Books by Marshall Hodgson
“It’s one of the earliest global histories and it places the Islamic world, from North Africa all the way to Indonesia, at the heart of global history. If you think about it, that does make sense. It’s a central, vast area of the world that is influenced by Islam in one way or another, and that is central to the making of the modern world.” Read more...
“Marshall Hodgson’s The Venture of Islam is a seminal analysis of Islamic history, and the third and last volume is dedicated analyzing these three empires. Hodgson called them the “gunpowder empires”, which is the subtitle of the third volume. Some Muslims think that it’s a source of pride for them that they established three powerful empires with gunpowder technology, but I disagree. I think there is a criticism inherent in the term.” Read more...
The best books on Islam and the State
Ahmet T. Kuru, Political Scientist
Interviews where books by Marshall Hodgson were recommended
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1
Islam and the Foundations of Political Power
by Ali Abdel Razek -
2
The Muqaddimah
by Ibn Khaldun -
3
The Venture of Islam, Volume 3: The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times
by Marshall Hodgson -
4
Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia
by Robert W. Hefner -
5
Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany
by J. Christopher Soper & Joel S. Fetzer
The best books on Islam and the State, recommended by Ahmet T. Kuru
The best books on Islam and the State, recommended by Ahmet T. Kuru
It’s widely assumed that in the ideal Muslim society there is no separation between religion and the state, but even in some of the earliest caliphates, the secular and the religious were rarely as closely aligned as religious conservatives would have us believe. Here Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University, recommends books that help trace the historical relationship between Islam and the state—and points to strands of secularism that may hold the key to a happier relationship between Islam and liberal democracy.
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1
The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam
by Marshall Hodgson -
2
Imams and Emirs: State, Religion and Sects in Islam
by Fuad I. Khuri -
3
Book of Travels (Safarnāma)
by Nasir-i Khusraw -
4
Travels through Arabia and Other Countries in the East
by Carsten Niebuhr -
5
The Others
by Seba al-Herz
The best books on Sunnism and Shiism, recommended by Toby Matthiesen
The best books on Sunnism and Shiism, recommended by Toby Matthiesen
In a bid to get away from simplistic explanations of why sectarian identity in the Middle East can lead to conflict, Swiss political scientist Toby Matthiesen wrote The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism. Here he recommends other books that shed light on Sunni and Shia differences, including a racy novel set in Saudi Arabia.
