Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al-Islamiyya
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- Editions
- Markaz al-Shāriqah lil-Ibdā‘ al-Fikrī
Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al-Islamiyya (Abridged Encyclopaedia of Islam) is a multi-volume Arabic reference work translating, abridging, and annotating the orientalist Encyclopaedia of Islam published by E. J. Brill . Published in 1418 AH (1997–1998 CE) in thirty-two volumes through a collaboration between Markaz al-Shariqah lil-Ibdā‘ al-Fikrī and the General Egyptian Book Authority, it provides an alphabetically arranged overview of Islamic history, religion, thought, sciences, and culture .
Background and Compilation
The underlying Western work, edited in its first edition by scholars including M. Th. Houtsma, T. W. Arnold, R. Basset, and R. Hartmann, was published between 1913 and 1936 in English, French, and German . Earlier Arabic translation efforts began in 1933 under a team of Egyptian researchers—Ibrahim Zaki Khurshid, Ahmad al-Shantanawi, Abd al-Hamid Yunus, and Muhammad Thabit al-Fandi—who completed entries up to the letter ‘Ayn before stalling . A second attempt launched in 1969 incorporating updates from Brill's second edition yielded sixteen volumes before ceasing after reaching the beginning of the letter Khā’ .
The complete abridged project was revived under the sponsorship of Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah, serving as the inaugural publication of the Sharjah Center for Intellectual Creativity . The general supervision was led by Dr. Samir Sarhan, head of the General Egyptian Book Authority . The editorial organization was divided into two major divisions:
- Entries from the letters Alif to ‘Ayn were prepared and edited from earlier translations by Ibrahim Zaki Khurshid, Ahmad al-Shantanawi, and Abd al-Hamid Yunus .
- Entries from ‘Ayn to Yā’ were translated by a committee of professors from Egyptian and Arab universities .
Scientific revision and oversight were conducted by Hasan Habashi, Abd al-Rahman Abd Allah al-Shaykh, and Muhammad Enani .
Scope, Method, and Annotations
The encyclopedia contains thousands of entries arranged alphabetically according to the Arabic script . It covers prophets, companions of the Prophet ﷺ, caliphs, scholars, dynasties, sects, legal and theological schools, Quranic commentaries, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, mathematics, and architecture . Major central subjects—such as the Divine Name, the Quran, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and Islamic architecture—receive extended study-length entries .
To condense the encyclopedia into a manageable compass (mujaz), the editors omitted minor biographical and geographical entries deemed secondary to the general development of Islamic civilization, such as obscure poets, minor figures, and peripheral localities .
Rather than presenting an uncritical translation, the Arabic editorial committees added scholarly annotations, clarifications, and critical rejoinders by Muslim scholars from al-Azhar and Egyptian universities to address points of dispute, ambiguity, or orientalist misinterpretations . The committee also updated select factual information, recorded the name of each article's translator alongside its original author, and standardized Quranic verse citations according to the official al-Azhar edition of the Mushaf .
Reception
The publication was introduced with forewords by Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Grand Imam of al-Azhar, and Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, who commended the work as a landmark cooperative intellectual undertaking that made comprehensive Islamic reference materials accessible to Arabic readers while providing necessary contextual corrections . Later scholars have noted the utility of the translation's commentary and corrections by scholars such as Amin al-Khuli, Mustafa Abd al-Raziq, and Ibrahim Madkour, while continuing to examine and respond to remaining theological and historical contentions in the underlying orientalist entries .
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