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Inventory

The inventory of the discipline of Islamic Studies is part of the University Library Marburg. When founding the CNMS in 2006, the Islamic science libraries from Frankfurt and Gießen were merged on Bunsenstraße in 2008 and reorganized under the Regensburg Classification.

By bringing together and restructuring two institutional libraries, Islamic Studies is able to draw on a wide body of specialist literature and standard works. New acquisitions of European-language literature as well as regular business trips to fairs in the Near and Middle East help to continually grow the inventory of Marburg Islamic Studies.

The collections combined in the inventory were influenced by the corresponding professorships and their main areas of interest. For example, the Gießen inventory is characterized by classical Arabic philology and literary studies. The Frankfurt collection is characterized by classical Quran and Hadith science alongside history, philosophy, and science. The professorship of Islamic Studies in Marburg focuses on the history of the Near East in the 13th –17th Century, with special attention on the cultural and social history of the Mamluks. A second focus is on social development in Muslim contemporary societies, including those in Europe.

The inventory comprises more than 10,000 books, periodicals and audiovisual media organized under four systems. The majority of the collection is accessible to users for free. Less frequently used titles and older books are kept in the University Library and Departmental Libraries journal and can be ordered via OPAC or viewed in the reading room at the library.

Further Islamic scientific literature can be found mostly in the sub-libraries of the disciplines represented by the CNMS. However, the Institute Library for Religious Studies, the area of religious history, also has an important inventory of literature on Islamic Studies.

If a specific piece of work isn't available from the University Library and Departmental Libraries, you can suggest if for purchase. You can see a list of new acquisitions in the OPAC.