This fully revised new edition comprehensively encompasses the religion, history and culture of the Islamic world in some 1300 entries. It covers aspects of religious belief, ritual, practices, prayer, significant political movements, spiritual and political leaders, art, architecture, sects, law, social institutions, history, ethnography, nations and states, languages, science, major cities and centres of learning.

"In 2012, the year 1433 of the Muslim calendar, the Islamic population throughout the world was estimated at approximately a billion and a half, representing about one-fifth of humanity. In geographical terms, Islam occupies the center of the world, stretching like a big belt across the globe from east to west."--P. vii.

Family, Law and Politics, Volume II of the Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, brings together over 360 entries on women, family, law, politics, and Islamic cultures around the world.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.