A History of Islamic Societies

Review of previous edition: 'This book is a major undertaking and deserves to be saluted as an outstanding achievement. Professor Lapidus' A History of Islamic Societies belongs to a rare breed of works.' World Quarterly

Review of previous edition: 'I do not think that any other world civilization can boast a comparable general account of such substance and quality. ... This is a great deal more than a textbook. It is a product of learning, intellect and style of an extremely high order.' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

Review of previous edition: 'The value of A History of Islamic Societies lies in its sheer comprehensiveness. In one volume a vast amount of material is synthesized and presented in a clear and effective style. There is nothing else like it.' The Journal of Asian Studies

Review of previous edition: 'Lapidus is concerned not with defining an essential Islam, but rather with mapping the role of Islamic beliefs, institutions and identities in particular historical contexts.' International Journal of Middle East Studies

Review of previous edition: 'Ira Lapidus' A History of Islamic Societies has served students for twenty-five years as an accessible but thorough introduction to the full sweep of Islamic history. The book provides a powerful comparative framework for appreciating both diversity and continuity in Islamic historical experience.' Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations

Review of previous edition: 'By this singular work Lapidus, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley, has ... placed himself in the recording of Islamic history on a pedestal equivalent to Gibbon's for that of Rome.' The Book Review Literary Trust, New Delhi

This new edition of one of the most widely used course books on Islamic civilizations around the world has been substantially revised to incorporate the new scholarship and insights of the last twenty-five years. Ira Lapidus' history explores the beginnings and transformations of Islamic civilizations in the Middle East and details Islam's worldwide diffusion. The history is divided into four parts. Part I is a comprehensive account of pre-Islamic late antiquity; the beginnings of Islam; the early Islamic empires; and Islamic religious, artistic, legal and intellectual cultures. Part II deals with the construction in the Middle East of Islamic religious communities and states to the fifteenth century. Part III includes the history to the nineteenth century of Islamic North Africa and Spain; the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires; and other Islamic societies in Asia and Africa. Part IV accounts for the impact of European commercial and imperial domination on Islamic societies and traces the development of the modern national state system and the simultaneous Islamic revival from the early nineteenth century to the present.