Islamic studies presents severe challenges even to an experienced specialist. Many of these are technical in nature; multitude of languages needed to read both sources and modern scholarship, the vast number of major texs still in manuscript, the poor of libraries and archives. But more important is the diffi culty of grasping the subject as a whole,of developing a clear sense of broad themes and concepts through which this sprawling and underdeveloped fi eld of study can be bound together. This written is to propose some of the lines of inquiry and research strategies which might be used to construct a persuasive and well-integrated synthesis of the Islamic past.