Pt. 1. Islam & empire 600-850 : Muhammad, the prophet (632) ; 'Ali: cousin, caliph and forefather of Shi'ism (661) ; 'A'isha: wife of the Prophet (678) ; 'Abd al-Malik: engineer of the caliphate (705) ; Ibn al-Muqaffa': translator and essayist (759) ; Rabi'a al-'Adawiyya: renunciant and saint (801) ; al-Ma'mun: caliph-patron (833)
Pt. 2. The Islamic commonwealth 860-1050 : 'Arib: courtesan of caliphs (890) ; al-Hallaj: 'the Truth' (922) ; al-Tabari: traditionalist rationalist (923) ; Abu Bakr al-Razi: free-thinking physician (925 or 935) ; Ibn Fadlan: intrepid envoy (fl. tenth century) ; Ibn Muqla: vizier, scribe, calligrapher? (940) ; Mahmud of Ghazna: conqueror and patron (1030) ; al-Biruni: cataloguer of nature and culture (c. 1050)
Pt. 3. A provisional synthesis 1050-1250 : Ibn Hazm: polemicist, polymath (1064) ; Karima al-Marwaziyya: hadith scholar (1070) ; al-Ghazali: 'Renewer' of Islam (1111) ; Abu al-Qasim Ramisht: merchant millionaire (c. 1150) ; al-Idrisi: cosmopolitan cartographer (1165) ; Saladin: anti-Crusader hero (1193) ; Ibn Rushd (Averroes): Aristotelian monotheist (1198)
Pt. 4. Disruption & integration 1250-1525 : Rumi: Sufi 'poet' (1273) ; Rashid al-Din: physician, courtier and global historian (1318) ; al-Hilli: paragon of Shi'ism ascendant (1325) ; Ibn Taymiyya: stubborn reactionary (1328) ; Timur: sheep-rustler, world-conqueror (1405) ; Ibn Khaldun: social theorist and historian (1406) ; Mehmed II: conqueror and renaissance man (1481) ; Shah Isma'il: esoteric charismatic (1524).
