Since the rise of Orientalism in the West, numerous works have been produced in Western languages based on world

views and methodologies derived from the rationalism and secularism of the Enlightenment, the historicism of the 19th century and the philological and semantic theories derived from various schools of 20th century Western philosophy. What unites nearly all these studies in the West, despite diversity of approaches, is the exclusion of the very category of the Sacred from the Quran seen as an object of scholarly study. It is therefore time for a major encyclopedic work on the Quran to be composed by Muslim themselves on the basis of the Islamic view of the Quran as the Sacred Word of God but written in English and making use of traditional as well as contemporary scholarly methods. Once completed, The Integrated Encyclopedia of the Quran cannot but be of great significance not only for Muslims living in English speaking countries, but also for non-Muslims who wish to understand how Muslims themselves regard their Sacred Scripture and its teachings. Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr University Professor of Islamic Studies The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA