"The Venture of Islam" has been honored as a magisterial work of the mind since its publication in early 1975. In this three-volume study, illustrated with charts and maps, Hodgson traces and interprets the historical development of Islamic civilization from before the birth of Muhammad to the middle of the twentieth century. This work grew out of the famous course on Islamic civilization that Hodgson created and taught for many years at the University of Chicago.

In the second work of this three-volume set, Hodgson investigates the establishment of an international Islamic civilization through about 1500. This includes a theoretical discussion of cultural patterning in the Islamic world and the Occident.

"This is a nonpareil work, not only because of its command of its subject but also because it demonstrates how, ideally, history should be written."--"The New Yorker

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作者簡介

馬歇爾‧哈濟生（Marshall G. S. Hodgson, 1922─1968）

美國重要的歷史學家，曾任美國芝加哥大學社會思想委員會主席。專精於伊斯蘭研究，並於芝加哥大學教授相關學科。他所撰寫的《伊斯蘭文明》在1975年才由友人彙整完成，出版後立即被視為該領域最具權威的經典之一，作者也因此被譽為美國最具影響力的伊斯蘭史學家。

哈濟生也於世界歷史領域耕耘不倦，曾撰寫多篇關於比較史學的短文，在1993年被劍橋大學出版社集結成冊，出版《世界歷史的再思考：歐洲、伊斯蘭及世界歷史研究文集》（Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam and World History）一書，哈濟生生前世界歷史的研究成果終為世人所見。