Encyclopaedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion

Khalid Ahmed reviews the Encyclopaedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion Edited by Richard Netton


Encyclopaedia of Islamic Civilisation and Religion
Edited by Ian Richard Netton


Routledge 2008
Pp846; Special Price £95
Available at bookstores in Pakistan

It is a fact that Barelvism in Pakistan is not hostile to the Shia because of the Sufi link and the Barelvi leaders have been suicide-bombed in the context of the sectarian war in Pakistan

This is a book mostly based on Islamic research in the seats of Islamic learning in the United Kingdom. Prof Netton of University of Leeds has accomplished a difficult job with great caution, allowing into the volume an enormous amount of information without being controversial, which is another way of saying that he has presented the work without offending an increasingly narrow-minded, bigoted and divided Muslim community. For instance, Kulayni’s Shia hadith Al-Kafi has been given the space it deserves but no reference has been made to the content, perhaps knowing that Kulayni’s work figures in the Sunni fatwas of apostatisation of the Shia today. And the other Shia collector Majlisi has been ignored! For instance, Goddard of University of Nottingham avoids telling us that Ahmad Sirhindi also viewed the Shia as a threat together with Sikhism and Akbar’s Din-e-Ilahi.

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