Search Tips


Use + and - to include and exclude search terms


  • By default, search results include any entry which matches any of your search terms. In some cases, this results in more entries than StaticSearch is equipped to return. Restricting the search is therefore sometimes helpful.
  • Preceding a word with a + sign will return only search results which contain that term. For example, including the term +monastery will restrict search results to those which contain the word "monastery" as well as any of the additional terms.
  • Preceding a word with a - sign will exclude any results which contain that word. For example, including the term -well will restrict search results to those which do not contain the word "well"
  • You can also use quotation marks to restrict the search results to entries which contain exactly the contents within the quotation marks; please note that, unlike + and -, this is case sensitive.

Wildcards to stand in for letters

The search supports standard wildcard features (* = 0 or more characters, ? = any character, [abc] = one of a, b, or c). Note that adding a wildcard marker to a search term makes that search term case-sensitive: searching for mosul or M?sul will return the HIMME entry for Mosul, but searching for m?sul will not return the HIMME entry for Mosul.

  • Zin* returns all entries which contain a term starting with "Zin" - this matches terms like Zinbāʿ, al-Zindīq (the al- prefix is automatically ignored), Zīnīn, etc.
  • Ba?i returns all entries which contain a term beginning "Ba" followed by any letter and an "i" - such as Bari-K‘aruk, Bali Kasrī, Colo di Bari, Bani-Sawad, etc.
  • [AI]brah[ia]m will match both Abraham and Ibrahim (as well as, theoretically, matching any Ibraham and Abrahim).

Languages

Languages available for search include Arabic, Armenian, English, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Persian, and Syriac.

Search ignores diacritics

By default, search should ignore diacritics in all languages; if you find an error, please email errors@medievalmideast.org