Religious Studies

Online archive of sacred texts from many of the world's religions. Scroll down the left side and click on a tradition.

Listen to the Quran Recitation and Translation online in Arabic, English, and Urdu.

Tufts University's digital library project, containing materials related to: Greece & Rome, Renaissance, 19th century America and more. Access to Greek and Latin lexica.

This site has thousands of full-text articles on Religious Studies, but its focuses are Christianity and sociology.

A peer-reviewed academic journal that covers all aspects of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

Large collection of citations for resources Islamic history

(In Arabic) The al-Meshkat website is an Islamic portal with an important collection of electronic copies of Islamic books in Arabic, including many classical texts in the traditional Islamic branches of learning.

Arab prophet and religious leader who founded Islam. He was born in Mecca. At the age of 25 he began working as a trading agent for Khadijah, a wealthy widow of 40, whom he married.

City in Saudi Arabia and, as birthplace of Muhammad, the holiest city of the Islamic world and a place of annual pilgrimage (the hajj); population (2004) 1,294,200.

Building for worship used by members of the Islamic faith. Muhammad's house in Medina (A.D. 622), with its surrounding courtyard and hall with columns, became the prototype for the mosque where the faithful gathered for prayer.

Saudi Arabian city, about 355 km/220 mi north of Mecca; population (2004) 918,900. It is the second holiest city in the Islamic world after Mecca, and contains the tomb of Muhammad, a focus for Muslim pilgrims during the hajj (annual pilgrimage).

The Qur'an is the Holy Book of Islam. Muslims treasure the text in its original Arabic as the literal word of God, the last of God's books revealed to humanity, transmitted by the Prophet Muhammad.

The pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, one of the five basic requirements (arkan or "pillars" ) of Islam. Its annual observance corresponds to the major holy day id al-adha, itself a commemoration of Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on Divine orders.

An umbrella term for the ascetic and mystical movements within Islam. While Sufism is said to have incorporated elements of Christian monasticism, gnosticism, and Indian mysticism, its origins are traced to forms of devotion and groups of penitents (zuhhad) in the formative period of Islam.

Member of the larger of the two main sects of Islam, with about 680 million adherents. Sunni Muslims believe that the caliph Abu Bakr, adviser to the prophet Muhammad, was his true successor.

Member of a sect of Islam that believes that Ali, a cousin of the prophet Muhammad, was his first true successor.