Part one. Glorious memories and agonizing awakening. The social, economic, and cultural bases of Islam --
Muhammad the messenger and his message --
The caliphate and the conquests --
The great days of the caliphates and the evolution of Islam --
Part two. The responses of traditional Muslim societies. Sultan Selim III, Napoleon and Mehmet Ali --
French invasion and Algerian resistance --
The British conquest of India and the Sepoy Revolt --
Chechen Imam Shamil resists Russian imperialism --
Sudanese Mahdiyah and the British conquest --
Sanusiyah Imam Umar al-Mukhtar against Italian genocide --
The Riff War and Abd al-Karim in Morocco --
The Aceh war and Dutch imperialism --
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and the Muslim awakening.
Part three. The shift to secular nationalism. The struggle to define identity --
The first Iranian revolution --
The postwar Middle East --
Palestine, the much promised land --
Islam in India and the formation of Pakistan --
Kashmir, the Palestine of Central Asia --
Islam in Southeast Asia --
Afghanistan's centuries of resistance --
The Algerian revolution --
Part four. The reassertion of Islam. Iran, the revolutionary Shiah Muslim state --
The Muslim Brotherhood --
The philosopher of the Muslim revolt, Sayyid Qutb --
Palestine: wars, diaspora, and failed state --
Hizbullah, stateless nation --
The Uyghurs and Chinese Islam.
Part five. Militant Islam. The Moro 'rebellion' in the Philippines --
Somalia, the "failed state" --
Boko Haram and Nigeria --
Usama bin Ladin and al-Qaida --
Part six. Afterword: The parable of the blind brahmins. Trunks and tails --
What the North did to the South --
What the South did to itself --
Where we are now and where we can go.
