Collections
The OIL has approximately 55,000 volumes comprising of the following
Islamic World
The collection covers all aspects of Muslim societies; past and present, including anthropology, art and architecture, archaeology, development studies and economics, history, languages and literature, philosophy, politics and international relations, religion and theology. It supports courses in Arabic, Persian and Turkish.
Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Our Jewish studies collections range from the Hebrew Bible to modern Israel, from developments within Judaism in the time of Jesus to the history of Jews under Islam or in modern Europe, from the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern Hebrew poetry. Additional library materials are available at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.
Eastern Christianity
Our collections compliment the areas of study that span Byzantine Studies, Egyptology, the Ancient Near East, the Middle East and the Islamic World, and Theology and Biblical Studies. These include Causasian, Armneian and Syraic.
Important Syriac sources can be located at the Syriac Studies Reference Library, a joint digitization project between Oxford, who provided the list of titles to be digitized, Brigham Young University who provided the finance and the technicians, and the Catholic University of America who provided the original books. http://www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/cua/history.html.
South and Inner Asia
Our students and scholars work on the history, literatures, languages, politics, religions and cultures of South and Inner Asia. Interests cover a very wide geographical range, from India and Pakistan to Sri Lanka, from the Himalayan regions of Tibet to Nepal, and range over time periods from the classical to the very modern. Languages are in the vernacular in addition to modern. Recent student projects include research into the music of the Monpa people of Arunachal Pradesh. www.northeastindiaexpedition.org.uk.