Worlds of Islam by James Mcdougall

Worlds of Islam by James Mcdougall

'A brilliant and captivating work ... There is simply no better book on Islam in history’ Eugene Rogan

From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. In Worlds of Islam, James McDougall explores its origins and transformations from Late Antiquity to the digital age.

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 nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. 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.

As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself. 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.

James McDougall has taught history at Princeton; the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; and Oxford, where he has been a Fellow of Trinity College since 2009, and where from 2018 to 2025 he was Professor of Modern and Contemporary History. The author of two previous books, his writing has appeared in The Guardian, Foreign Affairs, and The New Statesman.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780241528488
ISBN 10	0241528488
Title	Worlds of Islam
Author	Mcdougall James
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Allen Lane
Year published	2026-01-20
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.