Users’ Guide
The
IBQ comprises the two sections of “articles” and “bibliography”. The articles
are mainly geared toward information dissemination and criticism. The
bibliography contains the books and collections of articles published during a
particular season. The following provides details on the bibliography section
and offers hints for its use: Domain: All
of the books published during a particular season, which meet the minimum
scientific standards are included in the IBQ. Thus, they all would have the
following characteristics: I. They have been published in a
book form, thus articles and dissertations are not included. The first three
volumes of the Quarterly covered only domestic publications, but, pursuant to
the approval of the editorial board, foreign books are also to be included from
this point on. They comprise fifteen percent of the present volume, and are to
be boosted to fifty percent in the next two issues. The date of publication of
some of the books, especially foreign ones, may antedate the chronological
domain of a particular issue, owing to the difficulty in the exact
determination of some dates of publication. II. They all meet the minimum
scientific and research level, thus children’s books, prayer manuals, and the
like are excluded. III. They all deal with topics
relating to Islam and the Muslim world. After several roundtables with experts
in the field, the books on the following subjects were decided to be included
in the IBQ: 1-
Islamic sciences, including fiqh and uêñl, rijªl and dirªyah, ÉadÌth, quranic
sciences and exegesis, theology, etc. 2-
Islamic history and its related fields; Islamic movements; the history of
Islamic governments, e.g. the Ÿafawids, the Qªjªrs, and the Ottomans (however,
the works have to deal with the Islamic aspects of these histories, for
instance works on the Constitutional Movement in Iran will be included, but not
those on the military regime in Turkey).
3-
Religious geography, including educational, cultural, and scientific institutions,
religious cities, shrines, mosques, and the like. 4-
The current laws and regulations of the Islamic countries which are derived or
influenced by the Islamic sharÌ`ah. 5-
Arabic literature, excluding the literature of Jªhiliyyah, and the literature of
other languages that bears Islamic influences, such as Mawlªnª’s MathnawÌ
Ma`nawÌ (general works on literature, hermeneutics, phonetics, and the like are
not included). 6-
Islamic sociology, the economy of Islamic countries, and all the topics that,
in one way or another, deal with the conditions in the Islamic countries. 7-
Philosophy, including modern theology and its related fields, provided that the
topic of the work is discussed within an Islamic context or is of a comparative
nature. 8-
The entire corpus of works by Muslim scholars, regardless of their antiquity
and subject, such as works on astronomy, mathematics, medicine, etc. 9-
Works on psychology, education, ethics, art, etc., that have an Methodology: Among
the characteristics of the present volume is the use of fundamental methods for
the gathering of the information, i.e. the material for the bibliographies and
abstracts are directly acquired through the author or publisher and no use has
been made of any indices or external sources. The entire range of books meeting
the aforementioned criteria have been included and no editorial selection has
been exercised. It is our belief here at PARSA that our audience are made up of
professional and intelligent people and that any selective approach to the
subject would undermine our task of dissemination of information. We believe
such an unbiased presentation will lead to a more open and scientific research
atmosphere and will be more conducive to the discovery of truth. Arrangement of
Information: The
entries are given a numerical sequence and are consisted of I. Bibliography. II. Topical index. III. Abstract. The
following is a detailed description of these three parts: Bibliography: Each
bibliographical entry comprises the following components: author, title,
co-author, details, contextual relationship, numerical notations, and notes. The chapter headings are based on a
topical arrangement, beginning with Ethics and concluding with Art. The
entries are arranged according to the alphabetical list of the authors’ names,
and, secondarily, according to the titles of the works. The
language of non-Persian sources have been indicated. Creators: The
following categories have been used in referring to the creators of the works:
author, translator, critic and describer, interviewer, interviewee,
bibliographer, annotator, general editor, editor, summarizer, indexer, etc. The five main categories include: author,
critic and describer, interviewer, interviewee, and bibliographer. They precede
the main titles of the entries. Others (collaborators), including co-authors
and co-editors, come after the main headings. The spelling of personal names
are in accordance with the PARSA’s Databank of Personages. The
following points should be considered in connection with the term “creator”: II. Titles such as shaykh, doctor,
ªyatullªh, etc. have been omitted, but “sayyid” has been retained, since it
refers to a real notion and owing to the attention it receives in the Muslim
world and its mention in the sources. However, there may be cases in which
there has been no references to the term in the name of an individual. III. Where efforts to determine the
complete form of an abbreviated name has
failed to yield results the abbreviated notation has been retained. Title: The
title of the work follows the heading and should there be a subtitle it is
separated by a colon. The following points should be considered regarding the
titles: I. In cases where the cover title
differs from the one on the title page, the latter is followed and the former
is indicated in the notes. II. Phrases denoting respect, such
as “rah”, “ra»”, etc., which follow the names of prophets and imams, have been
abbreviated to “ê” for Prophet Muhammad and “`a” for the rest of the prophets,
and for the imams. III. Non-Persian titles have been
transliterated according to the PARSA system and mistaken forms have been
corrected. Details: Details
of each work follow the name(s) of the co-creator(s). They include: the number
of editions, place of publication, publisher, number of pages, language, number
of printed copies, size, type of binding, and price. Additional information
relate to the table of contents, sources, photographs, charts, etc. Finally,
where applicable, there are notes on the introduction and appendix(es). In cases of collections of articles, the
list of their titles and author(s) follows the bibliographical
information. Contextual Relationships: This
section contains the original title of the work that has been translated,
commentated, critiqued, etc. This applies to the cases where such information
is not indicated in the rest of the bibliographical data. Numerical Notations: This
section, where applicable, contains a work’s ISBN and Shªbak numbers. Each work
is also assigned a PARSA number, which can be used to access online information
about the book. The
two additional notations “B” and “S” stand for “book” and “collection of
articles”, respectively. Notes: This
section includes specific details about the work. Topical Indices: All
abstracted sources have been indexed within a controlled language. It should be
noted that there is no comprehensive thesaurus of Islamic sciences in
existence, and ƒqª RabÌ` and £ªhirÌ classifications are mainly designed for use
at libraries. In the design of this system, there has
been an attempt to avoid pure theory and utilize common terminology of Islamic
sources. Thus, the indices will not remain constant and the terms will develop
apace with the growth of sciences. The indices and the devised terminology
are intended as tools for computerized classification and search. However, in
order to present a topical introduction to the sources, each entry is
accompanied by a short topical index. There is an alphabetical index of these
terms, along with their corresponding numbers, at the end of the present
volume. The
main divisions of the IBQ are based on the main branches of the thesaurus. They
are: ethics, literature, history, geography, ÉadÌth, law, psychology,
mysticism, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics, fiqh, philosophy, the Qur’an, theology, generalities, and
art. Some sources have a major and a number of
minor topics. In such cases the major topic is printed in bold print. Each
entry is separated by a semicolon. There also may be a reference, which would
indicate that the major topic is included under another subject. Abstracting: There
are abstracts for all of the books of a relatively higher scientific and
research value. This includes, roughly, fifty percent of the books in the
present volume. The abstracts are intended to convey the
main points of a work. Abstracts are, generally, divided into various
categories, such as descriptive, analytical, critical, etc., each of which have
their own specific structure. The abstracts in the present volume are
mainly of a descriptive and descriptive-analytical nature. They are based on
the following rules: I. The total number of words are
limited to 250. This is intended with a view to time economy. Longer abstracts,
though more detailed and specific, take more time to read and, thus, prevent
the researcher from covering a larger field of material. Hence, longer
abstracts turn out to be self-defeating.
II. There has been an attempt to
avoid any evaluations about the sources. This will prevent any bias on the part
of the researcher. Besides, such evaluations call for first-rate expertise on
the part of the abstracter, in addition to a thoroughgoing knowledge of the
subject. III. All points of secondary
importance are presented in the form of “keywords”. This helps researchers to
find their intended topics among sources they least expect. IV. A uniform system of abstracting
has been adopted in order to give consistency to the abstracts. Each abstract
opens with a sentence that contains the entire subject of the work in a
nutshell. Next, comes the intention of the author, followed by such points as
the work’s underlying theory, methodology, sources, conclusion, place among other
works, structure and headings, and manuscript information. This system is the
result of extensive research and consultation.
Indices: Six
indices at the end of the present volume will assist readers to find their
intended information. These are the indices of creators, publishers, subjects, Dewey and the Library of Congress
numbers, and English titles. In the index of creators, the name of
every author is followed by the number(s) assigned to his work(s) in the
present volume. This index contains the names of all creators, regardless of
their role. It also includes useful references about the names of individuals. The index of subjects contains references
to the numbers assigned to each work. Its classification is based on PARSA’s
tree-chart of subjects. The tree-chart is available on the IBQ’s Web site. The Dewey and the Library of Congress
numbers are intended for use by libraries and research centers. IBQ Web site: Information
on this and other issues of the IBQ are available at |