Organizing knowledge : : encyclopaedic activities in the pre-eighteenth century Islamic world / / editor, Gerhard Endress.

• Superior document: Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies ; 61
• TeilnehmendeR: Endress, Gerhard, 1939-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden : : BRILL,, 2006.
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Islamic philosophy, theology, and science 61.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 pages)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Encyclopædic Activities in the Pre-Eighteenth Century Islamic World
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 128139677X; 9786611396770; 9047408349
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: editor, Gerhard Endress.

The contributions in this volume offer the first comprehensive effort to describe and analyse the collection, classification, presentation and methodology of information in the knowledge society of medieval Islam in the disciplines of religious and legal learning, as well as the rational sciences of Hellenistic origin - philosophy, mathematical and medical sciences.The volume begins with a general discussion of the concept of encyclopædia. Successive chapters explore the bases of authority in the institutions of religion and law; biographical literature and handbooks of law; compendia of scientific and philosophical learning based on Iranian and Greek sources; and the more specialised expositions of mathematics and philosophy. The special character of Muslim institutions, their teaching traditions and syllabi is also put into perspective. This is a reference work for the principal genres of 'enyclopædic' outlines and manuals - biography, legal handbooks, historiography of knowledge transmission, cosmography, and the philosophical sciences - and a major contribution to the literary and intellectual history.