8vo. 243 pp., 14 b/w illustrations, 5 maps, chronological table, cloth in d/w, translated by Katherine Watson, biblio., index, previous owner’s inscription on front fly leaf, light rubbing to jacket at spine extremities, otherwise copy clean inside and in very good condition, Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, first American edition, 1970.

Synopsis

Classical Islam examines the relationships, both cultural and political, between the Islamic world and the Mediterranean countries and India and elaborates on the economic, social, and intellectual factors and forces that shaped the Muslim world and moulded its interactions with ‘infidels.’ The work is written in a clear and direct narrative form, emphasizing simultaneously the major intellectual trends and the political events and tendencies of the formative period in Islamic history that still resonates today.