The Middle East in Late Antiquity -- Muḥammad -- The Caliphate from the Seventh to the Ninth Century -- The Breakup of the Caliphate in the West -- The Breakup of the Caliphate in the East -- The Breakup of the Caliphate in the Central Muslim World -- The Turks, the Mongols, and Islam in the Steppes -- Iran and Central Asia -- The Turks in the Western Middle East in Medieval Times -- The Ottoman Empire -- India -- The Indian Ocean -- Africa -- The Arabs -- The Muslim World and the West

"In Michael Cook's words, this book is "about a substantial slice of human history delimited by a particular cultural characteristic: adherance to Islam in some form or other. [...] A commitment to Islam makes a difference. Wherever a society and its rulers have come to be Muslim, this has meant a major discontinuity with its pre-Islamic past and a significant expansion of its relations with the wider Muslim world." Starting in the pre-Islamic Middle East, Cook returns a sense of wonder to how Muhammad could not only become a prophet of a new monotheistic religion but also unite the Arab tribes behind it and create a state that would conquer much of the territory that belonged to the Byzantines and the Sasanians, the two empires that had balanced power in the region for hundreds of years. Exploring the high culture of the Abbasids, Cook then charts the disintegration of the Caliphate and the brief rise of the Fatimids and the Mongols of the Steppe. He covers the Ottomans (Turkish), Safavids (Iranian), Mughals (India), and ventures to East Africa, Madagascar, Somalia, Southeast Asia, and many places between. An epilogue gestures to major themes in the post-1800 world"--