Primary Sources for the modern history of the Middle East presentation

1. Primary sources for the History of
the
Modern Middle East
Anaïs SALAMON
Head Librarian – Islamic Studies Library
anais.salamon@mcgill.ca

2. Today
Primary sources discussion
Sample search activity
Results presentation
Questions
60
min.
30
min.
20
min.
10
min.

3. Primary sources
Archives Print Materials Newspapers Travel
literature Diaries Drawings Audio
Newspaper Articles Biographies Testimonies
Autobiographies Microforms Maps
Posters Inventories Video Personal
Journals Internet Resources Records
Atlases Digital Materials Photographs Letters

4. Sources of history

5. Where to start?

6. Research tip #1

7. Hands-on
1 – Go to the Description de l’Égypte website
2 - Search for: women
3 –Search for: femmes
hhttttpp::////ddeesscceeggyy..bbiibbaalleexx..oorrgg//

8. Research tip #2

9. Hands-on
1 – Go to the McGill Library
catalogue
2 - Search for: Sudan or
Egypt
3 –Refine your search
using the left-hand side
menu options
4 - Expand your search to
Libraries Worldwide

10. Research tip #3
Keyword versus Subject word

11. Hands-on
Proceed to searching both the following phrases in the Library
catalogue, and compare the number of results:
 Great Britain Colonies History 19th century (keyword)
 Great Britain Colonies History 19th century (subject)

12. Research tip #4
What you are looking for Appropriate subheadings
Archival materials
- documents
- archives
- reports
- sources
Personal writings
- diaries
- personal narratives
- correspondence
- testimony
- description and travel
Pictorial materials
- maps
- atlas
- posters
- pictorial works
- photographs
- drawings

13. Hands-on
Search for the following using the “advanced search”
feature of the Library catalogue:
 Memoirs (kw) + Egypt (su)
 Sudan (kw) + biography (su)
 Omdurman, Battle of, Omdurman, Sudan, 1898 (su) +
diaries (su)
 Sudan (kw) + pictorial works (su)
 Arab countries (su) + atlas (ti)
 Egypt (su) + maps (su)

14. Monographs

15. Monographs
DT43-154 Egypt
DT154.1-159.9 Sudan

16. Microfilms & microfiches

17. Confidential Print: Middle East
http://www.archivesdirect.amdigital.co.uk/CP_MiddleEast

18. Foreign Broadcast Information Service

19. PAIS International

20. The Listener

21. African Online Digital Library

22. Internet Archive

23. Internet Library Sub-Saharan Africa

24. Sudan Open Archive

25. World Digital Library

26. Sample research topics
1. How debates in Great Britain about the colonial Empire in Egypt and the
Sudan have changed?
2. How did the British officials cast their colonial project in Egypt: (Evelyn
Baring, Earl of Cromer)?
3. How did American missionaries cast their project of bringing “civilization”
to the region?
4. How academic histories of British colonialism in the Sudan have changed?
5. How did the British officials cast their colonial project in the Sudan
(Gordon of Khartoum)?
6. How academic histories of British colonialism in Egypt have changed?