The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World.

• Author: Lapidus, Ira M.

The production of an encyclopedia is an enormous project. This one involves the coordination of some four hundred fifty contributors who have written about seven hundred fifty articles complete with bibliographies. The work covers the whole of the modern Islamic world. Though focused on contemporary entries it also contains a considerable amount of introductory historical material. Many articles are divided into two parts; one a short historical resume and the other, a more extensive analysis of the current situation. Geographical coverage is intended to be world-wide, but it is uneven. Iran and the Arab countries receive the most extensive treatment. South and Southeast Asia seem to receive only very basic coverage. Africa and Central Asia are much too scantily represented. There is, however, good coverage of Islam where it is new or of minority importance. Thus we have articles, for example, on Australia, New Zealand, United States, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany and Great Britain. Professor Esposito is to be congratulated for his vast knowledge, breadth of interest and the prodigious energy it takes to produce such a reference work.

Given the vast scope of the book, it is particularly difficult to evaluate in a short review. Unlike an ordinary book, it does not have a defined body of data, nor a single author's treatment of that data. Given the great length of this work, I have not read any more than a sample of the articles. Given the scope, I do not have the expertise to evaluate all of the subject matter. My remarks, therefore, may appear to be impressionistic. Perhaps the best way to review this work is to outline its contents, their range and apparent quality, see how the work deals with a number of controversial issues, and assess its likely audience.

There are two basic kinds of articles. One type, defined by proper names or Arabic-Islamic vocabulary, covers Islamic legal and political concepts, religious movements, political parties, Sufi brotherhoods, and the biographies of about one hundred contemporary or near contemporary Muslim leaders and thinkers. In addition, there is a large number of conceptually defined survey articles which the reader can look up under English titles.

The strongest aspect of the Encyclopedia is the extensive treatment of Islamic movements, parties, and Sufi brotherhoods. Thus one can, for example, look up such subjects as Ahmadiya, Ansar, Da wah, ABIM, Amal, Federation Nationale des Musulmans de...