Lapidus Ira M. A History of Islamic Societies

2nd edition. — Cambridge University Press, 2002. — 970 p.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. Lapidus’s history explores the beginnings and transformations of Islamic civilizations in the Middle East and details Islam’s worldwide diffusion to Africa; Spain; Turkey and the Balkans; Central, South, and
Southeast Asia; and North America. The narrative is unified by its focus on the organization of primary communities, religious groups and states, and the institutions and cultures that define them. The history is divided into four parts. The first part 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, situating them within their global, political, and economic contexts. 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. Organized in narrative sections for the history of each major region, with innovative, analytic summary introductions and conclusions, this book is a unique endeavor. The informative and substantial update, balanced judgment, and clarity of presentation – which readers have come to expect of this work – ensure that it will remain a classic in the field. Ira M. 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 relationships among families, tribes, religious communities, cities, and states. This is exemplified in his current work and previous publications, including Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages (1967, 1984); Middle Eastern Cities (edited, 1969); Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective (1983); Islam, Politics and Social Movements (co-edited with Edmund Burke, 1988); the previous edition of A History of Islamic Societies (1988); and Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History (2012).