Islamic Civilization has a long temporal history beginning in the seventh century and continuing in the present as well as an extensive geographical reach.

Islamic History: A Very Short Introduction, by Adam J. Silverstein in the Very Short Introductions database gives a compact overview of the origins and expansion of Islamic culture.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, edited by John L. Esposito, in six volumes, provides basic information about people, places, concepts, and events in the history of Islam. Entries include short bibliographies and are signed by the authors. This encyclopedia is part of Oxford Islamic Studies Online, which provides a common access point to a collection of Oxford reference resources.The site includes a section focused on Qur'anic Studies and a collection of primary source documents of all sorts--letters, constitutions, poems, essays, political manifestos-- from the tenth century to the twenty-first in English translation..

Oxford Bibliographies Online Islamic Studies is a somewhat different reference tool. New entries are added on an ongoing basis.The default display is the alphabetical list of entries. To see a list of current entries, click on More About This Subject. At the bottom of the page there is a list of articles and contributors. Each article provides an overview of the topic and a review of how it has been treated by key scholars.

For the hardy, the six volumes of the New Cambridge History of Islam (2000), in Cambridge Histories Online, Religious Studies , provide detailed discussions of Islamic history worldwide from the sixth century to the end of the twentieth. 

Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures Online is an interdisciplinary project to cover the experience of women in Islamic cultures worldwide. Also print, Main Reference Collection HQ1170 .E53 2003, 6 vols.

Print reference books on Islam and Islamic civilization are shelved in Alcove 2 of the Reference Collection, call number range BP40-BP166 and Alcove 3, range DS35.53-DS80 including Philip Mattar, ed.,  Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa, 2nd edition, 4 vols., DS43 .E53 2004, and Josef W. Meri, ed., Medieval Islamic Civilization, 2 vols., DS36.85 .M434 2006.

In Oxford Reference, under Reference Type--English Dictionary, see the New Oxford American Dictionary, 3rd edition, and the Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd edition.

Also useful for writing papers and on the same page, the Oxford PaperbackThesaurus and the Pocket Oxford American Thesaurus. A thesaurus provide synonyms for English language words that are helpful to avoid overusing the same word.

For the sound of Arabic, http://majalla.org/souaiaia/ethics/dictionary/