Customer Reviews

Armies of the Muslim Conquest (Men-at-Arms)

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Exactly what you expect from an author who is regarded as expert on the field. The book is very compact, presents colorful plates, and filled with historical facts to the very end of the limited 48 pages. Although it lacks in-depth discussion on several controversial themes, OSPREY MAA books were designed to give a general overview.

An important notice: several peoples will disagree on the outfit of Muslim Womens presented here, I suggest the author look for more accounts on the Prophet's (saw) Hadits before claiming such conclusions.

A nice introduction to the early armies of Islam that conquered an area greater then Rome. In fact, they managed to conquer Persia something that Rome could not. What is also surprising is that they did it so quickly and cheaply.

I particularly liked the illustrations and the maps.

Much better written about the sweep of the Islamic Armies that basically took over the near East from the Eastern Roman Empire. There is an added bonus in some great illustrations!

This book captures the true military might of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabs-who were not the barely-clad savages that countless old history books would have us believe. The plates reveal a surprising, but actually rather predictable, level of Romano-Byzantine and Sassanid influence on arms and armor.

This book offers a good start to understand what happened in the early conquests of Islam. However, in my opinion, the book merits 3 starts because at first, it lacks order. Information is, as I saw, very dispersed in the book. It would have been better to have subtitles allowing the reader to follow the ideas. Second, the book has very few maps showing the movements of the armies. Positive points in the book are its very interesting and highly detailed drawings. The author tries also to keep a neutral and objective tone towards Islamic civilization. In addition, he makes clear that women in Islam are seen as equal to men in dignity, and that they have the right to fight if they want. This shows that David Nicolle is not following the current hatred towards Islam shown by many other authors. In general, Armies of the Muslim Conquest is a good reference and worth its price.