A connected story of two civilisations, from the rise of Islam to the modern world.

The history of Islamic civilisation is often scattered across disconnected episodes: Arabs, Moors, Turks, Mughals, Mongols, Crusades, empires, colonisation, reform, and decline. LCI brings these fragments back into one larger story.

This page gathers our main resources on the history of Islam and the West: the face-to-face course, textbook materials, published book, video lectures, handouts, and resources for schools and madrassas.

A Story of Two Civilisations is the original LCI history course. It gives students a structured journey through Islamic and Western history from 622 CE to the modern world.

The course has previously run in Hounslow, High Wycombe, and Woking, and is designed for students who want serious, guided study with a teacher and a cohort. It is not simply a list of dates and dynasties. It is a way of learning how ideas, empires, economies, wars, religious movements, and political systems shaped the world we inherited.

• The Prophet, the Rashidun period, and the High Caliphate
• Umayyads, Abbasids, Baghdad, learning, law, and culture
• Crusades, Turks, Mongols, and Islamic successor states
• The rise of Europe, capitalism, colonialism, nationalism, and modern ideologies

The next course will be face-to-face at Royal Holloway University, starting Spetember 2026 - external students welcome.

Brief History of Islam and the West presents the story of Islamic and Western civilisation in a concise and accessible form. It begins with the rise of Islam and the formation of the Islamic Age, then places that story alongside the emergence of medieval Europe and the later rise of the modern West.

The work challenges the assumption that world history should be told mainly through European categories such as the "Middle Ages". Instead, it presents the period beginning in 622 CE as the Islamic Age or Islamic Millennium: a period in which Islamic civilisation led much of the world intellectually, culturally, politically, and militarily.

This book is for readers who want a clear overview of the long relationship between Islam and the West. It is suitable for students, teachers, parents, and anyone who wants to understand the past without losing sight of the present.