Beginning in the world of late antiquity and the pre-Islamic period, the book takes the reader through Islam's formative era and early development in the Arabian Peninsula, the rise and decline of major Muslim dynasties and finally into its place in the modern world. Lavishly illustrated and written in an accessible style, Islam: An Illustrated Journey tells the story of Islam, a faith that is today practised by more than a billion people and is the fastest growing religion in the world. The book contains a multitude of images, graphics, maps and charts, features many of the masterpieces of art, architecture and literature produced by Muslims along with a detailed bibliography, and will appeal to both general audiences and enthusiasts of Islamic societies and cultures and world civilizations.

For more than fourteen hundred years Muslims have held multiple and diverging views about their religious tradition. This divergence encompasses such matters as authority; ritual practice; political power; law and governance; civic life; and the form and content of individual and communal expressions of their faith. Over the centuries Muslims have regularly debated these issues amongst themselves. However, despite the remarkable diversity of the Islamic tradition, and the plurality of understandings about Islam, Muslims are regularly and erroneously portrayed as internally homogeneous and dogmatic. This important book challenges such propositions by examining the ways in which matters of common concern to Muslims have been discussed by them and examined. The volume explores the processes by which Muslims construct notions of the self, the other and community, and addresses the socio-cultural tools that they employ in so doing. Offering contributions by world-class scholars, Diversity and Pluralism in Islam applies insights from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, history, literature, political theory, comparative literature and Islamic studies. It will be of extensive interest to scholars and students in these fields, as well as to all those with a serious interest in Muslim societies and cultures.