Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles)

No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the world’s fastest-growing faith is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.

The picture of Islam as a violent, backward, and insular tradition should be laid to rest, says Karen Armstrong, bestselling author of Muhammad and A History of God. Delving deep into Islamic history, Armstrong sketches the arc of a story that begins with the stirring of revelation in an Arab businessman named Muhammad. His concern with the poor who were being left behind in the blush of his society's new prosperity sets the tone for the tale of a culture that values community as a manifestation of God. Muhammad's ideas catch fire, quickly blossoming into a political empire. As the empire expands and the once fractured Arabs subdue and overtake the vast Persian domain, the story of a community becomes a panoramic drama. With great dexterity, Armstrong narrates the Sunni-Shi'ite schism, the rise of Persian influence, the clashes with Western crusaders and Mongolian conquerors, and the spiritual explorations that traced the route to God. Armstrong brings us through the debacle of European colonialism right up to the present day, putting Islamic fundamentalism into context as part of a worldwide phenomenon. Islam: A Short History, like Bruce Lawrence's Shattering the Myth and Mark Huband's Warriors of the Prophet, introduces us to a faith that beckons like a minaret to those who dare to venture beyond the headlines. --Brian Bruya

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Islam: A Short History No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular Western imagination as...	24 reviews	$4.60 Free Shipping Coupon 1 coupon available Code: Detail: Free shipping on the first item you order at HotBookSale.com Expires:Nov-22-2010 Restriction:Unknow	See it
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ProductReviews63/100 (100 Reviews)

Recent Reviews

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-18-2009; good standard stuff; Happy reading --- this is such a widely used book, it would be wrong to ignore it. It could do with a bit more freshening up so that it doesn't come across so densely but then I suppose, it would be a much longer book and that would...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Aug-29-2009; Islam; This was an excellent overview of the Islamic religion. It is a clearly written, easy to follow story of how the Moslem faith grew and changed over the years. An extremely complex subject written so readers who are not familiar with...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Aug-07-2009; A sound introduction.; Karen Armstrong, true to her usual form, gives a dense and fact-packed work that provides the reader with a wealth of information about the religion of Islam. Admittedly a "liberal apologist" for the religion, she is more sympathetic...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Aug-02-2009; Great Introduction; I'm surprised by the number of people who were angered by this book. Aren't there enough books on Islam and the Muslim religion that are negative and blast it? I don't know a lot about either, but this was a good introduction to a...; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-18-2009; good standard stuff; Happy reading --- this is such a widely used book, it would be wrong to ignore it. It could do with a bit more freshening up so that it doesn't come across so densely but then I suppose, it would be a much longer book and that would...; read full review | report as inappropriate

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Apr-14-2007; TBT; Excellent beginning and excellent ending, but the middle was quite dense and difficult to follow. I expected a short history to be more general, accessible, easy to read and obtain a broad picture of the religion. Instead, this short...; read full review | report as inappropriate

1/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jul-18-2009; Ridiculous Apologetics; Just a few points: Armstrong is not a specialist in anything Islamic, this leads into the next point - because she is not very familiar with the sources the book reads like it was culled from encyclopedia articles and skimmed secondary...; read full review | report as inappropriate