Research Guides: Persian Studies: Persian Reference Sources

Persian Reference Sources

Encyclopedia Iranica
A comprehensive research tool dedicated to the study of Iranian civilization in the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.

The Aryanpur Progressive English-Persian Dictionary by Aryanpur, Manoochehr
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PK6379 .A6755 2010
Farhang-i Iṣṭilāḥāt-i Hunarī va aʻlām-i Hunarmandān by Pākbāz, Rūʼīn
Call Number: Art Library: N33 .P353 2010
ISBN: 9786001050169
Farhang-i hamsafar-i pīshrū Āriyānpūr Ingilīsī Fārsī = The Aryanpur progressive English-Persian dictionary by Aryanpur, Manoochehr
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PK6379 .A6755 2010
Persian-English English-Persian Learner's Dictionary by Yavar Dehghani
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PK6379 .D443 2008
ISBN: 9781588140340
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
The increasing popularity of the study of Persian (also known as Farsi, Tajiki or Dari) in the English speaking world, has created a need for a bi-directional Persian-English dictionary geared towards English speakers who are learning Persian. The features of the Persian-English / English-Persian Learner's Dictionary which make it unique are: Bi-directional: This is the first and only Persian-English/English-Persian dictionary in one volume which features both Persian and transliteration. Alphabet: The alphabet used in Persian is completely different from the English. This can be a major barrier in the early stages of learning the language. This dictionary provides a simple transliteration of the Persian word along with its equivalent in the Persian alphabet. Alphabetical order: In this dictionary, the alphabetical order in the Persian-English section is based on the English spelling. This makes it easy for the user who is not familiar with the Persian alphabet to find a word. Correct use of words: This dictionary gives synonyms in various contexts allowing the student to easily choose the correct meaning. Entries: Approximately 18,000 entries covering both day-to-day and more specialised vocabulary. The Audience for this dictionary is: English speaking students of Persian. English speakers who are seeking to communicate with Persian speakers. Children of Iranians, Afghans and Tajiks outside their homeland who wish to learn their mother language. Persian speakers who wish to learn English.
Farhang-i hamrāh-i pīshraw-i Āryānʹpūr : Fārsī-Ingilīsī by Aryanpur, Manoochehr
Call Number: McKeldin Reference Stacks: PK6379 .A6755 2006
A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persian by Colin Turner
Call Number: McKeldin Reference Stacks: PK6379 .T87 2004
ISBN: 9780700704583
Publication Date: 2003-12-18
Now available in paperback, A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persianis a reference work unique in the history of English-Persian lexicography. It offers a considerably extended guide to modern everyday Persian vocabulary, arranged by theme. With approximately 25,000 Persian headwords in over seventy themed sections, it covers every conceivable vocabulary need: from everyday topics such as food or the weather, to more in-depth topics such as astronomy, psychology or international relations. Supplementary wordlists cover verbs, adjectives and parts of speech, while a special section on Persian simple and compound verbs will appeal to all learners of Persian. An easy-to-use index of English words, with over 20,000 items of vocabulary, completes the work and gives it the look and feel of a regular two-way bilingual dictionary. Invaluable for vocabulary building, essay-writing and specialised translation, A Thematic Dictionary of Modern Persian caters for all your Persian language needs in one volume, and is designed to make word learning a pleasure rather than a chore. r Persian language needs in one volume, and is designed to make word learning a pleasure rather than a chore.
Farhang-i lughāt-i zabān-i makhfī : bā muqaddamahʹī darbārah-ʼi jāmiʻahʹshināsī-i zabān by Samāʼī, Mahdī
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PK6397 .S26 2003
ISBN: 9789643057107
A Dictionary of Persian Slang.
Lughatʹnāmah / taʹlīf-i ʻAlī Akbar Dihkhudā by Dihkhudā, ʻAlī Akbar
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: AG36 .D545 1998
Farhang-i nuvīn guzīdah-ʼi masal’hā-yi Fārsī by Abrīshamī, Aḥmad
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PN6519.P4 R3444 1997
A Modern Dictionary of Selected Persian Proverbs.
Dictionary English-Persian, Persian-English by S. Haim
Call Number: McKeldin Reference Stacks: PK6379 .D53 1992
A Concise English-Persian & Persian-English Dictionary of Phrases by Āmūzgār, Hūshang
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PK6379 .A5 1990
Relating to politics, economics, finance, banking, international relations, trade, the military, communications, and diplomatic service.
Farhang-i Istīngās, Far̄sī-Ingilisi : shāmil-i lughāt va ʻibārāt-i ʻarabī kih dar adabiyāt-i Fārsī bikār raftah ast by Steingass, Francis Joseph
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PK6379 .S74 1977
Reprint. Originally published: London : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1892.
Added t.p.: Persian-English dictionary.
The one-volume Persian-English dictionary : designed io [sic] give the English meanings of the most important and the most common Persian words and phrases about 45,000 in number by Ḥayyīm, Sulaymān
Call Number: McKeldin Stacks: PK6379 .H32 1969

Country Profiles

Gives an overview of politics, economy, risk, business, industry, and data for each country.

Country Profile: Iran: Information presented by the EIU database.
Country Profile: Afghanistan: Information presented by the EIU database.
Country Profile: Iraq: Information presented by the EIU database.
Background Notes: From the U.S. Department of State facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, etc.
Coface: Country Risk and Economic Research: Presents country risk findings in three main sections: Country Risks, Sectors (contain ratings of industries), and Business Climate.
Country Studies: From the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, covers 102 countries and regions. Country Profiles are also available. Information is not updated on a regular basis.
Country Commercial Guides: From the United States Commercial Service - U.S. Department of Commerce, comprehensive look at a country's commercial environments, using economic, political and market analysis. Select "Country Commercial Guides" in the "Report Type" field.
Enterprise Surveys: Provides the world's most comprehensive firm-level data in emerging markets and developing economies for over 120,000 countries. Data are used to create indicators to benchmark quality of the business and investment climate across countries.
One World – Nations Online: A portal to the countries of the world - each country listed contains a country profile with facts and figures, geography, flag, statistics, maps, images, plus links to sources that provide more information such as: official government web sites, newspapers, tourism, travel advice, etc.
CIA World Factbook: From the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA, provides overviews on most countries of the world.
Country Data (PRS): Economic, financial, political and social data for over 140 countries, in most cases back to 1984. Note: You must turn off your pop-up blocker or permit pop-ups from this site in order to retrieve data.
Everything International: Provides links to a wide variety of international business, education, and research web sites.
Global Development Finance: From the World Bank provides direct access to more than 200 debt and financial flows indicators for the 129 countries that report public and publicly-guaranteed debt to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. These data begin in 1970.
Human Development Report: From the United Nations an annual "In depth analysis and policy recommendations on a specific and important aspect of international development", includes statistical factsheets on many of the world's countries.

Country Report

Country Reports give a more in-depth look into each country, their background, polirics, economy, finance, and business, including up-to-date news reports.

Country Report: Iran: Information presented by the EIU database.
Country Report: Afghanistan: Information presented by the EIU database.
Country Report: Iraq: Information presented by the EIU database.
Doing Business Database: Provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 183 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level.
Everything International: Provides links to a wide variety of international business, education, and research web sites.
Human Development Report: From the United Nations an annual "In depth analysis and policy recommendations on a specific and important aspect of international development", includes statistical factsheets on many of the world's countries.
Kwintessential Country Profiles: Guide to international etiquette, culture, customs and protocol.
Market Research Library: From the U.S. Commercial Service, provides market research reports searchable by Industry, region or country. Note: You must create a free account in order to access these reports.
NationMaster.com: National statistics for just about any country in the world, presented in over 20 categories and 10 regions, including Asia and South East Asia.
OffStats – Official Statistics on the Web: Collection of "free statistics from official sources" from around the world. Can be searched by country, region and topic or Industry.
One World – Nations Online: A portal to the countries of the world - each country listed contains a country profile with facts and figures, geography, flag, statistics, maps, images, plus links to sources that provide more information such as: official government web sites, newspapers, tourism, travel advice, etc.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History: Over 900 articles from leading scholars with extensive bibliographies. Covers all time periods of human history and includes strong coverage of individual countries, regions, industries and economic concepts.
Passport [Note: This resource requires a campus login for access.]: Provides comparative statistics for 205 countries on economic indicators, health, foreign trade, environment, lifestyle, industrial and agricultural output, communications, and more. Also includes market size data for over 300 consumer products and services.
World Business Culture: Contains country profile information on a range of topics of immediate commercial relevance to anybody working in a global organisation, or studying international trade. The information has been compiled by some of the world's leading experts on global business culture.
World Development Indicators: From World Bank Group provides direct access to more than 550 development indicators, with time series for 200 countries and 18 country groups from 1960, where data are available. Time covered from 1960 - present in a wide range of areas, including social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. Data export options in Excel or ASCII.
World Economic Outlook: From International Monetary Fund (IMF), time covered from 1993 to present. Coverage similar to World Development Indicators data, but more limited in scope and history, includes commodity price data and regional data that's not easily available in World Development Indicators.
World Investment Report: From United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Report focuses every year on the latest trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) around the world, at the regional and country levels and emerging measures to improve its contribution to development.

Country Data

These links take you to sites that host statistical information regarding countries.

Global Development Finance: From the World Bank provides direct access to more than 200 debt and financial flows indicators for the 129 countries that report public and publicly-guaranteed debt to the World Bank Debtor Reporting System. These data begin in 1970.
GlobalEdge: From Michigan State University's Broad College of Business. Contains a wealth of information on all countries, in-depth analysis of selected industries, teaching resources, etc. Free access, but registration will provide additional information.
Human Development Report: From the United Nations an annual "In depth analysis and policy recommendations on a specific and important aspect of international development", includes statistical factsheets on many of the world's countries.
International Comparison Program: From the World Bank, provides a collection of comparative price data and detailed expenditure values of countries gross domestic Products (GDP), and purchasing power parities (PPPs) estimates of the world's economies.
International Financial Statistics: From the International Monetary Fund. Covers all aspects of international and domestic finance, includes full-text statistical data from 1996-present.
Joint External Debt Hub (JEDH): From the World Bank. Provides external debt data and selected foreign assets from international creditor/market and national debtor sources.
NationMaster.com: National statistics for just about any country in the world, presented in over 20 categories and 10 regions, including Asia and South East Asia.
OffStats – Official Statistics on the Web: Collection of "free statistics from official sources" from around the world. Can be searched by country, region and topic or Industry.
One World – Nations Online: A portal to the countries of the world - each country listed contains a country profile with facts and figures, geography, flag, statistics, maps, images, plus links to sources that provide more information such as: official government web sites, newspapers, tourism, travel advice, etc.
Quarterly External Debt Statistics (QEDS/SDDS/GDDS): Provides detailed external debt data that are published individually by countries that subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) as well as GDDS participating countries that are in a position to produce the external debt data prescribed by the SDDS.

For more, explore these databases.

EIU ViewPoint
EIU ViewPoint (formerly: EIU ViewsWire) is the world's most comprehensive source of global forecasts, market trends, data and analysis, in over 200 countries. The service is relied upon by analysts and strategists across business, government, finance and academia to provide unrivaled insight into how the world's political, economic and policy landscape is changing. Covers different disciplines: Economics, Business, Political Science and Law.

MLA International Bibliography with Full Text
Indexes journals, books, essay collections, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies published worldwide in the areas of literary criticism, language, linguistics, rhetoric, and folklore of all countries. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA) the database contains millions of citations as well as full text for over 1,000 journals.
Index Islamicus
An international bibliography of publications in European languages on all aspects of Islam and the Muslim world. It covers their history, beliefs, societies, cultures, languages and literatures. It includes material published by Western orientalists, social scientists and Muslims writing in European languages. The file contains indexing for 3,470 titles with coverage dating back to 1906. ISBNs are not part of a searchable field in this database. Do not attempt to search on authors by truncating the first name. Last, F? will often result in zero hits. Try searching on Last or Last, First
Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies
Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies (MECAS) is a systematic and non-evaluative bibliographic index of research, policy and scholarly discourse on the countries and peoples of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. This database contains more than 475,000 records. Over 15,000 records of recently published and grey literature are added annually. Subject coverage includes: political affairs & law, international relations, economic affairs - business & industry, cultural heritage, arts & humanities, society & social welfare, ethnic diversity & anthropology, significant religious events & movements and recent history (1900 - present) & archaeology. MECAS includes the following: Middle East Bibliography (1946 - 2001), Middle East Book Bibliographies, Theses & Dissertations, MECAS Citations Database and School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) Library Catalogue (1900 - present). Do not attempt to search on authors by truncating the first name. Last, F? will often result in zero hits. Try searching on Last or Last, First.
Index Translationum
The database contains cumulative bibliographical information on books translated and published in about one hundred of the UNESCO Member States since 1979 and totals more than 2.000.000 entries in all disciplines: literature, social and human sciences, natural and exact sciences, art, history and so forth. The database is updated regularly.
International Medieval Bibliography
The International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) is one of three databases that is bundled together in the Brepolis Medieval and Early Modern Bibliographies database. The Library subscribes only to the IMB, which includes information about articles, conference proceedings, and Festschriften on all aspects of medieval studies in the period of 450 to 1500 for Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
The Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals database offers a comprehensive listing of journal articles on architecture and design, including bibliographic descriptions on subjects such as the history and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, historic preservation, and interior design and decoration. The index contains more than 440,000 thousand entries surveying over seven hundred American and international journals. These include not only scholarly and popular periodical literature, but also publications of professional associations, American state and regional periodicals, and the major serials on architecture and design of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia.