About the Author

Born in 1944, Cyril Glasse, author of The New Encyclopedia of Islam, is an American citizen of mainly Russian descent. He is currently an international lecturer on comparative religion, and is preparing a timeline of Islamic history (alongside other works). He has recently lectured at the University of Saratov, Russia; the Oriental Institutes in St Petersburg and Moscow; at the Grand Mosque, Tashkent; the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore; the University of Calabria, Italy; the Open Center and Cooper Union in New York; and at Lund Sweden. He is the author of The Berlitz Guide to Saudi Arabia, editor of A Pilgrim's Guide to Mecca for the Hajj Research Center of King Abd al-'Aziz University in Jeddah. His graduate degree in Islamic Studies from Columbia College in 1991 had been preceded 15 years earlier with a degree, also from Columbia, in Russian. As a young man, Cyril Glasse worked in Morocco as a volunteer on a United Nations development project. It was in Ouzzanne, the religious center in the foothills of the Rif mountains in Morocco, and site of age-old Arabo-Islamic institutions, that Glasse converted to Islam. In the late 1960s, he studies there with traditional teachers, and faqihs. At the same period of early life he conversed or studied with the heads of various important mosques and centers of pilgrimmage, including Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, the Imam of the Qarawiyyin, Sidi Boush'arah (one of the last surviving representatives of the Shaykh Tayyib Darqawi), Sidi Ahmad al-'Alawi (of Algeria), and various other 'ulama (scholars of theology). His acquaintanceship and region of studies included association with wandering dervishes and Sufis of various orders. In parallel, he studied the full range of Western academic authorities on Islam (and the other major religions), in the five langauges of which he has a fluent command. From this period Glasse has continued to travel extensively throughout the Islamic world, attending spiritual centers in Maurentia, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey

Reviews

One can wonder whether in all the human sciences there is greater need for a reference work than for this one....It is more than just a new reference work on Islam that is up-to-date and has been kept within manageable compass; in the long run it can help its users to see the phenomenon of Islam in a new light--Huston Smith, from the introduction

This reference work is highly recommended for all types and sizes of libraries. There are simply no other sources of comparable quality, especially in one volume and at a reasonable price. Curiosity about the Islamic faith is at an all-time high in the Western world, and any library staff wanting a good source for answering questions in a balanced and fair manner should have the New Encyclopedia of Islam close at hand. It comes very highly recommended for all libraries.--Mark T. Bay "CHOICE, June 2002 "

"The first major reference work about Islam to be written by a Muslim for a Western audience....A successful explanation of what Islam means to its believers as well as an outline of historical data."

"This grand, beautifully illustrated book is a feast of fact and insight about this ancient religion of 800 million believers."

Uundoubtedly a painstaking feat of gigantic proportions."