Bibliography

Primary Islamic Sources

The foundational texts of the Islamic tradition from which the encyclopaedia draws its religious and historical content.

The Holy Quran

• The Noble Quran — All Quranic references cite surah and verse number (e.g., Quran 2:255). Translations consulted include Sahih International, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, and Muhammad Asad.

The Six Canonical Hadith Collections (Al-Kutub al-Sittah)

• Al-Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail. Sahih al-Bukhari. Translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan. Riyadh: Darussalam Publishers, 1997. [Original c. 846 CE]
• Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. Sahih Muslim. Translated by Abd al-Hamid Siddiqui. New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 2000. [Original c. 875 CE]
• Abu Dawud, Sulaiman ibn al-Ash'ath. Sunan Abu Dawud. Translated by Ahmad Hasan. New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan, 1990. [Original c. 889 CE]
• Al-Tirmidhi, Muhammad ibn Isa. Jami' al-Tirmidhi. Riyadh: Darussalam Publishers, 2007. [Original c. 892 CE]
• Al-Nasa'i, Ahmad ibn Shu'ayb. Sunan al-Nasa'i. Riyadh: Darussalam Publishers, 2007. [Original c. 915 CE]
• Ibn Majah, Muhammad ibn Yazid. Sunan Ibn Majah. Riyadh: Darussalam Publishers, 2007. [Original c. 887 CE]

Other Hadith Collections

• Ibn Hanbal, Ahmad. Musnad Ahmad. Cairo: Mu'assasat Qurtubah, 1978. [Original c. 855 CE]
• Malik ibn Anas. Al-Muwatta. Translated by Aisha Bewley. London: Kegan Paul International, 1989. [Original c. 795 CE]

Classical Islamic Historians and Scholars

The medieval scholars whose historical chronicles, biographies, and analyses provide the primary narrative framework for Islamic history.

• Al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir. Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (History of the Prophets and Kings). 40 vols. Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1960. [Original c. 915 CE]
• Ibn Hisham, Abd al-Malik. Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (The Prophetic Biography). [Original c. 833 CE]
• Ibn Kathir, Ismail ibn Umar. Al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya (The Beginning and the End). 14 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr, 1986. [Original c. 1370 CE]
• Ibn Kathir, Ismail ibn Umar. Qisas al-Anbiya (Stories of the Prophets). Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2003. [Original c. 1370 CE]
• Ibn al-Athir, Ali ibn Muhammad. Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (The Complete History). 12 vols. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1979. [Original c. 1231 CE]
• Ibn Khaldun, Abd al-Rahman. Al-Muqaddimah (The Prolegomenon). Translated by Franz Rosenthal. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967. [Original c. 1377 CE]
• Al-Mas'udi, Ali ibn al-Husayn. Muruj al-Dhahab wa Ma'adin al-Jawhar (Meadows of Gold). Beirut: Dar al-Andalus, 1966. [Original c. 947 CE]
• Ibn Sa'd, Muhammad. Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (The Great Classes). Leiden: Brill, 1904. [Original c. 845 CE]
• Al-Dhahabi, Shams al-Din. Siyar A'lam al-Nubala (Lives of Noble Figures). Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risalah, 1981. [Original c. 1348 CE]
• Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. Al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahabah. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah, 1972. [Original c. 1449 CE]
• Al-Baladhuri, Ahmad ibn Yahya. Futuh al-Buldan (Conquest of the Lands). Leiden: Brill, 1866. [Original c. 892 CE]
• Al-Maqrizi, Ahmad ibn Ali. Al-Mawa'iz wa al-I'tibar (Topographical History of Egypt). Cairo: Bulaq Press, 1853. [Original c. 1440 CE]
• Al-Suyuti, Jalal al-Din. Tarikh al-Khulafa (History of the Caliphs). Cairo: Dar al-Fajr lil-Turath, 2004. [Original c. 1500 CE]
• Al-Tha'labi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad. Qisas al-Anbiya (Tales of the Prophets). Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, 2004. [Original c. 1035 CE]
• Al-Maqqari, Ahmad ibn Muhammad. Nafh al-Tib min Ghusn al-Andalus al-Ratib. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah, 1949. [Original c. 1629 CE]

Quranic Exegesis (Tafsir)

• Ibn Kathir, Ismail ibn Umar. Tafsir al-Quran al-Azim. Riyadh: Dar Taybah, 1999. [Original c. 1370 CE]
• Al-Qurtubi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. Al-Jami' li Ahkam al-Quran. Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah, 1964. [Original c. 1273 CE]
• Al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir. Jami' al-Bayan an Ta'wil Ay al-Quran. [Original c. 923 CE]
• Al-Zamakhshari, Mahmud ibn Umar. Al-Kashshaf. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, 1986. [Original c. 1134 CE]

Islamic Jurisprudence and Theology

• Al-Shafi'i, Muhammad ibn Idris. Al-Risala. Translated by Majid Khadduri. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1987. [Original c. 820 CE]
• Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid. Ihya Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Religious Sciences). Beirut: Dar al-Ma'rifah, 2004. [Original c. 1097 CE]
• Ibn Rushd, Muhammad. Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtasid. Cairo: Dar al-Hadith, 2004. [Original c. 1188 CE]
• Al-Nawawi, Yahya ibn Sharaf. Al-Minhaj Sharh Sahih Muslim. Beirut: Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi, 1972. [Original c. 1277 CE]
• Ibn Qudamah, Muwaffaq al-Din. Al-Mughni. Riyadh: Dar Alam al-Kutub, 1997. [Original c. 1223 CE]
• Ibn Taymiyyah, Ahmad. Majmu' al-Fatawa. 37 vols. Riyadh: Dar Alam al-Kutub, 1991. [Original c. 1310–1328 CE]
• Al-Mawardi, Ali ibn Muhammad. Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah (The Ordinances of Government). Cairo: Dar al-Hadith, 2006. [Original c. 1058 CE]

Modern Academic Works

Peer-reviewed scholarship from university presses and established historians that forms the backbone of our modern analytical framework.

General Islamic History

• Hodgson, Marshall G.S. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. 3 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
• Lapidus, Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2016.
• Berkey, Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.
• Donner, Fred M. The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
• Esposito, John L. Islam: The Straight Path. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Prophetic Biography

• Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1983.
• Guillaume, Alfred, trans. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955.
• Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Mecca. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953.
• Watt, W. Montgomery. Muhammad at Medina. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956.
• Al-Mubarakpuri, Safi-ur-Rahman. The Sealed Nectar (Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum). Darussalam, 2002.

Prophets in the Quran

• Wheeler, Brannon M. Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis. London: Continuum, 2002.
• Tottoli, Roberto. Biblical Prophets in the Quran and Muslim Literature. London: Routledge, 2002.
• Thackston, Wheeler M., trans. The Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisa'i. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978.
• Firestone, Reuven. Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends in Islamic Exegesis. Albany: SUNY Press, 1990.

Islamic Science and Medicine

• Saliba, George. Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007.
• Al-Khalili, Jim. The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance. New York: Penguin Press, 2011.
• Rashed, Roshdi, ed. Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. 3 vols. London: Routledge, 1996.
• Pormann, Peter E., and Emilie Savage-Smith. Medieval Islamic Medicine. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007.
• Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad. London: Routledge, 1998.

Al-Andalus and Islamic Spain

• Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. London: Longman, 1996.
• Menocal, María Rosa. The Ornament of the World. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002.
• Catlos, Brian A. Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain. New York: Basic Books, 2018.
• Jayyusi, Salma Khadra, ed. The Legacy of Muslim Spain. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1992.

Ottoman, Mughal, and Safavid Empires

• Finkel, Caroline. Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923. London: John Murray, 2005.
• Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• Savory, Roger. Iran Under the Safavids. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
• Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Islamic Art, Architecture, and Culture

• Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture: Form, Function, and Meaning. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1994.
• Bloom, Jonathan M., and Sheila S. Blair. Islamic Arts. London: Phaidon, 1997.
• Grabar, Oleg. The Formation of Islamic Art. Rev. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
• Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.

African Islamic History

• Levtzion, Nehemia, and Randall L. Pouwels, eds. The History of Islam in Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000.
• Gomez, Michael A. African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
• Hunwick, John O. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire. Leiden: Brill, 1999.

Modern Islamic History

• Cleveland, William L., and Martin Bunton. A History of the Modern Middle East. 6th ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 2016.
• Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
• Schulze, Reinhard. A Modern History of the Islamic World. London: I.B. Tauris, 2000.

Women in Islam

• Stowasser, Barbara Freyer. Women in the Qur'an, Traditions, and Interpretation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
• Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
• Nadwi, Mohammad Akram. Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam. Oxford: Interface Publications, 2007.
• Spellberg, D.A. Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of Aisha bint Abi Bakr. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
• Ghadanfar, Mahmood Ahmad. Great Women of Islam. Riyadh: Darussalam, 2001.

Karbala, Ashura, and Shia Studies

• Ayoub, Mahmoud. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of Ashura in Twelver Shi'ism. The Hague: Mouton, 1978.
• Aghaie, Kamran Scot. The Martyrs of Karbala: Shi'i Symbols and Rituals in Modern Iran. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.
• Chelkowski, Peter, ed. Ta'ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran. New York: New York University Press, 1979.
• Pinault, David. Horse of Karbala: Muslim Devotional Life in India. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
• Jafri, S. Husain M. The Origins and Early Development of Shi'a Islam. London: Longman, 1979.
• Halm, Heinz. Shi'ism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004.

Islamic Family Law and Adoption

• Powers, David S. Muhammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.

Reference Encyclopaedias

• Bearman, P.J., et al., eds. Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. 12 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1960–2005.
• McAuliffe, Jane Dammen, ed. Encyclopaedia of the Quran. 5 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2001–2006.
• Esposito, John L., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. 6 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Glassé, Cyril. The New Encyclopedia of Islam. 4th ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.