Focus and Scope

Ijtihad Journal is concerned with Islamic and Arabic studies in Europe and the West, whether by approaching various religious, jurisprudential, cultural, educational, social, political and historical issues of Islam and Muslims, or by dealing with different traditional and contemporary Orientalist studies and research on Islam through review, criticism and evaluation. The objectives of the Journal are as follows:

• Dealing with the various theological, jurisprudential, ethical, philosophical, social, linguistic and historical issues of Islam with an objective critical methodology starting from within the Islamic reference while benefiting from external Western research achievements, especially methodology, technology and linguistics.
• Studying the divers traditional and contemporary Orientalist studies on Islam for the purpose of objective review to correct deviant ones and benefit from their scientific and qualitative results.
• Enriching the field of Arabic and Islamic studies in Europe and the West with a different approach that focuses on the internal Islamic perspective and takes the Western intellectual and realistic context into account.
• Restoring the objective contribution of Orientalism by dedicating independent studies to Orientalist scholars, thinkers, figures, and schools that made Islam their subject.
• Documenting the results of Arabic and Islamic studies in Europe and the West by introducing various Muslim and non-Muslim researchers, research centers, academic institutions, and universities.
• Reviewing literature and studies that focused on various religious, historical, intellectual and linguistic topics of Islam, including books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and seminars.
• Launching an introductory and documentary bibliography of the most important works written in the field of Arabic and Islamic studies, in the past and the present, in Europe and the West.
• Translating the most important Western articles and studies that dealt with Islam into the Arabic language, and in return translating the most important Arabic works about Islam in the West into some European languages.
• Enabling young researchers to publish their studies and the findings of their university theses in the form of articles, chapters or summaries.
• Organizing international scientific seminars, lectures, and methodological and pedagogical trainings, whether by the Ijtihad Center for Studies and Training or in cooperation with research centers and academic institutions in Europe, the West, and the Arabic and Islamic world.
• Issuing individual or parallel joint studies by the journal or within the framework of the “Studies of Islam in the West” project.