As part of the series of Indexes to The Encyclopaedia of Islam which serve to make this enormous body of information easily accessible, the Glossary and Index of Terms treats the technical terms in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu and other languages or dialects of the Islamic world. As an index, it is of immeasurable importance, in particular for the many terms which are not given an entry but are discussed in the course of an article; and as glossary it is an invaluable source of information for both non-specialist, who is given an insight into the varied and rich vocabulary of Islam, and the specialist, who may discover surprising new contexts in which a term is used.