The House of Islam
A Global History
Ed Husain
Bloomsbury
336 pages; RS 599
Not long after the end of the Cold War, the narrative of the “Clash of Civilisations” or its variant the “rage of Islam” acquired prominence in the West. Obviously, the absence of the central preoccupations of the Soviet Union and the division of Europe meant other concerns would enter the intellectual radar screens of many. While it is certainly the case that scholarship on Islam had a much older ancestry, from the nineties such scholarship acquired a contemporary relevance and flavour that was new. Afghanistan, 9/11, Iraq, Libya, Syria,
Not long after the end of the Cold War, the narrative of the “Clash of Civilisations” or its variant the “rage of Islam” acquired prominence in the West. Obviously, the absence of the central preoccupations of the Soviet Union and the division of Europe meant other concerns would enter the intellectual radar screens of many. While it is certainly the case that scholarship on Islam had a much older ancestry, from the nineties such scholarship acquired a contemporary relevance and flavour that was new. Afghanistan, 9/11, Iraq, Libya, Syria,
