Islam: Reference Shelf

E-book version of 15-volume printed encyclopedia of cross-cultural studies of religions in their social and cultural contexts

Multi-media reference source on the many and various forms of religious commitment

Examines religious beliefs expressed through ritualized behavior and festivals and explores expressions of faith across cultures and religions throughout the world

The most sacred and influential writings the world has recorded are covered A-Z in this encyclopedia. The entries include works from the cities of Mecca, Jerusalem, Rome, Delphi and Salt Lake City; from the Indus Valley and the American West, from classical China, Egypt and Greece.

Coverage of more than 2,300 North American religious groups in the U.S. and Canada

Covers over 1,800 of the most important deities and demons from around the world

Focus is on origins, histories, and functions of each

In the tradition of Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary, and Joseph McCabe’s Rationalist Encyclopedia, this accessible dictionary addresses the contemporary need for a reference book that succinctly summarizes the key concepts, current terminology, and major contributions of influential thinkers broadly associated with atheism, skepticism, and humanism.

The set of the Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition, also called EI-2, comprises Volumes I through XI, the supplement volume XII, and the Index Volume (Index of Subjects, Glossary and Index of Terms, Index of Proper Names).

Designed for general readers with little or no knowledge of Islam, this superb Oxford Dictionary provides more than 2,000 vividly written, up-to-date, and authoritative entries organized in an easy-to-use, A-to-Z format.The Dictionary focuses primarily on the 19th and 20th centuries, stressing topics of most interest to Westerners. What emerges is a highly informative look at the religious, political, and social spheres of the modern Islamic world. Naturally, readers will find many entries on topics ofintense current interest, such as terrorism and the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, the PLO and HAMAS. But the coverage goes well beyond recent headlines. There are biographical profiles, ranging from Naguib Mahfouz (the Nobel Prize winner from Egypt) to Malcolm X, including politicalleaders, influential thinkers, poets, scientists, and writers. Other entries cover major political movements, militant groups, and religious sects as well as terms from Islamic law, culture, and religion, key historical events, and important landmarks (such as Mecca and Medina). A series of entrieslooks at Islam in individual nations, such as Afghanistan, the West Bank and Gaza, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the United States, and there are discussions of Islamic views on such issues as abortion, birth control, the Internet, the Rushdie Affair, and the theory of evolution.Whether we are listening to the evening news, browsing through the op-ed pages, or reading a book on current events, references to Muslims and the Islamic world appear at every turn. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam offers a wealth of information for anyone curious about this burgeoning andincreasingly important world religion.

This title looks at Islam's role in the modern world, doing so in the context of the religion's history and development over the last 13 centuries. Containing thematic articles, biographies of key figures, definitions, illustrations, maps and more, this new encyclopedia fills a need in this key area of religious studies.

This encyclopedic work on Islam comprises English translations of all canonical ad ths, complete with their respective chains of transmission (isn ds). By conflating the variant versions of the same ad th, the repetitiveness of its literature has been kept wherever possible to a minimum. The latest methods of isn d analysis, described in the general introduction, have been employed in an attempt to identify the person(s) responsible for each ad th.The book is organized in the alphabetical order of those persons. These are the so-called common links . Each of them is listed with the tradition(s) for the wording of which he can be held accountable, or with which he can at least be associated. Within each article, the traditions are referred to in bold figures in the numerical order as they were distilled from the more than 19,000 isn ds listed in Tu fat al-ashr f bi ma rifat al-a r f by the Syrian ad th scholar Yusuf b. Abd ar-Ra m n al-Mizz (d. 742/1341).Medieval commentaries as well as assorted biographical lexicons were drawn upon to illustrate the text of each tradition in all theological, social, legal and other noteworthy aspects discernible in it. Thus no details of eschatology, superstitions, miraculous phenomena, Jahili practices etc. were left without the clarifying comments of contemporary and later theologians, historians and ad th experts culled from such works as the Fat al-b r , a major commentary of Bukh r s a by Ibn ajar al- Asqal n (d. 852/1448) or the commentary by Ya ya b. Sharaf an-Nawaw (d. 676/1277) of the a of Muslim b. al- ajj j.The encyclopedia concludes with an exhaustive index and glossary of names and concepts, which functions at the same time as a concordance. In short, this work presents an indispensable sourcebook of the development of Islam in all its facets during the first three centuries since its foundation as reflected in canonical ad th.

"The Qur'an is the primary religious text for one-fifth of the world's population and has been an object of reverence and of intense study for centuries. Drawing upon a rich scholarly heritage, Brill's Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an contains alphabetically arranged articles about the contents of the Qur'an. It is an encyclopedic dictionary of qur'anic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history, and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur'anic studies. With over 750 entries, the EQ is the first comprehensive, multivolume reference work on the Qur'an to appear in Western languages."

The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture is the most comprehensive reference work in this complex and diverse area of art history. Built on the acclaimed scholarship of the Grove Dictionary of Art, this work offers over 1,600 up-to-date entries on Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Central and South Asia, Africa, and Europe and spans over a thousand years of history. Recent changes in Islamic art in areas such as Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq are elucidated here by distinguished scholars. Entries provide in-depth art historical and cultural information about dynasties, art forms, artists, architecture, rulers, monuments, archaeological sites and stylistic developments. In addition, over 500 illustrations of sculpture, mosaic, painting, ceramics, architecture, metalwork and calligraphy illuminate the rich artistic tradition of the Islamic world. With the fundamental understanding that Islamic art is not limited to a particular region, or to a defined period of time, The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture offers pathways into Islamic culture through its art.

A unique collaboration of over 900 scholars from around the world, the Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures crosses history, geographic borders and disciplines to create a ground-breaking reference work reflecting the very latest research on gender studies and the Islamic world. No other reference work offers this scale of contributions or depth and breadth of coverage. Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures is set to become an essential reference work for students and researchers in the fields of gender studies, Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, as well as scholars of religion, history, politics, anthropology, geography and related disciplines.This encyclopedia consists of six volumes (including an Index volume), published from 2003 to 2007.To download a preview, click here"