Primary sources for the History of the

Modern Middle East

Anaïs SALAMONHead Librarian – Islamic Studies Libraryanais.salamon@mcgill.ca

Today

Primary sources discussion

Sample search activity

Results presentation

Questions

60 min.

30 min.

20 min.

10 min.

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

Primary sources

Sources of history

Where to start?

Research tip #1

1 – Go to the Description de l’Égypte website

2 - Search for: women

3 –Search for: femmes

Hands-on

http://descegy.bibalex.org/http://descegy.bibalex.org/

Research tip #2

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

Hands-on

Research tip #3

Keyword versus Subject word

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)

Hands-on

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

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)

Hands-on

Monographs

Monographs

DT43-154 Egypt

DT154.1-159.9 Sudan

Microfilms & microfiches

Confidential Print: Middle East

http://www.archivesdirect.amdigital.co.uk/CP_MiddleEast

Foreign Broadcast Information Service

PAIS International

The Listener

African Online Digital Library

Internet Archive

Internet Library Sub-Saharan Africa

Sudan Open Archive

World Digital Library

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?

Sample research topics