The Islamic World Past and Present

It is said that the Islamic religion encompasses one‐fifth of the world's population. Many reasons exist – from cross‐cultural awareness to terrorism – for the substantial recent growth in interest in Islamic religion and politics, culture and history around the world. Oxford University Press have an established record in this field with (among much else) The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (Esposito, 1995), the Oxford History of Islam (Esposito, 1999), and The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (Esposito, 2003) (RR 2004/7), all edited by John Esposito. The work under review, The Islamic...