Urdu Encyclopaedia of Islam

The Urdu Encyclopaedia of Islam is an encyclopaedia published by the University of the Punjab.

The encyclopaedia began in the 1950s as a translation of the Leiden University Encyclopaedia of Islam into Urdu. The editor in chief was Professor Dr. Muhammad Shafi. The editorial board worked on translating the Leiden Encyclopaedia into Urdu, amending, correcting, and adding to the Leiden text themselves.

The original plan for publication, as laid out by Shafi and others, was for the Encyclopaedia (which was to be entitled Urdu Da’ira Ma’arif-i-Islamiya) to span between 20 and 22 volumes, with roughly a hundred illustrations per volume, published at a rate of four volumes per year.

At the time of Shafi's death in 1963, one volume of the encyclopaedia had been published (in February 1954), and a second volume was in press.

Because of Shafi's death, and lack of funding, work on the Encyclopaedia stalled until 1971, when a grant from the Asia Foundation enabled it to resume. Volumes 10 and 12 were completed by 1973.

By 1985, 21 out of a planned 25 volumes had been published.