James Douglas Pearson (December 1911 – August 1, 1997) was a British librarian and bibliographer in the field of Islamic studies[1][2] who founded the Index Islamicus.

He grew an interest in exotic languages and was awarded a scholarship for Hebrew at St John's College.

In 1982, he retired from editorship, and handed responsibility of the Index Islamicus to Cambridge University.

Professor James Pearson was involved in the beginning of a European dimension to this activity in 1979, resulting in the formation of MELCOM International.

With massive teams of helpers at SOAS, he created a catalogue of 25000 articles in the field of Islamic studies.