Aims and Scope
This journal aims to provide an international platform for the dissemination of high-quality scholarly research on Islam, Islamic thought, Muslim societies, and interdisciplinary studies relevant to contemporary Muslim communities. The journal welcomes original research articles, review articles, critical essays, manuscript-based studies, and scholarly resource articles that contribute to the advancement of knowledge in both classical and contemporary Islamic scholarship.
Scholarly Resource Articles refer to peer-reviewed contributions that document, describe, and make accessible significant scholarly resources for future research. These may include manuscript catalogues, archival inventories, linguistic corpora, bibliographic databases, epigraphic collections, digital humanities resources, research tools, and other forms of structured scholarly data. Such contributions are not required to present original analytical findings but must demonstrate the academic value, provenance, methodology, structure, and potential research applications of the resource being described.
The journal is specifically interested in:
1. Islamic studies in all its branches, including but not limited to Qur’anic studies, Hadith studies, Aqidah, Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Islamic philosophy, Sufism, Islamic ethics, Islamic civilisation, Islamic history, Islamic education, contemporary Islamic thought, and related areas of Islamic scholarship.
2. Comparative studies involving Islam and other religious, philosophical, cultural, legal, or intellectual traditions, with particular emphasis on interreligious understanding, intellectual exchange, and scholarly dialogue.
3. Research on turath (Islamic intellectual heritage), including the study, editing, translation, analysis, preservation, cataloguing, digitisation, and interpretation of manuscripts, classical texts, scholarly traditions, and the transmission of Islamic knowledge across different regions and periods.
4. Studies on Islam and Muslim societies in diverse geographical and cultural contexts, including issues related to identity, governance, law, culture, language, social development, public policy, and contemporary challenges facing Muslim communities.
5. Interdisciplinary research that addresses issues relevant to Muslim societies and contributes to the wellbeing of humanity. Such studies may draw upon fields including social sciences, humanities, education, economics, law, environmental studies, science and technology, health sciences, media studies, and digital humanities. The relevance of the study to Islam or Muslim communities should be clearly articulated.
6. Research on emerging issues affecting Muslims in the modern world, including digital transformation, artificial intelligence, sustainability, social cohesion, religious authority, globalisation, ethics, and contemporary technological developments from Islamic and interdisciplinary perspectives.
7. Regional studies concerning Islam in Southeast Asia and other Muslim-majority or Muslim-minority societies, including historical, cultural, linguistic, intellectual, educational, and institutional developments.
8. Scholarly resources and research infrastructures that facilitate future academic inquiry, including catalogues, databases, corpora, inventories, digital collections, reference works, and other curated resources of lasting value to the study of Islam and Muslim societies.
The journal encourages contributions that demonstrate methodological rigour, engage critically with primary and secondary sources where appropriate, and contribute meaningfully to contemporary scholarly discussions within Islamic and interdisciplinary studies. For Scholarly Resource Articles, emphasis is placed on the significance, reliability, documentation, accessibility, and potential scholarly utility of the resource rather than on interpretative or argumentative analysis.
