About Oxford Islamic Studies Online
An authoritative, dynamic online resource for students, scholars, government officials, community groups, and librarians, Oxford Islamic Studies Online brings together the best current scholarship in the field and promotes accurate and informed understanding of the Islamic world. This fully integrated resource features reference content and commentary by renowned scholars in areas such as global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture, and will be regularly updated as new content is commissioned and approved under the guidance of the Editor in Chief, John L. Esposito.
Encompassing over 3,000 A-Z reference entries, chapters from scholarly and introductory works, Qur'anic materials, primary sources, images, and timelines, Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers a multi-layered reference experience designed to provide a first stop for anyone needing information on Islam. Users can refine the rich array of content to search and browse by era, topic, and geographic region, filter to view a specific type of content, and make use of a variety of search forms to set criteria for locating biographical entries, bibliographic references, primary sources, terms in the Qur'an and Concordance, and much more.
Oxford Islamic Studies Online features several major works, including essential articles from the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (due to publish in October 2008), a six-volume work covering the full geographical and historical extent of Islam. This new reference will update, expand, and revise much of the standard four-volume The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, which is also included on the site and will remain available in full, allowing users access to archived articles that have been updated in the new work. In addition, the three-volume The Islamic World: Past and Present, a reference created by scholars to be accessible to readers at all levels, offers articles on everything from the Abbasid Caliphate to the life of Zaynab, granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. The A-Z content also includes the critically acclaimedThe Oxford Dictionary of Islam.
The site combines A-Z reference material with a wide range of content, including chaptered works such as The Oxford History of Islam, which provides a depth and breadth of background information in authoritative essays by leading Muslim and non-Muslim scholars. Also, for outreach professionals, students, general readers, and other users, the unique guide What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam combines commonly asked questions about Muslim culture and Islam with thoughtful, unbiased replies from one of the leading Islamic Studies scholars in the US.
For those studying the Qur'an, the content throughout Oxford Islamic Studies Online provides links directly from Qur'anic verse citations to corresponding sections in the text of the Qur'an, and offers a variety of ways to study the work at the center of the Islamic faith. Two Oxford World's Classics versions of the Qur'an - The Koran Interpreted, a verse translation by A.J. Arberry and The Qur'an, a prose translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem can be used individually or in conjunction with the first electronic version of Hanna Kassis' Concordance of the Qur'an. The Concordance, a research tool for students of the Qur'an who are not fully conversant with the written Arabic language, allows users to find deeper paths into understanding the text by linking English words and their corresponding transliterated Arabic terms to passages, chapters and verses in the Qur'an.
Over 150 source documents translated into the English language are also on the site, with further documents to be added as they become available. Drawn from the scholarly collections Liberal Islam, Modernist Islam, and Islam in Transition, each document is accompanied by a short editorial introduction—many of which have been specially commissioned for this site—discussing the author and historical context. At present the collection focuses on the modern history of Islam, with writings by Sayyid Qutb, Fatima Mernissi, Qasim Amin, Osama Bin Laden, and important material drawn from books, articles, speeches, fatwas, and other sources that offer a wide array of influential perspectives and debates on the Qur'an and the practice of Islam in the modern world.
For temporal, visual, and geographic context, users have access to images, content and full-color maps selected from the latest edition of the Oxford Atlas of World Religions, and two timelines expressly created for Oxford Islamic Studies Online. The timeline of major events in Islamic history includes links to related content on the site, and can be viewed side-by-side with a timeline of corresponding general events in world history. In addition, a growing Learning Resources area includes a specially commissioned A-Z glossary, the full text of What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam, an annotated list of internet resources approved and recommended by specialists in the field, and a topically organized collection of full-color maps depicting a global range of information about Islam from earliest times to the present. To support and enhance an effective research experience, context-sensitive Help pages are available throughout the site to guide users through features, functionality, and content.
Editor in Chief: John L. EspositoUniversity Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
Read Professor Esposito's most recent letter
Deputy Editor: Natana DeLong-BasDepartment of Theology, Boston College.
Senior Editors and Editorial Advisory BoardShahrough Akhavi, Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina
James Piscatori, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford
Tamara Sonn, Department of Religious Studies, College of William and Mary
John O. Voll, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
M. Hakan Yavuz, Department of Political Science, The University of Utah
Senior ConsultantsZafar Ishaque Ansari, Director of the Islamic Research Institute, Pakistan
Osman Bakar, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, ISTAC, Malaysia
Robert Hefner, Boston University
Ira Lapidus, University of California at Berkeley
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, George Washington University
Find out more about the Editors and Editorial Advisory Board
Library Advisory BoardPaul Auchterlonie, Librarian, Middle East Studies; Chair of MELCOM, UK
Brenda E. Bickett, Bibliographer for Central Asian, Islamic, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Modern Greek & Turkish Studies, Georgetown University
David G. Hirsch, Librarian for Middle Eastern Studies, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles
Ali Houissa, Middle East & Islamic Studies Librarian, Cornell University
William J. Kopycki, Middle East Studies Bibliographer, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, University of Pennsylvania
Mark Levine, Manager, History/Biography/Religion Division, Brooklyn Public Library
Janet T. O'Keefe, Team Librarian, Flint Public Library, Michigan
Kristina Ruelos, Senior Librarian, Social Science, Philosophy and Religion Department, Los Angeles Public Library
Graham Whitaker, Research Fellow and Senior Assistant Librarian, Glasgow University Library, University of Glasgow
