This Concise Encyclopedia of Islam is meant to represent Islam’s
diversity and offer the reader a short definition of major terms and
introduce major figures. In writing this Encyclopedia, I have chosen to use
the distinction that was made by the late M.G.S. Hodgson in his Venture
of Islam, between those subjects that are “Islamic” and those that are, in
his word, “Islamicate.” By “Islamic,” he meant those subjects that have to
do with the religion, and by “Islamicate,” he meant those subjects that are
products of the culture that Muslims, and Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians,
Hindus, and others living under Islam, have produced. We speak of
“Islamic science,” meaning the scientific advances during the time of the
Western Middle Ages, but those scientific advances were a product of the
interaction of Jews and Christians as well as Muslims living in Islamic
countries. The religion of Islam contributed to the development of that
and other branches of learning, because Muslim rulers chose to sponsor
learning as part of their vision of themselves asMuslims. I have chosen to
leave the political and cultural material to others. This volume contains
terms that are related to Islam as a religious system.

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