This volume of essays makes available the essential background information and methods for effective teaching and writing on cross-cultural history. The contributors--some of the most distinguished writers of global and comparative history--chart the advances in understanding in their fields of concentration, revealing both specific findings and broad patterns that have emerged. The cover image, "The Arrival of the Dutch at Patane," from Theodore de Bry, India Orientals, Part VIII (Frankfurt: W. Richteri, 1607) depicts the two key phases of global history that are covered by the essays. Muslim inhabitants of the town of Patane on the Malayan peninsula warily confront a Dutch landing party whose bearing suggests that it is engaged in yet another episode in the saga of European overseas exploration and discovery. The presence of the Muslims in Malaya reflects an earlier process of expansion that saw Islamic civilization spread from Spain and Morocco in the west to the Philippines in the east in the millennium between the 7th and 17th centuries. The Dutch came by sea to an area on the coastal and island fringes of Asia, the one zone where their warships gave them a decisive edge in this era. The citizens of Patane had good reason to distrust the European intruders, since the Portuguese who had preceded the Dutch had used force whenever possible to control the formerly peaceful trade in the region and often to persecute Muslim Peoples. Author note: Michael Adas is Abraham Voorhees Professor of History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He is currently editor of the American Historical Association's series on Global and Comparative History and co-editor of the Cambridge University Press series on "Studies in Comparative World History." He has published numerous articles and books, including most recently (with Peter Stearns and Stuart Schwartz) World Civilization: The Global Experience (1992) and Turbulent Passage: A Global History of the Twentieth Century (1993).

The emergence of a widespread ’plantation complex’, in which slave labour produced crops such as sugar on large estates funded by European capital, was a phenomenon of the New World. This book shows how the institution of slavery was transformed by the demand for labour in the Americas, to fill the gap between conquerors and vanquished Indians and to work in mines, workshops, ranches and, above all, on the new plantations that were established to exploit the empty lands. The essays use quantitative methodology to draw conclusions about slave existence and demography, and examine the profitability and varying degrees of harshness of slave systems in different regions. They also consider the questions of manumission and slave resistance.

In this timely work, Robert J. Pauly, Jr. looks in detail at the impact of Islam’s presence in Europe. He examines five areas of particular importance: the effect of the growth of Muslim communities on the demographics of Western Europe generally, and France, Germany and the United Kingdom in particular; the consequences of the marginalization of Muslims on domestic and international security within and outside of Western Europe in the post-11 September 2001 era; the impact of the issue of Islam in Europe on the European Union’s ongoing deepening and widening processes; the potential correlation between the increased visibility of Islam in Europe and the growth of far-right political parties across the continent; and the broader relationships between the issues of Islam in Europe, Islam and Europe, and Islam and the West.

Louis Massignon, H.A.R. Gibb, Marshall Hodgsons and T.E. Lawrence are discussed in a collection of essays that focuses on the relationship between European and Islamic thought and culture from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century.

Examine the ancient Islamic world through expertly designed maps and site drawings, bringing history to life.

Islamic peoples account for one fifth of the world's population and yet there is widespread misunderstanding in the West of what Islam really is. Francis Robinson and his team set out to address this, revealing the complex and sometimes contrary nature of Muslim culture. As well as taking on the issues uppermost in everyone's minds, such as the role of religious and political fundamentalism, they demonstrate the importance of commerce; literacy and learning; Islamic art; the effects of immigration, exodus, and conquest; and the roots of current crises in the Middle East, Bosnia, and the Gulf. Throughout, emphasis is placed on the interaction between Islam and the West, from the first Latin translations of the Quran to the fatwa on Salman Rushdie. This elegant book deliberately sets out to dismantle the Western impression of Islam as a monolithic world and replace it with a balanced view, from current issues of fundamentalism to its dynamic culture and art. Francis Robinson is the editor of two outstanding reference works: Atlas of the Islamic World Since 1500 (Cambridge, 1982) and The Cambridge Encyclopedia of India (1989).

The new and updated edition of Political Islam, World Politics and Europe focusses on the shift within political Islam, in light of 9/11 and the events of the Arab Spring, from a jihadist struggle, to institutional Islamism. Refuting what has often been referred to by commentators as the ‘moderation,’ of Islamism, the second edition of this book introduces the concept of ‘institutional,’ Islamism, a process which Tibi argues was accelerated in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Both jihadist and institutional Islamism pursue the same goal of an Islamist state, but disagree fundamentally on the strategy for achieving it. Whilst jihadism is committed to the idea of a (violent) Islamic world revolution, institutional Islamism embraces political institutions as a means to an end. Turning to the events of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt this book attempts to determine whether an abandonment of violence is enough to underpin a shift to genuine democracy. Analysing the fall of Morsi in particular, Tibi questions what lessons can be learnt from his presidency, and argues that this event will not change the overall trend of development from jihadism to institutional Islamism A timely addition to existing literature, this book will be of interest to students and scholars studying Middle Eastern and European Politics, Political Islam and International Relations.

This timely collection offers new perspectives on Muslim-Christian encounters in Africa. Working against political and scholarly traditions that keep Muslims and Christians apart, the essays in this multidisciplinary volume locate African Muslims and Christians within a common analytical frame. In a series of historical and ethnographic case studies from across the African continent, the authors consider the multiple ways Muslims and Christians have encountered each other, borrowed or appropriated from one another, and sometimes also clashed. Contributors recast assumptions about the making and transgressing of religious boundaries, Christian-Muslim relations, and conversion. This engaging collection is a long overdue attempt to grapple with the multi-faceted and changing encounters of Muslims and Christians in Africa.

Reaching beyond traditionally politicised scholarship to provide a unique perspective on the place of religion and culture in global and local politics, this book examines the impact of Islam on 'civilizational' relations between different groups and polities. Bassam Tibi takes a highly original approach to the topic of religion in world politics, exploring the place of Islam in society and its frequent distortion in world politics to the more radical Islamism. Looking at how this becomes an immediate source of tension and conflict between the secular and the religious, Tibi rejects the 'clash of civilizations' theory and argues for the revival of Islamic humanism to help bridge the gap. Chapters expand on: inter-civilizational conflict in global politics dialogue between religious and secular, East and West western concepts of Islamism euro-Islam and the Islamic diaspora in Europe Islamic humanism as a tool for bridging civilizations. Shedding new light on the highly topical subject of Islam in politics and society, this book is an essential read for scholars and students of international politics, Islamic studies and conflict resolution.

Recent research has demonstrated that early modern slavery was much more widespread than the traditional concentration on plantation slavery in the context of European colonial expansion would suggest. Slavery and slave trading, though little researched, were common across wide stretches of Eurasia, and a slave economy played a vital part in the political and cultural contacts between Russia and its Eurasian neighbours. This volume concentrates on captivity, slavery, ransom and abolition in the vicinity of the Eurasian steppe from the early modern period to recent developments and explores their legacy and relevance down to the modern times. The contributions centre on the Russian Empire, while bringing together scholars from various historical traditions of the leading states in this region, including Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire, and their various successor states. At the centre of attention are transfers, transnational fertilizations and the institutions, rituals and representations facilitating enslavement, exchanges and ransoming. The essays in this collection define and quantify slavery, covering various regions in the steppe and its vicinity and looking at trans-cultural issues and the implications of slavery and ransom for social, economic and political connections across the steppe. In so doing the volume provides both a broad overview of the subject, and a snapshot of the latest research from leading scholars working in this area.