The Middle East Institute in Washington reopened the Oman Library building in a ceremony held under the auspices of Musa bin Hamdan Al Tai, Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman to the United States of America. It is worth mentioning that the Oman Library doubles as a centre for studies and research and contains a large number of books in Arabic and English supported and distributed by the Sultan Qaboos Center for Culture in Washington.
The Oman Library seeks to support MEI’s Mission to “increase knowledge of the Middle East among citizens of the United States and to promote better understanding between the people of these two areas,” by facilitating research and information sharing on all aspects of the broader Middle East region.
The Library houses over 20,000 books and periodicals devoted to the Middle East. Readers will find materials in English as well as regional languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish and Persian. Represented topics include culture, history, languages, literature, and politics of the Middle East, Islamic lands, and relevant regions.
The Oman Library’s Digital Rare Books Collection is a web-based collection of the library’s rare books and manuscripts, consisting entirely of subjects related to Middle Eastern Studies. The project utilises a high-resolution scanner and aims to make hundreds of items available to scholars and researchers anywhere in the world.
The collection, now searchable as well as browsable, contains works spanning seven different languages — English, Arabic, French, Farsi, Urdu, Ottoman Turkish, and Turkish — published between 1700 and 1921.
The august gathering included a number of officials from American institutions, ambassadors and diplomats from embassies accredited to Washington among others.
The Oman ambassador while thanking the Middle East Institute for hosting the Oman Library building touched on the historical relations linking the Sultanate with the US in all fields.
Daniel Benaim, the President of the Middle East Institute and the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arabian Peninsula Affairs, thanked the Sultanate of Oman for its continuous support for the Institute’s programmes and activities in Washington, praising the good relations that link the Institute with the Omani embassy and institutions in Muscat.
The Middle East Institute in Washington, founded in 1946, is the oldest institution devoted to the study of the Middle East in Washington, and is a think-tank providing expert policy analysis, educational and professional development services, and a hub for interaction with arts and culture in the region.
