The Near East Collection at Yale University
History of the Near East Collection
Yale was the first among American colleges and universities
to support and encourage the study of Arabic literature and Islamic culture.
When the first professor of Arabic, Edward Elbridge Salisbury, was appointed
in 1841, he was the only scholar of his kind in the United States. For over
a century, Yale has developed an extensive collection of Near Eastern library
materials to support Arabic and Near Eastern Studies at Yale. At present,
the collection is considered among the most important Near East collections
in this country, and in the world.
When Leon Nemoy wrote a book about the Near East collection
at Yale in 1956, the library was comprised of only three distinct collections
which were housed in the Sterling Memorial Library:
- The Salisbury Collection: Presented to Yale in
1870 by Edward Elbridge Salisbury, professor of Arabic at Yale from
1841-1856. Part of his collection was purchased from the private library
of the great French Arabist Antoine Isaac Baron Silvestre de Sacy.
- The Landberg Collection: This is one of several
collections assembled by the eminent Swedish Arabist, Carlo Count Landberg.
Mr. Morris Ketchum Jesup purchased the collection from him and presented
it to Yale in 1900.
- The Open Arabic Collection: This collection consists
of titles acquired by the library by purchase, exchange, or as gifts.
It includes over 300 volumes from a collection of manuscripts formerly
in the Wellcome Museum in London. The collection was acquired by the
antique book dealer Hans P. Kraus in New York, and purchased by Yale
in 1949.
Since the publication of Nemoy's book in 1956, the Yale
Library has amassed a considerable amount of materials. Today the Yale University
Library houses more then 400,000 books relating to Near Eastern Studies
in Western languages and spread over numerous libraries and collections.
There are over 150,000 Arabic and Persian volumes which cover a wide variety
of subject areas. The collection is particularly strong in classical texts,
Islamic Law, History, Philosophy, and Arabic Literature. The majority of
the materials are in Arabic. The Arabic and Persian collections are housed
mainly on the 3M level in the Sterling Memorial Library. The older collection
which contains the materials classified under the Yale Classification system,
is housed on one side of the 3M floor, whereas the newer materials are on
the opposite side, classified according to the Library of Congress (LC)
system. All oversize materials in the Near East Collection are located on
the 2nd Floor of Sterling Memorial Library. Currently
the library owns more than 1,900 serials, of which 900 are in vernacular
scripts, relating to Near East studies including the major American and
European scholarly journals. The current Arabic and Persian periodicals
are located in a special area in the Periodical Reading Room in Sterling
Memorial Library. |
