The Oxford Dictionary of Islam

by John L. Esposito

Overview

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 of intense 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 political leaders, 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 entries looks at Islam in individual nations, such as Afghanistan, the West Bank and Gaza, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the
United States, and the

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195125597
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/21/2004
Series:	Oxford Quick Reference
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	247,651
Product dimensions:	7.72(w) x 5.04(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

John L. Esposito is University Professor of Religion and International Affairs and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. A past president of the Middle East Studies Association, he is Editor-in-Chief of the four-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, Editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of Islam, and the author of numerous books, including Islam: The Straight Path, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, and What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Editorial Board	xi
	Contributors	xiii
	The Oxford Dictionary of Islam	1
	Chronology of Key Events	351

Editorial Reviews

The public still needs accessible reference sources on Islam, and Esposito (Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World) has coordinated more than 100 contributors to present this readable dictionary. Its more than 2000 entries include such recent developments and actors as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden, all in straightforward writing. The editor adopted a standard transliteration with few diacriticals, only adapting the entries for words that have achieved common currency in a different form. Those entries are in the language that lay readers would most likely search under (e.g., "fasting" rather than "sawm"). Dictionaries are inevitably uneven. Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II receives an entry, but his long-lived contemporary, Nasir al-Din Shah, does not. There are occasional interpretive inaccuracies as well, but on the whole this is an excellent resource for ready-reference collections in any library. It should be used along with other resources such as H.A.R. Gibb and J.H. Kramer's Concise Encyclopedia of Islam or, for academic libraries, Brill's full Encyclopaedia of Islam.-William P. Collins, Library of Congress Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"News coverage of the Arab world has expanded and improved in the last two years.... The Oxford Dictionary of Islam may be your best bet short of reading a pile of books, or living next door to a professor of Islamic studies. John L. Esposito, professor of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University, has assembled an impressive team of contributors who have produced a concise, accessible reference volume. With more than 2,000 entries, it covers almost anything you might want to look up, and some crucially important things you might not think to."—The New York Times, Education Life

From the Publisher