Mediterranean History

Levant in Primary Sources

This is a guide to historical research--focused on primary source material--available to Boston College for Mediterranean History.

What's on This Page

Sources: Gov. Docs., State Papers, and Treatise

Avalon Project on The Middle East 1916-2001(A Documentary Record)
The text of multiple treatise, state, and international records related to the Middle East.
HeinOnline World Constitutions Illustrated
Includes constitutional and other related documents (e.g., treaties) for contemporary states across the Middle East and North Africa from the 19th century to the present.
Official Gazettes & Civil Society Information
A collection of official gazettes and other key historical government documentation from countries where the integrity of the public record is known to be at risk. Collection includes material from Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Mozambique, Somalia, Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Sudan, Southern Rhodesia, Congo, Nigeria, Iran, British Somaliland, and Zimbabwe.

Sources: Newspapers and Periodicals

Nexis Uni
Thousands of U.S. and international news sources; legal materials: case law, statutes and law reviews; and company/business information.
Primarily 1990-present
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)
1941-1996. Transcribed and translated foreign broadcasts and news. The original mission was to monitor, record, transcribe, and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Now offers the opportunity for students to expand their research into primary sources that originated in languages they do not have.
World News Connection
Full text news (1995-2013) compiled from thousands of non-U.S. media sources translated into English, the information in WNC covers significant socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events. Coverage is by region and includes: East Asia, Near East and South Asia, China, East Europe, West Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sources: News in Arabic

Akis 1954-1967
Al-Ādāb
Al-ĀdĀb is a literary and cultural Magazine established in 1953 by Dr. Souhail Idris. It includes files in political thought, poetry, short stories, movies criticism, theater, and general culture mainly in the Arab World. It stopped issuing printed copies by the end of the year 2012.

Topics: Human Rights

Amnesty International Library
Interface and content in English (and other languages).
Access to AI's more recent country and research reports beginning in 1961 and moving to the present.
Open Access.
Human Rights Watch Reports
Interface and content in English (and other languages).
HRW's reports from 1987 forward. Can search by country, year, keyword, and topic.
Open Access.

Human Rights Studies Online
Human Rights Studies Online provides documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide. The collection includes text and video that give voice to the countless victims of human rights crimes in the 20th and early 21st centuries committed during the Holocaust, and in Armenia, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and other locations.

Topics: Western Views of

Digital National Security Archive
Declassified documents on the most critical world events, countries, and U.S. policy decisions from post World War II through the 21st century

The Middle East Online: Arab-Israeli Relations, 1917-1970
Original source material from the British Foreign Office, Colonial Office, War Office and Cabinet Papers from the 1917 Balfour Declaration through to the Black September war of 1970-1.
National Security Archive
Declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act. Out of George Washington University.

Topics: First World War and Aftermath

British Campaign in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918
Collection of telegrams, correspondence, minutes, memoranda and confidential prints gathered together in the India Office Military Department on Mesopotamia.
The Cyprus Crisis in 1967
The documents in The Cyprus Crisis, 1967 were collected and collated from a variety of State Department sources and represent an administrative history of the crisis from the perspective of the U.S. government and its foreign policy.
King-Crane Commission Digital Archival Collection
During the summer of 1919, a delegation under the leadership of Oberlin College President Henry Churchill King and Chicago businessman Charles R. Crane travelled to areas of the former Ottoman territories. Their mission was to determine the wishes of the people of the region as their future was being determined by the major powers at the Paris Peace Conference.

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Oberlin College Archives

Israel/Palestine

The British Mandate in Palestine, Arab-Jewish Relations, and the U.S. Consulate at Jerusalem, 1920-1944
This collection consists of correspondence and telegrams received and sent by the American consular post in Jerusalem.
Center for Jewish History Digital Collections
Provides access to the digital assets of the Center for Jewish History and its five partner organizations, the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Materials include photographs, books, manuscripts, prints, posters, memoirs, and more.
Digital Palestinian Archive (Berzeit Univerisy)
The Birzeit University Palestinian Archive Project (BZUPAP) is dedicated to documenting the life of Palestinians (persons, families and organizations) over the past century. Documents (more than 700) collected include the most diverse types of written and audiovisual materials (texts, photographs, videos, recordings). Starts in the Roman period onward.
JDC Digital Archives
Digital facsimiles of more than 75,000 digitized photographs from the 1910s to the 1970s with records of activity in over 90 countries.
Palestine Poster Project
Featuring over 12,000 Palestinian posters dating from 1900 to the present, this archive is the largest such collection in the world. It was started by Dan Walsh as part of his MA thesis, but has continued to grow and develop ever since. It was nominated for UNESCO’s Memory of the World prize in 2016-2017. The archive is easy to browse and search, and open to all.
Poster Collection from the American University of Beirut
These posters were collected from their original sources or from the American University of Beirut campus where they were posted. This collection covers two main topics: The Palestinian Question and Lebanon and the Lebanese Civil War.

Jordan

American Center for Oriental Research's Photo Archive
The ACOR in Amman, Jordan is in the process of digitizing a photographic archive related to its role in preserving and promoting the country’s heritage.
Khirbat en-Nahas Project (Jordan): Ruins of Copper
More than 1366 digital objects.As a part of the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project the UCSD Levantine Archaeology Lab under the direction of Prof. Thomas Levy, has excavated three seasons at Khirbat en-Nahas (KEN). This study of Iron Age state formation in southern Jordan.

Lebanon

AUB Libraries Digital Collections
Collections from the American University of Beirut featuring manuscripts, maps, photos, posters, books, multimedia and other resources.
Digital Documentation Center with the American University of Beirut
Includes several digital collections, including posters (art and political), the Student Union Gazette, photographs, Arabic manuscripts, and more.
The French Mandate in the Lebanon, Christian-Muslim Relations, and the U.S. Consulate at Beirut, 1920-1941
This collection consists of correspondence and telegrams received and sent by the American consular post in Beirut.
Poster Collection from the American University of Beirut
These posters were collected from their original sources or from the American University of Beirut campus where they were posted. This collection covers two main topics: The Palestinian Question and Lebanon and the Lebanese Civil War.

O'Neill Library

Bapst Library

Burns Library

Educational Resource Center

Law Library

Social Work Library

Theology & Ministry Library

O'Connor Library

Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies

Mediterranean History

Levant in Primary Sources

What's on This Page

Sources: Gov. Docs., State Papers, and Treatise

Sources: Newspapers and Periodicals

Sources: News in Arabic

Topics: Human Rights

Topics: Western Views of

Topics: First World War and Aftermath

Israel/Palestine

Jordan

Lebanon