The Amalgamated A-Z - Notes and Help

Compiled generally from the existing A-Z sections already existing in the various available Works, but remodeled and with new entries added.

One may argue that a search engine is just as good, if not better - an A-Z is a search engine, the original search engine. It may be argued that better results are obtained using a “conventional” search engine - in this one’s personal opinion, this only depends on how well detailed, refined and structured the A-Z is - sadly, almost every current A-Z fails in this regard, and so the argument stands confirmed. If, however, an A-Z is sufficiently comprehensive, properly refined and suitably well-structured, then it becomes a very strong means of searching for information.

It is one of the goals of this project to establish this strength incontrovertably, and to demonstrate that an A-Z can be on a par with other search engines, albeit such may not be obvious with this quite early beginning.

Note that what is here so far is still a development version. Please do not expect it to be complete, as work on including individual volumes is still underway - a note of which volume is under current consideration is in the heading notes on the previous page, while a list of volumes already included is beneath the alpha-index on that same page. Please expect to find “issues” (though as development proceeds these are expected to reduce). Please, be patient.

Having said all that, what is already included is quite functional and usable. Yes, it may take a year or two (or more) yet to be “completed” (whatever “completed” is), but still....

Feedback is always very, very welcome - send it to romane )the symbol here for at( miscellanie )with then a dot here( com. I will consider every suggestion, but for quite obvious reasons, cannot promise that every suggestion will be implemented.

A dual alphabetic index is at the head of every page, plus other navigation buttons for forward a page, back a page and to the top of the A-Z, at top and bottom of each page.

Of the dual alphabetic rows, the top row of upper-case characters navigates to the first letter of a word. The second lower-case row navigates within that first character to the second letter of a word. Then, as a general rule the entries on each page are sorted one more time by the third letter of the word, with ‘a-m’ in the left column and ‘l-z’ in the right column (excepting in one or two rare instances). From there, sorting is standard alpha-numeric.

Select the first character from the top row, then select the second character from the second row, then look in the column determined by the third character.

So, for example, if references to ‘character’ are sought, select first ‘C’ in the top row, then select ‘h’ in the second row. As the third letter of the word ‘character’ is in the range ‘a-m’, the word ‘character’ will be located in alpha-numeric order within the left column of that page.

Alternatively, use the ‘Summary’ page for all the primary A-Z entries. A link to this ‘Summary’ page is immediately above and to the right of, the dual alphabetic index on every page.

Only on the ‘Top’ page is the alphabetic index with just one single row for the opening character of an entry. Having the second row here is pointless.

This A-Z is self-contained. All references to page and paragraph numbers (displayed in blue) are direct links to/will open at the relevant page or paragraph when selected. Other link-text coloured green are cross-references within the A-Z.

The ‘Back’ button is your friend.

Structure Entries are either Primary entries or secondary entries. Where references to the same subject-matter could possibly be located in more than one location, only one is the Primary entry, and all other similar entries will be a pointer (i.e. a link) to that Primary entry. The purpose is that all references to a subject be found in one place, and not scattered as occurs in current A-Zs, often one or more missing relevant references from one to the other.

For examples sake, in existing A-Zs, references to ‘Word of God’ could be found under both ‘Word → of God’ and ‘God → word of’, often with discrepancies between the two. In this A-Z, if ‘Word → of God’ becomes the Primary entry, then ‘God → word of’ becomes a link to this Primary entry.

It should be noted that a secondary reference may at the same time be a primary reference to subsidiary subject matter. Likewise, a secondary entry may also become a primary entry from elsewhere in the A-Z where that other entry carries references subsidiary to that secondary reference.

Source for every reference is given as an acronym at the start of each line of references. If unsure of which volume the acronym refers to, holding the mouse cursor over the acronym will display the name of the volume.

Completeness In constructing this Amalgamated A-Z, it became clear that only a part of the information available has been indexed, and that there are many inconsistencies across existing A-Zs. Indeed, there are a number of volumes for which there is no existing A-Z. Priority is in first compiling that which is already available, albeit creating new entries as they are incidently uncovered, to return when these are completed to the currently un-indexed volumes to create indices.

Later, should time allow, every volume will be re-indexed from scratch, in far greater and more refined detail.

To ascertain which volumes have so far been included, a listing is beneath the alpha-index on the ‘Top’ page

Future One could legitimately say hopes and dreams. Once the Works of The Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá available in English have all been included in this A-Z, work will begin on including the Holy Books of other Dispensations in a similar manner, both as Text and as an accompanying (included) A-Z.

The reason for the inclusion of these other Holy Texts is to demonstrate the spiritual validity of each, and the similarities in their Teachings, while still recognising the social differences that are due to the needs of the time each was Revealed.