Map courtesy of the Nations Online Project.

This guide provides resources on the Middle East and North Africa. The scope of this guide is represented by the map above. Materials of interest to the campus community at Northwestern have been emphasized.  The languages represented within the collection and mainly in Arabic and English with a few items in Persian (For more detailed information on Turkey and the continent of Africa, consult the Turkish studies guide and the African studies guide)  

• Khayam Persian Calendar Conversion
• Gregorian Hijri Dates Converter
• Oxford Islamic Studies Date Converter

Our public computers are equipped with dual-alphabet keyboards (English QWERTY and Arabic) to assist you in your research. To use the Arabic keyboard:

1. Click Start
2. Click Control Panel
3. Click Region and Language
4. Choose the “Keyboards and Languages” tab
5. Click Change Keyboards
6. Next to the “Installed Services” field, click Add
7. Click the + next to Arabic (Egypt)
8. Click the + next to Keyboard
9. Select the box next to Arabic (101)
10. Keep clicking OK to exit out of the setup process

You will now see an EN to the right of the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. You can click it to switch between EN (English) and AR (Arabic).

Library of Congress Romanization tables, which you will need in order to search library catalogs:

• Arabic Romanization
• Armenian Romanization
• Azerbaijani Romanization
• Kurdish Romanization
• Ottoman Turkish Romanization
• Persian Romanization