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 --

The North moves South.

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 --

Bankers on horseback --

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 First World War --

The postwar Middle East --

Palestine, the much promised land --

Turkey and Atatürk --

Reza Shah of Iran --

Islam in India and the formation of Pakistan --

Kashmir, the Palestine of Central Asia --

Islam in Southeast Asia --

Afghanistan's centuries of resistance --

The Silk Road --

The Algerian revolution --

Nasser and Arabiyah --

Saddam Husain and Iraq.

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 --

Gaza and Hamas --

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 --

The Islamic State.

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.