BOOK REVIEW By: SAHINSHA P Dept. Aqeeda and Philosophy Islamic philosophy and theology W. Montgomery Watt Aldine Transaction, New Brunswik (USA), 2008 About the author: W. Montgomery Watt (1909-2006) was professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is author of numerous books, including Muslim-Christian encounters: perceptions and misperception, Islam; a short history, Muhammad’s Makkah and Islamic surveys: the influence of on medieval Europe. This book is part of series of Islamic studies by Britain to study namely ‘Islamic Surveys’. Each work in this series deals with special field connected with Islam discussing its history and the current status of the scholarship. This work notes history of Islamic philosophy and theology from its origin to the present day. Watt discusses the development of theology as part of the sectarianism in the Muslim world after demise of the prophet (PBUH). To him, the first years of Islamic caliphate was difficult to distinguish between politics and the theological movements as people used theology as their political tools even those days. The author firstly gives an account on major references of his topic. This note is broadly divided into three parts; Primary Materials, Secondary Materials and Modern Studies. The primary materials include the philosophy and theology. The secondary materials consist of heresiography, biography and history. The modern studies include the beginnings, theology and philosophy. He evaluates major works done, both by the western scholars and the Muslim scholars, in these topics. In some aspects, he is sad at lack of credible works on some topics. Moving to the book, it is divided in to five parts; Umayyad period, the First wave of Hellenism, the Second wave of Hellenism, the Period of darkness and the New dawn.