Research Guides: Religious Studies: Islamic Studies

Find materials in our library

In our Catalog Advanced Search, select Subject from the drop down menu and search on terms such as

Qurʼan
Hadith
Muḥammad, Prophet, -632
Islam
Muslims
Islamic (Islamic civilization, Islamic law, Islamic ethics, Islamic philosophy, Islamic art, Islamic countries, Islamic calendar, etc)
Sufism

Combine with terms representing particular concepts, places, periods, etc and refine by publication date and language. Or search on names of specific persons / figures / scholars, works, movements, communities, etc -- for example

islam AND faith
Qurʼan AND study teaching AND "west africa"
islam AND politics AND afghanistan
islam AND identity AND bosnia
islamic law AND ottoman
hanafi AND influence
islamic calendar AND mughal
astronomy AND islam
al-ghazali (ghazzali) AND god
"sahih al-bukhari"
"al-tariqah al-muhammadiyah"
suhrawardi AND sufism AND history
ismailis
anti-muslim [racism, prejiduce, bias, sentiment, politics, etc]
islamophobia

Use ALA-LC Romanization / Transliteration for terms in non-Latin scripts keeping in mind that it is not necessary to enter full diacritics (eg "naqshabandiyah" "shiah" "ihya ulum al-din" rather than "Naqshabandīyah" "Shīʻah" "Iḥyāʼ ʻulūm al-dīn")

You might also wish to browse the titles with call numbers BP1-BP 253, D198-199.7, DS36.85+, DS38.14+

Catalog Advanced Search

For a broader search across book and article length literature, try Library Articles Search

Library Articles Search

Assorted Online Bibliographic Resources

Index Islamicus (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
Indexes materials on Islam, the Middle East, and the entire Muslim world from periodicals, monographs, and other collections in European languages. I

Other discipline-specific literature databases may also be useful --- Anthropology Plus, CINAHL, Political Science Complete, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, etc

Reference Works & Portals

Encyclopaedia of Islam
Platform for cross-searching Encyclopaedia of Islam titles, including: Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913-1936) (EI), Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition (EI2), Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Historical Atlas of Islam
Historical Atlas of Islam

Encyclopaedia of the Qur’ān Online This link opens in a new window
Encyclopaedic dictionary of qur'ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis.
Dictionary of Qurʾanic Usage This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive, fully-researched and contextualized Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage.

Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage (Elsaid M. Badawi, Muhammad Abdel Haleem)
A concordance of the Qurʾan (Hanna E. Kassis)
The Oxford Handbook of Qur'anic Studies (2020)
The Blackwell companion to the Qurʼan (2006 ed.)
How to read the Qurʼan a new guide, with select translations (Carl Ernst)
Quran.com (THE NOBLE QUR'AN)
Verse by verse Qur'anic text with numerous translations and recitations
Interkulturelle Koran-Bibliographie
Available online. Bibliographic compendium of Qur'anic translations, studies, articles and collections in a range of European and non-European languages. Includes citations for 6542 titles.
GloQur The Global Qur’an القرآن العالمي
"GloQur looks at Qur’an translations as a central medium through which Muslims across the globe today approach their faith."
The Qurʾan (translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem)
The Quran Beheld (A new English translation from the Arabic by Nuh Ha Mim Keller)
Introduction, search, and recordings of the tafsir readings of Nuh Ha Mim Keller with Sheikh Ali Hani (uploaded as completed). Detailed and comprehensive tafsir of each verse of the Quran to be added to the site as well.

Concordance et indices de la tradition musulmane This link opens in a new window
Online version of Wensinck's Concordance, an essential reference work for hadith literature

Encyclopedia of canonical ḥadīth (Juynboll)
The Wiley Blackwell Concise Companion to the Hadith (2020)
Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements (Brill)
"The Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements offers a multinational study of Islam, its variants, influences, and neighbouring movements, from a multidisciplinary range of scholars." Open access
Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford Encyclopedias of the Islamic World: Digital Collection
Selection of articles on Islamic beliefs, institutions, movements, practices, and peoples previously published on the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Islamic World : Past and Present (2004)
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford History of Islam (1999)
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2003)
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online
Makers of Contemporary Islam (2001)
Explores the lives and thought of some of contemporary Islam's most important thinkers. Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
What everyone needs to know about Islam (2011)
Question-and-answer guide by John L. Esposito. Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Oxford Reference | Religion
Cross-search many titles previously on the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online platform
Bibliographies (Formation of Islam)
Bibliographies on administration, taxation, and agriculture and landholding as well as lists of fiscal terminology and governors attested in papyri (from the Formation of Islam project)
Onomasticon Arabicum (OA)
Online database with more than 27000 scholars and celebrities from the first Muslim millenary. Its entries in Arabic are compiled from ancient biographical dictionaries, a veritable treasure of Islamic culture. Crossed search allows separate interrogation on any of the different elements of the Arabo-Muslim names, dates and places, reconstructing the identity of a person, trace ways of knowledge transmission and frame historical contexts.
Islamic Philosophy Online
Books and articles on Islamic philosophy, ranging from the classical texts in the canon of Islamic philosophy to modern works of Muslim philosophy
Teaching Islam (2003)
Previously part of the now retired Oxford Islamic Studies Online
Islam and Islamic Studies Resources (Alan Godlas, UGA)
Information for the study of Islam, Qur'an, hadith, the Sunnah, Shi'ism and Heterodox Movements Sufism and Sufi Poetry Islam in the modern world, militant Islam, jihad, Islamist or extremist Muslims, and terrorism, Islam in Iraq, Muslim women, Islamic art, architecture, music, as well as Islamic history, theology, philosophy, and Arabic and other Islamic languages such as Persian, and religion in general.
Guide to Research in Islamic Art and Architecture (András Riedlmayer, Harvard)
"This research guide is divided into two sections. One section presents online and printed bibliographies, indexes, and other reference works and surveys organized according to subject or artistic medium (e.g. Architecture; Arts of the Book; Ceramics; Metalwork; Museums and Collections, etc.). A separate section presents research tools organized according to geographic or cultural region (e.g. works on the art and architecture of Central Asia; South Asia; Iran; Egypt; Islamic Spain, etc.)."
Access to Mideast and Islamic Resources (AMIR)
Compilation of open access bibliographic resources including online journals, archives, digital libraries, etc. Keyword search by topic or use tags to navigate.
Islamic Liberation Theology Reading List (Asad Dandia and Sharmin Hossain)
The Islamic Liberation Reading List (Asad Dandia)
"The Islamic Liberation Reading List aims to offer both a contribution and a critique to help readers grapple with our contemporary global crises, during where movements animated by racial, economic, gender, and environmental injustice (among others) have mobilized in the pursuit of a better world."
The Great Debate: Critical Race Theory and Muslims | Sapelo/Maydan Series on CRT
The MAYDAN
"an online publication of Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University, offering expert analysis on a wide variety of issues in the field of Islamic Studies for academic and public audiences alike, and serving as a resource hub and a platform for informed conversation, featuring original articles and visual media from diverse perspectives."
Sapelo Square
"...Sapelo Square intervenes in the marginalization and erasure of Black Muslims in the public square by building an online forum that places Black Muslims at the center. Our mission is to celebrate and analyze the experiences of Black Muslims in the United States to create new understandings of who they are, what they have done, and why that matters."
Black Islam Syllabus (curated by Kayla Renée Wheeler)
"The goal of this project is to provide teachers, professors, researchers, journalists, and people interested in learning more about Islam with resources on Black Muslims to promote a more inclusive approach to the study of Islam..."
Race and Slavery in Muslim Societies Bibliography (Margari Aziza)
#IslamophobiaIsRacism Syllabus
"ISLAMOPHOBIA IS RACISM Resource for Teaching & Learning about anti-Muslim Racism in the United States. Inspired by the #FergusonSyllabus, the #StandingRockSyllabus, the #BlackIslamSyllabus and others, this reading list provides resources for teaching and learning about anti-Muslim racism in the United States."
Halal Metropolis
"Halal Metropolis is a series of exhibitions that explores the facts, fictions and the imaginaries of the Muslim population(s) in Detroit and South-east Michigan as viewed through historical and archival research, documentation of current conditions, and explorations of future desires." Stories, conversations, exhibition series, podcast, interviews, etc
Muslims of the Midwest
Digital resource documenting "some of the varied experiences of Muslims in the American Midwest through testimonies across generational, gender, geographical, socio-economic, and ethnic differences." Collects recordings of interviews conducted between 2015 and 2019 as well as links to online exhibits, films, essays, reports, and other resources.
Muslims in Canada Archives
"MiCA is an archive collection and platform that is uniquely designed to document and share the experiences of Muslims in Canada."

Text Collections / Corpora

Corpus Coranicum
Project which aims to document the text of the Qur'an in the form in which it has been transmitted in manuscripts and in oral transmission; to create a comprehensive database of Jewish, Christian, Old Arabian and other intertexts of individual passages of the Qur'an; and to provide a detailed commentary on the text
Paleocoran
Studying variant readings and spellings in Egyptian Quranic Manuscripts (7th to 10th century AD) for a better understanding of the history of the Quran
Quranic Arabic Corpus
Annotated linguistic resource which shows the Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology for each word in the Holy Quran. The corpus provides three levels of analysis: morphological annotation, a syntactic treebank and a semantic ontology
Qur’an Tools
Formerly Quran Gateway, now open access. "A powerful piece of software that enables more efficient critical study of the Qur’an. It combines a host of ground-breaking features such as a powerful Qur’an browser, fast and flexible searching, customization options, and one-click access to beautiful charting and analysis functions. Qur’an Tools also contains a wealth of tools to help you explore Qur’anic vocabulary, plus resources for easy formulaic analysis and other scholarly analysis."
Sunnah.com
Database of several hadith collections searchable in Arabic and English taken from numerous unspecified editions
HadithCollection.com
Portal for browsing and searching several hadith collections in English translation
Hadis Veritabanı (Hadith Database)
Searchable database of hadith, transmitters, etc (in Turkish)
كشاف البخاري
Database compiling manuscripts, reading notes, publications, etc related to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī
ALTAFSIR.COM
Open access online collection of commentary, translation, recitation and other Qur’anic resources, Arabic & English
SHARIASource (Harvard Law School)
Platform to house primary sources of Islamic law, organize the people to critically analyze them, and promote research to inform academic and public discourse about Islamic law
المكتبة الشاملة | Shamela
Thousands of Arabic books (including various editions of important classical texts) available for browsing, download, search
المكتبة الشاملة الحديثة
مشروع تقني يهدف لتوفير خدمات بحث وتصفح متقدمة لمحتوى المكتبة الشاملة
المكتبة الوقفية
Vast collection of digitized Arabic books and manuscripts relevant for Islamic studies including numerous classical texts
شبكة المشكاة الاسلامية
Platform with a multitude of digitized Islamic texts (drawn from various editions) and reference works on a range of subjects including tafsīr, fiqh, ʻaqāʾid, and more
nusus | corpus of digitized Arabic texts
"Nuṣūṣ is a corpus of digitized Arabic texts designed to fill gaps in extant digital corpora. Originally a collection of early Sufi and Sufi-adjacent texts, nuṣūṣ has since expanded to include early works on kalām, falsafa, and Christian theology."

Persian E-Books Miras Maktoob This link opens in a new window
Persian and Arabic books on Islamic history and culture, published by the Written Heritage Research Institute (Miras Maktoob).

E-Kitap (PDF) Kütüphanesi
Publications of the Türkiye Yazma Eserler Kurumu Başkanlığı available for browsing and PDF download
Muftiships Web Archive
Preserves websites of Muftis and leading jurists from the Islamic world. "These websites cover the responses of leading judicial authorities to current events in their respective countries (and in some cases well beyond)."
African Online Digital Library
"AODL provides free universal access to cultural heritage materials from and about African countries and communities. It brings together tens of thousands of digitized photographs, videos, archival documents, maps, interviews and oral histories in numerous African languages, many of which are contained in curated thematic galleries and teaching resources." Including numerous resources on traditions of Islam in Africa

Scholarly Societies and Initiatives

Muslim Middle East and Islamic Studies Graduate Studies
Academic listserv for Muslim scholars in Islamic Studies and related disciplines.
International Qur'anic Studies Association (IQSA)
Learned society dedicated to the study of the Qur’an. Holds conferences around the world and publishes cutting-edge research and scholarship
North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS)
Organization whose mission is to provide a forum for the production and dissemination of academic research on Islam and the diverse lived experience of Muslims
American Academy of Religion
Learned society and professional association of teachers and research scholars in the field of religion
Historians of Islamic Art Association (HIAA)
"...dedicated to promoting the study and teaching of the art, architecture and archaeology of Islamic cultures world-wide. HIAA also connects colleagues engaged in scholarly and professional activities related to Islamic art, and provides information about current programs and resources vital to the field’s continued development"
GloQur The Global Qur’an القرآن العالمي
"GloQur looks at Qur’an translations as a central medium through which Muslims across the globe today approach their faith. We study the historical, exegetical, socio-political and linguistic dimensions of this genre throughout the modern period, which has been characterized by globalizing forces as well as the rise of print and new media. GloQur thus bridges the gap between philological, historical and anthropological approaches to modern and contemporary Muslim engagement with the Qur’an."
Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab
"...academic home for the study of mental health in the context of the Islamic faith and Muslim populations. The Lab aims to provide intellectual resources to clinicians, researchers, trainees, educators, community, and religious leaders working with or studying Muslims."
Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections
"Based at the University of Edinburgh, the Digital Lab brings researchers and students together to work on creative, interdisciplinary projects in collaboration with partners in the games and GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sectors"

Digital Scholarship / Digital Humanities (DS / DH)

Resource List (Middle East Librarians Association Digital Scholarship Interest Group = MELA DSIG)
"An evolving sampling of digital scholarship related communication channels, collections, corpora,
training opportunities, tools (including Arabic OCR), projects & initiatives - by no means an exhaustive list. We will continue to expand the list & invite your suggestions for additional projects & other resources"
MESA Guidelines for Evaluating Digital Scholarship
Text and Data Mining Support (U-M Library)

Sampling of Tools, Initiatives, & Projects

(for an even richer sampling, see MELA DSIG Resource List)

Jedli Search Tool
"Toolbox that contains several distinct search functions. It allows you to perform customized search operations looking for any number of words, or combinations thereof, in Arabic texts. Jedli has three different search options: the indexer, the highlighter, and the context search."
Islamicate Digital Humanities Network (IDHN)
"network of scholars with a research focus on Islamicate Digital Studies. This includes scholars from the Humanities, Computer Sciences, Computational Linguistics as well as librarians and archivists that work on topics that relate to Middle Eastern politics and culture, Islam as a religion, Arabic, Persian, and other Islamicate languages, et al. and that are already using or are interested in using digital methods for their research..."
Islamicate Digital Humanities
Digital Islamic Humanities Project (Elias Muhanna, Brown University)
Open Islamicate Texts Initiative (OpenITI)
Middle East Librarians Association | Digital Scholarship Interest Group
"The MELA Digital Scholarship Interest Group (MELA DSIG) is focused on supporting our community of colleagues working in MENA librarianship as we engage with digital humanities / digital scholarship."
Qur’an Tools
Formerly Quran Gateway, now open access. "A powerful piece of software that enables more efficient critical study of the Qur’an. It combines a host of ground-breaking features such as a powerful Qur’an browser, fast and flexible searching, customization options, and one-click access to beautiful charting and analysis functions. Qur’an Tools also contains a wealth of tools to help you explore Qur’anic vocabulary, plus resources for easy formulaic analysis and other scholarly analysis."

Arabic script OCR

See also the various publications and presentations from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Alexandria, Egypt) and Qatar Computing Research Institute. Important existing tools are QATIP, Sakhr, NovoVerus, and Kraken

Automatic Transcription of Historical Handwritten Arabic Texts (British Library)
QATIP – An Optical Character Recognition System for Arabic Heritage Collections in Libraries (2016)
Important New Developments in Arabographic Optical Character Recognition (OCR) (2017)
Maxim Romanov, Matthew Thomas Miller, Sarah Bowen Savant, Benjamin Kiessling. (2017). "Important New Developments in Arabographic Optical Character Recognition (OCR)" arXiv:1703.09550
The Ground Truth: Transcribing historical Arabic Scientific Manuscripts for OCR research (2018)
The Open Islamicate Texts Initiative Arabic-script OCR Catalyst Project (OpenITI AOCP) (2019)
MELA DSIG Virtual roundtable on Arabic script OCR / HTR (1 October 2020)
Advances and Limitations in Open Source Arabic-Script OCR: A Case Study (2021)
Kiessling, B. & Kurin, G. & Miller, M. T. & Smail, K., (2021) “Advances and Limitations in Open Source Arabic-Script OCR: A Case Study”, Digital Studies / Le champ numérique 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/dscn.8094

Transliteration / Romanization

Transliteration (called Romanization when converting to Latin characters) is essential for searching in catalogues, databases, indexes, full text collections, etc. Systems vary considerably by publication / electronic resource / scholarly community / language of influence. Most North American library catalogues (including our local catalogue) use the Library of Congress (ALA / LC) Romanization system. For comparison of various transliteration systems, see the samples linked below along with Thomas T. Pedersen’s comparison tables.

Sampling of Transliteration / Romanization Systems

ALA / LC Romanization Tables
Arabica (Arabic script)
DIN 31635 / DMG Transliteration Standard (Arabic script)
Encyclopædia Iranica Transliteration of Persian and Arabic (Arabic script)
Also discusses preferred transliteration systems for Turkish, Avestan, Old Persian, Middle Persian, Chinese, Russian, and Tajik.
IJMES Transliteration System for Arabic, Persian and Turkish (Arabic script)
Hebrew Transliteration (Hebrew script)
List of several schemas for Romanization of Hebrew from The Open Siddur Project, including ALA-LC, SBL Handbook of Style, Academy of Hebrew Language, etc.)

Transliteration Comparison Tables (Thomas T. Pedersen)