IIIT’s Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Glossary (IMESG) aims to be the definitive resource for searching and understanding specialized terminologies in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. It features thousands of entries spanning a number of disciplines, and it continues to grow. What sets it apart from other academic glossaries and dictionaries is its offering of comparative translations and definitions sourced from leading scholars and works.
How terms enter the IMESG
The IMESG editorial team actively mines through a vast body of academic literature for a given discipline to identify specialized terminology in that discipline. By “specialized terminology” is meant terminology that has a particular meaning for a discipline that would otherwise take on a different meaning outside the context of that discipline. The literature that is mined includes books, monographs, journal articles, encyclopedias, dissertations, theses, and conference proceedings, and is thus based on some form of peer review or refereeing that qualifies it as having met the accepted high standards of its discipline. While the IMESG editorial team prioritizes mining the works of authors recognized for outstanding scholarship in their field of specialization, it also actively searches the works of lesser-known authors, especially to identify original renderings of terms that the editorial team deems worthy of including in the glossary.
Updates
The IMES Glossary is updated on a regular basis. The most frequent updates include adding new disciplines and entries, adding new translations and definitions to existing entries, and correcting existing entries. And though we have a team of editors who provide these updates, we appeal to users to contribute to improving and enhancing the platform through the “Community” page, where our team of editors regularly reviews submissions and follows up accordingly.