The Sociology of Islam is an interpretive account of Islam as a religion and civilization in world history and global society, which focuses on the notions of knowledge-culture, power and civility to provide key interpretive and analytic tools to practitioners. * The first substantial introduction to the field of the Sociology of Islam that combines theoretical reflections with historical analysis * Explores the original civilizational trajectory of Islam and its specific entry point into modernity * Develops a narrative and analytic thread that makes the 'dual' role of Islam - as a religion and civilization - comprehensible to non-specialists * Allows Islamic Studies specialists and students to locate the study of Islam in a comparative perspective with the help of simple, yet rigorous conceptual tools drawn from sociology and social theory * The author is a scholar of both the Sociology of Islam and Comparative Civilizational Analysis and ideally placed to write this text