# Specialized Library on Islam and Iran

The Specialized Library on Islam and Iran was established on 1995 in Qom, Iran. This library contains resources, especially regarding the history of Iran and history of Islam. The library is the first specialized history library in Iran and the largest specialized history library in the Middle East.

## Historical background

The lack of resources in historical fields in the Qom Seminary and the urgent need in this field, led to the establishment of the Specialized library on Islam and Iran based on the two tendencies of Islam and Iran to strengthen and activate discussions and historical studies in October 1995 in Qom, Iran. The Specialized Library on Islam and Iran has undergone alteration during the last 25 years including change the location of the library four times. Over the years, newly published historical works from several international exhibitions in Syria, Egypt and Morocco, Mecca, Medina and Jeddah, and Arab and non-Arab countries has added the library collection.

## Affiliation

The Specialized Library on Islam and Iran is affiliated with the office of Ali al-Sistani, which is supervised by Javad Shahrestani. Rasul Jafarian is in charge of managing the library.

## Collection

The library was opened with about 4000 books, but now, there are over 224000 books and journals in the collection. Books and magazines in 9 languages (Persian, Arabic, English, French, German, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi and Istanbul Turkish) are available in the library.

### Classification

The type of classification is thematic in such a way that according to the needs of library users, historical periods and regions are geographically divided and form different themes. In addition, marginal topics are divided according to well-known scientific branches in the history course. So far, the books have been divided into 89 sub-topics including:
* History of Islam
* History of Iran
* Prophetic biography
* Imams biography
* Imam Ali
* Hazrat Fatima
* Imam Hassan
* Imam Hussein
* Imam Sajjad
* Imam Baqir
* Imam Sadegh
* Imam Kazem
* Imam Reza
* Imam Javad
* Imam Hadi
* Imam Hassan Askari
* Imam Zaman
* Azerbaijan
* Arabic literature
* Persian literature
* Professor Jafarian
* Documents
* Central Asia
* Isfahan
* Afghanistan and India
* Economy
* America
* Genealogy and families
* Islamic Revolution
* Imam Khomeini
* Ancient Iran
* Baháʼí Faith
* Pahlavi I
* Pahlavi II
* History of Religions
* History of Europe
* History of the Prophets
* History of Shia Islam
* History of Sufism
* History of Tehran
* History of the World
* History of States
* History of Iraq
* History of Science
* History of Egypt
* History of the Press
* Historiography
* Translation of monographs
* General Translation
* Turkey
* Tehran
* Arabian Peninsula
* Geography of Iran
* General Geography
* Movements
* Iran–Iraq War
* Southern Iran
* Historical Tales
* Khorasan and Sistan
* Caliphate and State
* Persian Gulf
* Women
* Travel literature
* Levant
* East Asia
* Safavid to Zandieh
* Contemporary Arab
* Social Sciences
* Western Iran
* Culture and Civilization
* Cultures
* Palestine
* Qajar dynasty
* Caucasus and Russia
* Qom
* Bibliography
* Kurds and Kurdistan
* Kerman and Yazd
* African countries
* Gilan and Mazandaran
* Latin
* Magazines
* Collection and Memoirs
* Hadith
* Persian Constitutional Revolution
* Morocco and Andalusia
* Unknown
* National Movement
* Art