Islamic History

A Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press began in 1995. The books in this series are written by experts on a variety of topics and published in more than 25 languages. The book under review is the third in the series on a subject related to Islam.

The author, Adam J. Silverstein has taught Islamic history at Oxford and Cambridge and is also a fellow in Jewish-Muslim Relations at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. Islamic History reflects the contents of lecture courses he taught at these universities.

Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, the book includes seven chapters with thought-provoking questions and, in some cases, attractive insights such as Ronald Reagan being an admirer of Ibn Khaldun! Additionally, there is a useful list of 18 illustrations and a helpful index which enhance the quality of the book. These readable chapters are all relatively short, except for the first one.