The Library of the DMG
The library of the German Oriental Society (DMG) is a special collection within the ULB Saxony-Anhalt and the FID Middle East. The DMG library contains extensive literature from the fields of Semitic studies, Arabic studies, Iranian studies, Turkology and Indology, mainly from the linguistic disciplines, but also from other academic fields such as history, ethnology, literature, cultural studies and art history. Books on Australian and various African languages as well as Sino-Tibetan (Chinese) and Tibetan-Burmese (Burmese, Tibetan) languages, Japanese and indigenous American languages were also collected.
Under the old classification group Theology, for example, there is an extensive collection of translations of the Bible and under the old classification group Arabic is a collection of editions, translations and commentaries on the Koran.
Today, the book collection comprises 69,000 volumes. It includes a historical book collection up to the year of publication 1845 of approx. 21,100 titles. These include valuable books such as the first Latin translation of the Koran (1543), the first Koran translated into German (1772) and the oldest European representation of Arabic grammar (1505) as well as a cradle print from 1498 (a translation of Avicenna’s medical textbook).
The current focus of acquisitions for the DMG library is on Arabic and Islamic Studies with the Middle East and North Africa as the core area. Other areas of Oriental Studies can be taken into account when acquiring literature at the request of users.