Originally published on May 19, 2025 (Episode 408)
Introduction
While Islam has often been characterized as unitary and unchanging—by both Muslims and Westerners, and for their own particular reasons—that has never been the case. And today’s world is no exception. Legalists and mystics debate; radical groups exist at the same time as Muslim feminists who advocate new interpretations of the Qur’an.
That Islam has always been diversity rather than unanimous is the core argument of John Tolan’s new book Islam: A New History, from Muhammad to the Present (Princeton, 2025). Ranging from new historical research on the earliest decades of the Muslim faith, he moves across centuries capturing the diversity and debate that have characterized the history of the youngest of the three great monotheistic religions. Its richness was fueled not just by religious debate, but by the great cultures with which Islam assimilated, engaged, and continually interacted across a vast territory.
About the Guest
John Tolan is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Nantes. His research and writing has focused upon the intellectual, religious, and cultural history of the medieval Mediterranean world, and on the legal status of religious minorities within medieval societies.
For Further Investigation
John Tolan, Islam: A New History, from Muhammad to the Present (Princeton, 2025)
—, England's Jews: Finance, Violence, and the Crown in the Thirteenth Century (Penn, 2023)
—, Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today (Princeton, 2019)
—, St. Francis and the Sultan: The Curious History of a Christian-Muslim Encounter (OUP, 2009)
Chase Robinson, Islamic Civilization in Thirty Lives (Thames & Hudson, 2016)
Related Episodes
Empire and Jihad: Neil Faulkner on the British Empire and Revolutionary Islam
The Damascus Events: Eugene Rogan on the 1860 Syrian massacre, and what resulted from it
Peerless Among Princes: Kaya Şahīn on Suleyman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Listen & Discuss
What surprised you most about the diversity of Islam across centuries? Does John Tolan’s account change how you think about religion as “fixed” or “fluid”? Share this episode with someone who thinks of Islam as monolithic—and start a better conversation.
