The Cambridge History of Islam: Volume 1A, The Central Islamic Lands from Pre-Islamic Times to the First World War

' … undoubtedly a very valuable and very much needed contribution to the field of Islamic studies. It is a thoroughly scholarly and often erudite presentation of the entire Muslim world that will be consulted by the specialist and non-specialist for many years to come.' The Middle East Journal

• List of maps; Preface; Introduction; Part I. The Rise and Domination of the Arabs: 1. Pre-Islamic Arabia Irfan Shahid; 2. Muhammad W. Montgomery Watt; 3. The Patriarchal and Umayyad caliphates Laura Veccia Vaglieri; 4. The 'Abbasid caliphate D. Sourdel; Part II. The Coming of the Steppe Peoples: 5. The disintegration of the caliphate in the east B. Spuler; 6. Egypt and Syria Bernard Lewis; 7. Anatolia in the period of the Seljuks and the Beyliks Osman Turman; 8. The emergence of the Ottomans Halil Inalcik; Part III. The Central Islamic Lands in the Ottoman period: 9. The rise of the Ottoman Empire Halil Inalcik; 10. The heyday and decline of the Ottoman Empire Halil Inalcik; 11. The later Ottoman Empire in Rumelia and Anatolia Uriel Heyd; 12. The later Ottoman Empire in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent P. M. Holt; 13. Safavid Persia R. M. Savory; 14. Persia: the breakdown of society Ann K. S. Lambton; 15. Central Asia from the sixteenth century to the Russian conquests B. Spuler; Appendix M. E. Yapp; 16. Tsarist Russia and the Muslims of Central Asia Akdes Nimet Kurat.