CONTENTS -- Preface -- 1 Introduction: Raising Questions -- Islam and the West -- Locating the key to unlock Muslim society -- Misunderstanding Muslims -- Questions for our age -- 2 What is Islam? -- The messenger: the Prophet of Islam -- The Prophet's early life -- The Prophet's marriage -- The first words of the message -- The journey across the desert: the hijra -- The later marriages of the Prophet -- The Prophet's last address -- The role of the Prophet in Muslim social custom -- Images of the Prophet -- The Prophet of Islam and the people of the Book -- The Prophet's critics -- The message: the holy Quran -- Understanding the Quran today -- The five pillars of lslam -- The Islamic calendar -- Sunni and Shia divisions in Islam -- The Shia -- Differences between Shias and Sunnis -- The other Shia groups -- Shiism in the Western media -- Sufism: the Muslim universal way -- 3 The Challenge of the Past: Empires and Dynasties -- A Muslim view of history -- Characteristics of the great Muslim empires -- Early Muslim history: the great Arab dynasties -- The Arabs carry the message of lslam to the world -- Arab dynasties, Arab destinies -- The Christian Crusades -- The ideal model of European society: Muslim Spain -- Muslim literature in Spain -- The Andalus syndrome -- The mosque at Cordoba -- The fall of the Muslims -- 1492 and all that -- The reawakening of Andalusia -- The Ottomans (1300-1922) -- The Topkapi palace -- Women in the harem -- Islam in the Topkapi -- The Ottoman dynasty -- The Safavids (1501-1722) -- Isfahan: Nisf-e-Jahan -- The Shia state -- The Mughals (1526-1857) -- The burden of history -- The Mughal emperors -- Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty -- Mughal humanism -- Muslim architecture in South Asia -- Taj Mahal: monument of love -- 4 When Worlds Collide: Muslim Nations and Western Modernity.

The dilemmas of modern Turkey -- The rediscovery of the past -- Kemal Ataturk -- Islamic revivalism -- Turkey's Kurds -- Iran's Islamic quest -- Palace versus shrine -- The struggle for identity -- Ayatollah Khomeini the scholar-activist -- Islamic Iranian art -- After the revolution -- Khomeini's fatwa and Dante's Divine Comedy -- India and the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh -- 1857 and the birth of Aligarh -- Jinnah: The Quaid-i-Azam of Pakistan -- Leading a Muslim movement -- The Partition of India in 1947 -- The problem of identity -- The first Muslim nuclear power -- A school in Pakistan today -- Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh -- Issues in modernity: democracy, family and identity -- The Arab predicament -- The creation of Israel -- Tensions in Arab society -- Problems of democracy -- Democracy and double standards: the case of Algeria -- The Taliban of Afghanistan -- The centralized state -- Islamic punishment -- Class, corruption and communism -- Rulers then and now -- The Muslim family -- Polygamy in Islam -- Arranged marriages -- Muslim women -- Women in the modern world -- Muslim dress and the hijab -- 5 Muslims as Minorities -- The 'problem' of Muslim minorities -- The inexplicable fear of Muslim minorities -- The burden of the immigrant -- The North Caucasus and the Muslim problem -- Muslims in the West -- The younger generation -- The American versus the European experience -- Muslim integration in Western nations -- Islam and the Afro-American Community in the USA -- Frontier Muslims: Islam in the Outer Hebrides -- The Arain work ethic meets the Protestant work ethic -- Islamic revivalism in Stornoway -- Islam in Central Asia -- Central Asia -- Stalin and Ibn Khaldun: binding societies -- The two poles of society: warrior and saint -- Amir Taimur the warrior -- Bahauddin Naqshband the saint -- Seeing miracles.

Architecture as a metaphor for society -- Red star over Central Asia -- The Sovietization of Central Asia -- 'Islamic fundamentalism' in Central Asia -- The processes of lslamization -- Into the future -- The Muslims of India: a people in search of a destiny -- Different kinds of Muslim society -- The Muslim malaise -- The Hindu response -- India, the land of contrasts -- The misuse of history -- 6 Islam in the Age of the Western Media -- Islam and the West: confrontation or consensus? -- The Muslim failure with the media -- The Gulf War and the media -- Media encouragement of Muslim orthodoxy -- The Western bogeyman: Islamic fundamentalism -- Concluding thoughts -- Understanding Islam -- The voices of Islam: at the crossroads -- Building bridges -- Glossary -- References -- Index.