Resources for the Study of Islam (Word Document)

Paula Youngman Skreslet
William Smith Morton Library
Union-PSCE

The resources on this list could of course be applied to a wide range of research issues. But I have grouped them as responses to typical reference queries in Islamic studies, for the purpose of illustration.

What are the classic scholarly bibliographic sources in Islamic studies?

• GAL : Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur / Carl Brockelmann. Zweite den supplementbänden angepasste Auflage (Leiden: Brill 1943-49) 5v
• GAS : Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums / Fuat Sezgin (Leiden: Brill 1967- ) 12v+ Contains catalog of Arabic manuscripts in vol.6, “Bibliotheken und Sammlungen arabischer Handschiften,” pp. 311-466
• Fihrist al-‘ulum or Kitab al-fihrist al-nadim / Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Nadim (d.c. 990); published as The Fihrist: a 10th century AD survey of Islamic culture / Bayard Dodge (Great Books of the Islamic World 1998)
• Persian literature / C.A. Storey (Luzac 1927) 5v
• Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen / Franz Babinger (Harrassowitz 1927)
• World survey of Islamic manuscripts / Geoffrey Roper (Brill, 1991-94) 4v
• Encyclopedia of Arabic literature / Meisami and Starkey (Routledge 1998) 2v
• Cambridge history of Arabic literature / AFL Beeston (CUP 1983-92) 4v
• Islam : an historical introduction / Gerhard Endress (2nd ed., Columbia UP 2004) Contains classified and annotated bibliography of the classic sources, in Ch. 9

I want a scholarly but readable introduction to Islam. What do you recommend?

• Try subject-area analytical bibliographies
• Or book reviews in journals, e.g :
  • Muslim World (Hartford)
  • Muslim World Book Review (Leicester)
• Some reliable general introductions
  • Islam : faith and history / Mahmoud Ayoub (Oneworld 2004)
  • A new introduction to Islam / Daniel Brown (Blackwell 2004)
  • Islam: the straight path / John L. Esposito (3rd ed., OUP 2005)
  • Introduction to Islam / Frederick Denny (3rd ed., Prentice Hall 2006) – good bibliography

What is the difference between shari‘a and fiqh?

• EI2 : Encyclopaedia of Islam / H.A.R. Gibb (2nd ed., Brill 1954-2004) 12v; EI3 now under way
• EI2 index volumes : Index of proper names, Index of subjects (taxonomy), Glossary and index of terms (vocabulary); still incomplete
• Shorter encyclopedia of Islam / Gibb & Kramers; articles from EI1
• Islamic desk reference / van Donzel (Brill 1994)
• Oxford dictionary of Islam / John Esposito (OUP 2003)

Do Muslims exegete the Qur’an like we do the Bible?

• Encyclopedia of religion, 2nd ed., edited by Lindsay Jones (Macmillan 2005) “Tafsir” by Andrew Rippin
• Concordance of the Qur’an in English / Hanna Kassis (UC Berkeley 1983)
• Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an / Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Brill 2001-06) 6v
• Cambridge companion to the Qur’an / JD McAuliffe (CUP 2006) Part IV, ch. 9
• Bibel und Koran : eine Synopse gemeinsamer Überlieferungen / Johann-Dietrich Thyen (Böhlau 2000)

Who are the Sunnis and Shi‘ites? Are they like Catholics and Protestants?

• Oxford encyclopedia of the modern Islamic world / John L. Esposito (OUP 1995) 4v
• History resources:
  • Cambridge history of Islam (CUP 1970) 2v
  • Cambridge illustrated history of the Islamic world / Francis Robinson (CUP 1996) Rulers of the Islamic world chart, pp. 308-310
  • Muslim almanac / Azim Nanji (Gale 1996)
  • Historical atlas of Islam / Hugh Kennedy (Brill 2002)
  • Historical atlas of Islam / Ruthven and Nanji (Harvard 2004)
• Political Islam: countless current materials in English in any academic collection

Who are the most important Islamic theologians and philosophers?

• Dictionary of the Middle Ages / Joseph R. Strayer (Scribner 1982-89) “Islam, Religion” by Gerhard Böwering
• Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy / Edward Craig (Routledge, 1998)
• Encyclopedia of philosophy / Donald M. Borchert (Macmillan 2006)
• Biographical encyclopedia of Islamic philosophy / Oliver Leaman (Thoemmes 2006) 2v

I’m leading a group on interfaith prayer and spirituality. What resources can I use for worship in Islam?

• Library catalogs (will include lots of DVDs and videos) according to LCSH:
  • Religious life–Islam or Worship–Islam
  • Prayer–Islam or God (Islam)–Worship and love
  • Spirituality–Islam or Mysticism–Islam
• Will lead you to works belonging to quality text or monograph series, such as:
  • Knowledge of God in classical Sufism / John Renard (Classics of Western Spirituality series, Paulist Press 2004)
  • Historical dictionary of Sufism / John Renard (Scarecrow 2005)
• Other valuable monograph and text series:
  • Handbuch der Orientalistik (Brill); e.g., Wolfgang Behn, Concise biographical companion to Index Islamicus (2004-06), 1. Abt, 76. Bd (3v)
  • Great Books of Islamic Civilization – Centre for Muslim Contribution to Civilization in Qatar (Garnet)
  • Islamic Translation Series – Brigham Young University (Univ of Chicago Press)
  • Islamic Texts Society – Cambridge UK
• Primary text collections and anthologies :
  • Classical Islam / Calder, Mojaddedi and Rippin (Routledge 2003)
  • Windows on the house of Islam / John Renard (UC Berkeley 1988)
  • A reader on Islam / Arthur Jeffery (Mouton 1962)

I’m writing a paper on scholasticism, Thomas Aquinas and Muhammad al-Ghazzali; I need journal articles and books...

• Index Islamicus
• Abstracta islamica (in Revue des études islamiques) 1927-1994
• ATLA-RDB
• Iter (medieval & Renaissance studies, 400-1700 CE)
• General scholarly indexes : Humanities Index, Philosopher’s Index, Historical Abstracts, Social Sciences Index, International Medieval Bibliography, etc.

Aren’t there any websites about Islam that are really legit?

• ATLA Selected Religion Web Sites project (ATSRW) cataloged sites list
• USC-MSA compendium of Islamic texts (http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA)
• Kingdom of Jordan site for Qur’anic studies (http://www.altafseer.com)
• University sites about ME studies
  • Georgetown (http://www.library.georgetown.edu/guides/mideaststudies)
  • Penn (SAS) Resources for K-12 teachers (http://mec.sas.upenn.edu/resources/teachers.html)
  • Ali Houissa, Cornell Web guide (http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/islam.htm)
  • Sachsen-Anhalt MENALIB web portal for ME studies (http://ssgdoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/vlib/html/index.html)
• Sites evaluated by professionals, such as Librarian’s Internet Index, InfoMine, Intute (RDN), etc.

What’s the “best” translation of the Qur’an?
[or]
I want to use some readings from Islamic primary sources in teaching my class. They have to be in English translation. How do I find them?

• The literature of Islam : a guide to the primary sources in English translation / Paula Youngman Skreslet and Rebecca Skreslet (Scarecrow 2006)

Special-purpose sources

• The Islamic and Christian calendars : AD 622-2222 (AH 1-1650) : a complete guide for converting Christian and Islamic dates and dates of festivals / G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville (Garnet 1995)
• Vergleichungs-Tabellen zur muslimischen und iranischen Zeitrechung / Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (3rd ed., Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft 1961)
• Encyclopaedia iranica / Ehsan Yarshater (Routledge & Kegan Paul 1982-)