This collection of 9 essays focuses on instances in world history when cosmopolitan ideas and actions pervaded specific Muslim societies and cultures. The contributors explore the tensions between regional cultures, isolated enclaves and modern nation-states.

Cosmopolitanism is a key concept in social and political thought, standing in opposition to closed human group ideologies such as tribalism, nationalism and fundamentalism. Recent discussions of it have been situated within Western self-perceptions. Now, this volume explores it from Muslim perspectives.

Derryl N. MacLean's profile page

Sikeena Karmali Ahmed's profile page

Derryl N. MacLean is Director of the Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures, and Associate Professor in the Department of History at Simon Fraser University, Canada. He is author of Religion and Society in Arab Sind (Brill, 1989). Sikeena Karmali Ahmed is Manager of Publications at Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations. She has co-edited two books, Islam between Message and History and The Challenge of Pluralism: Paradigms from Muslim Contexts, both of which have been published in partnership by AKU-ISMC and Edinburgh University Press. She has also written a collection of poetry entitled Places to Remember and an award-winning novel entitled A House by the Sea.