Virtual Libraries

Introduction
Disclaimer

Qur'ān : online text, commentaries, and translations

Hadith : text databases in Arabic & English

Virtual libraries :

general

local or subject-specific

Search tools (virtual keyboards and search hints)

Introduction: Islamic texts on the Internet
The Internet is full of Islamic material, and offers a large number of virtual libraries of varying quality. The best libraries of this kind provide vast numbers of classical and modern texts in electronic—and therefore searchable—form. The more basic libraries are little more than electronic repositories for documents produced by different people, which can vary immensely in their accuracy.

Online virtual libraries almost invariably lack references to printed editions, and therefore cannot be quoted. One notable exception is al-Warraq (s. below), who are gradually updating their texts with references to published editions. In any case, virtual libraries are valuable tools for locating particular words, names, or phrases in a given group of texts, and may serve as a substitute for those who do not have access to more sophisticated CD-ROM collections.

Disclaimer
The list of resources below is not exhaustive; we encourage all readers to search for additional virtual libraries, and to alert us to new and useful resources. Virtual libraries on this list have been selected as random examples, and are arranged alphabetically. They are to be used a sources for scholarly research, and their selection does not imply that we endorse their content.

Qur'ān: online text, commentaries, and translations

Altafsir [Eng/Ara] http://www.altafsir.com/Index.asp

Created by the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Jordan, this website offers a range of Commentaries in Arabic, as well as detailed lists of variant readings by all of the canonical 'readers'. It Includes a search function and a virtual keyboard.

Holy Qur'an Resources on the Internet [Eng] http://www.quran.org.uk/?Page=home

A Website based in the UK, with links to most English translations of the Qur'ān, and to traslations into various foreign languages (from Albanian to Urdu).

Holyquran [Ara] http://www.holyquran.net/

A relatively simple site that offers the Qur'ān in text format, fully vocalized, but without frills: perfect for copying and pasting. It also includes a search function, and the text of four (Shiite) commentaries in Arabic.

Islamicity [Eng] http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/quran/

This section of a much larger site provides several interesting search functions for the text of the Qur'ān, such as 'phonetic' searches (Arabic in transliteration), topical searches, and even a search function in Chinese (traditional & simplified)

Hadīth : text databases in Arabic & English

Sahīh al-Bukhārī [Eng] http://www.sahihalbukhari.com/sps/sbk/

An English translation of the Jāmi‘ al-Sahīh, with a search function (English only), and chapter headings in Arabic. Because of the variant numbering schemes used in the printed editions, it is difficult to trace the Hadīth texts back to the original Arabic. The chapter headings are useful in this respect; set the encoding in your browser to Arabic (windows) to display Arabic characters.

Hadīth al-Islam [Ara] http://hadith.al-islam.com/Display/Hier.asp?Doc=0&n=0

A website of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Saudi Arabia. It includes the Arabic text of the Kutub al-sittah, as well as the Muwatta', Musnad Ahmad, and a number of commentaries. Fully searchable; vocalization can be turned off.

Hadīth Database [Eng] http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/searchhadith.html

A database of Hadīth maintained by the Muslim Students' Association at the University of Southern California. Users can search (in English only) the entire text of the Sihāh of Bukhari and Muslim, the Sunan of Abu Dawud and Malik's Muwatta'.

Nawawi's 40 Hadīth [Eng] http://www.masmn.org/documents/Hadith/Misc/40_Nawawi.htm

Contains the text of Nawawi's Forty Hadīth; the translation is based on that of Ezzeddin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davies.

Virtual Libraries : General

al-Warrāq [Ara] (Five star rating: Highly recommended) http://www.alwaraq.net/

A superlative virtual library, containing a good portion of the canon of classical Arabic literature, but probably stronger on the side of belles-lettres than on that of 'Islamic sciences' proper. New users are required to register, but there is no registration fee. The site is entirely in Arabic, but it includes two types of virtual keyboard, which can also be used for searching other Arabic sites.

One caveat is that searches are not analytical : variations of the same word with/without an article or affixes may not be retrieved; the other problem is that certain parts of the website do not display well with some browsers. Finally, 'page' numbers in most texs do not refer to any particular edition. That said, the owners of the site are in the process of updating their service by replacing selected texts with scholarly editions, where available.

Alphabetic listing

Fiqh al-Islām [Ara] http://feqh.al-islam.com/

A website related to Hadīth al-Islam above, and maintained by the Saudi Ministry of Religious Affairs. It contains a selection of classical works in all branches of traditional learning, including the text of Mawāridī's al-Ahkām al-Sultānīyah.

Kitābkhānah-'i Tibyān [Per/Ara] http://library.tebyan.net/

A comprehensive online with well over 6,600 titles (mainly in the Religious sciences) in Arabic and Persian. It offers complete versions of religious texts like Tabatabai's Commentary on the Qur'ān or the Nahj al-Balāghah, as well as that of literary works like Firdawsi's Shāhnāmah.

Initially, the site may seem a bit difficult to use: to access the library, one has to click on one of the 'index' tabs (alphabetic or subject indexes are available). What is more, the list of titles on the Arabic page appears to be different from the list of titles available on the Persian version of the same page. Navigation within the books is somewhat easier, thanks to indexes and scroll bars.

Maktabat al-mishkāt [Ara] http://www.almeshkat.com/books/

Not an online library at all, but a repository for electronic copies of Islamic books. It contains a large number of classical works in the form of Word or .zip files that can be downloaded. The quality of the files varies.

Maktabat sahāb al-salafīyah [Ara] http://www.sahab.org/books/index.php

Another repository for electronic copies of Islamic books. As its name indicates, the website has a salafi slant to it, but it still contains a number of useful files, such as a downloadable version of Tabarī’s Ta’rīkh.

Nidā’ al-īmān [Ara] http://www.al-eman.com/Islamlib/

This section of a larger Islamic website provides a large selection of classical texts in all traditional sciences. It has an author index, and offers a detailed search function that allows for restricted searches for poetry, section headings, etc.

Persopedia [Per] http://www.persopedia.com/

A well-designed site with access to the works of some three dozen poets of the classical period, including Firdawsī, Hāfiz, and Khayyām.

Shiabooks [Per/Ara] http://www.yasoob.com/

A vast virtual library, with an emphasis on religious material. Despite its name, the library contains a large number of works by Sunni authors. Neither the search function nor the subject index appear to work, and navigation within the site could be easier, but nevertheless this resource is useful because of the sheer amount of text that it contains.

Virtual Libraries : Local or subject-specific

Dār al-‘Ulūm, Deoband [Urd] http://darululoom-deoband.com/urdu/index.htm

The Dār al-‘Ulūm maintains a website with miscellaneous publications, mainly in Urdu. It provides access to an extensive collection of Fatawa in Urdu.

European Council for Fatwa and Research [Eng/Ara] http://www.e-cfr.org/

The organization maintains an online library with all its fatwas. However, at the time of writing, most fatwas were available in Arabic only. French translation of some fatwas can be read at Islamophile (see below).

Islamophile [Fre] http://www.islamophile.org/spip/

This French website contains translations of modern fatwas by the European Council for Fatwa and research, as well as a small selection of Islamic religious works in French.

Islamweb [Ara] http://www.islamweb.net/ver2/library/index.php

Has a small selection of classical works in all of the traditional Islamic sciences, including Mawāridī's Ahkām al-Sultānīyah.

al-Minbar [Ara/Eng] http://www.alminbar.net/

This very comprehensive site offers collections of Sermons from all over the Islamic World, arranged by country, mosque, preacher, and topic. It provides English translations of select sermons, as well as legal texts on how to write, and hold a Friday sermon.

Search tools (virtual keyboards and search hints)

In many of the virtual libraries listed above, search terms must be entered in Arabic script. In order to produce search strings, users will either have to enable Arabic Support on their Laptop or workstation, or make use of virtual keyboards which produce Arabic text that can be copied and pasted into the search window. These virtual keyboards can be found by clicking on the small keyboard icon on the al-Warraq (http://www.alwaraq.net/) or Neelwafurat (http://www.neelwafurat.com/) websites. Once opened, the keyboards can also be used in conjunction with other sites.

When searching, bear in mind that:

* searches for common words are likely to be slow, and will retrieve too may irrelevant results.

* most virtual libraries do not support Boolean searches.

* the search tool may or may not distinguish between plain 'alif' and 'alif +hamzah'. The various virtual libraries treat searches with these characters in different ways, and it is worth trying alternative spellings.

* the text itself may be corrupt, incomplete, or expurgated. The fact that you can not find a specific term in a given work trough a virtual library does not guarantee that the term is absent. If in doubt, compare the electronic text to that of a printed edition to assess the reliability of the electronic text. We would be grateful if you could report any serious cases of this kind.

April 21, 2006