The Middle East in The University Library
Book exhibition: "The Middle East in The University Library" Literature through many thousand years
On the occasion of ‘The World Book and Copyright Day’ April 23, 2004, The University Library i Oslo are organizing an exhibition in Galleri Sverdrup form April 23 to May 21.
The aim of this exhibition is to show the immense variety in the cultures and history of the Middle East. In order to do this we have searched the University Library’s older collections and gathered some of our oldest books about the Middle East. Many of these books were of great importance in Europe when they were published, and they show that interest in, and contact with, the Middle East is not new.
‘The Middle East’ is a concept difficult to define precisely in time and space. In general it includes the eastern Mediterranean area, North Africa and the western parts of Asia. The designation ‘The Near East’ was used earlier, and this is perhaps more precise as seen from a European perspective. Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Arabian and Turkish rulers have controlled various parts of the area for shorter and longer periods.
The cradle of our civilization was in the Middle East, and it was here that the great monotheistic religions had their source. For thousands of years the Middle East has been an area distinguished by the meeting of cultures, but also by great conflicts and wars.
In recent years attention has been focused on many areas of the Middle East.It has had importance for various great Western powers in modern times and has also functioned as a bridgehead for expansion into Africa and Asia.
Researchers at the Univesity of Oslo have had the Middle East as an important research area since early in the 1800s. Therefore, we have many important, valuable and even rare books from and about the Middle East. We have chosen literature from our large and comprehensive collections within many subjects and many periods. We wish to display the breadth of our collections by presenting literature from the fields of archeology, anthropology, philosophy, history, art, literature, music, religion, social sciences, language and theology.
The exhibition in Galleri Sverdrup concentrates on older literature from and about the Middle East. At the same time there is a smaller exhibition inside the library, where we display a selection of our modern literature concerning the Middle East.
Web pages at the University Library that are relevant for the Middle East:
Middle East Studies
Literature an the Middle East
Papyrus
The Papyrus-collection
Semitic languages
History of Religion
Social anthropology
