Contemporary Muslim World
The Hijaz: The First Islamic State
Author(s): Malik Dahlan
Reviewed by: Imran Hussain Khan Suddahazai, Markfield Institute of Higher Education, UK
Review
The cover image of this book appears initially as a typical picture of devotees engaged in circumambulation around the Ka[bah. However, on closer inspection it becomes obvious that a centrally placed large black cuboid shaped magnet is holding a lage number of iron fillings within its orbit, representing the act of tawaf and, most pertinently, from the perspective of the book, the central point of unity for Muslims.