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

Muslims have remained on the margins of western academia specifically in relation to their religion for far too long and the level of Muslim participation in academic works and debates remains sadly low. Al Balagh seeks to enable Muslims to engage more effectively with contemporary academic literature works and debates and play a greater role in influencing them.

Al Balagh aims to work at grassroots, by developing and offering tailor made courses for different industries and sectors of Muslim society, whilst embedding spiritual development into the learning process.

It aims to equip Muslims through diverse pedagogies, the knowledge, training, skills, resources and materials necessary for them to play a more active role in the academic world and to promote and provide contemporary research in areas relevant to Muslims in western society.

Al Balagh will encourage and promote Muslim academic engagement so that Muslims can actively participate in academic writings, debates and other related academic projects.

Al Balagh Academy offers a variety of courses including Introduction to Islamic Theology, Decoding Islamic Epistemology, Defending the Honour of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH & HP), The Prophet Muhammad’s Transformative Leadership, Al Balāgh Online ʿĀlimiyyah Program, and Diploma in Islamic Studies Program.

Contacts

• Address: Unit 89 Carlisle Business Centre, 60 Carlisle Road, Bradford, BD8 8BD, UK
• Mobile: +44 7946835578
• Email: info@albalaghacademy.org
• Website: https://www.albalaghacademy.org/

This volume focuses on Islamic philosophy of religion with a range of contributions from analytic perspectives. It opens with methodological discussions on the relationship between the history of Islamic philosophy and contemporary analytic philosophy. The book then offers a philosophical examination of some specific Islamic beliefs as well as some approaches to general beliefs that Islam shares with other religions. The chapters address a variety of topics from the existence and attributes of God through to debates on science and religion. The authors are predominantly scholars from Muslim backgrounds who tackle philosophical issues concerning Islam as their own living religion, representing internal perspectives that have never been vocal in analytic philosophy of religion so far. This is valuable reading for scholars and students of philosophy, theology, and religious studies.

Table of Contents

PART I: Methodology

1. What Can Contemporary Analytic Philosophy Do for the Historians of Islamic Philosophy?
2. What Can the History of Islamic Philosophy Do for Contemporary Analytic Philosophers?

PART II: Existence and Uniqueness of God

3. Kalām and Cognition
4. God’s Existence and the Uniqueness Claim

PART III: Attributes of God

5. Divine Power and Divine Knowledge
6. The Doctrine of Divine Simplicity Considered in Light of Averroes’s Conception of Divine Knowledge

PART IV: Miracles

7. The Metaphysics of Miracles: Avicenna on Natures and Prophetic Powers
8. Of Miracle of Miracles: An Introduction to the Qur’anic View of Miracle

PART V: Faith and Its Obstacles

9. Faith, Knowledge, and Certainty: An Islamic Philosophy Perspective
10. Islam and The Problem of Divine Hiddenness
11. An Analysis of Some Problems of Evil from an Islamic Perspective

PART VI: Ethics and Morality

12. Islamic Philosophers’ Idea of Heaven: A Moral Analysis
13. Towards Epistemic Justice in Islam

PART VII: Science and Religion

14. Adam, Eve, and Human Evolution: Is There a Conflict?
15. Islamic Occasionalism within the context of Modern Religion and Science Debate

About the Editor

Mohammad Saleh Zarepour is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Manchester, UK. His research interests include medieval Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of logic.

Source: Routledge