“Late in the nineteenth century, Muslims, separated by distance, language, and history, first thought to make their world whole by assembling in congress. This pathbreaking study is the first to trace the roots of political activism in Islam as it took form in these gatherings. As though he himself were seated at the conference tables, Martin Kramer presents Islam’s inner dialogue, relating in these pages what Muslims have said in confidence about their modern predicament and the challenge of the West.

Kramer sets out to trace the congress idea through its earliest evolution, to examine in depth the first and largely unsuccessful initiatives, and to assess the congresses convened between the two world wars. In the course of his study he brings out the central theme of the congresses: the persistence of Muslim attachment to the political concepts of a united Islam, even as Muslim empire and caliphate waned.

Essential to any understanding of the worldwide crisis in Islam today, Islam Assembled explores for the first time the moment when Muslims first equated the sheer expanse of Islam with power in the modern world.”