Late in the 19th century, Muslims, separated by distance, language, and history, first thought to make their world whole by assembling in congress. *Islam Assembled* traces the roots of political activism in Islam as it took form in these gatherings. From the first fitful initiatives undertaken by a handful of Muslim cosmopolitans to the era when the West began to divest itself of its Muslim possessions and the need for the congresses diminished, *Islam Assembled* traces in detail this crucial but previously untold story.