Research Guides: HIST 11A-12A: Cultures of Islam (Hanania): Primary Sources

What Is a Primary Source?

What Are Primary Sources?

"Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research."
(American Library Association, Reference and User Services, History Section)

Where Do I Find Primary Sources?

Primary sources can be found in digital archives/collections, databases, books, museums, archives, and out in the open.

Chances are you already found some primary sources through the books and articles you've search for.

To supplement that, here are some online repositories that have digitized primary sources. Some are available through SCU Library, and some are open access out on the Internet.

Primary Sources in Books

Searching in the Library Catalog for Primary Sources

Library Catalog

You can use the library online catalog, to find published primary sources or books that include reproductions of primary documents.

Do an author search to see if SCU Library owns a book written by specific people (e.g. a notable Islamic thinker from the past whose letters or journal you would want to read)
- Last name, first name middle name
Combine the keywords representing the topic with keywords such as
- correspondence, papers, speeches, memoirs, personal narratives, documents, sources
- For example:
  - silk road and islam and (sources OR documents)

Islamic Primary Sources on the Web

Primary Sources

Primary sources can be found in databases, books, museums, archives, out in the open, and freely available online.

Chances are you already found some primary sources through the books and articles you've search for.

Here are some specific digital archives that have digitized primary sources.

To find other options for quality primary source digital archives on the Internet, trying Googling something like islamic digital collections.

ARTstor
Now included on the JSTOR platform. This database provides more than 2.5 million high-quality digital images for educational and research use, related to art, architecture, and many other disciplines.

In addition to reproductions of a wide range of works of art and architecture from all times and places throughout the world, this database also contains photographs and other images useful for study in many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

Europeana
Europeana, similar to DPLA, is an aggregate service that connects users to digitized resources from institutions all over Europe. This is a great place to start if you're looking for resources related to European history.
Islamic Heritage Project (Harvard University)
Over 800 primary source objects digitized to support inquiry of Islamic heritage.
Manuscripts of the Muslim World (Free Library of Philadelphia)
Over 1200 handwritten books and paintings digitized from the Rare Book Department that come from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia and were made between 1000 and 1900. Browse a sampling of religious texts, calligraphic poetry, literary illustrations, and court portraits.
Islamic Manuscripts (University of Cambridge)
In this digital collection, Cambridge presents the full collection of their earliest Qurʼānic manuscripts copied during the first four Centuries of Islam.
Silk Road Narratives

Primary Source Repositories

Immigration History Research Center Archives
The digitized items from the renowned archives and library at the University of Minnesota dedicated to the study of immigration, ethnicity, and race.
Digital Public Library of America
Books, photographs, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents and more -- all free and immediately available in digital format.
Europeana
Europeana, similar to DPLA, is an aggregate service that connects users to digitized resources from institutions all over Europe. This is a great place to start if you're looking for resources related to European history.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress has over 400 collections of sources that have been digitized and made available online. Users can search by subject and type of resource.
HathiTrust
Drawn from the collections of several major research libraries, this web site contains complete scanned copies of millions of books in their collections. Those that are out of copyright (i.e., published before 1928) are freely available to be read online.
Calisphere
Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Discover over 400,000 photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that provides permanent access online to publications from around the world and from all time periods. Works in the public domain (i.e., published before 1930) are readily available to all, while works still under copyright may be "checked out" and read by one person at a time, similar to one person at a time borrowing a printed copy from a library.

Newspaper and Magazine Archives

Newspaper Archives through SCU Library

San Francisco Chronicle 1865 - 1984
Digitized newpaper editions of the San Francisco Chronicle from 1865 to 1984.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times with Index

Provides searchable digitized issues of The New York Times. Indexing coverage is from 1851 to 4 years ago. Full text is available online from 1851 to 4 years ago.
Use of this resource is subject to the terms of our agreement with the publisher. Acceptable use and restrictions are listed below.

Permitted Uses
1. Online Research Services. Services designed to facilitate online research may be used for
Customer's internal research or educational purposes as outlined below provided that doing so does
not violate an express provision of this Agreement:
1. Research and Analysis. Customer and its Authorized Users are permitted to display and use reasonable portions of information contained in the Service for educational or research purposes, including illustration, explanation, example, comment, criticism, teaching, or analysis. _
2. Digital and Print Copies. Customer and its Authorized Users may download or create printouts of a reasonable portion of articles or other works represented in the Service
  1. for its own internal or personal use as allowed under the doctrines of “fair use" and "fair dealing”;
  2. when required by law for use in legal proceedings or
  3. to furnish such information to a third party for the purpose of, or in anticipation of, regulatory approval or purpose provided that the recipient is advised that the copies are not for redistribution.
All downloading, printing and/or electronic storage of materials retrieved through the Service must be retrieved directly from the on-line system for each and every print or digital copy.
1. Electronic Reserves, Coursepacks, and Intranet Use. Provided that Customer does not circumvent any features or functionality of the Service, Customer may include durable links to articles or other works (or portions thereof) contained in the Service in electronic reserves systems, online course packs and/or intranet sites so long as access to such materials are limited to Authorized Users.
2. Fair Use/Fair Dealing. Customer and its Authorized Users may use the materials contained within the Service consistent with the doctrines of ''fair use" or "fair dealing" as defined under the laws of the United States or England, respectively.
3. Academic Institutions, Schools, and Public Libraries. If Customer is an academic institution, school, or public library:
  1. Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Library Customer may loan digital or print copies of materials retrieved from the Service to other libraries, provided that
    loans are not done in a manner or magnitude that would replace the receiving library's own subscription to the Service or purchase of the underlying work (e.g., newspaper, magazine, book),
    Customer complies with any special terms governing specific content or licensors as described in this Agreement,
    (iii) with respect to ebooks, copying is limited to small portions of a book, and
    (iv) Customer complies with al/ laws and regulations regarding ILL.
  2. Scholarly Sharing. Customer and its Authorized Users may provide to a third party colleague minimal, insubstantial amounts of materials retrieved from the Service for personal use or scholarly, educational research use in hard copy or electronically, provided that in no case is any such sharing done in a manner or magnitude as to act as a replacement for the recipient's or recipient educational institution's own subscription to either the Service or the purchase of the underlying work.
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Except as expressly permitted above, Customer and its Authorized Users shall not:
1. Translate; reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, discover, or modify ProQuest's software;
2. Remove any copyright and other proprietary notices placed upon the Service or any materials retrieved from the Service by ProQuest or its licensors;
3. Circumvent any use limitation or protection device contained in or placed upon the Service or any materials retrieved from the Service;
4. Perform penetration tests or use the Service to execute denial of service attacks;
5. Perform automated searches against ProQuest's systems (except for non-burdensome federated search services), including automated "bots," link checkers or other scripts;
6. Provide access to or use of the Services by or for the benefit of any unauthorized school, library, organization, or user;
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Los Angeles Times (1881-Present)
This database provides full-text newspaper editions of Los Angeles Times from 1881. Coverage includes politics, society and events of the day.
Proquest Historical Newspapers: The Washington Post

This database provides access to the historical archives of the Washington Post, from 1877 to 1998
Use of this resource is subject to the terms of our agreement with the publisher. Acceptable use and restrictions are listed below.

Permitted Uses
1. Online Research Services. Services designed to facilitate online research may be used for
Customer's internal research or educational purposes as outlined below provided that doing so does
not violate an express provision of this Agreement:
1. Research and Analysis. Customer and its Authorized Users are permitted to display and use reasonable portions of information contained in the Service for educational or research purposes, including illustration, explanation, example, comment, criticism, teaching, or analysis. _
2. Digital and Print Copies. Customer and its Authorized Users may download or create printouts of a reasonable portion of articles or other works represented in the Service
  1. for its own internal or personal use as allowed under the doctrines of “fair use" and "fair dealing”;
  2. when required by law for use in legal proceedings or
  3. to furnish such information to a third party for the purpose of, or in anticipation of, regulatory approval or purpose provided that the recipient is advised that the copies are not for redistribution.
All downloading, printing and/or electronic storage of materials retrieved through the Service must be retrieved directly from the on-line system for each and every print or digital copy.
1. Electronic Reserves, Coursepacks, and Intranet Use. Provided that Customer does not circumvent any features or functionality of the Service, Customer may include durable links to articles or other works (or portions thereof) contained in the Service in electronic reserves systems, online course packs and/or intranet sites so long as access to such materials are limited to Authorized Users.
2. Fair Use/Fair Dealing. Customer and its Authorized Users may use the materials contained within the Service consistent with the doctrines of ''fair use" or "fair dealing" as defined under the laws of the United States or England, respectively.
3. Academic Institutions, Schools, and Public Libraries. If Customer is an academic institution, school, or public library:
  1. Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Library Customer may loan digital or print copies of materials retrieved from the Service to other libraries, provided that
    loans are not done in a manner or magnitude that would replace the receiving library's own subscription to the Service or purchase of the underlying work (e.g., newspaper, magazine, book),
    Customer complies with any special terms governing specific content or licensors as described in this Agreement,
    (iii) with respect to ebooks, copying is limited to small portions of a book, and
    (iv) Customer complies with al/ laws and regulations regarding ILL.
  2. Scholarly Sharing. Customer and its Authorized Users may provide to a third party colleague minimal, insubstantial amounts of materials retrieved from the Service for personal use or scholarly, educational research use in hard copy or electronically, provided that in no case is any such sharing done in a manner or magnitude as to act as a replacement for the recipient's or recipient educational institution's own subscription to either the Service or the purchase of the underlying work.
Restrictions
Except as expressly permitted above, Customer and its Authorized Users shall not:
1. Translate; reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, discover, or modify ProQuest's software;
2. Remove any copyright and other proprietary notices placed upon the Service or any materials retrieved from the Service by ProQuest or its licensors;
3. Circumvent any use limitation or protection device contained in or placed upon the Service or any materials retrieved from the Service;
4. Perform penetration tests or use the Service to execute denial of service attacks;
5. Perform automated searches against ProQuest's systems (except for non-burdensome federated search services), including automated "bots," link checkers or other scripts;
6. Provide access to or use of the Services by or for the benefit of any unauthorized school, library, organization, or user;
7. Publish, broadcast, sell, use or provide access to the Service or any materials retrieved from the Service in any manner that will infringe the copyright or other proprietary rights of ProQuest or its licensors;
8. Use the Service to create products or perform services which compete or interfere with those of ProQuest or its licensors;
9. Text mine, data mine or harvest metadata from the Service;
10. Communicate or redistribute materials retrieved from the Service; or
11. Download all or parts of the Service in a systematic or regular manner or so as to create a collection of materials comprising all or a material subset of the Service, in any form.
12. Store any information on the Service that violates applicable law or the rights of any third party.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers
Contains full text scans of hundreds of 19th century U.S. newspapers.
American Periodicals
This database provides digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the beginning of the 20th century.

Titles range from Benjamin Franklins General Magazine, America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository, popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Ladies Home Journal, regional and niche publications, and groundbreaking journals such as The Dial, Puck, and McClures.
Times Digital Archive
The Times of London newspaper archive presents coverage from 1785 to November 29, 2014, covering global events as well as cultural interests from the humanities, business, political science, and philosophy.
Access World News Research Collection
This database Includes articles from 600 U.S. newspapers and over 700 international newspapers. Coverage varies, some newspapers going back as far as 1977.

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HIST 11A-12A: Cultures of Islam (Hanania)

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