The main focus of the Islamic World Special Collections is on the Middle East and North Africa, with smaller holdings from Indonesia, the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia as far as Xinjiang, China.

Leiden University Libraries hosts materials in hundreds of different languages, including many languages that are written in non-Latin scripts.

Leiden University Libraries hosts materials in hundreds of different languages, including many languages that are written in non-Latin scripts. Since 2015, all items are catalogued in the original scripts. Therefore, you may use for instance Arabic, Persian, Russian, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean or Chinese…

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in Middle Eastern Studies

The UBL holds five sets of manuscripts recognised by UNESCO as documents of universal value and exceptional significance to the world. They are included in UNESCO's International World Heritage list of documents (Memory of the World Register).

The Middle Eastern Special Collections form the nucleus of the entire range of Oriental heritage collections of Leiden University Libraries.

The Middle Eastern Library is located on the ground floor of the new Herta Mohr Building at Witte Singel.

A collection of uncatalogued books from the Middle East is now available through the Leiden University Libraries’ (UBL) catalogue. The collection contains over 12,000 books mainly written in Arabic, but also in multiple other languages from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, including Persian,…

The Chinese Special Collections are part of the Asian Library. Items can be consulted at the Special Collections Reading Room.

In March 2018 with the support of the Van de Sande Foundation Dr. Abdolbaset Ghorbani Dahaneh (Uppsala University) will research the sixteenth-century Rauwolff Herbarium and its botanical sources in Leiden University Libraries. On Wednesday, March 14, during the Clusius Symposium Ghorbani will give…

Books, manuscripts and images are of course made to be read and looked at, but they are also so much more. There is a world to discover in this new exhibition: hidden content, moving parts, pop-up images and much else besides. Touching Treasures by Leiden University Libraries (UBL) revolves around…

With support of several companies, including Brill Publishers and private foundations, Leiden University Libraries and the Scaliger Institute welcome around 15 to 20 Fellows and guest per year to consult and examine material in the Special Collections. The Scaliger Institute received a large number…

Overview of databases, reference works and website for research in the History of Science

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in Art & Art History

More than 2000 objects from the Middle Eastern collection at Leiden University Libraries (UBL) have been made available online through Digital Collections. These collections mostly consist of written works in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, but also contain printed works and the…

Overview of the Scaliger, Brill, Elsevier, Van de Sande, Juynboll, Drewes, Isaac Alfred Ailion, Arminius and Lingling Wiyadharma Fellows who have conducted research in the Special Collections of the University Library.

Lifelike gods, provisional professors and the city militia with weapons a clanking. Leiden put on a colourful procession and drummed up hundreds of citizens to celebrate the foundation of the first university of the Republic of the Netherlands on 8 February 1575. 'It wasn't a party just for the sake…

The people behind the Leiden University Libraries aim to maintain the level of their services to clients as much as possible. They are making thankful use of internet, but not everything can be put online.

Overview of databases, reference works and websites for research in International Studies