Encyclopedia of Islam

Encyclopedia of  Islam

format is similar to that of National Geographic,

and it is especially well-suited for students and the 

general public. It also provides updated listings for 

museum exhibits and new publications.

A Note on Terminology, 

Transliteration, and Translation

Because this Encyclopedia of Islam has been written 

with secondary school students and the general 

public in mind, I have gone to some lengths to min-

imize reliance upon academic technical vocabulary 

and words from foreign languages. When techni-

cal terms have been used, it has been to enhance 

clarity and understanding. An important exception 

has been my adoption of two terms now widely 

used by scholars in the fields of Islamic studies 

and Middle East studies first proposed by Marshall 

G. S. Hodgson in his monumental three-volume 

work,  The Venture of Islam. These are Islamicate

and  Islamdom. Occasionally the words Islam and 

Islamic are misleadingly or incorrectly applied to 

phenomena that fall outside the boundaries of the 

religion itself, resulting in the confusion of social 

and cultural phenomena with religious ones. While 

we know that the real-life boundaries between the 

religious and the nonreligious are always shifting 

and being negotiated, it is still helpful to recognize 

that these boundaries nevertheless exist. Using 

Islam and Islamic too loosely, moreover, obscures 

the interrelationships that have developed histori-

cally between Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, 

and others in contexts where Islam was the domi-

nant religion but not the only one.

Therefore, I have adopted Hodgson’s term 

Islamicate in order to describe those aspects of 

“Islamic” society, history, and culture that cannot 

be attributed exclusively to the religion Islam. For 

example, Islamic literature refers to writing tradi-

tions that involve the various religious beliefs, 

doctrines, practices, laws, and traditions of Islam. 

Islamicate literature, on the other hand, encom-

passes the variety of writing traditions, Islamic 

and non-Islamic, that have flourished in contexts 

where Muslims have held political power or con-

stituted a majority of the population, especially 

prior to the 19th century. This kind of literature 

can include secular poetry, philosophy, and scien-

tific writings, as well as the writings of Jews, Chris-

tians, and others in Arabic, Persian, and other 

languages. Likewise, Islamic architecture refers to 

those parts of the built environment connected 

with Islamic religious practices, such as mosques 

and madrasas (religious schools), whereas Islami-

cate architecture includes palaces, fortifications, 

caravanserais, bazaars, dwelling places, and baths. 

Less frequently, I use Islamdom instead of phrases 

such as the Islamic world to refer to social domains 

where Muslims prevail collectively, especially 

prior to the 19th century. It is analogous to the 

term Christiandom, which denotes social domains 

where Christianity prevails.

Following modern standard Arabic pronun-

ciation, which is increasingly being accepted 

for English transliterations of Arabic words, I 

use  Quran instead of Koran, Muslim instead of 

Moslem, madrasa instead of madrassa, and Hijra

instead of Hegira. I have extended this principle 

to Arabic names: for example, Muhammad instead 

of  Mohammed, Hasan instead of Hassan, Husayn

instead of Hossein or Hussein, Umar instead of 

Omar, Usama instead of Osama. Conventional 

English spellings for Mecca and Medina have 

been retained for this publication. Instead of Shi-

ite, I use Shii (pronounced Shi-i), parallel to the 

conventional use of Sunni (instead of Sunnite). 

Shii is used as an adjective (for example, Shii 

Islam, Shii law) and as a noun for an individual 

member of the minority Shii branch of Islam (for 

example, “He is a Shii”). The plural in this regard 

is Shiis (pronounced Shi-is). I use the term Shia

(pronounced Shi-a), which is based on the Arabic 

word for “party” or “faction,” to refer to Shii Mus-

lims as a group or collectivity—the Shia. Shiism

is used to refer to the body of beliefs, rituals, doc-

trines, and traditions that define the Shii branch 

of Islam (see the entry for this term).

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