Muslim Territory. The most obvious challenge to gaining an overview of daily life among Muslims during the almost nine centuries between 622 and 1500 is the size and diversity of the territory where Muslims lived. During this period Islam expanded northward and eastward into the vast Asian steppe and began to spread to tropical islands in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. Islam extended as far west as Spain, as far east as Southeast Asia, as far north as the Caucasus, and as far south as sub-Saharan West Africa and equatorial east Africa. Landscapes in this vast region range from arid desert and steppe to rain-fed cultivated areas in the North African Sahara, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia. It includes the Mediterranean climates and coastal lands in North Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the Levant, as well as mountainous regions of...