With all the narrative power and intellectual authority that have distinguished his earlier books, V.S. Naipaul explores the life, the culture, the ferment inside the nations of Islam – in a book that combines the fascinations of great travel literature with the insights of a uniquely sharp, original and idiosyncratic political mind.

He takes us into four countries in the throes of ‘Islamisation’ – countries that, in their ardour to build new societies based entirely on the fundamental laws of Islam, have violently rejected the ‘materialism’ of the technologically advanced nations that have long supported them. He brings us close to the people of Islam – how they live and work, the role of faith in their lives, and how they see their place in the modern world.