The journal publishes original research on Islamic history, intellectual and textual traditions, manuscript heritage, institutions, material culture, and the historical formation of Muslim societies. Submissions must present a defined research problem, identifiable evidence, a transparent method, and an original contribution. Islamic terminology, Muslim participants, or a Muslim-majority research location do not automatically establish relevance. The manuscript’s principal question and analysis must fall within at least one area below.

Scope

1. 01
   Islamic History and HistoriographyThe formation and transformation of Muslim societies; Islamization; religious change; political, social, cultural, institutional, colonial, and postcolonial history; historiography, archives, memory, biography, and historical networks.
2. 02
   Islamic Intellectual and Textual TraditionsQur’anic exegesis, Hadith, theology, philosophy, ethics, Sufism, Islamic legal thought, juristic traditions, intellectual genealogies, scholarly debates, and reception history.
3. 03
   Manuscript, Philology, and Knowledge TransmissionManuscripts, codicology, paleography, philology, textual criticism, critical editions, translation, commentary, scholarly networks, libraries, archives, printing, and publishing.
4. 04
   Islamic Heritage, Institutions, and Material CultureMosques, madrasas, pesantren, courts, waqf, libraries, education as knowledge transmission, architecture, epigraphy, artefacts, ritual, collective memory, preservation, and contested heritage.

The journal covers formative to contemporary periods without exclusive geographic limitation, with priority given to Malay-Nusantara and Southeast Asian Islam. Comparative, transregional, and interdisciplinary studies are accepted within the four areas when their research question, evidence, and method are clearly defined. Contemporary studies must place historical development, textual reception, institutional transformation, or Islamic heritage at the centre of analysis.

Editorial Requirements

A manuscript must define its research problem and object, identify the sources or evidence used, explain the analytical method, engage relevant scholarship, and state what it adds, corrects, or reinterprets. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements may be declined without external review.

Out of Scope

• Normative or advocacy writing: sermons, apologetics, polemics, doctrinal advocacy, or unsupported religious argument.
• Descriptive work without scholarly intervention: summaries, profiles, inventories, translations, or reports without source criticism and original analysis.
• Applied contemporary research outside the journal’s core: studies without a central historical, textual, institutional, or Islamic-heritage question.
• Methodologically insufficient research: manuscripts without a defined object, identifiable evidence, transparent method, or supported original contribution.