Welcome to Basic Search help. This information will help you get starting using the Digital Portal's Basic Search feature. 

Searching basics

Enter the search terms into the text box. The Basic Search will look for the term in the following fields:

A search term of at least three characters must be entered in order for the search to run.

You can narrow your search results by material type. The "Look for…" drop-down list allows you to specify:

• articles
• books
• catalogues
• libraries
• manuscripts
• theses

TIP: to view all items of a given material type within a specific collection, go to the Everything tab and use the TYPE and COLLECTION filters.

You can also narrow your search results by specific collection. The "in…" drop-down list allows you to specify:

• "Everything" (all collections)
• Manuscripts collection
• Maqasid collection
• Our Library (Al-Furqan's own holdings collection)
• Our Publications (items published by the Al-Furqan foundation)
• World Collections

In addition, searching on "Everything" will update every collection with your individual search results.

To perform a new search, simply enter the new terms in the search box and press the Search button.

To clear the results of a previous search in a specific collection, simply click the "Start over" option, located in the upper right-hand corner above the results area.

To clear all search and browse results throughout the Digital Portal, simply click the Portal-wide "Start over" option, located in the upper right-hand corner above the collection labels.

Search operators ( + - * "" )

+: search results must include this word

-: search results must NOT include this word

*: search results can match any characters in this place E.g., house* will match house, houses, household, etc

"": search results must match the words contained within the double quotation marks, exactly as they are written

Basic Search example

Finding author: ABŪ SULAYMĀN AL-MANṬIQĪ AL-SIJISTĀNĪ

For an exact search, use double quotation marks:
"Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi al-Sijistani" finds all records matching all four words, together and in order "Sulayman" finds all records matching "Sulayman"

To require a word, use the plus sign (+)
+Sulayman finds all records containing this word
+Abu +Sulayman finds all records containing both Abu and Sulayman

To exclude a word, use the minus sign (-)
-Abd +Sulayman finds all records containing Sulayman but NOT containing Abd

To match part of a word, use the asterisk sign (*)
Sulayman al-Manti* finds all records matching Sulayman and/or any word that begins with al-Manti*

Al-Furqan is proud to play a major role in connecting the public with a wealth of resources and information on Islamic written heritage by making its collections freely accessible through the Digital Library Portal. 

Choose from the options below to learn more about exploring these collections.

About

The digital library opens access to:

-Manuscript Collection

-Maqasid Collection

-Our Library

-Our Publications

-World Collections

Al-Furqan has established an online gateway that integrates the various rich collections and allows for cross-searching.

The Digital Library is continuously growing along with the dynamic nature of the Foundation and its ongoing work.

Navigating the collections

To search for an item in the Digital Library Portal, use the Basic Search box at the top. To search within a specific collection, select the collection name from the drop-down list "in..". To search over all collections, simply use the "Everything" option (default) in this list.

Visit the Basic Search Help section for more information on how to use the Basic Search box.

To browse a collection, click on the collection name and then use the "Browse By" tab provided.

Your search or browse results will remain be visible on the "Results" tab until you perform a new search or browse (or until you refresh the collection).

You can further refine your search or browse results by using additional filters, provided on the "Refine" tab.

You can sort your results by clicking on the up or down triangle next to the name of the field you want to sort by, at the top of each column.

To view an item's details, simply click on the title of the item in your results. Go back buttons provided throughout will enable you to return to the previous page you were viewing, while maintaining your settings.