The holdings of the Islamic Studies Library, a branch of the
McGill University Library, stand together with those of the
Robarts Library
The John P. Robarts Research Library, commonly referred to as Robarts Library, is the main humanities and social sciences library of the University of Toronto Libraries and the largest individual library in the university, located at the Universit ...
of the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
as the premier library resources in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
for research on the Islamic world and among the most important collections in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
.
History
The Islamic Studies library was founded, along with the
McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies, in 1952. It has grown from a modest departmental library to a respectable library of approximately 150,000 volumes covering the whole of Islamic civilization. The library is located in Morrice Hall, designed by John J. Browne, and built in 1882.
Collection
The library collections comprise material in print, manuscript, and audiovisual formats. The manuscript collection consists of approximately 640 volumes of literature in Arabic, Persian, Turkish (including Ottoman Turkish) and Urdu. These holdings are located in
Rare Books and Special CollectionsThe audiovisual resources consist of microfilms of rare books, and manuscripts (535 reels). Among the printed books there is a collection of approximately 3000 rare items, including a collection of 700 volumes of Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Turkish books printed by lithography.
In general terms, the collection aspires to cover the entire range of Islamic civilization (Islamicate). Geographically this is meant to include South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.), Southeast Asia (Indonesia, etc.), Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan), the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and the Yemen), and North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and the Sudan).
References
External links
Islamic Studies Library
{{Authority control
McGill University
Academic libraries in Canada
Libraries in Montreal
Islamic libraries
1952 establishments in Quebec
Libraries established in 1952
McGill University buildings