This list tries to avoid secular histories of Islamic countries. Rather, the aim is to consider Islam and its interactions with the world. To that extent, if the story of Islam overlaps with the political, social, or cultural history of a state or region, it is eligible for this list. This list could have easily listed around 800 works given the many states Islam has spread over, the long history of the religion, and the complex intellectual discourse within the religion. However, I have restricted it to a sample of the most important works in the field.
- Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Speaking in God’s Name: Islamic Law, Authority and Women
- Abrahamov, Binyamin, ed. Islamic Theology: Traditionalism and Rationalism
- Afkhami, Mahnaz, ed. Faith and Freedom: Women’s Human Rights in the Muslim World
- Ahmad, Aziz. Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan, 1857-1964
- Ahmad, Rafiuddin. The Bengal Muslims 1871-1906: A Quest for Identity
- Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate
- Algar, Hamid, ed. and trans. Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini
- Arberry, Arthur John, trans. The Doctrine of the Sufis
- Arjomand, Said Amir. The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi’ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890
- as-Sadr, Muhammad Baqir. Lessons in Islamic Jurisprudence
- Barnes, John. An Introduction to Religious Foundations in the Ottoman Empire
- Bayat, Mangol. Iran’s First Revolution: Shi‘ism and the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1909
- Benda, Harry. The Crescent and the Rising Sun: Indonesian Islam Under the Japanese Occupation, 1942-1945
- Black, Anthony. The History of Islamic Political Thought, Second Edition: From the Prophet to the Present
- Bloom, Jonathan. Paper before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World
- Blichfeldt, Jan-Olaf. Early Mahdism: Politics and Religion in the Formative Period of Islam
- Brann, Ross. Power in the Portrayal: Representations of Jews and Muslims in Eleventh- and Twelfth- Century Islamic Spain
- Brown, Carl. Religion and the State
- Buehler, Arthur. Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh
- Bulliet, Richard. Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History
- Chodkiewicz, Michel. The Seal of the Saints: Prophethood and Sainthood in the Doctrine of Ibn Arabi
- Choksy, Jamsheed K. Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society
- Commins, David. Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria
- —. The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia
- Conrad, Lwrence. The World of Ibn Tufayl: Interdisciplinary Studies on Hayy Ibn Yaqzan
- Courbage, Youssef. Christians and Jews Under Islam
- Crews, Robert. For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia
- Crone, Patricia. God’s Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam
- Daftary, Farhad. The Assassin Legends: Myth of the Ismailis
- —. The Ismailis: Their History and Doctrines
- Dale, Stephen. Islamic Society on the South Asian Frontier: the Mappilas of Malabar, 1498-1922
- Deringil, Selim. Conversion and Apostasy in the Late Ottoman Empire
- —. The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909
- DeWeese, Devin. Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba Tukles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition
- Dobbin, Christine. Islamic Revivalism in a Changing Peasant Economy: Sumatra 1784-1847
- Donner, Fred. The Early Islamic Conquests
- —. Narratives of Islamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing
- El-Awaisi, Abd al-Fattah Muhammad. The Muslim Brothers and the Palestine Question, 1928- 1947
- Fakhry, Majid. A History of Islamic Philosophy
- —. Averroes: His Life, Works, and Influence
- Firestone, Reuven. Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam
- Fortna, Benjamin. Imperial Classroom: Islam, the State, and Education in the Late Ottoman Empire
- Frank, Richard. Al-Ghazali and the Asharite School
- Gilmartin, David. Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan
- Gilsenen, Michael. Recognizing Islam: Religion and Society in the Modern Middle East
- Goodman, Lenn. Islamic Humanism
- —. Avicenna
- Guillaume, Alfred. The Traditions of Islam: An Introduction to the Study of Hadīth Literature
- Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Philosophers in the Arabic Tradition
- Hallaq, Wael. A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni usul al-fiqh
- —. Law and Legal Theory in Classical and Medieval Islam
- Hardy, P. The Muslims of British India
- Harrison, Christopher. France and Islam in West Africa, 1860-1960
- Hodgson, Marshall. The Venture of Islam (three volumes)
- Holt, Peter. The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1881-1898: A Study of Its Origins, Development, and Overthrow
- Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples
- —. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798-1939
- Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History
- Jalal, Ayesha. Self and Sovreignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam since 1850
- Karandikar, Maheshwar. Islam in India’s Transition to Modernity
- Karpat, Kemal. The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith and Community in the Late Ottoman State.
- Karsh, Ephraim. Islamic Imperialism: A History
- Kayali, Hasan. Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918
- Keddie, Nikki. An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal ad-Din “al-Afghani”
- Keller, Shoshana. To Moscow, Not Mecca: The Soviet Campaign Against Islam in Central Asia, 1917-1941
- Kennedy, Hugh. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State
- Kerr, Malcolm. Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida
- Kessler, Clive. Islam and Politics in a Malay State
- Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in the Law of Islam
- Khalidi, Tarif. Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam Across the Centuries
- Kepel, Gilles. Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharaoh
- —. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
- Kraemer, Joel. Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam: Abu Sulayman Al-Sijistani and His Circle
- Kramer, Martin. Islam Assembled: The Advent of the Muslim Congresses
- Kuran, Timur. The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East
- Lapidus, Ira. A History of Islamic Societies
- Lelyveld, David. Aligarh’s First Generation: Muslim Solidarity in British India
- Lewis, Bernard, ed. The World of Islam: Faith, People, Culture
- —. What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East
- —. The Jews of Islam
- Lewisohn, Leonard. The Heritage of Sufism (three volumes)
- Lia, Brynjar. The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement, 1928-1942
- Liow, Joseph Chinyong. Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia
- Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate
- Mahdi, Muhsin. Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy
- Malley, William. Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban
- Martin, Richard. Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mutazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol
- Masters, Bruce. Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World: The Roots of Sectarianism
- McCargo, Duncan. Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand
- McKenna, Thomas. Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the Southern Philippines
- Melchert, Christopher. The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, 9th-10th Centuries
- Metcalf, Barbara. Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband 1860-1900
- —. Moral Conduct and Authority: The Place of Adab in South Asian Islam
- Milton-Edwards, Beverly. Islamic Politics in Palestine
- Minault, Gail. The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India.
- —. Secluded Scholars: Women’s Education and Muslim Social Reform in Colonial India
- Mitchell, Richard. The Society of the Muslim Brothers
- Motzski, Harald. Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence: Meccan Fiqh before the Classical Schools
- Nakash, Yitzhak. The Shi’is of Iraq
- Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Science and Civilization in Islam
- —. The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia
- —. Sadr al-Dīn Shirazī and his Transcendent Theosophy.
- Netton, Ian Richard. Muslim Neoplatonists: An Introduction to the Thought of the Brethren of Purity
- Noer, Deliar. The Modernist Muslim Movement in Indonesia, 1900-1942
- Özcan, Azmi. Pan-Islamism: Indian Muslims, the Ottomans & Britain
- Peacock, James. Purifying the Faith: the Muhamrnadiyah Movement in Indonesia
- Peters, Francis. Muhammad and the Origins of Islam
- Pormann, Peter. Medieval Islamic Medicine
- Rahman, Fazlur. Islam
- —. Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition
- —. Major Themes of the Qur’an
- Rippin, Andrew. The Qur’an and Its Interpretive Tradition
- Robinson, Francis. Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces’ Muslims, 1860-1923
- Rougier, Bernard. Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam among Palestinians in Lebanon
- Rozenthal, Franz. The Classical Heritage in Islam
- —. The Muqaddimah
- Sachedina, Abdulaziz. Islamic Messianism: The Idea of the Mahdi in Twelver Shi‘ism
- —. The Just Ruler in Shi’ite Islam: The Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamite Jurisprudence
- Saeed, Abdullah. Islamic Banking and Interest: A Study of the Prohibition of Riba and Its Contemporary Interpretation
- Saliba, George. Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance
- Schimmel, Annemarie. I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life and Work of Rumi
- —. Mystical Dimensions of Islam
- Schlegell, BR von. Principles of Sufism
- Serajuddin, Alamgir. Sharia Law and Society: Tradition and Change in South Asia
- Seyyid, Vali Reza Nasr. The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution: The Jama’at-i Islami of Pakistan
- —. Islamic Leviathan: Islam and the Making of State Power
- Siegel, James. The Rope of God
- Tankel, Stephen. Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba
- Tibi, Bassam. The Crisis of Modern Islam
- Troll, Christian. Sayyid Ahmad Khan: A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology
- Turner, Colin. Islam without Allah? The Rise of Religious Externalism in Safavid Iran
- Voll, John, John Esposito. Makers of Contemporary Islam
- Walker, Paul. Early Philosophical Shiism: The Ismaili Neoplatonism of Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani
- Walzer, Richard, trans. On the Perfect State
- Warraq, Ibn, ed. and trans. The Quest for the Historical Muhammad
- Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky. Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt
- Wictorowicz, Quintan. Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach
- —. The Management of Islamic Activism: Salafis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and State Power in Jordan
- Wink, André. Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World
- Ziai, Hossein. The Philosophy of Illumination
Very interesting.
Thanks!