Islamic Studies

Welcome to the Subject Guide for Islamic Studies at Carleton University Library. Use dictionaries and encyclopedias to get an overview and background information. Also listed below are specialized reference resources useful when first exploring a topic. Look in the section Finding Books and eBooks to find Sacred Texts.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

• The Qurʻan an encyclopedia / Oliver Leaman (2006)
• Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures / Suad Joseph (2010-)
• Encyclopedia Iranica / Ehsan Yarshater (1996-)
• Encyclopedia of Global Religion / Mark Juergensmeyer, Wade Clark Roof (2012)
• Oxford Dictionary of Islam / John L. Esposito (2003)
• Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon: Free, online & downloadable dictionary
• Encyclopædia of the Qur'ān / Jane Dammen McAuliffe (2001) (vols. 1-6) BP133.E53 2001

Historical Studies

• Historical Dictionary of the Ismailis / Farhad Deftary (2012) (Online) (Online)
• Egypt, Yesterday and Today / Georgiana G. Stevens (1963)
• The Muslim Diaspora : a Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas / Everett Jenkins (2000) (vols. 1-2) BP50.J46

Bibliographies

• The Islamic Revival Since 1988 : a Critical Survey and Bibliography / Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (1997) STF BP60 .BIBL .H33

Biographical Resources

• The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy / Oliver Leaman (2006) (vols. 1-2)
• Fifty Eastern Thinkers / Diane Collinson et. al. (2013) (Online) ; (2000 : Online, Online)
• Concise Biographical Companion to Index Islamicus : an International Who's Who in Islamic Studies from its Beginnings Down to the Twentieth Century / Wolfgang Behn (2004-) (vols. 1-3) BP70.B425 2004
• Historical Dictionary of Prophets in Islam and Judaism / Scott B. Noegel, Brannon M. Wheeler (2002) (Online) (Online) ; (Print)
• Muhammad; Encyclopaedia of Seerah / Afzal-ur-Rahman (1981) (vols. 1-8) BP75.A258

Art and Architecture

• Dictionary of Islamic Architecture / Andrew Petersen (1996)
• Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture / Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair (2009) (vols. 1-3).

Philosophy

• Books of Definition in Islamic Philosophy / Kiki Kennedy-Day (2003)
• A Dictionary of Muslim Philosophy / M. Saeed Sheikh (1970) STF B741.S48 ; (Limited search only) at HathiTrust)
• Islamic Philosophy A-Z / Peter S. Groff with Oliver Leaman (2007)

Maps and Atlases

• Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
• David Rumsey Map Collection
• An Historical Atlas of Islam / William Charles Brice (1981)

Women and Islam

• Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures / Suad Joseph (2006-)
• Women and Education in Iran and Afghanistan : an Annotated Bibliography of Sources in English, 1975-2003 / Mitra K. Shavarini, Wendy R. Robison (2005) LC2377.E2.S52 2005

Use Keyword or the dropdown Subject search to find books by a topic. To search multiple words not as a phrase do a Keyword search and use Boolean Operations -
AND to find all of the words in any order
OR to find any of the words
AND NOT to exclude one or more words

For example
(islam* OR muslim) AND (art OR architect*)

The * symbol will find any ending up to 5 characters. Canad* will retrieve Canada, Canadian, Canadians, etc

A full list of search tips is available at the Qmni Search Tips page.

Sacred Texts:

Online texts:
Internet Sacred Text Archive: Islam. A free archive of online texts
Qur'an Explorer
Tanzil Search the Qur'ran in Arabic

Seach by Title in Omni under Koran. Language
(Until updating is complete, search under both spellings of Koran and Qur'an)
for example: Koran. English
Koran. Arabic & English

Editions of the Qur'an can be found in the book collection in the BP100 - 109 range.

A online copy is available through eBooks on EBSCOhost: The holy Qur'an / translated by M.H. Shakir

Search for related materials by Subject:
Qur'an or Koran
Qur'an -- Commentaries.
Qur'an - Concordances
A concordance of the Qur'an
Qur'an - Criticism, interpretation, etc.
The Qur'an: an introduction
Qur'an - Dictionaries
Dictionary of Qur'anic terms and concepts
Qur'an- Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia of the Qur'an

E-book titles available at Carleton are in Omni and will be retrieved by a Author, Title, Subject and Keyword search. Or you may browse our eBook Collections.

Relevant eBook Collections:

• Brill
• Canadian Publishers Collection
• Columbia International Affairs Online
• eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online
• Making of America
• Ebook Central includes eBooks from Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Taylor & Francis
• Oxford Scholarship Online Religion
• Springer eBooks (via SpringerLink)

All e-book collections.

Open Access (OA) Publications
Researchers and faculty may find the links below provide useful resources to supplement their own information:

• OER Commons - Religious Studies
• American Theological Library Association (ATLA)

For a full list of OER, including textbooks, institutional repositories, research portals, visit Open Access (OA) Publications.

Key Databases

• ATLA Religion Database with ATLA Serials
• Index Islamicus
• Old Testament Abstracts

Additional Databases

• Année Philologique
• America History and Life
• Columbia International Affairs Online
• Historical Abstracts
• International Medieval Bibliography
• JSTOR
• ARTstor Includes approximately 500,000 images covering art, architecture and archeology
• Biblical Archaeology Society Online

The list below is a sampling of titles held by the Library. If the journal you are looking for is not listed below, do a title search in Omni. If we do not subscribe to it, order the article using Interlibrary Loans.

Arabic and Middle Eastern literatures
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy
British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Contemporary Islam
Edebiyât: Journal of ME Literatures
International Journal of Middle East Studies
Islamic law and society
Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Journal of Arabic Literature
Journal of Islamic studies
Journal of Palestine Studies
MERIP-Middle East Report
Middle East Journal
Middle East Policy
Middle East Report
Middle Eastern Studies
Studia islamica

• The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) - This archive includes American and international data collections on religion.
• Canadian Demographics at a Glance
• Canadian Census Analyzer
• Statistics Canada Library Online - Historical Statistics
• Islam in the West : Beyond Integration / Zijad Delic (2018) (Online, Online)
• The World's Religions in Figures : an Introduction to International Religious Demography / Todd M. Johnson et. al. (2013)

Emergency Temporary Access Service (HathiTrust):

• The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States / Edward E. Curtis IV (2008)

• South & Southeast Asian Studies
• Islam and Islamic Studies Resources University of Georgia Professor, Alan Godlas, provides one of the most comprehensive and scholarly sites on Islam.
• Center for Islam and Science Dedicated to the promotion of research and diffusion of knowledge on all aspects of Islam and science. It encourages a creative exploration of the Islamic worldview of science, fusion of contemporary scholarship with the traditional sources of Islamic thought and a renewed link with the intellectual tradition of Islam.
• The Ismaili Official website of the Ismaili Muslim community.
• Altafsir.com - Online collection of Qur’anic Commentary (tafsir or tafseer), translation and recitation.
• Arabic Newspapers
  
• Al Islam
  - provides educational and training material in the form of books, articles, apps, and multimedia content.
• Institute of Ismaili Studies
• Institute of Islamic Studies (University of Toronto)
• MENALIB (State- & University Library Saxony-Anhalt, Halle (Germany))

• Middle East & Islamic Studies (Columbia University)

• Royal Aalal-Bayt Institute for Islamci Thought
• Virtual Religion Index - Islamic Studies