The Persian Collection has strong holdings on the following subjects:

• Iranian communism and communist parties
• The Constitutional Revolution
• The Pahlavi dynasty
• Revolutionary movements in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan after World War II
• U.S. relations with Iran
• The Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran
• The government of the Islamic Republic
• The Iran-Iraq war
• Shi'ism and Iranian politics
• Writings of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Holdings include a set of Asnad-i lanah-i jasusi, the so-called Spy-den documents, the Iranian reprint of documents stolen from the American Embassy at the time of the takeover by the Iranian Students Following the Line of the Imam in 1978.

A special feature of the Persian Collection is its holdings of Iranian Opposition Materials, probably the largest collection of its kind in the United States. Some of this collection is held in the archives under the name of its collector and donor, James Hitselberger. The larger portion is currently housed in the Hoover Institution Library. Although some of the materials have been cataloged and are listed in the catalogs of the Persian Collection, most are as yet uncataloged and should be requested from the curatorial staff of the collection. Supplementing these holdings is the microfiche collection Iranian Opposition to the Shah (Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation Co., 1984), consisting of 790 microfiches in 19 boxes, with a printed guide. This set covers the period of revolutionary and violent opposition to the Shah and enhances the Hoover Institution's extensive holdings of opposition materials.