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.
Table of Contents
Part I. The Near East before Islam: 1. Introduction
2. The religions of late antiquity
3. Arabia before Islam
4. The early seventh century
Part II. The Emergence of Islam, 600-750: 5. Approaches and problems
6. The origins of the Muslim community
7. Early Islam in the Near East
8. The Umayyad period
9. The beginnings of sectarianism
10. The non-Muslims of early Islam
11. The 'Abbasid revolution
Part III. The Consolidation of Islam, 750-1000: 12. Issues of Islamic identity
13. Religion and politics
14. Shi'ism
15. The formation of Sunni traditionalism
16. Asceticism and mysticism
17. The non-Muslim communities
Part IV. Medieval Islam, 1000-1500: 18. The medieval Islamic Near East
19. A Sunni "revival"?
20. Common patterns in social and political organization
21. Modes of justice
22. The transmission of religious knowledge
23. Sufism
24. Popular religion
