Restoring access to the British Library’s Asian and African Collections
Following the recent cyber-attack on the British Library, the Library has now implemented an interim service which will enable existing Registered Readers to access some of our printed books and serials and a significant portion of our manuscripts. This service will be expanded further in the coming weeks.
We understand how frustrating this recent period has been for everyone wishing to access our Asian and African Collections and we would like to thank you for your patience. We are continuing to work to restore our services, and you can read more about these activities in our Chief Executive's post to the Knowledge Matters blog.
The Using the Library page on our temporary website provides general information on current Library services, and advice for those without an existing Reader Pass. Please read on for information about the availability of specific Asian and African collections.
Printed books and serials
You can now search for printed items using a searchable online version of our main catalogue of books and other printed material. Online and advance ordering is unavailable, so Registered Readers will need to collect a paper order form from staff in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room and fill in the required details. Please write the shelfmark exactly as it appears in the online catalogue.
Only a small portion of the printed books and serials in the Asian and African Collection will be available for consultation in the Reading Room. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee availability of any printed items. Materials stored in Boston Spa are current unavailable, and items stored in our St. Pancras location might be in use by another Reader or restricted for other reasons. If you wish to gain greater assurance on the availability of a particular item before you visit us, please contact our Reference Services Team by emailing [email protected].
Manuscripts and archival documents
Although the Library’s online catalogue of archives and manuscripts is not currently available, the Reference Services Team can assist with queries about these collections, checking paper catalogues and other sources. Please speak to the team in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room or email [email protected]. Some of our older printed catalogues have been digitised and made available online without charge. For quick access to the digitised catalogues of manuscript and archival material, or to online repositories of images, please make use of the links below:
|
Africa |
|
|
|
East Asia |
||
|
Middle East and Central Asia |
||
|
South Asia |
||
|
South-East Asia |
||
|
Visual Arts (Print Room) |
||
|
|
|
Africa
Chinese
- Union catalogue of Chinese rare books, including basic records for the pre-1912 printed holdings
- UK Union catalogue of Chinese books, including the British Library holdings for Chinese material collected between approximately 1993 and 2014. The old interface can be found at a website maintained by Oxford University.
- Catalogue of Chinese printed books, manuscripts and drawings in the library of the British Museum, with a print version containing shelfmarks found in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room
- Supplementary catalogue of Chinese books and manuscripts in the British Museum
- The British Library has also digitised some of its card catalogues of Chinese-language printed books. These can be downloaded as a Zip file comprised of PDF scans of the cards using the Wade-Giles Romanization scheme (pre-1966 acquisitions) or using the Pinyin Romanization scheme (acquisitions from 1966 until 1993).
Japanese
- CiNii Books - National Institute of Informatics (NII), a bibliographic database service for material in Japanese academic libraries including 43,000+ British Library books and periodicals. Please use FA012954 in the Library ID field
Korean
- Korean Old and Rare Collection Information System, including information on and images of 92 of the Library’s Korean titles.
- FIHRIST (Largely Persian, but also includes some Kurdish, Pashto, and Turkic materials)
Arabic
- Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum Orientalium Qui In Museo Britannico Asservantur (1838) Pars Secunda (Arabic)
- Catalogue of Arabic books in the British Museum: Volume 1 Volume 2 Indexes
- A descriptive list of the Arabic manuscripts acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum since 1894
- Supplement to the catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the British Museum
- A catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Library of the India Office (Loth)
- Catalogue of two collections of Persian and Arabic manuscripts preserved in the India office library
- The Arabic Papyrology Database (search under Inventory Number “Lond.”)
- Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Library of the India Office. (Vol. II). Fasc 2: Sufism and ethics; Fasc 3: Fiqh
Armenian
Coptic
- Catalogue of the Coptic manuscripts in the British Museum
- PATHs, an ERC-funded project that includes information on British Library Coptic literary manuscripts, interspersed with information about manuscripts in other collections
Hebrew
Persian
- Rieu’s Catalogue of the Persian Manuscripts in the British Museum Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3
- Catalogue of two collections of Persian and Arabic manuscripts preserved in the India office library
- Catalogue of Persian manuscripts in the India Office Library (1903)
- Storey’s Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts Volume III (Qur’anic Manuscripts) along with Guidance on usage
- Catalogue of the library of the India Office. Vol. 2, Pt. 6, Persian books
- Ursula Sims-Williams' Handlist of Islamic manuscripts acquired by the India Office Library 1938-1985
Syriac
- Catalogue of Syriac manuscripts in the British museum acquired since the year 1838 Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3
- Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum Orientalium Qui In Museo Britannico Asservantur (1838) Pars Prima (Syriac and Garshuni)
- Handlist of Syriac manuscripts in the British Museum Acquired since 1899
Turkish and Turkic
Early printed books:
- Full list of catalogues on South Asian printed books in the Library of the British Museum hosted by the Digital South Asia Library
- Catalogue of 19th century publications in the Oriental and India Office Library
- South Asia Union catalogue
- Catalogue of the Library of the India Office, vol. 2, part 1: Sanskrit books Section 1 (A-G) Section 2 (H-K) Section 3 (K-R) Section 4 (S-Z)
- Publications proscribed by the Government of India: a catalogue of the collections in the India Office Library and Records and the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books, British Library Reference Division. Shaw, Graham and Lloyd, Mary, 1985.
- Catalogue of the Pali printed books in the India Office Library, Raper, T. C. H., 1983.
South Asian language manuscript catalogues:
Bengali and Assamese
Hindi, Panjabi and Hindustani
Marathi, Gujrati, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Pushtu and Sindhi
Oriya
Pali
Sanskrit and Prakrit
- Catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the British Museum (1902)
- Catalogue of the Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts in the Library of the India Office Parts 1-4 (1-2636) Parts 5-8 (2637-4203)
- Catalogue of two collections of Sanskrit manuscripts preserved in the India Office Library (1903)
Sinhalese
Tibetan
- Southeast Asia Library Group Newsletter, archive 2008-2023
Burmese
- A catalogue of the Burmese books in the British Museum, L. D. Barrett, 1913
- Catalogue of Burmese printed books in the India Office Library, Kenneth Whitbread, 1969
- A hand-list of the manuscripts in Burmese collection in the British Library San San May, 2011
- India Office Library Burmese manuscripts in the British Library, San San May, 2019
- Catalogue of the Burney Parabaiks in the India Office Library, Thaung Blackmore, 1985
- Catalogue of the Mandalay manuscripts in the India Office Library, Fausboll, 1897
- Pali manuscripts in the India Office Library, 1882
- Catalogue of the Pali printed books in the India Office Library, Raper, T. C. H., 1983.
Thai
- ‘Henry D. Ginsburg and the Thai Manuscripts Collection at the British Library and Beyond'
- A guardian of Thai treasures: Henry Ginsburg (1940-2007) on the Asian and African Studies Blog
Access to some archival and manuscript material is still restricted, but the majority of special collections held at St Pancras are now once again available. Our specialist archive and manuscripts catalogue is not online at the moment so you will need to come on-site to our Reading Rooms, where Reading Room staff will be able to help you search for what you need, and advise on its availability.
To place a request to see a manuscript or archival document, Registered Readers need to collect a paper order form from staff in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room and fill in the required details, including the shelfmark (manuscript number). The Library has created an instructional video on finding shelfmarks.
The Print Room, located in the Asian and African Reading Room, is open by appointment only on Monday and Friday between 10.00 am-12.30 pm. Prints, drawings, photographs and related visual material in the Visual Arts collection can be consulted by appointment. Please contact the Visual Arts team via email (apac[email protected]) to check the availability of required items and to book an appointment. Please note that advanced booking is required. Restricted items including the Kodak Historical Collection, Fay Godwin Collection, William Henry Fox Talbot Collection are not currently available to Readers.
- Mildred Archer’s Company Drawings in the India Office Library
- Mildred Archer’s British Drawings in the India Office Library, Vol. 2: Official and Professional Artists
- Mildred Archer’s Indian Popular Paintings in the India Office Library
- Catalogue of Photographs is digitally available via the National Archives, including the Archaeological Survey of India, Stein Photographs, and architectural and topographical photographs relating to South Asia. This also includes the Kodak Historical Collection.
The Reference Services Team in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room has a list of microfilms of printed and manuscript materials.
Digital resources
A number of our early printed books are available on Google Books.
We regret that our digitised manuscripts and electronic research resources are currently unavailable. Nevertheless, some of our digitised manuscripts are available on external platforms:
- Academica Sinica’s Digital Atlas, including 120 antiquarian Chinese maps from the British Library
- EFEO’s collection of Chinese rubbings, including some of the British Library’s holdings
- The Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts, including 56 digitised items from the British Library
- Or.59.aa.1, Images of the Amakusa edition of the Heike Monogatari, Isoho Monogatari and Kinkushū
- The Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), which includes 235 Japanese and Chinese prints of the Sino-Japanese War from the British Library
- Digital Edition of the Coptic Old Testament, including leaves of British Library Coptic papyri interwoven with images from other institutions
- Ktiv (Manuscript Database of the National Library of Israel), including all digitised Hebrew manuscripts from the British Library
- Qatar Digital Library, including digitised Arabic manuscripts from the British Library
- Jainpedia, including digitised Jain manuscripts from the British Library
- South East Asia Digital Library, including a collection of digitised rare books from South East Asia held at the British Library
- National Library Board, Singapore, digitised Malay manuscripts and Qur'ans, papers of Sir Stamford Raffles, and the accounts by Colin Mackenzie on Java held at the British Library
- Or 14844, Truyện Kiều (The tale of Kiều) by Nguyễn Du (1765-1820), the most significant poem in Vietnamese literature
- Or 15227, an illuminated Qurʼan,19th century, from the east coast of the Malay Peninsula
- Or 16126, Letter from Engku Temenggung Seri Maharaja (Daing Ibrahim), Ruler of Johor, to Napoleon III, Emperor of France, dated 1857
- Mss Jav 89, Serat Damar Wulan with illustrations depicting Javanese society in the late 18th century
- Or 14734, Sejarah Melayu (Malay annals), dated 1873
- Or 13681, Burmese manuscript showing seven scenes of King Mindon's donations at various places during the first four years of his reign (1853-57)
- Or 14178, Burmese parabaik (folding book) from around 1870 with 16 painted scenes of the Ramayana story with captions in Burmese
- Or 13922, Thai massage treatise with illustrations, 19th century
- Or 16101, Buddhist Texts, including the Legend of Phra Malai, with Illustrations of The Ten Birth Tales, dated 1894
- Or 16797, Cat treatise from Thailand, with illustrations, 19th century
- Or 4736, Khmer alphabet, handwritten by Henri Mouhot, c.1860-1
- Images from Thai manuscripts on BL Images Online
- Images from Burmese manuscripts and photographs on BL Images Online
- ArtUK, which includes a subset for the British Library's collections including India Office oil paintings and sculptures
- Photographs including Archaeological Survey of India on BL Images Online
- Indian miniatures including the Johnson Collection on BL Images Online
- Natural History Drawings from South and South East Asia on BL Images Online
- Fay Godwin photographs on BL Images Online
- William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné, which includes digitised early photographs from the British Library and other institutions
We thank you, once again, for your patience as we continue to work to restore our services. Please do check this blog and the temporary British Library website for further updates.