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The Encyclopaedia of Islam (EI) is a reference work that facilitates the academic study of Islam. It is published by Brill and provides information on various aspects of Islam and the Islamic world. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. [1] The first edition was published in 1913–1938, the second in 1954–2005, and the third was begun in 2007.
According to Brill, the EI includes "articles on distinguished Muslims of every age and land, on tribes and dynasties, on the crafts and sciences, on political and religious institutions, on the geography, ethnography, flora and fauna of the various countries and on the history, topography and monuments of the major towns and cities. In its geographical and historical scope it encompasses the old Arabo-Islamic empire, the Islamic countries of Iran, Central Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Indonesia, the Ottoman Empire and all other Islamic countries". [2]
EI is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. [1] Each article was written by a recognized specialist on the relevant topic.[ citation needed ] However, unsurprisingly for a work spanning 40 years until completion, not every one of them reflects recent research.[ citation needed ]
The most important, authoritative reference work in English on Islam and Islamic subjects. Includes long, signed articles, with bibliographies. Special emphasis is given in this (EI2) edition to economic and social topics, but it remains the standard encyclopedic reference on the Islamic religion in English.
The most important and comprehensive reference tool for Islamic studies is the Encyclopaedia of Islam, an immense effort to deal with every aspect of Islamic civilization, conceived in the widest sense, from its origins down to the present day... EI is no anonymous digest of received wisdom. Most of the articles are signed, and while some are hardly more than dictionary entries, others are true research pieces – in many cases the best available treatment of their subject.
This reference work is of fundamental importance on topics dealing with the geography, ethnography and biography of Muslim peoples.
Historian Richard Eaton criticised the Encyclopaedia of Islam in the book India's Islamic Traditions, 711–1750, published in 2003. He writes that in attempting to describe and define Islam, the project subscribes to the Orientalist, monolithic notion that Islam is a "bounded, self-contained entity". [6]
The first edition (EI1) was modeled on the Pauly-Wissowa Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft . EI1 was created under the aegis of the International Union of Academies, and coordinated by Leiden University. It was published by Brill in four volumes plus supplement from 1913 to 1938 in English, German, and French editions.
An abridged version was published in 1953 as the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam (SEI), covering mainly law and religion. Excerpts of the SEI have been translated and published in Turkish, Arabic, and Urdu.
The second edition of Encyclopaedia of Islam (EI2) was begun in 1954 and completed in 2005 (several indexes to be published until 2007); it is published by the Dutch academic publisher Brill and is available in English and French. Since 1999, (EI2) has been available in electronic form, in both CD-ROM and web-accessible versions. Besides a great expansion in content, the second edition of EI differs from the first mainly in incorporating the work of scholars of Muslim and Middle Eastern background among its many hundreds of contributors:
EI1 and SEI were produced almost entirely by European scholars, and they represent a specifically European interpretation of Islamic civilization. The point is not that this interpretation is "wrong", but that the questions addressed in these volumes often differ sharply from those which Muslims have traditionally asked about themselves. EI2 is a somewhat different matter. It began in much the same way as its predecessor, but a growing proportion of the articles now come from scholars of Muslim background. The persons do not represent the traditional learning of Qom and al-Azhar, to be sure; they have been trained in Western-style universities, and they share the methodology if not always the cultural values and attitudes of their Western colleagues. Even so, the change in tone is perceptible and significant.
— R. Stephen Humphreys [4]
Publication of the Third Edition of EI (EI3) started in 2007. It is available online, printed "Parts" appearing four times per year. The editorial team consists of twenty 'Sectional Editors' and five 'Executive Editors' (i.e. editors-in-chief). The Executive Editors are Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer (Free University, Berlin), Everett Rowson (New York University), John Nawas (Catholic University of Leuven), and Denis Matringe (EHESS, CNRS). The scope of EI3 includes comprehensive coverage of Islam in the twentieth century; expansion of geographical focus to include all areas where Islam has been or is a prominent or dominant aspect of society; attention to Muslim minorities all over the world; and full attention to social science as well as humanistic perspectives. [7] [8]
It was translated into Urdu in 23 volumes named Urdu Daira Maarif Islamiya , published by University of the Punjab.
A vizier is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the Near East. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title wazir to a minister formerly called katib (secretary), who was at first merely a helper but afterwards became the representative and successor of the dapir of the Sassanian kings.
A wali is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate a saint, otherwise referred to by the more literal "friend of God".
Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn al-Wāthiq, better known by his regnal name al-Muhtadī bi-'llāh, was the Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from July 869 to June 870, during the "Anarchy at Samarra".
The ten to whom Paradise was promised were ten early Muslims to whom, according to Sunni Islamic tradition, the Islamic prophet Muhammad had promised Paradise.
al-Walid ibn Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt was the governor of Kufa in 645/46–649/50 during the reign of his half-brother, Caliph Uthman.
Bobastro was a castle of Roman origin, rebuilt as the headquarters of Umar ibn Hafsun during his rebellion against the Caliphate of Córdoba in the 9th century. Its ruins lie in the Province of Málaga, Spain.
Abu Imran Musa ibn Isa ibn Abi 'l-Hajjal-Fasi was a Moroccan Maliki faqīh born at Fez to a Berber or Arab family whose nisba is impossible to reconstruct.
Roger Mervyn Savory was a British-born Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto who was an Iranologist and specialist on the Safavids. His numerous writings on Safavid political, military history, administration, bureaucracy, and diplomacy-translated into several languages have had a great impact in understanding this period.
Muhammad ibn al-Qasim was an official of the Abbasid Caliphate who served briefly as vizier in July–October 933 under Caliph al-Qahir. He hailed from a family of Nestorian Christian origin that had served in the caliphal bureaucracy since late Umayyad times, and was the son, grandson, great-grandson and brother of viziers.
Peri J. Bearman is an academic scholar of Islamic law. She was the Associate Director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. She is also currently the Editor-in-Chief and Islam section editor for the Journal of the American Oriental Society (JAOS).
The Sanjak of Nakşa Berre or Naxos was a second-level Ottoman province encompassing the central and southern Cyclades islands, and named after the two largest islands of Naxos and Paros. The sanjak encompassed the territory of the former Duchy of Naxos, which had been tributary to the Ottomans since 1537, but was not formally incorporated into the Empire until after 1579, when the last Duke, Joseph Nasi, died. The sanjak formed part of the Eyalet of the Archipelago at least by 1600, but is no longer attested after the late 18th century. Aside from the sanjakbey at Naxos, two other beys, at Milos and Santorini, are recorded in 1629. With the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the islands came under Greek control.
The Sanjak of Kocaeli was a second-level Ottoman province with capital at Iznikmid/Izmid.
Abu'l-Makarim Muslim ibn Qirwash also known by the honorific title Sharaf al-Dawla, was the Uqaylid emir of Mosul and Aleppo. He died in June 1085.
Malik ibn Tawk ibn Malik ibn 'Attab at-Taghlibi was an Arab Abbasid official during the reigns of caliphs al-Wathiq and al-Mutawakkil. He is best known as the founder of the fortress town of al-Rahba on the western banks of the Euphrates, part of the present-day Syrian town of Mayadin.
Ruyan, later known as Rustamdar (رستمدار), was the name of a mountainous district that encompassed the western part of Tabaristan/Mazandaran, a region on the Caspian coast of northern Iran.
Muhammad ibn Khalid ibn Barmak was one of the Barmakids, a family of Iranian functionaries who rose to great power under the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid.
Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Jayhani was a vizier of the Samanid dynasty.
Abu Abdallah Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Jayhani was a vizier of the Samanid dynasty.
It is the standard international reference for all fields of 'Islam' (Es ist das internationale Standardwerk für alle Bereiche 'des Islams'. Martin Greskowiak, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 1990).
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