An anecdote-filled study of the Islamic world and its global impact told through 15 of its greatest cities. Review by Peter Frankopan

Source: The Times

I am embarrassed to be an Arab these days,” says one of Justin Marozzi’s friends at the start of this excellent, authoritative and illuminating book. “Everywhere you look there’s chaos, fighting, bloodshed, dictatorship, corruption, injustice, unemployment. The only thing we’re leading the world in is terrorism.”

Marozzi’s aim in Islamic Empires is not to offer a corrective to his friend’s view, or to explain how or why perceptions and realities of the Arab world have developed as they have. Rather, it is … expositions and full treatments that would help explain why time marched on in

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