Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World (Cambridge Illustrated Histories)

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In an age of prejudice towards the Islamic faith, it is nice to see a more accurate and even-handed book covering the Muslim world. This book gives an excellent introduction, going into depth on how the west has viwed the Islamic world, and vice-versca. Then it goes onto the first chapter, where it discusses pre-Islamic Arabia, the life of Mohammad, the Rashidun, the schism between Sunni and Shi'a, and the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. This chapter is especially interesting in laying the framework for the foundations of the Islamic world, as well as the spread of Islam and Arabic culture, and later conversion of non-Arab peoples (most notably the Persians). In the next chapter, the Islamic world from 1000 to 1500 AD is covered, when Islam had spread across the Middle East, west to Spain and west Africa and east towards India and Central Asia. This chapter covers many interesting subjects, such as the Fatimid dynasty, the Crusades, the Mongols, Byzantium and the Turks, and Islamic states in East Asia and Africa. The third chapter covers the period from 1500 to 1800 AD, a period of both great achievements and decline. The Persian, Mongol and Turkish powers are mentioned (such as the Safavids, Mughals and Ottomans), alongside mention of Islam in Africa and elsehwere in Asia (mainly China and Southeast Asia).

The subsequent chapter focuses on the 1800s to the present day, and a growing western presence in Islamic lands. This chapter shows how European powers carved up Islamic lands (the French in Syria and north/west Africa, the Brits in Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and South Asia, the Italians in north Africa, Russians in central Asia, etc), and how Islamicist reformer movements arose because of this. Mention is also made of non-colonized states (such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran), and of the emergence of independant Islamic states. The second section of the book goes more into cultural studies, delving into economies, trade routes and social structure within the Islamic world. Mention is made of both historical traderoutes and interconnectedness in the Islamic world, stretching from Morocco to Indonesia, and of modern economies in predominantly Muslim states. In chapter seven, the book explores learning in Islamic societies. Mention is made of the high degree of literacy in Islam, and the many great scientific achievements in medicine, astronomy and mathematics. Mention is also made of the impact of the west on Islamic learning. This is followed by a chapter on the arts in the Islamic world, ranging from calligraphy to architecture to classical Arabic music (including mention of legendary Egyptian singer Umm Kalthum) and everything in between. This is an excellent chapter for understanding and appreciating Islamic culture.

The book closes out with a conclusion on Islam in the modern world, relationships with the west, the spread of Islam to every country in the world and crises in Bosnia, Palestine, Kashmir and Chechnya. It also has a wonderful timeline covering various Islamic dynasties around the world and a short glossary of Arabic terms. Its quite a nice book for getting to understand some of the basic history and culture of the Islamic world and some of the current issues facing the Islamic world. For the purposes of this book, by the way, the Islamic world counts as any country where the majority of the population is Muslim, not just self-declared Islamic states (which would be limited to Iran, Pakistan, Mauritania and such). Hence it covers almost all of the Middle East, north Africa, Central Asia and much of South Asia, as well as Bosnia, Albania, parts of west and east Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and so forth. In fact, the book makes a point of examining Islam in South Asia, Africa, China and elsewhere beyond the Middle East. It also includes many illustrations and maps of the Islamic world. Hence its an invaluable aid for anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, in understanding the wonderful history and culture of Islam. However, it doesn't go into depth on beliefs or specific cultures (such as Arabs, Persians, Malay, Mongols and whatnot), so you would need to look elsewhere for that.

This book is published by the Cambridge University Press and is this promoted, implicitly at least given it title, as an authoritative reference work. It may have great merits as a work of political literature, but it is disappointing as a reference work of history, and it is a surprise to this reader that the Cambridge University Press has apparently lowered its editorial and professional standards so much. There are other works in the Cambridge Illustrated History series that easily meet the normal standards of such a reference work, for example the volume on China.

Two examples of the limitations of this book give a representative picture of its shortcomings. First, in the Introduction, the editor uses the term "heresy" to describe how "western eyes" view the attack of some muslims on the achievements of the Enlightenment. Much of the book seems to be a partisan argument defending one particular, and extreme, muslim doctrine against a particular, and also extreme, non-muslim viewpoint. Leaving aside the question of whether this approach suits a work that is positioned as an authoritative reference book, the choice of the term "heresy" here is unfortunate, and one feels prompted to wonder whether the term was picked deliberately to obscure the main point of the enlightenment, which was to move from revealed religion to rational or scientific exploration of questions where possible. This kind of confusion will happen in the choice of words occasionally in even the best writing, but it is pervasive in this book.

The second example is found a few pages later, in relation to women. The text states that the freedom enjoyed by women in the West has on the whole produced shock among muslim men, and that this freedom "led to moral degeneration." Had the text quoted these words -- " 'led to moral degeneration ' " -- to mean that either this view was stated by some muslim or that the editor takes it to represent an opinion, that could be acceptable in a reference work, but written as an assertion, i.e. a statement of fact or of the author's best impartial judgement, it moves the book from being a reliable reference work to being a polemic or worse.

It is hard to say whether the book's poor quality in many places is as a result of very low standards of editing and writing, or whether the book has a narrow and, one hopes, minority agenda. Some chapters are very good, but on the whole this is not the book that it claims to be, and the potential buyer's money is probably better saved for a different title. It is to be hoped that the management of the CUP will ensure a much better work in the next edition.

Bought this book for my husband who was taking a college course in Islamic Art and Architecture. This book was comprehensive and quite useful to him. We purchased a used copy that was in excellent condition and delivered quickly.

Would recommend for content, quality and service.

Lapidus has assembled a set of authors to write this nicely done summation of the Muslim world. Well accompanied by numerous photos of current Islamic architecture. From Spain to Arabia and further. Plus, there are also centuries-old illustrations of important personages. Notwithstanding the Koranic prohibition against the depiction of the human form. Apparently, in many Muslim societies, that was not strictly adhered to, especially for rulers who wanted their visages immortalised.

The book covers both the history and the current state of these societies. Several authors appear to be Muslim, and certainly the tone of the book is strongly sympathetic towards Muslims. Though the book also makes us aware that there is a great variety of opinions and customs amongst Muslims. Not a monolithic bloc.

Plus, the long tradition of Muslim scholarship is explained. It helped preserve knowledge when Europe fell into the Dark Ages.

I am sorry to say that I wish I had never purchased this book, or even read it. To begin with, it is illustrated with pornography (one entire page of a half naked woman painted by a Frenchman, and a cartoon of a man reading pornography!). Instead of providing actual quotes from authentic material, with some important exceptions such as an excellent discussion of Sakhawi's biography of Umm Hani, one of his female teachers, the authors mostly rely on illustrations which fill the bulk of the book's pages (if the illustrations were removed, you would have half the book, and not more than a fifth of these are actually necessary). Each chapter is hardly more than an essay, and a look into the Muslim world from the outside in through murky glass as best. This oversimplified history of the Muslim world does not allow as much space for it's discussion of the life and call of Prophet Muhammad (Sal Allaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) from his birth to the Hijra as it gave the pornography mentioned above. The four schools of jurisprudence and their development is completed in one paragraph, the Hanbali madhab is completely distorted as the author of the particular section does not distinguish between creed and jurisprudence, not to mention completely ignores important works of 'Aqeedah or creed, or difference in, which is a fundamental part of Islamic history. Texts quoted such as hadiths are often translated inaccurately, and the one illustrative example given of a hadeeth fails to include the chain of narrators. Western scholars and modernists are cited as criticizing the authenticity of certain well-known narrations, seemingly accusing the Muslim scholarship of being lenient. In reality, the authors themselves cite hadiths throughout the book without mentioning their authenticity or even the book from which they are quoted, while the Muslim scholars of hadith, past and present, are far more critical than any modernist or western author. Beyond a halfhearted attempt to summarize the scholarship of Ahl as-Sunnah, or the Islamic orthodoxy, the book jumbles together Shi'a and Sufi misunderstandings, and portrays the latter as being nearly mainstream, and are represented even on the cover of the book. No references as given whatsoever as the book carries on by means of footnotes or otherwise, instead the book ends with an exhaustive bibliography of mainly recent western scholarship which would hardly further enlighten the reader. Resultantly, the authors portray their own effort as condescending and ethnocentric, much more than having any semblance of true research or scholarship.