The oriental disciplines
- Arabic Studies
- Semitic Studies
- Iranian Studies
- Turkology including Caucasian languages
- Islamic Studies and
- Area studies of the Near East including North Africa
occupied a special position at the University Library of Tübingen until the end of 1997, as they were maintained within the framework of the plan of collection focuses at German libraries, which was supported by the German Research Foundation. Since 1998, these subjects have continued as a special collection area at Halle University Library.
The Tübingen UB continues to look after the very extensive stock of literature acquired up to that time and also acquires new literature as part of its obligations to the Orientalist subjects represented at the university.
This also includes
- Jewish Studies with Hebrew,
- Languages and Literatures of the Christian Orient (Byzantine Studies),
which were not included in the scope of the above-mentioned special subject collection.
The old holdings (acquisitions up to 1960) were arranged according to subject areas. The oriental languages and literatures are found in the following signature groups: "Ci IV" (Old Persian. Zend. Pehlevi), "Ci V" (New Persian. Kurdish. Afghan. Belujan), "Ci VI" (Phoenician. Moabitic), "Ci VII" (Hebrew. Rabbinic), "Ci VIII" (Aramaic. Mandrake), "Ci IX" (Arabic) and "Ci X" (Ethiopian). The regional literature can be found in "Fo XI" (Turkey), "Fo XX" (Near East) and partly "Fo XXIV" (Africa).
Although manuscripts are not acquired systematically, the library owns many Arabic and Persian manuscripts. Only a part of the manuscripts are catalogued in the library's own catalogs, another part was recorded in the project "Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland (VOHD)", a remainder has so far only been recorded in a handwritten inventory.
More about manuscripts at UB Tübingen...
