Customer Reviews

Islam

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This is a wonderful introduction to the Islamic Empire and (to some extent) Islam itself. It's meant to be a companion to the PBS video "Islam: Empire of Faith." It covers the same time period (the first 1000 years of Islam), but doesn't have the same exact content as the video. There is some overlap, but not enough to make either the book or the video redundant. This book is written by a husband-and-wife team of professors (historians) at Boston College. This is not dry history, by any means, but a vivid description of Islam and its origins, practices, and political rule. It's not sensationalist and/or imbued with the "Islam as Enemy Number One" mentality that pervades so many modern books about Islam (many of which are written by journalists or other people not qualified to be writing about Islam, Muslims (American or not) and the Muslim world in the first place). It's just fascinating reading about the second largest religion in the world and how it built the most glittering civilization the world had ever seen. The authors themselves say that to understand Islam today, we must focus not on the misdeeds committed by a few in its name, but "appreciate its glorious history and achievements." It doesn't have much on Islamic beliefs and practices or Islam and politics: it really is mostly history. But it's history that puts Islam (modern and past) into perspective and that will (hopefully) help us Westerners put some of myths about Islam finally to rest.

This book is the companion to the PBS movie, Islam: Empire of Faith. I began reading this book, full of stereotypes against Islam. This book really opened my eyes. The whole History of Islam has been filled with misunderstanding. I would recommend this book to any person. It is extremely well written, and it would help anyone to better understand Islam!

Islam provides a powerful blend of religious insight and history, covering a thousand years of Islamic faith and power and exploring the first millennium of Islam culture from ancient to modern times. The world which gave birth to Islam is considered and the changes of Islamic tradition are followed in context with world changes and experiences through the centuries.

This book is suitable for readers who wish to get a good introduction to the history of Islam. A good point to note is that it does not incorporate the cliche biasness that the west perceives of the religion and its followers. If you wish to find stories about terrorism, PLO and Osama bin Laden then this is not the book for you, the closest you can get to that is the ancient assassin sect. From the book, one can appreciate how much Islam has enriched civilization! Also, I found it exceptionally interesting to discover so many English words that originated from Arabic which the author has included. However, at times, i do find the book a little fragmented and also there are times where I felt that the author just had not included enough information to satisfy. Nonetheless, a good read. Enjoy!

The golden first thousand years of Islamic history is the main subject here. It is a fascinating time, indeed. Unfortunately the story is told by these authors in writing as dry as the sands of Arabia. Every key event, from the rise of Muhammad to the Shia-Sunni split to the Ottomans, is described in the manner of a school report. With so many books out these days on Islam and its history, readers can afford to skip this one. The best part of this work is the illustrations. The photos in the inset are among the most beautiful I have seen in a while and keep the book from being a total washout.

The authors set out to counter negative views of Islam and encourage religious tolerance in the West. There is nothing wrong with this as such; boring readers to sleep will not assist the process however.

In trying to better understand Islam, I bought this book on Amazon and have found it to be quite good- excellent, in fact.

I was not looking for an in-depth scholarly work, but an overview and perspective. Mission accomplished. Each chapter is neatly organized into topical information that follows logically and neatly dovetails into the previous chapters.

The full color photographs are excellent- I truly wish more books would offer up such visuals as well as Bloom and Blair have in this book.

If you're looking for depth ad naseum, this isn't your book. But if you're looking for an interesting read with a reasonable index and reasonable "cast of characters" outlined both in the book and in the index, give this one a shot.

I ordered this book for a college course, and it was great front to back! Two chapters went more into detail than neccessary considering the "Golden Age" yet the book accurately describes the history of the Islamic World from the prophet Muhammed and before up to present day. A definate buy for those who want to know more about the history of the middle east concerning Islam.

This book was such a great book. It really shows some of the points that are not shown very often nowadays. It is a super read for anyone who doesn't know that much about Islam. I would tell everyone to go out and read this book, it shows the true Islam.

This book does not give an accurate or chronologicaly coherent description of the birth and rise of Islam. The authors of the book are not Islamic historians, they are art historians writing about an age and culture that did not produce significant works of art. To a person unfamiliar with Islam it seems complete and accurate.