Worlds of Islam
A Global History
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Jan 20, 2026
- Page Count
- 608 pages
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- ISBN-13
- 9781541600140
Price
$40.00Price
$51.00 CADFormat
Format:
- Hardcover $40.00 $51.00 CAD
- ebook $19.99 $25.99 CAD
- Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $38.99
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From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants carried it to the edges of Europe, the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the remote interior of China. By the nineteenth century, Islam encompassed a world of great diversity, from Muslim-ruled empires to new nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself.
In Worlds of Islam, historian James McDougall explores Islam’s origins and transformations as Muslims adapted to changing times and conditions, from Late Antiquity to the digital age. In the twentieth century, while monarchs in the Gulf asserted dynastic privilege and fundamentalists in Egypt and Pakistan preached social morality, revolutionaries from Algeria to Indonesia fought for national self-determination, and activists in North America and Europe campaigned for civil liberties and social justice.
Sweeping and authoritative, Worlds of Islam narrates the epic story of how Muslims emerged as a community, built empires, traversed the globe, came to number in the billions, and became modern.
Genre:
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“A riveting read. Here, we see Islam, not as some fixed constellation of doctrines, rituals, and ideas, but as a powerful, ever-evolving current in the river of history. McDougal never loses sight of the big picture even as he brings us close enough to see Islam taking root in sub-Saharan Africa, central Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, even China, even among African-Americans in the United States—these are idiosyncratically individual stories, yet they’re also all parts of one big story. Worlds of Islam achieves sweep without compromising depth and depth without compromising sweep—a remarkable feat.”Tamim Ansary, author of Destiny Disrupted
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