Formative Period of Islamic Thought

William Montogmery Watt is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of over thirty books and has done much to create a more positive attitude towards Islam in the West.

• Part 1 The beginnings: the Kharaijites; Proto-Shi'ite phenomena under the Umayyads; the general religious movement; God's determination of events; faith and community. Part 2 The century of struggle (750-850): the establishment of the 'Abbasids; the attraction of reasoning; the great Mu'tazilites. Part 3 The triumph of Sunnism; the political background; the maturing of Sunnite theology.