[Book Review]: "The Idea of Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History"

Abstract

his volume questions the geopolitical construct of an in-ternally unified and monolithic “Muslim world” and how thisnotion has been used (and misused) to support both Muslim ex-ceptionalism and Islamophobia. Aydin claims that the idea of animagined global Muslim unity—whether invoked by Muslims ornon-Muslims—is misleading and ahistorical. Rather than beingunited by religious solidarity against an imagined religious andcivilizational Other, Aydin argues, rival Muslim dynasties his-torically have competed among themselves and have alternatedbetween strategic alliances with non-Muslims based on differ-ing interests and political agendas...