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

A panoramic history of the Muslim world from the age of the Prophet Muḥammad to the dawn 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 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. The book then covers the diverse histories of all the major regions of the Muslim world, providing a wide-ranging account of the major 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.

The book deploys numerous quotations from primary sources that expose the reader to a variety of insightful voices from the Muslim past.