Introduction : The Near East before Islam -- The word of God and the kingdoms of men : The prophet and the book ; The successors ; The failure of the Umayyads -- The examination of the faith : An Orthodox Caliphate ; The reign of Ma'mun ; The Mu'tazilites -- The Islamic sciences : Philology as a sacred science ; The Islamic law ; From epic to history -- The reception of Hellenism : The arrival of Hermes ; Plato : From Athens to Islam ;The Syriac and Arabic Aristotle -- The foreign sciences : The mathematical sciences and geography ; The occult sciences ; Medical learning in Islam -- The search for the center : A Muslim Paideia ; A conscience for Islam : The early Sufis ; A new revelation : Falsafah ; Reaction and reform -- The ignorant city and the virtuous city : The dissolution of the Commonwealth ; The ideal polity : Farabi ; The Hellenic Enlightenment -- Islam transcendent : The evolution of Shi'ism ; The failed revolution ; The Isma'ilis ; The intentions of the philosophers : Ibn Sina -- Orthodoxy redeemed : Persians and Turks in Islam ; The custodians of the Caliphate ; The revitalization of the sciences of religion.
