The Urdu Edition of the Encyclopædia of Islam

In an introductory brochure, published some time ago, the editorial board of the Urdu EI (of the University of Lahore, Pakistan) have traced the history of encyclopaedias in Islamic languages, particularly in Arabic and Persian, where they exist since long date. Yet the Leiden work, product essentially of non-Muslim scholarship, has struck the imagination of Muslims all over the world, and for reason. The alphabetical arrangement, the constant references to sources as also the variety and comprehensiveness were appreciated on all hands, even if one found errors here and there. The knowledged pooled therein must have been a revelation even to the promoters of Leiden enterprise. The Egyptians first began the Arabic version; the Turks followed, and both these editions are still in the course of publication. Iran published a sample brochure, and keeps since silent. There was also an announcement for Indonesian version as a project. As far as the Urdu language is concerned, the Haiderabad Academy made some preparations, then came the second World War followed by the invasion, and abolition there of Urdu as official language. As early as December I950, the Pakistanian university of the Panjab (at Lahore) appointed the well-known Islamist Prof. Muhammad Shafi' to supervise the task of an Urdu version of El. His staff had to translate, control the correctness of the translation, verify the references, and scrutinize if the contents could not be ameliorated in the light of latest known facts. As Urdu is written in Arabic characters, the whole work had to be translated before thinking of publishing in the new order of alphabet. It is marvellous that in spite of all these handicaps, the first fascicule of the Urdu EI came out in July I959; with the avarage rate of one per month

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