Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Ali S. Asani, Ecstasy and Enlighten-

ment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature in South Asia

(London: I.B. Taurus, 2002); Jonah Blank, Mullahs on 

the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the Daudi 

Bohras (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001); 

Farhad Daftary, A Short History of the Ismailis (Edin-

burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998); John Nor-

man Hollister, The Shia of India (1953. Reprint, New 

Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1979).

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Israel

The modern country of Israel was created in 1948 

as a homeland for the Jewish people. Located on 

the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, it 

covers an area of 8,017 square miles not includ-

ing the occupied territories of p

alestine

 (the 

West Bank and Gaza). It is comparable in size 

to the state of New Jersey and smaller than Los 

Angeles County, California. The western limit of 

the country is defined by a coastline that extends 

from north to south, with the land sloping east-

ward across a coastal plain up to the Judean Hills. 

East of the Judean Hills lie the Jordan Rift Valley 

and the Dead Sea. The southern part of the coun-

try is desert, including a narrow corridor leading 

down to the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red 

Sea. The countries that border Israel are l

ebanon

and  s

yria

 to the north, J

ordan

 to the east, and 

e

gypt

 to the west-southwest. The Palestinian 

Authority has legal jurisdiction of the West Bank, 

a large area between J

erUsalem

 and the Jordan 

Valley, and Gaza, a narrow coastal strip on the 

Israeli-Egyptian border. Israel also occupies the 

Golan Heights, a border area that is claimed by 

Syria.

Israel’s political capital is in the modern city of 

Tel Aviv. Although Israel lacks a formal constitu-

tion, it does have a set of Basic Laws that provide 

guidelines for governance. Establishing a consti-

tution has been delayed because of disagreements 

between Jewish secular and religious parties over 

the nature of the nation’s laws. The country is 

ruled by an elective parliamentary democracy led 

by a prime minister. Israeli Arab citizens, like its 

Jewish citizens, have voting rights and representa-

tion in the parliament, known as the Knesset, but