The Last Great Muslim Empires: The Last Great Muslim Empires:

"A high level of excellence. . . . The chapter on the Fertile Crescent and the Arabian peninsula is balanced and judicious, and . . . [t]he chapter on North-West Africa or Barbary is especially readable and full of insights. . . . Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia are equally well-served. . . . A useful survey of this rather neglected transitional period between the decline of classical Islamic civilization and the revival of recent times . . . the editor is to be complimented on having brought so much unity of treatment and smoothness of style to a composite work of this sort." -Middle Eastern Journal