Customer Reviews

Civilization Past & Present, Combined Volume (11th Edition) (MyHistoryLab Series)

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Like most post-911 textbooks, the coverage of Islam has been revised in a way designed not to offend any Muslim. In doing so, however, truth can get sacrificed along the way. "The Prophet's new polity came into conflict with some of the Jewish tribes of Medina and the tribes were expelled" Is this the way of blaming the Jews for the Muslim conquest? It sure seems like the first step toward putting anti-Semitism in the book.

Mohammed is portrayed without blemish, however. "Even as a young man Mohammed came to be admired by his fellow Meccans as a sincere and honest person"

The Muslim conquests were not really conquests.. "The Muslims in Spain seem never to have had serious intentions of expanding their territorial hold across the Pyranees into what is now France, but they did engage in seasonal raids. One such raiding party was defeated by Charles Martel near Tours in 732" Charles Martel and the Franks had to work pretty hard not to be conquered by this "raiding party." Now instead of the decisive battle that preserved European civilization as non-Muslim, we have an unintentional raid.

Without a prior knowledge of any of this history, the student would certain get a skewed picture of the nature and expansion of Islam. We do not expect our textbooks to give us a religious history, we expect a critical history.