A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity

By Michael A. Cook

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Publication Date: May 7, 2024

Pages: 960

ISBN: 9780691236575

A panoramic history of the Muslim world from the age of the Prophet Muḥammad to the birth of the modern era

This book describes and explains the major events, personalities, conflicts, and convergences that have shaped the history of the Muslim world. The body of the book takes readers from the origins of Islam to the eve of the nineteenth century, and an epilogue continues the story to the present day. Michael Cook thus provides a broad history of a civilization remarkable for both its unity and diversity.

After setting the scene in the Middle East of late antiquity, the book depicts the rise of Islam as one of the great black swan events of history. It continues with the spectacular rise of the Caliphate, an empire that by the time it broke up had nurtured the formation of a new civilization. It then goes on to cover the diverse histories of all the major regions of the Muslim world, providing a wide-ranging account of the key military, political, and cultural developments that accompanied the eastward and westward spread of Islam from the Middle East to the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific.

At the same time, A History of the Muslim World contains numerous primary-source quotations that expose the reader to a variety of acutely insightful voices from the Muslim past.

Table of Contents

• PART I. The emergence of the Muslim world
  The Middle East in late antiquity
  2. Muḥammad
  3. The Caliphate from the seventh to the ninth century
  4. The breakup of the Caliphate in the West
  5. The breakup of the Caliphate in the East
  6. The breakup of the Caliphate in the central Muslim world
• PART II. The Muslim world from the eleventh century to the eighteenth
  The Turks, the Mongols, and Islam in the steppes
  8. Iran and Central Asia
  9. The Turks in the western Middle East in medieval times
  10. The Ottoman Empire
  11. India
  12. The Indian Ocean
  13. Africa
  14. The Arabs
• PART III. Epilogue
  The Muslim world and the West

About the Author

Michael Cook is the Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. His books include Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective (Princeton), A Brief History of the Human Race, and The Koran: A Very Short Introduction.

Source: Princeton University Press