Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World

An extraordinary achievement, accomplished over a five-year period by a smoothly functioning team of some 300 contributors and seven editors, led by executive editor Norman A. Stillman, who credits his editorial team for its versatility (they translated many of the essays) and the Brill publishing staff for excellent, engaged support. In his introductory essay Stillman discusses the deep roots of Jews in the Islamic world, the diminishment of the population since the mid-20th century, academic neglect, and the need for this encyclopedia devoted to the "history, languages, literatures, and culture of the Jews from this region and to their contemporary diasporas." This compendium of some 2,100 articles (about half are biographical) spans from the seventh century to 2010; more than half are entries not found in the Encyclopaedia Judaica or other reference works. Length ranges from 300-word basic entries to 13,000-word survey essays offering extensive treatment of music, for example, and, another example, clothing, jewelry, and make-up through the ages, among other topics. Each entry includes a bibliography. Entries are alphabetically arranged in four volumes, while the fifth volume contains internet resources, a listing of Jewish journals in the Islamic world, maps, biographies of the contributors, and the index. Each volume begins with a set of transcription charts for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)