Mapping the Research Landscape of Islamic Theology: A Bibliometric Analysis Using Web of Science (WOS)

Abstract

This paper embarks on systematically exploring the research landscape in Islamic theology. The objective is to discern the primary themes under investigation, identify key contributors, and trace the field's evolution over time. This study employs bibliometric analysis, a method that applies quantitative evaluation to peer-reviewed articles from a variety of Islamic theology-related publications. The dataset utilized in this investigation comprised 185 scholarly articles, collectively authored by a diverse group of 245 individuals from the Web of Science (WOS) database. Within this pool of contributors, a small subset of five authors emerged as particularly proli fic, each contributing three publications, which collectively account for approximately 1.62% of the total document corpus. The analysis reveals that the four most prolific authors are associated with institutions housed within the University Putra Malaysia. The United States emerges as the frontrunner, making a substantial contribution of 29 articles, accounting for 15.67% of the overall publications. The outcomes of the co-occurrence network analysis delineate five principal clusters. Interestingly, Cluster 5 by the names "Fakhr al-Din al-Razi" or "Avicenna," both prominent figures in Islamic philosophy and theology, appears to be isolated from the other four clusters, indicating a lack of connection between the nodes in this cluster and those in the rest of the network. By pointing out areas that require further exploration and highlighting important existing works, this research aims to steer the direction of future research in Islamic theology.