HIS 256 The Islamic World to 1683

Traces the history of Islam back from the twentieth century to its origins, discussing the faith-based "Believers' movement" started by the prophet Muhammad, and explaining how this led to the separation of Muslims from Christians and Jews as monotheists.

In this gripping narrative history, Hazleton tells the story of the ongoing rivalry between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam. Muhammad lay dying, the battle over who would take control of the new Islamic nation had begun, beginning a succession crisis marked by power grabs, assassination, political intrigue, and passionate faith. Soon Islam was embroiled in civil war, pitting its founder's controversial wife Aisha against his son-in-law Ali, and shattering Muhammad's ideal of unity.

The 1,400-year-old schism between Sunnis and Shi'is is currently reflected in the destructive struggle for hegemony between Saudi Arabia and Iran--with no apparent end in sight. But how did this conflict begin, and why is it now the focus of so much attention? Charting the history of Islam from the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, McHugo describes the conflicts that raged over the succession to the Prophet, how Sunnism and Shi'ism evolved as different sects during the Abbasid caliphate, and how the rivalry between the Sunni Ottomans and Shi'i Safavids ensured that the split would continue into the modern age.

Bowersock seeks to illuminate this most obscure and yet most dynamic period in the history of Islam--from the mid-sixth to mid-seventh century--exploring why arid Arabia proved to be such fertile ground for Muhammad's prophetic message, and why that message spread so quickly to the wider world. In Muhammad's time Arabia stood at the crossroads of great empires, a place where Christianity, Judaism, and local polytheistic traditions vied for adherents. Mecca, Muhammad's birthplace, belonged to the part of Arabia recently conquered by the Ethiopian Christian king Abraha.

Jonathan Berkey surveys the religious history of the peoples of the Near East from approximately 600 to 1800 c.e. After examining the religious scene in the Near East in late antiquity, he investigates Islam's first century, the "classical" period from the accession of the Abbasids to the rise of the Buyid amirs. He then traces the emergence of new forms of Islam in the middle period, deftly showing how Islam emerged slowly as part of a prolonged process.

Contents: 1. Introduction: from Ancient to Modern -- 2. Islam on the Defensive, 1800- -- 3. Muhammad Ali's Egypt: Ottoman Rival -- 4. The Struggle for Reform 1840-1900 -- 5. Britain in Egypt, 1882-1914 -- 6. Turks and Arabs -- 7. The Persian Factor -- 8. The Sick Man Dies: 1918 -- 9. The Anglo-French Interregnum, 1918-1939 -- 10. The Second World War and Its Aftermath -- 11. The Entry of the Superpowers and the Nasser Era 1950-1970 -- 12. The Years of Turbulence -- 13. The Inter-war Years: Globalization and Counter-Globalization -- 14. Conclusion: Prospects for the Twenty-first Century.

This book traces the development of Islamic civilization from the career of the Prophet Muhammad to the mid-eighteenth century. Its coverage includes the creation of the Dar al-Islam (the territory ruled by Muslims), the fragmentation of society into various religious and political groups including the Shi'ites and Sunnis, the series of catastrophes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that threatened to destroy the civilization, and the rise of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires.

This book describes the transformations of Islamic societies from their beginning in the seventh century, through their diffusion across the globe, into the challenges of the nineteenth century. The story focuses on the organization of families and tribes, religious groups and states, depicts them in their varied and changing contexts, and shows how they were transformed by their interactions with other religious and political communities into a varied, global and interconnected family of societies. The book concludes with the onset of the modern era.