Skip to Main Content

Asian & African Studies

Our Asian and African Studies collection includes published, manuscript and visual material from and about Asia and Africa, including unrivalled genealogical sources for Europeans in South Asia

Digitised manuscripts

Access 1,000 of our digitised manuscripts, available again for the first time since a cyber-attack in October 2023.

Some of our digitised manuscripts are available on other platforms:

Several of our early printed books are available on Google Books.

East Asia

Academica Sinica’s Digital Atlas, including 120 antiquarian Chinese maps from the British Library

EFEO’s collection of Chinese rubbings, including some of the British Library’s holdings

The Union Catalogue Database of Japanese Texts, including 56 digitised items from the British Library

Or.59.aa.1, Images of the Amakusa edition of the Heike Monogatari, Isoho Monogatari and Kinkushū

The Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), which includes 235 Japanese and Chinese prints of the Sino-Japanese War from the British Library

Middle East

Digital Edition of the Coptic Old Testament, including leaves of British Library Coptic papyri interwoven with images from other institutions

Ktiv (Manuscript Database of the National Library of Israel), including all digitised Hebrew manuscripts from the British Library

Qatar Digital Library, including digitised Arabic manuscripts from the British Library

South Asia

Jainpedia, including digitised Jain manuscripts from the British Library

South-East Asia

South East Asia Digital Library, including a collection of digitised rare books from South East Asia held at the British Library

National Library Board, Singapore, digitised Malay manuscripts and Qur'ans, papers of Sir Stamford Raffles, and the accounts by Colin Mackenzie on Java held at the British Library

Or 14844, Truyện Kiều (The tale of Kiều) by Nguyễn Du (1765-1820), the most significant poem in Vietnamese literature

Or 15227, an illuminated Qurʼan,19th century, from the east coast of the Malay Peninsula

Or 16126, Letter from Engku Temenggung Seri Maharaja (Daing Ibrahim), Ruler of Johor, to Napoleon III, Emperor of France, dated 1857

Mss Jav 89, Serat Damar Wulan with illustrations depicting Javanese society in the late 18th century

Or 14734, Sejarah Melayu (Malay annals), dated 1873

Or 13681, Burmese manuscript showing seven scenes of King Mindon's donations at various places during the first four years of his reign (1853-57)

Or 14178, Burmese parabaik (folding book) from around 1870 with 16 painted scenes of the Ramayana story with captions in Burmese

Or 13922, Thai massage treatise with illustrations, 19th century

Or 16101, Buddhist Texts, including the Legend of Phra Malai, with Illustrations of The Ten Birth Tales, dated 1894

Or 16797, Cat treatise from Thailand, with illustrations, 19th century

Or 4736, Khmer alphabet, handwritten by Henri Mouhot, c.1860-1

Images from Thai manuscripts on BL Images Online

Images from Burmese manuscripts and photographs on BL Images Online