Efficient and Versatile Model for Multilingual Information Retrieval of Islamic Text: Development and Deployment in Real-World Scenarios

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15380v2
• Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2025 08:15:17 GMT
• Title: Efficient and Versatile Model for Multilingual Information Retrieval of Islamic Text: Development and Deployment in Real-World Scenarios
• Authors: Vera Pavlova, Mohammed Makhlouf,
• Abstract summary: We leverage the unique characteristics of the Quranic multilingual corpus to examine the optimal strategies to develop an ad-hoc IR system for the Islamic domain.<n>We prepared eleven retrieval models employing four training approaches: monolingual, cross-lingual, translate-train-all, and a novel mixed method combining cross-lingual and monolingual techniques.
• Score: 1.2891210250935148
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Despite recent advancements in Multilingual Information Retrieval (MLIR), a significant gap remains between research and practical deployment. Many studies assess MLIR performance in isolated settings, limiting their applicability to real-world scenarios. In this work, we leverage the unique characteristics of the Quranic multilingual corpus to examine the optimal strategies to develop an ad-hoc IR system for the Islamic domain that is designed to satisfy users' information needs in multiple languages. We prepared eleven retrieval models employing four training approaches: monolingual, cross-lingual, translate-train-all, and a novel mixed method combining cross-lingual and monolingual techniques. Evaluation on an in-domain dataset demonstrates that the mixed approach achieves promising results across diverse retrieval scenarios. Furthermore, we provide a detailed analysis of how different training configurations affect the embedding space and their implications for multilingual retrieval effectiveness. Finally, we discuss deployment considerations, emphasizing the cost-efficiency of deploying a single versatile, lightweight model for real-world MLIR applications.

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