Having worked for several decades in North Africa, anthropologist Lawrence Rosen is uniquely placed to ask what factors contribute to the continuity and changes characterizing the present-day Muslim world. In The Culture of Islam, he illuminates key aspects of Muslim life and demonstrates how central tenets of that life are being challenged and culturally refashioned. Both an antidote to simplified versions of Islam circulating today and a consistent story of the continuities that account for much of ordinary Muslim life, Rosen's work offers, in its human stories and its insights, its own contribution to the mutual understanding and forgiveness that alone will make true peace possible.