Michael Cook is joined in conversation by Sadaf Jaffer to discuss his new book, “A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity,” to be published in May 2024 by the Princeton University Press. Copies of the book should be available ahead of the publication date for a book signing to be held after the conversation. Registration is requested, but not required.
About the book (from the publisher):
This book describes and explains the major events, personalities, conflicts, and convergences that have shaped the history of the Muslim world. The body of the book takes readers from the origins of Islam to the eve of the nineteenth century, and an epilogue continues the story to the present day. Michael Cook thus provides a broad history of a civilization remarkable for both its unity and diversity.
After setting the scene in the Middle East of late antiquity, the book depicts the rise of Islam as one of the great black swan events of history. It continues with the spectacular rise of the Caliphate, an empire that by the time it broke up had nurtured the formation of a new civilization. It then goes on to cover the diverse histories of all the major regions of the Muslim world, providing a wide-ranging account of the key military, political, and cultural developments that accompanied the eastward and westward spread of Islam from the Middle East to the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific.
At the same time, “A History of the Muslim World” contains numerous primary-source quotations that expose the reader to a variety of acutely insightful voices from the Muslim past.
In conversation:
Michael Cook is the Class of 1943 university professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. His books include “Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective,” “A Brief History of the Human Race,” and “The Koran: A Very Short Introduction.”
Sadaf Jaffer is an associate research scholar of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. Her current book project, “Secularism, Sexuality and Islam: Ismat Chughtai’s Indian Muslim Progressivism,” elucidates alternative Muslim subjectivities through the lens of a prominent Urdu writer and cultural critic. Jaffer’s web-based publications include posts to the Foreign Policy Research Institute E-Notes, the Huffington Post and the blog Altmuslimah.
Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This event was recorded on April 30, 2024.