Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Acknowledgments to the first edition of A History of Islamic Societies
- Acknowledgments to the second edition of A History of Islamic Societies
- Publisher's Preface
- Introduction to Islamic Societies
- Part I The Beginnings of Islamic Civilizations
- Part II From Islamic Community to Islamic Society
- Part III The Global Expansion of Islam from the Seventh to the Nineteenth Centuries
- Chapter 25 Introduction: Islamic Institutions
- The Western Islamic Societies
- Islam in Asia
- Islam in Africa
- Conclusion
- Chapter 43 The Varieties of Islamic Societies
- Chapter 44 The Global Context
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Annotated Bibliography from A History of Islamic Societies, 2nd Edition
- Index
Chapter 44 - The Global Context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Acknowledgments to the first edition of A History of Islamic Societies
- Acknowledgments to the second edition of A History of Islamic Societies
- Publisher's Preface
- Introduction to Islamic Societies
- Part I The Beginnings of Islamic Civilizations
- Part II From Islamic Community to Islamic Society
- Part III The Global Expansion of Islam from the Seventh to the Nineteenth Centuries
- Chapter 25 Introduction: Islamic Institutions
- The Western Islamic Societies
- Islam in Asia
- Islam in Africa
- Conclusion
- Chapter 43 The Varieties of Islamic Societies
- Chapter 44 The Global Context
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Annotated Bibliography from A History of Islamic Societies, 2nd Edition
- Index
Summary
The Inner Spaces of the Muslim World
Although much of this book is about the history of Muslim states and empires, regions that lay outside of the boundaries and authority of individual states or empires are essential to understanding the political and cultural geography of the Islamic world. These regions are the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the great inner deserts of Central Asia and the African Sahara. The oceans, steppes, and deserts both isolated regions from one another and allowed them to be linked together by travelers, traders, missionaries, and conquerors. Each of these regions cultivated cultural and religious practices and social networks that crossed political borders. The cross-regional connections help explain the diffusion of Islam from the seventh to the eighteenth century. They were arenas of religio-cultural transmission. From the sixteenth century, however, they also became arenas for the growing power of European states and their subsequent commercial and colonial domination of both the inner spaces and the regional territories of the Muslim world.
The Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean
The Mediterranean – from Spain in the northwest and Morocco in the southwest to Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt in the east – was first integrated under the rule of the Roman Empire and Hellenistic culture. With the creation of a second capital at Constantinople and the fall of Rome to “barbarian” invaders, the region began to fragment. The late Roman or Byzantine Empire continued to rule over the Balkans, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt, but independent states were formed by Gothic and Celtic peoples in the former Western European provinces of the Roman Empire and in parts of North Africa. The region was further divided by religious differences among Christians.
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- Information
- Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth CenturyA Global History, pp. 644 - 658Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012