"The closest parallel is the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In brief, this is one of the great scholarly surveys of learning produced in the 20th century...simply essential for any kind of cross-cultural educational pursuit…" - Guy Gran, in: World Development, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1989)
"Un monument en voie d'achèvement...Elle constitue surtout... une oeuvre de référence, unique pour tout ce qui concerne la théologie, le droit, l'ethnographie, la littérature, les arts, la civilisation islamique, des origines jusqu'au début du vingtième siècle…" - Éric Rouleau, in: Le Monde
"...probablement la plus fameuse des oeuvres collectives orientalistes…" - Kh. Samir, S.J., in: Orientalia Christiana Periodica
"Es ist das internationale Standardwerk für alle Bereiche 'des Islams'" - Martin Greskowiak, in: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung (1990)
"...aucun ne pourra contester la qualité exceptionelle de la plupart de ces études, l'étendue de l'information, sous une forme relativement condensée, et se féliciter de l'heureuse idée qu'a eue la rédaction de l'Encyclopédie de l'Islam, de mettre à la portée de tous, et non pas des seuls islamisants, un travail de cette valeur…" - Y. Linant de Bellefonds in: Revue Internationale de Droit Comparé
"...so useful, so authoritative, and so essential to anyone with a serious interest in Islam and Islamic civilization in the broadest sense...Amidst the storm of controversy raging over the reefs and shoals of Orientalism, this monumental vessel sails serenely on, under a flag of truce, as it were, exempt from attack..." - Donald P. Little, in: Religious Studies Review
"...one of the major scholarly enterprises of our time." - Alexis G.C. Savvides, in: Journal Orient. & Afr. St. (1993)
"...belongs in all academic libraries where courses on the Islamic world are taught, and in all major public libraries." - David L. White, in: ARBA (1994)
"...no large library should be without it…" - Mohammad Shoeb Nomani, librarian of the King Fahd University, Dhahran, in: Arab News (1988)
"The one indispensable tool for research on the peoples and cultures of Islam. The Encyclopaedia of Islam is not only a comprehensive digest of the best existing scholarship, but often points the way for new lines of inquiry." - R. Stephen Humphreys, University of California-Santa Barbara
"After a long history of distinguished scholarship, the Encyclopaedia of Islam has become a true and venerable institution of Islamic studies." - Wadad Kadi, University of Chicago
"...the central archive of the international Orientalist tradition, a massive declaration of the state of the art, a cornucopia overflowing with the fruits of the last few and next few generations' scholarly minds, a record of the best part of a century of Orientalist scholarship. The Encyclopaedia of Islam will still be a basic tool of our trade in the 2030s, and even most probably a century later in the 2130s." - Adrian Brockett, in: Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (1989)
"An indispensable reference tool for ancient, medieval and modern Islamic Studies." - David Hirsch, Middle East Bibliographer, UCLA
"The one indispensable tool for research on the peoples and cultures of Islam. The Encyclopaedia of Islam is not only a comprehensive digest of the best existing scholarship, but often points the way for new lines of inquiry." - R. Stephen Humphreys, University of California, Santa Barbara
"After a long history of distinguished scholarship, The Encyclopaedia of Islam has become a true and venerable institute of Islamic studies." - Wadad Kadi, University of Chicago
