Scholars’ production in English of introductory books to Islam seems to have undergone a transition during the past six decades from a “pre-modern” to a “modern” age. The inevitable passing of “pre-modern” versions may be marked curiously, but conveniently, by the appearance of H.A.R. Gibb's unhappily titled Mohammedanism: A Historical Survey in 1949. Its later re-issue as Islam: A Historical Survey in 1980 was the publisher's acknowledgement that times had indeed changed. However, Alfred Guillaume's Islam (1954) and M.Z. Khan's Islam (1962), despite their titles, failed to break new ground in coverage and treatment, while in contrast Fazlur Rahman's Islam (1966) was clearly another insider's engagement with and contribution to modern approaches and concerns. These observations may be disputed or dismissed out of hand but it would be difficult to deny that over the past three decades or so the market has notably exploded with books published as modern introductory textbooks to Islam written by experts from widely varying academic backgrounds and perspectives.

Knysh describes his own approach as largely inspired by a “civilisational” perspective, an unfolding of a set of foundational ideas that manifest themselves in all spheres of Muslims’ lives, not least the spiritual. The sheer bulk of the book at over 500 pages underscores the author's ambition in the volume's twenty-five chapters. The brief conclusion addresses the seemingly perennial question “Whither Islam”? Yet the author's answer expresses the spirit of his approach that “in the absence of a centralized ecclesiastic authority … any claims to represent the only true and ever-relevant essence of Islam made in either good faith or with ulterior goals in mind should be seen for what they are – one of the countless possible interpretations of Islam's immensely rich and variegated legacy”. This is an important, if rather obvious, observation to a student of say, Christianity or Judaism, but it bears repetition given much of the adverse treatment of Islam in the post 9/11 era.

Any work of this nature and scope is derivative, necessarily based largely upon the research of others. One's own research, where relevant and acknowledged as expert by one's peers is also essential. It is therefore no surprise that an introduction to Islam by Knysh would include excellent discussion on the origins and practices of ascetic and mystical movements (chapter 13) and the institutional and social aspects of later Sufism (chapter 14), while there are sections on al-Ghazali in chapter 15 and on Sufi lodges in chapter 16 which deal with the transmission and conservation of religious knowledge. Along with the proliferation of introductions to Islam, indeed supporting them, has been the dramatic increase in academic attention to all facets of Islam as a religious tradition, both medieval and modern, and Islam as a “field of study” in itself, that is, the investigation into its origins involving a radical revision of the traditional story of Muhammad's life and how the Quran came into being. Knysh does not embrace this latter approach. The bibliography does not mention Wansbrough (nor Schacht nor Goldziher) or those influenced by him such as Berg; however, Crone's Meccan Trade is listed but not Hagarism (with M. Cook). Burton's work on ḥadīth is included (and cited in chapter 6) but not his work on the Quran, although Rippin's edited volume on the history of Quran interpretation is included but not cited in chapter 5 on the Quran. The revisionist school is only alluded to in a footnote to the same chapter noting that “some scholars argue that the text of the Qur'an was recorded at a much later stage, while others insist that it was written down and edited by the Prophet already during his lifetime” (p. 85). From these descriptions the works of Wansbrough and Burton respectively are evidently intended. Knysh had probably decided their sceptical scholarly approach to the early Arabic sources which produced diametrically opposite views would be troublesome for undergraduate students. Daniel Brown attempted to discuss revisionist views of the Quran in his New Introduction to Islam (2004) and stated that Wansbrough's views (1977) were substantially irrefutable, but he then failed to discuss Burton's thesis published the same year which manifestly contradicted them. One interesting feature of Knysh's footnotes is the constant reference in fourteen of the twenty-five chapters to Marshall Hodgson's as yet unsurpassed three volumes The Venture of Islam (1974). In general, though, the reader is reliably guided to further reading by the chapter references and bibliography.

The book's structure is chronological and thematic. The first seven chapters cover pre-Islamic Arabia, the prophetic period, the early conquests under the “Rightly Guided” Caliphs, the fitna wars and rise of the Umayyads (which raise the thorny matters of “orthodoxy” and “heresy”. There follows a chapter each on the Quran and ḥadíth, ending with the rise of the multi-party opposition to the Umayyads. Chapters 8–16 survey first “the Abbasid revolution and beyond”, followed by separate treatments of the schools of law, theological debates, Twelver Shiism and Zaydism, the Ismailis, the origins of ascetic movements and early Sufism, later Sufi institutions, philosophy versus theology and the transmission of knowledge by the ulama in madrasas and Sufi lodges. Finally, the ethos of basic Islamic beliefs and practices are discussed together with Muslim rites of passage from birth to death. These chapters form the volume's rich core and are both highly readable and informative. The subsequent chapters (17, 18, 19) are most welcome treatments of Islamic art and architecture, the status of Muslim women, and Islam and the West from the Arab conquests to “The curious (and inexplicable) rise of the West”. The final five chapters cover the sixteenth century to the present, the challenge of European colonialism and modernity together with the varied Muslim responses to them ranging from reform and renewal, to liberalism and global jihadism. In sum, a formidable achievement.