The A to Z of Islam

Scholars in Istanbul have been toiling for more than two decades to compile the definitive encyclopaedia of Islam. The 40-volume set will contain 17,000 subject headings based on three to four million documents. Hamida Ghafour reports.


It seems old-fashioned, almost an anachronism in an era of news-driven publishing and carefully orchestrated controversies timed to coincide with glossy book launches.

But for the past 21 years, a small centre in Istanbul has been slowly but methodically publishing one volume after another of the Encyclopaedia of Islam which, when completed in the next five years, is expected to become the definitive source to turn to for all matters of the faith.

Indeed, it is the first time in history that Muslim scholars have embarked upon such a project: a 40-volume set covering all aspects of the religion such as history, philosophy, geography, culture, civilisation, literature, languages of Muslim-majority countries and, of course, theology.

“Today there are conflicting interpretations about Islam,” says professor Recep Senturk, an editor of the encyclopaedia at the Centre for Islamic Studies, a purpose-built block with an open courtyard in the Turkish metropolis. Here, away from the noise and hub of the city, on the Asian side of the Bosphorous, Turkish and western scholars are putting the finishing touches to volume 36.

“We need to provide authentic and reliable knowledge about Islam,” he continues. “This is a service to Muslim countries and the world. There are conflicting claims about what Islam says and so this is the answer.”

Since 1983, when the project was launched by the Turkish Religious Foundation, a semi-governmental organisation which is providing the funding, the Islamic world has seen many moments of turmoil: the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, two wars in the Gulf, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Lebanese civil war and the September 11 attacks on the United States, which led to the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions.

Following these events, publishers have rushed books out to capitalise on the piqued interest about the catastrophes. For example, since the September 11 attacks in 2001, 4,470 books have been published concerning Islam in the English-speaking world and are available on Amazon.com.

Yet there is an unhurried air about the guardians of the Turkish encyclopaedia. It is as if a subject as ancient and timeless as Islam need not be in any hurry to answer to the whims of the 24-hour news cycle.

It took four years to collect documents, literature, books and other materials and list all the subject titles before the first volume was even published in 1988. Since then more than 2,000 scholars from around the world, each a specialist in his or her area, have contributed articles which are vetted by a board of academics and sent back to the writers for amendments and corrections. They are translated into Turkish before they are published.

There are 17,000 subject headings – from Allah to Zaydism – and, in total, three to four million documents will be used, says Nuri Tinaz, research fellow in social sciences at the centre, rifling through a sheaf of papers about the spread of Islam in Afghanistan in the 8th century that is tucked away in one of the countless rows of filing cabinets in a room of the library.

“It is a long process,” he says. “But this is almost the last phase.”

Source: The National, continue reading 'The A to Z of Islam'