"A History of the Muslim World" by Michael Cook (Review )

Before the 6th century, Arabia was a peripheral wilderness: lacking resources, rivers and a state. Against the odds, Muhammad unified the Arab tribes, who then established one of the largest empires in human history - stretching from Spain to the Sindh. Muslim influence continually expanded - spanning Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and South-East Asia. Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. What explains its incredible success?

“A History of the Muslim World” is the most revelatory book I’ve read this year. Michael Cook’s thousand page tome carefully traces conquest, sectarian conflict, state-formation, and cultural change over two millennia, across half the world.

Disciplinary differences..

Every academic discipline has its own ideology - about what what matters and how to analyse it. As a historian, Cook is interested in individual actors, specific dynasties, and sectarian conflicts in particular places. His discipline is usually sceptical of grand theorising, as it often entails sweeping generalisations. For historians, each specific place must be understood on its own terms. This yields careful insights. However, it can also create blinkers. By studying each tree’s branches, we may not even realise we’re in a forest - distinct from deserts, arid mountains, marshes, oceans and cities.

So, in this review, I use Cook’s wealth of data to theorise the structural drivers of empire-building and cultural evolution.

Evidence

Even if people chose to record their history, the survival of those narratives is deeply contingent - explains Cook. Conquerors may burn literary heritage, rival religions may be destroyed, and private collections are perilous. Cook is thus extremely cautious with evidence, drawing on diverse literary sources. I suggest we can also learn a great deal from art history. Thus I have incorporated illustrative textiles, coins, paintings and sculptures - to visually convey cultural evolution. Additionally, I have identified some curious omissions within Cook’s book, and provided further commentary.

All criticisms and corrections are welcome.

Outline of this Review

• Prophet Muhammad

  • Protection and growing support

  • Tribal unity, religious primacy

  • Victories

  • Muhammad’s openness

  • Muhammad’s wives

  • Strong similarities between Judaism and Islam

• The Caliphate - from the 7th to the 9th century

  • Muslim armies

  • Sectarian conflicts

  • Female rebels

  • The Abbasid Caliphate

  • Did Islam encourage cultural change?

• What drove cultural change?

  • Conquest

  • Prestige bias and proselytising

  • Taxes

  • Arabisation

  • Enslavement and reproduction

  • Cousin marriage

• Sectarian Violence

• What about ‘the Islamic Golden Age’?

• Were these ‘strong states’?

  • Did Arab armies really strengthen state centralisation?

  • Was authoritarianism really strengthened by slave soldiers?

  • Why did Iraq’s economy collapse?

That takes us to the 10th century. It is the Part 1 of my review, with more to come.

Horse with rider. Nishapur, Iran, 9th-10th century