The Asia Society in New York City has struck educational and cultural gold again with their inventive and insightful look into the emergence of Islam in Southeast Asia. On the homepage, visitors are treated to a moving collage of images that feature items from their collection. After watching the images cycle through for a minute, visitors should click on the "Essays" area to get started. Each...

In 2004, the Library of Congress and the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library in Timbuktu began a project that would help digitize some of the marvelous Arabic manuscripts located in the Commemorative Library’s home in Mali. This recent online collection is part of the fruits of their collective labor, and is a good resource for those who wish to know a bit more about West African Islamic...

Founded in 1993, the Islamic Networks Group (ING) is an organization dedicated to building peace and fostering an understanding of Muslims, Islam, and other marginalized and misunderstood groups, "to promote harmony among all people." This national network of speakers and educators works to promote diversity and cultural awareness through presentations, workshops, panels, social media campaigns,...

Hosted by the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies & Civilizations at Boston University, Mizan is a "digital initiative encouraging informed public discourse and interdisciplinary scholarship on the culture and history of Muslim societies." On this website, visitors can explore three distinct aspects of the initiative. The Mizan Project features a number of detailed articles about new...

Working together with the generous support of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the Harvard University Library's Open Collections Program has digitized hundreds of Islamic manuscripts, maps, and published texts from the institution's vast holdings. All told, the project currently includes over 145,000 pages dating from the 13th to the 20th centuries CE. The documents are from many regions, including...

Law schools are known for their efforts to create online law journals, and the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion was the “first online legal journal dedicated to the study of the dynamic interaction between law and religion.” Started in 1999, the journal has published dozens of articles written by law students at Rutgers, and they have covered subjects such as the role of faith-based...

The homepage of this very recent online collection of sacred texts from the British Library doesn't mince any words, declaring this clutch of materials to be "The world's greatest collection of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim holy books." The subtitle to this remarkable collection is "Discover what we share", and that is certainly an apt phrase to describe this moving online collection, which is...

Helping understand the shared traditions among the world's major religious traditions is a tall order for a website, but this lovely online gallery from the British Library does the job quite admirably. The site was designed to complement a recent exhibition at the Library, and visitors can start by viewing an interactive slideshow of those materials. Moving on, visitors will want to make their...

As part of its developing Global Gateway (a group of various digital materials of international interest) the Library of Congress presents this collection of 355 Arabic calligraphy sheets, ranging from the 9th to the 19th centuries, that includes many examples of calligraphic art: illuminated panels, albums, and poems, as well as Qur'anic calligraphic fragments. Even those who cannot understand...

This excellent, seven-part lesson from PBS LearningMedia introduces students to the Five Pillars of Islam, the based duties that guide muslim daily life. The plan includes a pithy overview, a list of objectives, the appropriate grade level (fifth through twelfth), and the suggested time (three or four 45-minute class sessions). In addition, the site links to Media Resources, including short...