Islam without Europe: Traditions of Reform in Eighteenth-Century Islamic Thought

Replete with a cast of giants in Islamic thought and philosophy, Ahmad S. Dallal’s pathbreaking intellectual history of the eighteenth-century Muslim world challenges stale views of this period as one of decline, stagnation, and the engendering of a widespread fundamentalism. Far from being moribund, Dallal argues, the eighteenth century — prior to systematic European encounters — was one of the most fertile eras in Islamic thought.

Across vast Islamic territories, Dallal charts in rich deta...