A Popular Dictionary of Islam

by Ian Richard Netton

Book Overview

First published in 2004 This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0844204226
• ISBN13: 9780844204222
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Islam dictionary

This dictionary (and glossary) is useful in getting a quick "popular" reference at some topic regarding Islam. Alas, each explanation is all-to-short, brief, but interesting. After reading a number of them, I said to myself: "That was a nice refresher tidbit regarding that topic." But, no real deep scholarly analysis as one would find in larger dictionaries or glossaries. The author found it worthwhile to comment: "it contains an individual entry for each one of the 114 chapters (suras) of the Qur'an, listed under its Arabic tit...[but] do not...provide an exhaustive summary" of what is contained in any sura. Even after having read about a hundred books regarding Islam, I found this 279-page dictionary still to be very informative; a nice refresher `popular' outline. Besides references to the Quran, this dictionary also notes topics pertaining to individuals, caliphs, sharia, fiqh, tafsir, hadith, and Islamic rituals. This dictionary was published before "political correctness" regarding Islam came into vouge c. 2003, so "jihad" is first defined as "holy war" [for Western readers], but the author does note "the word derives from an Arabic root meaning basically `to strive'...this is the other major sense of jihad." Useful for the quick short reference, alongside the bigger reference tomes.