Muslim Civilisations Abstracts
The Rational Behind the Project
Global understanding depends crucially on the sharing of knowledge across linguistic and cultural divides. There is a need for equal access to scholarly resources and a common understanding of where the frontiers of knowledge lie. Much valuable and original work published in societies with significant Muslim presence remains largely unknown in Europe and America. Even within the Muslim world there is a lack of scholarly exchange. Thus, scholarship about Muslim societies has proceeded without taking much account of researches produced in countries outside Europe and North America.
The Muslim Civilisations Abstracts (MCA) was conceived to allow equal access to these materials, and highlights the universal relevance of issues facing Muslim societies. It aims to bridge this gulf by providing a database of short book reviews (abstracts) about works concerning Muslim civilisations. The reviewed titles are selected works of scholarship involving original research and analysis, advances in relevant methodology and creative contributions to the dialogue about intellectual and social problems affecting Muslims. The MCA aspires to include abstracts of titles relevant to Muslim civilisations from around the world. Considering the huge amount of literature produced on the subject, the ambition of the project will be limited initially to covering the Muslim world, but will include China, India, Russia, and South Eastern Europe, where large Muslim communities have been living for centuries.
