The first edition of the 'Encyclopaedia of Islam' was completed in Leiden, Netherlands, published by Brill under the auspices of the International Union of Academies. This monumental academic project was the first comprehensive Western encyclopedia dedicated strictly to the geography, ethnography, history, biography, and culture of Islamic civilizations. It brought together leading European orientalists to compile a rigorous, cross-disciplinary archive of the Muslim world.

By providing Western scholars and writers with systematic translations and historical analyses of classical Arabic, Persian, and Turkish poetic traditions, this work deeply enriched global literary scholarship. It enabled Western modernists to engage with the complex formal structures of Sufi poetry and Islamic verse forms.