Charting Islamic History Research (2000–2025): Growth Trajectories and Citation Networks

Abstract

In this paper, the intellectual structure, cooperation patterns among scholars, and theme evolution in Islamic history literature from the year 2000 to 2025 is analyzed using bibliometric and science mapping approaches. In the study, bibliographic information is examined by means of bibliometric techniques in VOSviewer software to assess influential publications, cooperation networks among authors and institutions, international research collaboration, co-occurrence of keywords, theme evolution, and research density. The results show that the field is characterized by an interdisciplinary research environment covering historical, religious, cultural, political, and socioeconomic aspects. Citation analysis has highlighted influential publications on issues such as cross-cultural knowledge transfer, Islamic political movements, religious traditions, and cultural heritage. Analysis of cooperation networks has shown the concentration of scholarly cooperation with the central role played by Malaysia and Indonesia in the identified international cooperation network. Analysis of co-occurrence of keywords has highlighted the central role played by Islam and religion with respect to various research themes, such as globalization, cultural heritage, environmentalism, philanthropy, and design history. From a temporal overlay perspective, there appears to be diversification of the themes being explored, where previous literature had a link to globalization and cultural heritage, whereas recent publications have focused on regional, social, and material-cultural aspects. The keyword density approach also provides evidence of thematic concentrations and specialized research directions. Nonetheless, the use of literature that is outside the traditional historiography of Islam raises the need for defining disciplinary boundaries and standardization of bibliographic information.