Encyclopedia of Islam

Introduction

  

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about Islam, one of the world’s most important 

religions. To meet this challenge, the Encyclopedia 

of Islam emphasizes the following subject areas in 

the entries it contains:

1.  Islam as the religion of Muslims. This 

includes entries on aspects of Islamic his-

tory, practice, belief, and learning, as well 

as the major traditions—Sunnism, Shiism, 

and Sufism. Topics concerning local Islamic 

religious practices, in addition to expres-

sions of sacred space and time, are also 

represented.

2.  Islam as an Abrahamic religion. This area 

includes entries that take up the interrela-

tionships and intersections that Islam has 

had with Judaism and Christianity. Entries 

also deal with Islam’s encounters with non-

Abrahamic religions, particularly Hinduism 

and Buddhism.

3.  Islamicate civilizations and cultures, includ-

ing articles pertaining to urban life, lan-

guages, social and economic life, and the 

arts and sciences.

4.  Islam in the contemporary world. This 

includes entries on most countries with 

Muslim-majority populations, reform and 

revival moments, Islamism, regional con-

flicts (especially the Arab-Israeli conflicts 

and the Gulf wars), and issues pertaining 

to civil society (for example, secularism, 

human rights, democracy, and constitu-

tionalism). Attention has also been given 

to Muslim minority communities and 

organizations in the Americas, Europe, 

Australia, New Zealand, and, to a lesser 

extent, Asia.

In order to enhance the encyclopedia’s appeal 

for use by students and teachers in secondary 

schools, a number of entries dealing with edu-

cational subjects have been included, as well 

as articles on animals (camel, cat, dog, horse), 

children, comic strips and comic books, and the 

cinema.

Format

Articles are listed alphabetically. Cross-references 

have been provided within and at the end of 

each entry in small capitals to assist the reader to 

explore the variety of relationships the entry has 

with others. It is also intended to help the reader 

become more familiar with the many foreign terms 

encountered in the study of Islam. In some cases 

an entry and related cross-references are based 

on native terms (for example, Allah, fiqh, and 

sharia); in other cases they are given in English 

(for example, abortion, dietary laws, and women). 

In the entry for Allah, for example, the reader is 

invited to consult articles such as those on the 

Quran,  shahada, prayer, theology, and Muham-

mad. The entry for abortion refers the reader to 

articles on topics such as death, afterlife, different 

schools of Islamic law, children, and birth control 

and family planning.

Each entry is also accompanied by a bibliogra-

phy for readers wishing to pursue a topic in more 

depth. Publications listed in the bibliography are 

exclusively in English, owing to the intended read-

ership of the encyclopedia, but readers are advised 

that a significant amount of excellent scholarship 

is available in other languages, especially French, 

German, Russian, and, to a lesser extent, Spanish 

and Italian. These and more specialized publica-

tions can be found in the books and articles men-

tioned in the individual entry bibliographies and in 

the references listed in the bibliography provided 

at the back of the book. Works in the primary 

languages of Islam, such as Arabic, Persian, and 

Turkish, can also be found in these publications, 

but Islamic texts in translation have been included 

in entry bibliographies, where appropriate. The 

reader is also encouraged to consult the publica-

tions listed under the heading “General References 

and Atlases” in the back of the book. Some entry 

bibliographies include articles published in Saudi 

Aramco World, a magazine available on the Inter-

net and in print that covers cultural and historical 

topics relating to the Middle East and Islam. Its 

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