This informative reference book uses specially drawn maps to explain how Muslim society, culture, and history rose in the second millennium to have a fully global significance.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION TO ISLAM
• REVELATION AND MUSLIM HISTORY
• The First Nine Centuries
• The nomad invasions
• The widening Islamic world
• Islamic life: the law
• Islamic life: mysticism
• Mystical Knowledge
• Transmission of Islamic culture
• The 16th and 17th Centuries
• The Safavid Empire
• Shiism and the Safavid state
• The blossoming of Iranian art
• Safavid painting
• Isfahan: City of Shah Abbas
• The Mughal Empire
• The pious strive to defend Islam
• Cultural expression of synthesis
• Mughal Moods
• Garden Tombs
• The Ottoman Empire
• The pious and the state
• Cultural face of the Sharia state
• The Buildings of Sinan
• Further Islamic Lands
• Southeast Asia
• Africa
• Central Asia and China
• Madrasas of Central Asia
• Mosques in China
• Decline, Reform, and Revival
• Reform and revival
• The Naqshbandiya in Asia
• The Khalwatiya and Idrisiya
• Local movements in West Africa
• Europe's Rise and Islam's Response
• The European challenge
• Europe and the Ottoman lands
• Egypt's response
• Arab aspirations
• Iran's struggle for independence
• Other parts of the world
• RELIGIOUS LIFE
• Belief and Practice
• The Stages of Life
• The Quran
• The Mosque
• The Believer's Year
• Pilgrimage to Mecca
• ARTS OF ISLAM
• Arts and Society
• Glossary
• Further Reading
• Original Bibliography