First published in 1988, Ira Lapidus' A History of Islamic Societies has become a classic in the field, enlightening students, scholars, and others with a thirst for knowledge about one of the world's great civilizations. This book, based on fully revised and updated parts one and two of this monumental work,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, showing how they were transformed by their interactions with other religious and political communities. The book concludes with the European commercial and imperial interventions that initiated a new set of transformations in the Islamic world, and the onset of the modern era. Organized in narrative sections for the history of each major region, with innovative, analytic summary introductions and conclusions, this book is a unique endeavour.
- Charts the transformation of pre-modern Islamic societies from the seventh century to the nineteenth century
- Lapidus, one of the leading historians of his generation, shows how Islamic societies evolved and changed through interaction with different cultures into a global religion
- The book's breadth, clarity and balance will ensure its place in the classroom and beyond to all those interested in the spread and multifaceted nature of Islam
Read more
Customer reviews

Not yet reviewed
Be the first to review

Log in to review

Review was not posted due to profanity
×

, create a review

(If you're not , sign out)

Please enter the right captcha value

Please enter a star rating.

Your review must be a minimum of 12 words.

How do you rate this item?

Reviews must contain at least 12 words about the product.

×

Product details
- Date Published: December 2012
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521732987
- length: 788 pages
- dimensions: 229 x 153 x 40 mm
- weight: 1kg
- contains: 28 b/w illus. 27 maps 15 tables
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction to the history of Islamic societies
Book I. Part I. The Beginnings of Islamic Civilizations, The Middle East from c.600 to c.1000:
1. Middle Eastern societies before Islam
2. Historians and the sources
3. Arabia
4. Muhammad: preaching, community, and state formation
5. Introduction
6. The Arab-Muslim conquests and the socio-economic bases of empire
7. Regional developments: economic and social changes
8. The caliphate to 750
9. The 'Abbasid empire
10. Decline and fall of the 'Abbasid empire
11. Introduction: religion and identity
12. The ideology of imperial Islam
13. The 'Abbasids: caliphs and emperors
14. Introduction
15. Sunni Islam
16. Shi'i Islam
17. Muslim urban societies to the tenth century
18. The non-Muslim minorities
19. Continuity and change in the historic cultures of the Middle East
Book I. Part II. From Islamic Community to Islamic Society: Egypt, Iraq and Iran, 945–c.1500:
20. The post-'Abbasid Middle Eastern state system
21. Muslim communities and Middle Eastern societies:
1000–1500 CE
22. The collective ideal
23. The personal ethic
24. Conclusion: Middle Eastern Islamic patterns
Book II. The Global Expansion of Islam from the Seventh to the Nineteenth Century:
25. Introduction: Islamic institutions
26. Islamic north Africa to the thirteenth century
27. Spanish-Islamic civilization
28. Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries
29. States and Islam: North African variations
30. Introduction: empires and societies
31. The Turkish migrations and the Ottoman empire
32. The post-classical Ottoman empire: decentralization, commercialization, incorporation
33. The Arab regions of the Middle East
34. The Safavid empire
35. The Indian subcontinent: the Delhi sultanates and the Mughal empire
36. Islamic empires compared
37. Inner Asia from the Mongol conquests to the nineteenth century
38. Islamic societies in Southeast Asia
39. The African context: Islam, slavery, and colonialism
40. Islam in Sudanic, Savannah, and forest west Africa
41. The West African jihads
42. Islam in East Africa and the European colonial empires
43. Conclusion: the varieties of Islamic societies
44. The global context.
Look Inside
Instructors have used or reviewed this title for the following courses
- City in Muslim Societies
- Classical Islamic Civilization
- Early Islamic Civilization
- History of Modern Middle East
- History of the Middle East I
- History of the Middle East and Islam I
- Intro Islamic Civilization
- Introduction to Middle Eastern Studies
- Introduction to the Middle East and Central Asia
- Introduction to the Middle East, 570-1453
- Islam
- Islam in Internatioanl Relations
- Islam in North Africa and Egypt
- Islam: A History and Civilization
- Islamic Art and Architecture
- Islamic Civilization to 1517
- Islamic Gunpowder Empires, 1301-1798
- Islamic History to 1400 and Ottoman Empire
- Islamic Societies, Culture, Politics
- Jihad and Islamic Fundamentalism
- Medieval Europe in the World
- Medieval Islamic Civilization
- Medieval Middle East and Classical Islam
- Middle East: Roots of Conflict
- Middle Eastern History I
- Survey of Islamic Art and Material Culture
- The Central Islamic Lands, 500-1700
- The Making of Islamic Societies
- Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies
Author
Ira M. Lapidus, University of California, Berkeley
Ira Lapidus is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout his long and illustrious career he has published extensively. His abiding interest has been the relationship between the family, the tribe and the city, and this is exemplified in his current work and previous publications, including Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective (1983), Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages (1984), Islam, Politics and Social Movements, co-edited with Edmund Burke (1988) and A History of Islamic Societies (1988, 2002).