Qur’anic search tool based on ontology of concepts

The Holy Quran is the most important resource for the Islamic sciences and Arabic Language (Iqbal et al., 2013). Additionally, this holy book contains knowledge on diverse topics such as life and history of humanity, and scientific knowledge (Alrehaili and Atwell, 2014). As a consequence, many Qur’anic search applications have been built to facilitate the retrieval of knowledge from the Quran. Examples of these web applications are Qurany (Abbas, 2009), Quran Explorer (Explorer, 2005), Tanzil (Zarrabi-Zadeh, 2007), and Qur’anic Arabic corpus (Dukes, 2013). The techniques used to retrieve information from Qur’an can be classified as semantic-based and text-based. The existing semantic search techniques are: ontology-based (concepts) (Yauri et al., 2013), Synonyms-set (Shoaib et al., 2009), and Cross Language Information retrieval (CLIR) (Yunus et al., 2010). On the other hand, text-based techniques are Keyword matching, and Morphological-based (Al Gharaibeh et al., 2011). The majority of Qur’anic search tools employ a keyword search technique while minority of tools use a semantic technique. There are several deficiencies with the verses (Aya’at) retrieved for a query using existing search tools. These problems are: some irrelevant verses are retrieved, some relevant verses are not retrieved, or the sequence of retrieved verses is not in the right order (Shoaib et al., 2009) . The significant reasons for unsatisfactory searching results are: absence of an accurate and comprehensive resource for Islamic ontology (Alrehaili and Atwell, 2014), and neglecting some theories of information retrieval . This project aims to construct a useful Qur’anic search tool by employing both text-based techniques, and semantic search techniques. The research will answer two questions: Is it possible to implement a useful search tool based on Qur’anic ontology, and Qur’anic datasets? And How to assess the efficiency and accuracy of an existing Qur’anic ontology? Furthermore, the main project objectives are to understand the problem by evaluating existing Qur’anic semantic search, assess the current Islamic ontologies and find out how these ontologies can be developed, and find the latest search techniques to employ in a Qur’anic search engine.