Mapping Thematic Diversification in Islamic Thought Studies: A Bibliometric and Abstract-Based Review of Scopus-Indexed Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37680/ssa.10962Keywords:
study of Islamic thought, thematic diversification, thematic shifts, bibliometric review, abstract-based thematic screeningAbstract
Islamic thought encompasses kalām, fiqh, philosophy, taṣawwuf, tafsīr, the authority of ʿulamā, reformism, modernism, and Muslim responses to modernity. Because this literature spans multiple disciplines, mapping is needed to show how Islamic thought studies are represented in academic publications. This article maps thematic shifts in English-language journal articles indexed by Scopus from 1974 to 2026. It combines bibliometric analysis with abstract-based thematic screening. The retrieved corpus comprises 465 articles used to analyze publication trends, source titles, countries of author affiliation, citations, and author-keyword co-occurrence using VOSviewer. Of these, 272 articles constitute the core thematic corpus used for thematic synthesis. Publications increased substantially in 2020–2026, accounting for 269 articles (57.8% of the retrieved corpus). T5 (state, politics, democracy, and secularism) is the largest theme in both corpora, while the core thematic corpus also substantially represents reformism, education, classical domains, Islamic law, taṣawwuf, and religious authority. The findings indicate that thematic change in Scopus-indexed literature is better understood as diversification than as a linear transition from classical to modern themes. By distinguishing bibliometric visibility from substantive thematic relevance, this article maps how Islamic thought studies are represented in English-language Scopus-indexed literature.
References
Ahmed, A. Q., & Larkin, M. (2013). The Ḥāshiya and Islamic Intellectual History. Oriens, 41(3–4), 213–216. https://doi.org/10.1163/18778372-13413401
Bano, M. (2014). Madrasa Reforms and Islamic Modernism in Bangladesh. Modern Asian Studies, 48(4), 911–939. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X12000790
Barton, G. (2014). The Gülen Movement, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama: Progressive Islamic Thought, Religious Philanthropy and Civil Society in Turkey and Indonesia. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 25(3), 287–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2014.916124
Brophy, D. (2016). New Methods on the New Frontier: Islamic Reformism in Xinjiang, 1898-1917. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 59(1–2), 303–332. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341400
Campanini, M. (2012). The Mu‘tazila in Islamic History and Thought. Religion Compass, 6(1), 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00273.x
Danial, Usman, M., & Dewi, N. S. (2022). The Contestation of Islamic Legal Thought: Dayah’s Jurists and PTKIN’s Jurists in Responding to Global Issues. Ijtihad: Jurnal Wacana Hukum Islam Dan Kemanusiaan, 22(1), 19–36. https://doi.org/10.18326/ijtihad.v22i1.19-35
Donthu, N., Kumar, S., Mukherjee, D., Pandey, N., & Lim, W. M. (2021). How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 133, 285–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070
Dorroll, P. (2014). “The Turkish understanding of religion”: Rethinking tradition and modernity in contemporary Turkish Islamic thought. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 82(4), 1033–1069. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfu061
Duarte, S. (2016). Contribution to a typology of the reformisms of Islam: The distinguishing criteria of the “Islamic Reformism.” Arabica, 63(3–4), 294–323. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341396
Duderija, A. (2009). A Paradigm Shift in Assessing /Evaluating the Value and Significance of Hadīth in Islamic Thought: From ’ulūmu-l-isnād/rijāl to ’usūlu-l-fiqh. Arab Law Quarterly, 23(2), 195–206. https://doi.org/10.1163/157302509X415666
Epkenhans, T. (2011). Defining normative Islam: Some remarks on contemporary Islamic thought in Tajikistan - Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda’s Sharia and society. Central Asian Survey, 30(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2011.554056
Fauzi, M. L., Mustofa, I., Maliki, I. A., & Husaini, F. (2026). The Digital Minbar: Repositioning Religious Authority and the Dynamics of Islamic Law in Contemporary Egypt’s Virtual Landscape. MILRev: Metro Islamic Law Review, 5(1), 178–209. https://doi.org/10.32332/milrev.v5i1.11109
Feener, R. M. (2014). Muslim Religious Authority in Modern Asia. Asian Journal of Social Science, 42(5), 501–516. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685314-04205002
Gadelrab, S. S. (2011). Discourses on Sex Differences in Medieval Scholarly Islamic Thought. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 66(1), 40–81. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrq012
Garipova, R. (2022). Divorce from Missing Husbands: Rizaeddin Fakhreddin and Reform Within Islamic Tradition in Imperial Russia. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 65(5–6), 761–801. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341582
Hasyim, S. (2020). Fatwas and Democracy: Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI, Indonesian Ulema Council) and Rising Conservatism in Indonesian Islam. TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 8(1), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2019.13
Hefner, C.-M. (2016). Models of Achievement: Muslim Girls and Religious Authority in a Modernist Islamic Boarding School in Indonesia. Asian Studies Review, 40(4), 564–582. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2016.1229266
Ibrahim, A. (2012). Contemporary Islamic thought: A critical perspective. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 23(3), 279–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2012.676781
Jouili, J. S., & Amir-Moazami, S. (2006). Knowledge, Empowerment and Religious Authority Among Pious Muslim Women in France and Germany. Muslim World, 96(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-1913.2006.00150.x
Kaptein, N. J. G. (2004). The voice of the “Ulamā”: Fatwas and religious authority in Indonesia. Archives de Sciences Sociales Des Religions, 125, 115–130. https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.1038
Menchik, J. (2014). The Co-Evolution of Sacred and Secular: Islamic Law and Family Planning in Indonesia. South East Asia Research, 22(3), 359–378. https://doi.org/10.5367/sear.2014.0220
Mir-Hosseini, Z. (2003). The Construction of Gender in Islamic Legal Thought and Strategies for Reform. Hawwa, 1(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1163/156920803100420252
Othman, N. (2006). Muslim women and the challenge of Islamic fundamentalism/extremism: An overview of Southeast Asian Muslim women’s struggle for human rights and gender equality. Women’s Studies International Forum, 29(4), 339–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2006.05.008
Peter, F. (2006). Individualization and Religious Authority in Western European Islam. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 17(1), 105–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410500400165
Robinson, F. (2008). Islamic Reform and Modernities in South Asia. Modern Asian Studies, 42(2–3), 259–281. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X07002922
Saif, L. (2017). From Ġāyat al-ḥakīm to Šams al-maʿārif: Ways of Knowing and Paths of Power in Medieval Islam. Arabica, 64(3–4), 297–345. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341459
Solahudin, D., & Fakhruroji, M. (2020). Internet and Islamic Learning Practices in Indonesia: Social Media, Religious Populism, and Religious Authority. Religions, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11010019
Stanton, A. L. (2018). Islamic emoticons and religious authority: emerging practices, shifting paradigms. Contemporary Islam, 12(2), 153–171. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-017-0412-8
Stivens, M. (2006). ‘Family values’ and Islamic revival: Gender, rights and state moral projects in Malaysia. Women’s Studies International Forum, 29(4), 354–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2006.05.007
Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84, 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3
Van Lit, L. W. C. (2017). Commentary and Commentary Tradition: The Basic Terms for Understanding Islamic Intellectual History. MIDEO - Mélanges de l’Institut Dominicain Des Études Orientales Du Caire, 32, 3–26.
Wahid, S. H., & Abdulloh, S. (2026). Digital Islamic authority: a revolutionary shift or mere hype? a systematic review. SN Social Sciences, 6(2), 62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-026-01328-5
Warren, D. H., & Gilmore, C. (2014). One nation under God? Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s changing Fiqh of citizenship in the light of the Islamic legal tradition. Contemporary Islam, 8(3), 217–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-013-0277-4
Wisnovsky, R. (2004). The nature and scope of Arabic philosophical commentary in post-classical (ca. 1100-1900 AD) Islamic intellectual history: Some preliminary observations. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 47(Supplement_83_Part_2), 149–191. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2004.tb02314.x
Zaid, B., Fedtke, J., Shin, D. D., El Kadoussi, A., & Ibahrine, M. (2022). Digital Islam and Muslim Millennials: How Social Media Influencers Reimagine Religious Authority and Islamic Practices. Religions, 13(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13040335
Zaman, M. Q. (2006). Consensus and Religious Authority in Modern Islam: The Discourses of the “Ulamā.” In G. Krämer & S. Schmidtke (Eds.), Speaking for Islam (pp. 153–180). The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004149496.i-310.49
Zeghal, M. (1999). Religion and Politics in Egypt: The Ulema of Al-Azhar, Radical Islam, and the State (1952–94). International Journal of Middle East Studies, 31(3), 371–399. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800055483
Zupic, I., & Čater, T. (2015). Bibliometric Methods in Management and Organization. Organizational Research Methods, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114562629
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 M. Syafik Abdillah, Labib Ahma, Muhammad Amruddin Latif, Choirul Anam
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
