Machine generated contents note: Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part One: Historical Perspectives -- 1. Origins and early expansion -- 2. Islam's Growth into a Global Community -- 3. Politics and Contemporary Global Affairs -- Part Two: Religious Perspectives -- 4. Sacred Sources and their Interpretation -- 5. Essential Beliefs -- 6. Symbols, Rituals, and Religious Observances -- 7. Themes in Islamic Spirituality -- 8. Authority, Law and Ethics -- 9. Islam and Other Faiths -- Part Three: Cultural Perspectives - Learning and Communicating Islamic Values -- 10. Culture and Religion -- 11. Knowledge, Scholarship, and the Islamic Humanities -- 12. Aesthetics, Literature, the Visual and Spatial Arts -- Suggestions for Further Reading -- Global Timeline -- Glossary -- Index.