Encyclopaedic Works on Islamic Political Thought and Movements in the Twenty-first Century

Abstract

Books Reviewed: Gerhard Bowering, et. al., eds., The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013); John L. Esposito and Emad El-Din Shahin, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013); Emad El-Din Shahin, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014). During last two decades or so, many encyclopedias have been published on Islam and its history – classical to contemporary – with a modern approach, among them Richard Martin’s two-volume Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World 1 and John L. Esposito’s Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World.2 Other encyclopedic works focus on specific eras, like Josef Meri’s Medieval Islamic Civilization.3 One more category is that of Islam and politics, political Islam, and/or the various facets, complexities, and intricacies of Islamic movements. This essay focuses on three works that discuss the themes and issues that fall in this last category. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (EIPT)4 is a wide-ranging one-volume publication, as well as the first encyclopedia and reference work on Islamic political thought. It includes articles ranging from the classical to the contemporary periods and incorporates the eras from the Prophet’s time to the present. Written by prominent scholars and specialists in the field, The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics (OHIP)5 is a singlevolume sourcebook that provides a comprehensive analysis of “whatwe know and where we are in the study of political Islam,” thereby enabling scholars, students, and policymakers “to appreciate the interaction of Islam and politics and the multiple and diverse roles of Islamic movements” both regionally and globally (p. 2; italics mine). By analyzing Islam and politics through a detailed and profound study, the two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and ...