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The principle role of introducing Islamic Science is the spreading of Islam, and the development of religious culture. These are the foundations of thinking and deep intellectual beliefs which directly or indirectly are the foundations of Islam (especially Shiism). The Imam Khomeini Education & Research Institute is trying to introduce Islamic fundamental thinking internationally. Without any hesitation, one of the best ways to achieve this goal is by preparing an encyclopedia in Islamic Intellectual Sciences. It should be written in the cradle of slam and Shiism. Creating these types of products, along with making the foundation of our religious thinking clear, can provide the basis of research for researchers in different fields of Islamic Intellectual Science. This work opens up a path for incomplete works in the collections of others. It is also a barrier against Western researchers and specialists in the East that either on purpose, or not, distort Islamic Science, and especially Islamic principles and the Shiite school of thought. On one hand, there is no complete and specialized work in Islamic Intellectual Sciences which can prepare a good basis for a complete research project in Islamic Culture. On the other hand, there have been no doubts about the possibility of it being done by an Islamic Seminary or religious school. Difficulties in starting such a project were making us doubtful of being able to follow through. By seeing the deep effects of such a project and the necessity for introducing Islam, we decided to take on the project. Taking a look at encyclopedias written in Iran that are generally made up of translating and piecing together foreign articles, guided us towards the point that the idea for writing an original in our culture had still not been developed. Even just first the steps to writing a complete set of encyclopedias had still not been taken. Rushing to compile a set of encyclopedias, in our thoughts, was going to cause problems in achieving these goals. The Encyclopedia Section of the Institute found a solution to this and it was to take their time and carefully do their work. As a result, this section is taking the first steps in preparing its activities and preliminary goals.
Research for the encyclopedia is in the following subjects: logic, philosophy, Irfan (Gnosticism), theology, religion, and the sects of Islam and its theological thought. When a suitable ground is prepared, research will be conducted in other subjects, such as moral philosophy and religious philosophy, as well.
A. BooklistingsThese volumes of the Encyclopedia were developed with the goal of introducing materials published on Islamic Intellectual Science. Materials such as books, articles, theses and various publications in the most widely used languages around the world. Booklistings and the introduction of materials in Islamic Intellectual Sciences are done in three different ways. They are as follows:
1. Brief (preliminary) Introductions This type of introduction of books, articles, and other materials is done by using index cards. Every index card is left with a little empty space to be filled in later with gathered information. One of the specialties of this type of introduction is that along with the introduction of different materials and publications by title, author, publisher, etc…, it includes the content of the materials, in general and detail. The researchers for Islamic Intellectual Sciences can access details of the subjects this way. The index cards are also marked with numbers according to their level of importance and content. These numbers are taken from a chart which determines factors of levels of importance. This brief (preliminary) introduction of the materials is not only in the Persian and Arabic languages, but also in all of the most widely used languages around the world. The introductions or listings in foreign languages include a Persian translation of the author’s name, title, and subject. Some of these materials are not so easily accessible, but plenty of information is available about them. Therefore, their introductions are done in two methods, directly and indirectly. 2. Introductions Referring to materials in order to search for different subjects is a waste of time without a table of contents. Usually, the original versions of sources used don’t have a table of contents, and this is another one of the tasks of this section. Creating and putting together tables of contents and indexes for these wonderful ancient books in order for the public to make better use of them. 3. Detailed Introductions Another one of the activities of the Encyclopedia Section for introducing materials is writing summaries of old original books. Researchers read through the materials and then summarize them in the standard set form. This kind of work makes it possible for the Institute’s researchers to access the contents easily, by simply selecting a word in Islamic Intellectual Science terminology.
Research findings in this field like all other research for the encyclopedia will eventually be developed into a computer program. By selecting a subject from the Brief (preliminary) Introduction part of this computer program, researchers can have access to all information about that subject. Also, by simply typing in a short phrase, word, etc… on the subject they are looking for, they can retrieve all information needed.
The results of research in this field from the year 1999 until February of 2001 are as follows: 1. Brief (preliminary) Introduction Research In this section, 22.000 index cards in the Persian and Arabic languages have been compiled from books, articles, and theses directly or indirectly from various libraries. In the section where index cards are made in foreign languages such as French, German, English, etc…, 30,000 index cards have been completed. 2. Introductions Research This section recently started its activities and is trying to explain the first and second levels of materials in Islamic Intellectual Sciences. 3. Detailed Introductions Research Summarizing materials is done in these fields: Logic, Dialectical Theology, Irfan (Gnosticism) and Philosophy. The following books have been summarized so far in the field of Logic:
The following books have been given for summarizing:
Summarizing the following books in Dialectical Theology has been completed:
These books are now being summarized:
The following books are now being summarized in the field of philosophy:
Another group of books have been put aside in the same field. They are as follows:
The field of ‘ Ifran (Gnosticism), the following books have been summarized:
Only one book is currently being worked on in this field and its title is Misbāh-ul-Uns. B. Index Another type of research for the encyclopedia is extracting Islamic Intellectual Science terminology from original sources and materials in the fields of logic, philosophy, Dialectical Theology, ‘Irfan (Gnosticism), the sects of Islam and its theological thought, امكنه, Works of scholars, Religion, and Schools of Thought. The researchers, after extracting this information, show the relations of the terms with Islamic Intellectual Sciences in specialized charts. After separting terms that are Islamic Intellectual Science terminology from those that are not, according to the set factors and rules which specify and differentiate all terms from one another, original words, implied words, synonyms, and index words are specified. The results of this research in the specialized council of each field, of which some of the great specialists are members of, will be checked and approved. The explanations of all terminology are extracted at the same time with the extracting and research of all terminology. Gathering these explanations together (from the original sources) prepares the grounds for writing dictionaries. In each of these fields, these explanations, after being sorted and arranged in chronological order, and given a suitable analyzation, are ready for being distributed (separately) for researchers’ use.
Philosophy
Logic
Irfan (Gnosticism)
Dialectical Theology
It is necessary to state that in reference to the 7.000 specialized terms (about famous scholars, personalities) extracted, in addition to their actual names, their complete name, date of birth, place of birth, place of death, date of death, religion, sect, nationality, specialty, gender, teachers and instructors, and students are also researched. The information extracted for each and every one was from an entirely separate source. This collection of the 7.000 specialized terms is , in fact, a dictionary of Islamic Intellectual Sciences, the sects of Islam and its theological theought that is ready for use by researchers. This collection, after the addition of opinions and views of each scholar / personality will be published and at the disposal of all who have a special interest in this type of work. Sources: (Extracting information about scholars has been done from 52 series of books [357 volumes]. Due to the extensity of the list, we have refrained from mentioning it here). C. Scientific Files From the point that researcher, naturally, don’t have enough time or the necessary means in order to access highly developed sources, they can’t access all the things they want and this leads to weak articles. We are in the process of preparing a scientific file for each index of the encyclopedia. A scientific file is a collection of necessary information and photocopies from original texts and sources which are in relation to each particular index of the encyclopedia. This information, after being put in chronological order and edited by specialists will be given to researchers who write articles. Researchers (of the encyclopedia) gather all their needed information from the scientific files and by utilizing the booklists (registered sources, related sources, explanations, and summaries) of Islamic Intellectual Sciences and Islamic computer programs, studying the text and consulting the guidance counselors, can write stronger articles.
Results of this research have been the completion of 175 files for the indexes of encyclopedias in logic, philosophy, Dialectical Theology, and the sects of Islam and its theological thought. Some times, a certain amount of books in a file, which are related to one particular index, can add up to 20 volumes, each one consisting of about 300 pages. This shows the comprehensiveness of the information (ready-to-use) in a scientific file.
Another activity of the Encyclopedia Section is ordering articles for every index of the encyclopedia. Finding good articles for the encyclopedia is a very difficult research task. This research is in its primary stages, and in our view, has not reached a suitable level as of yet. Articles currently being worked on are considered as being experimental and preliminary tasks that will be completed after the necessary grounds are prepared. So far, articles written by researchers of the encyclopedia have done rather well.
The result of efforts of this section is around 70 articles in philosophy, logic, Dialetical theology, and the sects of Islam and its theological thought. Titles of articles are listed below: Philosophy:
Logic
Dialetical Theology
The Sects of Islam and its Theological Thought
Due to the severe necessity of researchers to have sufficient resources, and the difficulty of using other libraries, the Encyclopedia Section took action in opening a specialized library in Islamic Intellectual Sciences. Their goal was to collect all sources that could be found in this field. Until now, 6,000 volumes of books in different areas of Islamic Intellectual Science have been collected.
One of the specialties of our encyclopedia research is that all work is developed into computer programs. This way, as the researchers do their jobs, they enter their findings directly into the computer. Users of these computer programs can access all information easily. The Encyclopedia of Intellectual Islamic Sciences is under the direct
supervision of Ayatullah Muhammad Taqi Misbah Yazdi. |
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