Encyclopaedia of Islam

Encyclopaedia of Islam
Vysotsky · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Encyclopaedia of Islam
Caption	First edition volumes
Country	Netherlands
Language	English and French and German
Subject	Islamic studies
Publisher	Brill
Firstdate	1913
Latest	ongoing

Encyclopaedia of Islam is a comprehensive multilingual reference work covering the history, culture, law, religion, languages, and societies of the Islamic world. First issued in the early 20th century, it has been produced across multiple major editions and supplements by international teams of scholars, and it is widely used in scholarship on the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Central Asia, and related diasporas. The work interrelates biographies, places, institutions, texts, and material culture to map intellectual and social networks across centuries.

History and Editions

The project originated in the wake of scholarly initiatives at the Leiden University and was launched under the auspices of European publishers with contributors linked to British Museum, École des Hautes Études, and the University of Oxford. The first edition (EI1) appeared between 1913 and 1938 and involved editorial figures associated with Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje and correspondents in Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran. The second edition (EI2), published from 1954 to 2005, expanded entries under editors connected to H. A. R. Gibb, E. J. Brill, and scholars resident at Columbia University and University of Paris, integrating new research from specialists on Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazālī, Sufi orders like the Qadiriyya and Naqshbandiyya, and regions such as Mughal Empire and Safavid Iran. The third edition (EI3), initiated in the late 20th century and published by Brill, brought an editorial apparatus including contributors linked to Princeton University, Harvard University, and Heidelberg University, and incorporated thematic supplements on topics such as Islamic art, Ottoman Empire, and modern movements like Wahhabism and Muslim Brotherhood. Throughout these phases, publication intersected with major historical events: the First World War, the Second World War, the dissolution of colonial empires, and the post-1979 transformations following the Iranian Revolution.

Editorial Structure and Contributors

Editorial leadership has historically combined European, Middle Eastern, and North American scholars affiliated with institutes such as School of Oriental and African Studies, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, and Institut du Monde Arabe. Editors have recruited specialist contributors who are faculty or fellows at institutions including University of Chicago, Leiden University, University of Cairo, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Aga Khan University. Major contributors have produced articles on figures like Rumi, Ibn Khaldun, Al-Biruni, Ibn Battuta, and Salah ad-Din as well as entries on dynasties such as the Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, Mamluk Sultanate, and Timurid Empire. The editorial process involves peer review, cross-referencing with primary sources housed in archives like the British Library and Bibliothèque nationale de France, and coordination with specialists in fields linked to manuscripts at the Suleymaniye Library and inscriptions in sites such as Palmyra.

Content and Scope

Entries range from biographies of rulers and thinkers—Al-Farabi, Ibn Rushd, Harun al-Rashid, Nur Jahan—to articles on texts and genres including the Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh works, and poetic anthologies like the Diwan of Hafez. Geographic coverage spans urban centers such as Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Delhi, Timbuktu, and Samarkand and covers institutional histories of bodies like the Ottoman Sublime Porte, Safavid bureaucracy, and colonial administrations in British India and French Algeria. The encyclopaedia addresses material culture—coinage of the Mamluk Sultanate, architecture of the Alhambra, ceramics from Persia—and movements in thought exemplified by Mu'tazila, Ash'ari, and modern intellectuals like Jalal Al-e Ahmad and Muhammad Iqbal. Regions commonly included extend to Horn of Africa polities, Malay Archipelago sultanates, and diasporic communities in West Africa and Central Asia.

Reception and Influence

Scholars in departments at University of Cambridge, SOAS University of London, Yale University, and University of Chicago have cited the encyclopaedia as authoritative for baseline entries on personalities, texts, and institutions, while critics affiliated with Postcolonial Studies and scholars linked to Zanzibar and Algiers have debated its early orientalist framing. Its entries have informed museum catalogues at institutions like the Victoria and Albert Museum and exhibition scholarship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; legal and diplomatic historians connected to archives such as the National Archives (UK) and Archives Nationales (France) use it for contextualization of treaties and travel accounts like those of Ibn Jubayr and Marco Polo. The work shaped curricula at American University of Beirut and research agendas for projects on the Trans-Saharan trade and the historiography of the Ottoman Tanzimat.

Digital and Supplementary Projects

Publishers partnered with research libraries including Leiden University Libraries and Bibliothèque de l'Institut have digitized volumes and developed online platforms used by users at Princeton University, Stanford University, and Columbia University. Supplementary projects produced topical bibliographies and addenda on contemporary subjects such as Islamic finance, scholarly editions of manuscripts like those preserved in Topkapi Palace Museum, and chronology updates related to events including the Arab Spring. Collaborative databases interlink entries with manuscript catalogues at the Bodleian Libraries and archaeological reports from sites like Merv and Petra, and ongoing digital initiatives support multilingual search across English, French, and German interfaces.

Category:Encyclopedias of Islam