Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History

‘‘[A] provocative new book. Aydin ranges over the centuries to show the relative novelty of the idea of a Muslim world and the relentless efforts to exploit that idea for political ends by Muslim and Western powers alike.’‘—Marc Lynch, The Washington Post

‘‘Much of today’s media commentary traces current trouble in the Middle East back to the emergence of ‘artificial’ nation states after the fall of the Ottoman Empire a hundred years ago. According to this narrative, the region prospered as an organic whole before the imposition of modern nationalist ideologies. Today’s unrest is simply a belated product of that mistake. The Idea of the Muslim World by Cemil Aydin is a bracing rebuke to such simplistic conclusionsÂ… A tightly argued and impressive book.’‘—William Armstrong, The Times Literary Supplement

‘‘In Aydin’s telling, the idea of the Muslim world began in response to imperial racism, not to empire itself.’‘—Yasmine Seale, Harper’s

‘‘[A] timely bookÂ… It is here that Aydin’s book proves so valuable: by revealing how the racial, civilizational, and political biases that emerged in the nineteenth century shape contemporary visions of the Muslim world, within and beyond it.’‘—Anver M. Emon and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, Foreign Affairs

‘‘Thoughtful and provocativeÂ… Aydin skillfully recounts the complex web of relationships that existed between and among European Christian and Muslim nations before the 19th century, in which religious affiliation played no predictable role as a unifying, rallying factorÂ… This is a carefully argued book that will provoke specialists and nonspecialists alike to revisit commonly held assumptions about the nature of relations between ‘Islam and the West’ in the past, present, and futureÂ… The author’s masterly historical survey drives home the point that, in the past, shared values and interests rather than shared religion typically allowed for the creation of alliances among people from varied backgrounds. Those are exactly the kinds of alliances that need to be forged today.’‘—Asma Afsaruddin, The Chronicle of Higher Education

‘‘Bold and provocativeÂ… Aydin’s book, a veritable tour de force, is packed with insights and observations which are both original and profoundÂ… Aydin also challenges the notion that there was a homogenous ‘Muslim world’ before the advent of Western imperialism which divided themÂ… The book is a must-read for both Muslims and general students of history.’‘—Ammar Ali Qureshi, Friday Times

‘‘Aydin’s book is a timely corrective to the mistake of viewing the Islamic world (for want of a better phrase!) as a one-dimensional entity. It shows how an historical awareness of our underlying assumptions—on both sides of the imaginary Muslim world-West divide—can help us better understand the world we live in.’‘—William Eichler, The Tablet

‘‘Aydin upends the common view that the West and Islam are unavoidably in conflict in this crisp history of modern Islamic international relations. He argues the notion of a unified, global Muslim community was not present until Western imperialism and racism forced a defensive posture from MuslimsÂ… This is a solid work for college classrooms and scholars on the history of global Muslim consciousness and our current world.’‘—Publishers Weekly

‘‘The Idea of the Muslim World is an original and important book. Aydin provides a global lens for viewing the ways in which modernity has shaped both Muslims’ understandings of their global role, and the ways in which we understand the place of Muslims in the world.’‘—Edmund Burke III, author of The Ethnographic State: France and the Invention of Moroccan Islam

‘‘Aydin captures the formation and evolution of our reference to ‘the Muslim world’ and how this phrase came to prominence in everyday discourse. In eight superb chapters, he frames the Muslim world, and by implication Islam, as a cultural and civilizational tradition within a defined historical and political framework. A tour de force.’‘—Ebrahim Moosa, author of What Is a Madrasa?