The Islamic world—those countries where Islam is the dominant or most important religion— encompasses territories as far apart as Morocco, Indonesia, Somalia, and Bosnia, and includes a diverse range of societies and cultures. Charting the twentieth-century history of these societies, this book examines their common elements as well as their equally profound differences. Opening with a survey of the impact of colonialism and its attendant modernism on the Islamic world, the author explores—decade by decade—the issues surrounding the relationship between Islamic culture and civil society that have dominated debate through much of the last century.