(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The unveiling ceremony of the books derived from the encyclopedia, which were rendered into English, was held Tuesday evening, Feb.7, in the foundation.
During the ceremony, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel said:" The Encyclopedia Islamica Foundation was established in Tehran in 1983 by the Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. The foundation is a result of the Islamic Revolution which has released 16 volumes of encyclopedias. So far four of the volumes have been translated into Arabic and marketed as well."
The center has turned into one of the credible centers for encyclopedia writing in the field of the world of Islam, he added.
He added: "Encyclopedia of the World of Islam" isn’t an ordinary book; it is the mother of all books since it is the source of many works. Two volumes of the encyclopedia are released annually through which 50 precious books can be derived; in fact the volumes are the work's abstracts, which means that the encyclopedia is a key source for creating other books."
Moreover he added that the encyclopedia's works couldn't be translated into English concurrently and since we began translating the encyclopedia into Arabic a question popped out that why the work isn’t being rendered into English at the same time. The matter is due to the alphabetical order of English and Persian thus the work will be completely rendered into English following its complete compilation. However the foundation decided to translate the lengthy articles, released as books, into English.
He went on to say that some four years were spent for translating a part of the encyclopedia. Talking about the translation's necessity he added:" Nowadays the world is thirsty for Islamic instructions. History has unveiled that the people around the world are moving towards ethics and spiritualities which indeed motivated us to translate some of the works into English."
10 books were translated in the first step which will hopefully increase in the future, Hadad Adel said.
He underlined that Shiite instructions should be translated into European languages.
The Encyclopedia of the World of Islam deals with the teachings of Islam and the civilization and culture of the Muslim nations from the advent of Islam till date.
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