Includes bibliographical references (pages 602-608) and index.0

Foreword : the wheel and the hourglass -- Introduction : gathering the word -- Emergence : 900 BC- AD 600 -- Revolution: 600-630 -- Dominance : 630-900 -- Decline : 900-1350 -- Eclipse : 1350-1800 -- Emergence : 1800-now -- Afterword : in the station of history -- Chronology.0

Foreword: The wheel and the hourglass -- Introduction: Gathering the word -- Emergence: 900 BC-AD 600. Voices from the wilderness: earliest Arabs -- Peoples and tribes: Sabaeans, Nabataeans, and Nomads -- Scattered far and wide: the changing grammar of history -- On the edge of greatness: the days of the Arabs -- Revolution: 600-630. Revelation, revolution: Muhammad and the Qur'an -- God and Caesar: the state of Medina -- Dominance: 630-900. Crescaders: openings-up -- The kingdom of Damascus: Umayyad rule -- The empire of Baghdad: Abbasid sovereignty -- Decline: 900-1350. Counter-cultures, counter-caliphs: the empire breaks up -- The genius in the bottle: the hordes close in -- Eclipse: 1350-1800. Masters of the monsoon: Arabs around the Indian Ocean -- Re-emergence: 1800-Now. Identity rediscovered: awakenings --The age of hope: Nasserism, Ba'thism, liberation, oil -- The age of disappointment: autocrats, Islamocrats, Anacharchs -- Afterword: In the station of history.