Middle East and North Africa: Primary Sources

Al-Ahram (الأهرام‎, “The Pyramids”), from 1875 to 2014. Later years will be added as they become available. The title is regarded as Egypt’s most influential newspaper, and one of the most important newspapers in the Arab world. Prior to 1960, the newspaper was an independent publication. Since 1960, Al-Ahram has been the de facto voice of the Egyptian government, today managed by the Supreme Council of Press. Al-Ahram has featured writings by some of the most important political and literary voices of the day.

This database provides searchable, primary source documents held by the National Archives, Kew (U.K.) that chronicle the politics, wars, administration, and diplomacy surrounding the Palestine Mandate and the Arab Israeli conflict.

This collection consists of correspondence and telegrams received and sent by the American consular post in Jerusalem pertaining to the protection of interests of American citizens,foreign trade, shipping, and immigration.

The Confidential Print series, issued by the British Government between c. 1820 and 1970, is a fundamental building block for political, social and economic research. This collection consists of the Confidential Print for the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan. Beginning with the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 1830s, the documents trace the events of the following 150 years, including the Middle East Conference of 1921, the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia, the partition of Palestine, the 1956 Suez Crisis and post-Suez Western foreign policy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Empire Online is a powerful and interactive collection of primary source documents, sourced from leading archives around the world. It provides users with a wide choice of document types and perspectives, within a structure of five thematic sections: Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire writing & the literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion & Empire; and Race, Class, Colonialism, Imperialism. Also includes images, thematic essays by consultant editors, interactive maps, chronologies, and biographies to enhance the learning experience.

The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was a United States government operation which translated the text of daily broadcasts, government statements, and select news stories from non-English sources. Succeeded by World News Connection after 1996; scope of coverage may be significantly different.

Offers a significant collection of British diplomatic correspondence, minutes, reports, political summaries and personality profiles addressing the policies, economies, political relationships and significant events of every major Middle East power. Conflicts such as the Arab-Israeli War, the Lebanese Civil War and the Iranian Revolution are examined in detail, as are the military interventions and peace negotiations carried out by regional and foreign powers like the United States and Russia. Commercial interests are also scrutinized, with in-depth analyses of Middle East nations’ economic stability and reviews of international arm sales policies. The activities of oil producing nations such as Saudi Arabia are closely monitored, with particular reference to the Gulf States and members of OPEC.

Declassified documents regarding critical U.S. foreign policy decisions organized into 62 collections.

Since 1945, the U.S. intelligence community has had to cover a half dozen major wars and several dozen smaller but equally bloody armed conflicts in the Middle East, as well as innumerable civil wars, border clashes, armed insurgencies, and terrorist attacks. This comprehensive document set sheds light on the U.S. intelligence community's spying and analytic efforts in the Arab world, including the Middle East, the Near East, and North Africa. It covers the time period from the end of World War II to the present day, up until the 2002-2003 Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) assessments, the Global War on Terror, the Iraq War, and Iran's nuclear program.

Offers translated and English language news and information compiled from non-United States media sources. Coverage includes political, environmental, scientific, technical, and socioeconomic issues and events. Coverage: 1995-2013. Continued "Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports," published in print from approx. 1944-1996.