Worlds of Islam

James McDougall’s Worlds of Islam: A Global History offers a sweeping narrative of Islam’s development from seventh-century Arabia through the digital age.

Combining scholarship across regions and periods, the book emphasizes local lived experiences while situating diverse Muslim worlds within broader global processes like trade, empire, and modernity.

McDougall foregrounds both canonical figures and ordinary people to show how Islam spread, adapted, and shaped political and social orders across Africa, Asia, Europe, and beyond.

He gives particular weight to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—colonialism, nationalism, and contemporary politics—while connecting them to earlier centuries of expansion and cultural exchange.

The work aims to bridge specialist scholarship and general readers, challenging simplistic, monolithic portrayals of Islam by highlighting its plurality and historical continuity.