An Independent Scientific Research Center

By Rumeysa Özel, "‘Encyclopedia of Islam’ to be translated into English and Arabic" - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Published upon the initiative of the Islamic Research Center (İSAM) in İstanbul, the first Encyclopedia of Islam written by Muslims has already grown to 30 volumes and will be completed in four years.

An abridged version of 20-25 volumes will be translated into English and Arabic.

The Turkish Religious Affairs Foundation (TDV) was established in 1983 with the aim of conducting scientific research, publishing, editing and translating works focusing on Islamic and Eastern fields, publishing the TDV "Encyclopedia of Islam," organizing scientific conferences, sending representatives to conferences abroad, educating researchers, establishing a research library and a documentation unit and enlightening the public on scientific and religious subjects.

Associate Professor Ahmet Özel, a member of TDV's administrative board and the vice chairman of the committee responsible for the encyclopedia and the vice president of the TDV Analysis Council, which is the most important board within the institution, explains that the TDV decided to compile and publish this encyclopedia because other encyclopedias of Islam fell short in their entries, present a biased view and offer baseless assertions.

The copyright to the TDV "Encyclopedia of Islam" is completely held by Muslims and the encyclopedia comprises 16,915 entries about Islamic knowledge on subjects such as hadith (narrations about the Prophet), tafsir (commentary on the Quran), Shariah (Islamic law), kalam (Islamic theology) and Sufism (Islamic mysticism) along with the philosophy, history, geography, culture, civilization, languages and literatures of Muslim countries.

Moreover it includes entries on artistic branches like music, architecture, calligraphy, significant happenings or movements in the history, noteworthy cultural-historical institutions, important residential areas and other outstanding religions and people who influenced Islamic culture even though they were not Muslim.

"It was written by benefiting from 500 primary sources with the help of more than 1,500 scholars and contributions from foreign scholars as well," says Özel, adding that 40 volumes are expected in total and that four more years are needed to complete the project.

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Apart from an abridged English and Arabic translation, another five-volume version consisting only of entries concerning faith, worship, morality, Islamic mysticism and the life of the Prophet Mohammed is going to be published under the title "Religion and Culture of Islam" (İslam dini ve kültürü) in Russian, Bosnian and Albanian as well as in Turkic languages spoken in Central Asia.

When asked why an abridged version was necessary, considering how work on the encyclopedia has gone on for 24 years, Özel explains that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, an urgent demand among Muslims in Central Asia and the Balkans emerged to learn and live their own religion.

"Some books were published to meet this demand, but none were very comprehensive. If we were to publish the full version into these languages, it would not be logical since it would not be practical to use such a large encyclopedia. As a consequence we thought it would be better if we published a short and concise version," states Özel.

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Even though İSAM's foremost activity is publishing the encyclopedia, it has an extensive range of activity. İSAM includes a rich library covering books on religious studies, history, culture and Islamic civilization. In order for the TDV to conduct swift and beneficial research, recently published books and periodicals have been made available in the library.

The library includes approximately 200,000 volumes of selected books and more than 2,400 periodicals with the contributions of book collectors like Ziyad Ebüzziya, Orhan Şaik Gökyay, Nejat Göyünç, Tahsin Yazıcı, Hilmi Oflaz, Nihat M. Çetin, Yavuz Argıt, Albert Hourani and Jacques Waardenbur.

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Another regular İSAM activity is a journal it has been publishing biannually since 1997. It includes original political, historical, economic, philosophical, sociological, anthropological, religious and cultural articles that have been carefully sifted through in order to contribute to Islamic thought and culture in Turkish, Arabic, Persian, English, French and German. It also reviews books, symposiums and conferences.

An independent scientific research center, İSAM also gives scholarships to students studying at universities in England, Italy and the US and has organized many conferences and symposiums, including "Islam, Tradition and Renewal," "Islam and Modernization" and "Muslim Minorities in the Contemporary World."