The book Islam and the West by the famous British orientalist B. Louis, who was awarded the honorary title of “doyen of Middle Eastern studies” among his colleagues, is a collection of 11 scientific essays on the relationship between two civilizations: Muslim and defined depending on the era as Christian, European or Western. The essays are grouped under three main themes. The first is devoted to the historical and contemporary interaction between Europe and its southern and eastern neighbors, in particular the current problem of the emergence of large Muslim minorities in Western countries. The second theme is the complex and contradictory process of understanding each other, which never stopped between the two cultures. This raises an important question about the tasks, boundaries and rules of comprehending “alien” history. The third theme contains four problems: Islamic religious revival; the place of Shiism in the history of Islam, which especially attracted attention after the revolution in Iran; the perception and development of the Western idea of patriotism by Muslim peoples; possibilities of coexistence and dialogue between religions. The book will be of interest not only to oriental scholars, but also to teachers and students of the humanities and anyone interested in the issues of interaction between Middle Eastern and Western civilizations.