A History of Islamic Societies (3rd Edition)
by Ira M. Lapidus · Cambridge University Press
The reference spine of the topic — consulted rather than read straight through, and the only current single volume covering the caliphates, the gunpowder empires and the modern states at real depth. A one-volume survey of Islamic societies from pre-Islamic Arabia to the twenty-first century, extending beyond the Middle East to Africa, South and Southeast Asia. The 2014 third edition runs about 1,000 pages and carries full scholarly apparatus.
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More resources on History of the Middle East & Islamic World
Internet Islamic History Sourcebook
Fordham University's free archive of public-domain primary sources on Islamic history: Qur'anic passages, hadith, chronicles, traveler accounts, treaties and modern political documents, organized chronologically from pre-Islamic Arabia through the Ottoman era to twentieth-century Middle Eastern affairs.
Ottoman History Podcast
Interview and lecture series running since 2011, featuring over 300 academic contributors on the Ottoman Empire, the modern Middle East and the wider Islamic world. A rare history podcast where the guest wrote the archival research being discussed, rather than a host summarizing secondary literature. Fifteen years of episodes give unusual coverage depth on periods the survey books compress. Episodes are indexed by region, period and theme, with reading lists attached.
Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire
A 700-page narrative history of the Ottoman Empire from its thirteenth-century Anatolian origins to its dissolution in 1923, built on Ottoman-language sources. Covers dynastic politics, military campaigns, administration and the nineteenth-century reform era.
The Arabs: A History (Revised and Updated Edition)
Covers the Arab world from the Ottoman conquests of the sixteenth century through European imperialism, Cold War rivalries and the Arab uprisings, drawing on Arab memoirs, poetry and journalism rather than only European archives. Its method — building the narrative from Arabic-language sources and first-person accounts — separates it from generic geopolitical summaries. Revised edition extends coverage to the mid-2010s.
A History of the Arab Peoples (Updated Edition)
Traces Arab history from the seventh-century Islamic conquests through Ottoman rule to the late twentieth century, weighting social structure, law, urban life and religious thought alongside politics. The 2010 edition adds an afterword by Malise Ruthven covering 1991 onward.