For most of the period from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries, the Muslim world was dominant in terms both of geographical spread and creativity. Today Muslims account for one fifth of the world's population. Yet there is widespread misunderstanding in the West of what Islam really is. Francis Robinson and his team set out to address this paradox. Dismantling the western perception of Islam as a monolithic culture, they examine the economic basis of Muslim societies - their social ordering, their forms of knowledge and its transmission, and their expression in art, architecture and in the courtly arts and their modern developments. Particular emphasis is placed on the interrelationship between the Islamic world and the West - both share many of the same religious, intellectual and cultural roots. The book demonstrates that it is only recently that western ways came to dominate. Both civilizations owe much to one another.