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The Library of Congress holds thousands of collection materials about and from Egypt. Curated by the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), this guide is part of a series of country guides that provide quick references for countries and regions.
This country guide provides links to major research resources for Egyptian studies from across the Library, including digitized rare books, free and subscription-based databases, books, serials, and special format materials such as maps, prints & photographs, audio visual recordings, etc.
The African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED) was created in 1978 as part of a general Library of Congress reorganization. AMED currently consists of three sections - African, Hebraic and Near East - and covers more than 77 countries and regions from Southern Africa to the Maghreb and from the Middle East to Central Asia. Each section plays a vital role in the Library's acquisitions program; offers expert reference and bibliographic services to the Congress and researchers in this country and abroad; develops projects, special events and publications; and cooperates with other institutions and scholarly and professional associations in the US and abroad.
As a major world resource center for Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, AMED has the custody of more than one million physical collection materials in the non-Roman-alphabet languages of the region such as Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Yiddish. Included in these collections are books, periodicals, newspapers, microforms, grey literature, and rarities such as cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, incunabula (works printed before 1501), and other early African and Middle Eastern publications. Among the most prized items are also several sizable pamphlet collections on African Studies.
Official Name: Arab Republic of Egypt
Capital: Cairo
Population: 104,124,440 (July 2020 est.)
Area: 1,001,450 sq km (about three times the size of New Mexico)
Major River: Nile
Official Language: Arabic
Religion(s): Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%, Christian (mostly Coptic Orthodox, other Christians include Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, Maronite, Orthodox, and Anglican) 10% (2015 est.)
[Information courtesy of CIA World Factbook]
