Archival holdings are a major component of the Middle East collection. The Hoover Archives holds some two hundred archival collections relating to the Middle East. These include papers and other materials of prominent individuals of modern history, such as James Heyworth-Dunne, H. St. John Philby, Chaim Weizmann, T. E. Lawrence, Ahmed Emin Yalman, Arnold Toynbee, and General Gordon of Khartoum.

Other Hoover archival holdings on the Middle East include

World War I, Turkey, and early holdings

The last years of the Ottoman Empire, military operations in Turkey in World War I, postwar relief work, and the establishment of the Turkish Republic are documented in the collections of Luella Hall, Ruth Parmelee, E. Carl Wallen, Evgenii Vasil'evich Maslovskii, M. J. W. Pike, E. J. Fisher, Benton Clark Decker, Ernest Wilson Riggs, Eliot Mears, Eleanor Bisbee, Hidayet Dagdeviren, Mary Mills Patrick, Kerim Key, Stanley E. Kerr, Anna V. S. Mitchell, Baron Petr Nikolaevich Vrangel', Tarik Z. Tunaya, and others. World War I holdings include the records of the American Relief Administration (ARA), which maintained an office in Constantinople; the American National Red Cross; and the Near East Relief, which cooperated with the ARA and the Red Cross in Turkey, Iran, and Syria.

A unique perspective on Turkish affairs is given by the papers of Michal Sokolnicki, Polish ambassador to Turkey between the world wars. Papers of the Inquiry (more technically, Paris Peace Conference, 1919. U.S. Division of Territorial, Economic and Political Intelligence) and of the Lausanne Conference, 1922–1923, illuminate the history of the establishment of the Turkish Republic. The Dagdeviren Collection contains documentation on Turkish history and politics from the period before Tanzimat until the 1950s and on various special subjects such as Turkish social life, religious and welfare organizations, national minorities, and pan-Slavism. More recent holdings on Turkey include extensive files of pamphlets and documents issued by present-day Turkish political parties.

Other pre-1948 holdings include materials produced by British organizations such as the British Palestine Committee, the English Zionist Federation, the Zionist Organization, and Friends of Armenia, as well as those produced by corresponding American groups: the American Jewish Committee, the Federation of American Zionists, the Zionist Organization of America, and the New Syria National League.

North Africa

North African history, from the latter part of the nineteenth century through World War II, is recorded in the papers of James Rives Childs, Horace H. Herr, Cuthbert P. Stearns, Douglas E. Ashford, Walter J. Muller, P. A. Bourget, and Robert Louis Delavignette. The attempted coup by the Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) is living history in the papers of Yves Jean Antoine Noel Godard, colonel in the French army, director of police in Algeria (1958–1960), and an organizer of the OAS.

Propaganda and Photographs

The Hoover Archives has a file of Lebanese political leaflets from 1943 to 1957 and of anti-Nasser propaganda leaflets dropped on Egypt by the British in November 1956, during the Sinai war. Many of Hoover's Middle East archives contain photographs of political prisoners, relief operations, and general conditions in the area. The archives also holds a small collection of rare Bonfils photographs of Middle Eastern scenes.

Middle East Oil

The Hoover Archives includes several collections relating to the oil industry in the Middle East, including the papers of Philip C. McConnell, former vice-president of Arabian-American Oil Company; Harley C. Stevens, former vice-president of the American Independent Oil Company; and the George Spies file on the Deutsche Bank, 1904–1906.

The Muslim Brothers

The Hoover Archives also holds the Richard P. Mitchell collection on the Society of the Muslim Brothers and on Islamic fundamentalism.

Current Affairs

Hoover archival holdings on current affairs in the Middle East include the papers of former congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey, Wilbur Crane Eveland, Alfred Lilienthal, and the organization American Jewish Alternatives to Zionism. Collections acquired in recent years deal with U.S. relations with Israel and other countries, the impact of the Middle East on American policy and public life, opposition movements, and revolutionary Iran. These collections include:

• The Ahmad Sadiq Sa'd holograph, the unpublished autograph manuscript memoirs of this major figure in Egyptian communism
• The Mustafa Shu'a'iyan writings (in manuscript) by the Iranian communist theoretician Shu'a'iyan, many of them formerly circulated clandestinely in Iran
• The Iranian poster collection, one of the largest collections of political posters and illustrations from revolutionary and republican Iran in the United States; topics illustrated include the downfall of the Shah, the glorification of leaders of the revolution, the war with Iraq, and vilification of the United States
• Iranian opposition literature, including published and unpublished documents of numerous Iranian émigré and exile opposition groups, among them various communist parties and organizations, the Mujahidin-i Khalq, and the Confederation of Iranian Students
• The records of the Iran Freedom Foundation, including materials by and relating to its founder, Ali Asghar Tabatabai, and his successor as president, Mohammed Reza Tabatabai
• The papers of former congressman Paul Findley, dealing with the influence of the Israel lobby in American public life
• The Stephen Green collection, consisting of source materials for his books on the history and development of the relationship between the United States and the state of Israel, Taking Sides and Living by the Sword
• The James Ennes and Ronald Kukal papers on the Israeli naval and aerial attack on the U.S. intelligence ship Liberty, June 8, 1967
• The transcript of the proceedings, exhibits, and findings of the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry on the attack on the USS Liberty