historical periods, try searching the subject index by the present day name of a place or region, subdivided by --History--To [year]; --Antiquities; --Civilization; or try searching Archaeology--[name of country], or by the name of an extinct city.

Arabian Peninsula--Antiquities
​Archaeology--Israel
Carthage (Extinct city)
Egypt--Antiquities
Egypt--History--New Kingdom, ca. 1550-1070 B.C.
Egypt--History--To 332 B.C.
Iran--History--To 640
Petra (Extinct city)
Sardis (Extinct city)
Syria--Antiquities
Turkey--Civilization
Ur (Extinct city)

There are subject headings for ancient empires, sultanates, ancient peoples and ancient civilizations as in the following examples

Abbasids
Byzantine Empire
Civilization, Ancient
Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian
Islamic Empire
Mamelukes
​Sassanids
Sumerians