K xxxiv Encyclopedia of Islam
format is similar to that of National Geographic,
and it is especially well-suited for students and the
general public. It also provides updated listings for
museum exhibits and new publications.
A Note on Terminology,
Transliteration, and TranslationBecause this Encyclopedia of Islam has been written
with secondary school students and the general
public in mind, I have gone to some lengths to min-
imize reliance upon academic technical vocabulary
and words from foreign languages. When techni-
cal terms have been used, it has been to enhance
clarity and understanding. An important exception
has been my adoption of two terms now widely
used by scholars in the fields of Islamic studies
and Middle East studies first proposed by Marshall
G. S. Hodgson in his monumental three-volume
work, The Venture of Islam. These are Islamicate
and Islamdom. Occasionally the words Islam and
Islamic are misleadingly or incorrectly applied to
phenomena that fall outside the boundaries of the
religion itself, resulting in the confusion of social
and cultural phenomena with religious ones. While
we know that the real-life boundaries between the
religious and the nonreligious are always shifting
and being negotiated, it is still helpful to recognize
that these boundaries nevertheless exist. Using
Islam and Islamic too loosely, moreover, obscures
the interrelationships that have developed histori-
cally between Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus,
and others in contexts where Islam was the domi-
nant religion but not the only one.
Therefore, I have adopted Hodgson’s term
Islamicate in order to describe those aspects of
“Islamic” society, history, and culture that cannot
be attributed exclusively to the religion Islam. For
example, Islamic literature refers to writing tradi-
tions that involve the various religious beliefs,
doctrines, practices, laws, and traditions of Islam.
Islamicate literature, on the other hand, encom-
passes the variety of writing traditions, Islamic
and non-Islamic, that have flourished in contexts
where Muslims have held political power or con-
stituted a majority of the population, especially
prior to the 19th century. This kind of literature
can include secular poetry, philosophy, and scien-
tific writings, as well as the writings of Jews, Chris-
tians, and others in Arabic, Persian, and other
languages. Likewise, Islamic architecture refers to
those parts of the built environment connected
with Islamic religious practices, such as mosques
and madrasas (religious schools), whereas Islami-
cate architecture includes palaces, fortifications,
caravanserais, bazaars, dwelling places, and baths.
Less frequently, I use Islamdom instead of phrases
such as the Islamic world to refer to social domains
where Muslims prevail collectively, especially
prior to the 19th century. It is analogous to the
term Christiandom, which denotes social domains
where Christianity prevails.
Following modern standard Arabic pronun-
ciation, which is increasingly being accepted
for English transliterations of Arabic words, I
use Quran instead of Koran, Muslim instead of
Moslem, madrasa instead of madrassa, and Hijra
instead of Hegira. I have extended this principle
to Arabic names: for example, Muhammad instead
of Mohammed, Hasan instead of Hassan, Husayn
instead of Hossein or Hussein, Umar instead of
Omar, Usama instead of Osama. Conventional
English spellings for Mecca and Medina have
been retained for this publication. Instead of Shi-
ite, I use Shii (pronounced Shi-i), parallel to the
conventional use of Sunni (instead of Sunnite).
Shii is used as an adjective (for example, Shii
Islam, Shii law) and as a noun for an individual
member of the minority Shii branch of Islam (for
example, “He is a Shii”). The plural in this regard
is Shiis (pronounced Shi-is). I use the term Shia
(pronounced Shi-a), which is based on the Arabic
word for “party” or “faction,” to refer to Shii Mus-
lims as a group or collectivity—the Shia. Shiism
is used to refer to the body of beliefs, rituals, doc-
trines, and traditions that define the Shii branch
of Islam (see the entry for this term).