Islam: From the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople Volume 1: Politics and War [Paperback]

Bernard Lewis (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195050878 | ISBN-13: 978-0195050875 | Publication Date: June 4, 1987

This documentary history of Islam from the advent of the prophet Muhammed to the capture of Constantinople by Sultan Mehmed, the Conqueror, is concerned with a period that extends from the 7th century to 1453; with a region that stretches from Western Arabia to embrace the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia, tropical Africa, and southern and eastern Europe; and with people and states, which, amid many diversities, share a common acceptance of the faith and law of Islam. Bernard Lewis, a widely-known authority on the Middle East, here translates from original sources and documents works that present the sweeping civilization of Islam in all its vastness and glory.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Invaluable source of introductory primary source readings suitable for beginning students."--Judith Rood, Wayne State University

"Offer[s] 167 translated sections from over 110 sources....All have been translated by Bernard Lewis, arguably the premier orientalist in the world today....A very useful set of books."--Teaching History

"An excellent collection of sources in translation; 'must reading' for the beginner, as well as the specialist."--Avigdor Levy, Brandeis University

"Supplies a vital part of world history long lacking in Western scholarship on this period."--Christian Science Monitor

"A well-chosen, expertly translated selection of primary sources that reval nuances of the evolution of Islamic civilization that a secondary text cannot always convey."--Jane Hathaway, Ohio State University

"Constitutes a very important collection of original texts...and [makes them] accessible in their English version to American students."--Andrew S. Ehrenkreutz, University of Michigan

"A lively collection of primary sources."--William A. Graham, Harvard University

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Arabic

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 4, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195050878
• ISBN-13: 978-0195050875
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #975,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well measured and critical response, June 7, 2003

By 

Jeremy Davies (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Islam: From the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople Volume 1: Politics and War (Paperback)

This is not Bernard Lewis's best work, but it still retains the unbiased, scholarly yet readable style of his previous efforts. He is unflinching - which upsets many zealots - in his analysis and lacking in apologist platitudes, but without honesty, there can be no literature.

I hope he continues to document Middle Eastern history uneffected by political and religous fundamentalism. The literature of history needs him.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What early Muslims said about themselves, July 15, 2007

By 

Harry Eagar (Maui) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Islam: From the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople Volume 2: Religion and Society (Paperback)

This old reader -- published in 1974 as volume two of a set; volume one on history and battles, is out of print -- gains in interest with each passing explosion.

Muslim apologists detest Bernard Lewis (see the review of this volume by "A reader" for confirmation). Among the traditionalists, this is understandable. But the self-described moderates and modernizers dislike him just as much, not realizing what this says about the flimsiness of their modern mask.

What Muslims of so many opinions hate about Lewis is that he applies critical historical and linguistic methods to their myths. This threatens to be as corrosive of some of those myths as the same method was of Christianity, monarchism and any number of other myths where western scholars have used it.

Of all Lewis' books, "Islam" should be the most acceptable to them, since it consists almost entirely of translations, with very little -- insufficient, in my opinion -- commentary.

Most of these ancient documents were in Arabic, with a few in Turkish and Persian and a couple in Hebrew.

Lewis comments that the remains of written records from the early centuries of Islam are comparatively scanty, and what do exist have not been systematically collected and translated, unlike the huge compendiums of Greek and Latin.

It is impossible not to be impressed by the energy invested in spreading the doctrines of Mohammad so far and wide in the early years. Or not to marvel at how, within less than two centuries, the theologians managed to shut down further discussion. Christianity, by contrast, was just beginning to fight its doctrinal battles when it was 200 years old.

Plus, the Muslims had simultaneously to devise practical rules for government, whereas Christianity eventually just took over a functioning government and bureaucracy. Thus, the section on business is one of the longest in the book.

How this was done can be traced in the first two sections on religion and on "heresy and revolt." (In strict doctrine, as Lewis notes, Islam does not allow for heresy. In practice, it does.)

The remaining sections give a glimpse into how life was lived, whether in accordance with or in disregard for religion. There is travel literature; a very interesting section on Arab racism, which would appeal to any Nazi; something about relations between the sexes (almost entirely from the man's viewpoint); slavery.

Nothing about art and little about literature. There are only a few scraps of poetry, which is a bit of a surprise, since poetry is regarded by the Arabs as their supreme art, and it was also highly respected by Turks and Persians.

The last section is perhaps the most interesting. It includes selections from Arab and Persian joke books. These amount (sometimes) to a wry commentary on the doctrines exposed in the earlier sections. Reading them is rather like studying Russian jokes in the Communist era to learn what the masses really thought.

Among the insights I found in these extracts:

Female genital mutilation was, at this period, regarded by Arabs as an odd, alien custom of the Bujjas, an African people. (The Bujjas also excised young men's nipples, a practice not adopted by Muslims.)

Avicenna, the "great" Arab philosopher so admired by Christian Europe, was a self-proclaimed ignoramus.

Ibn Batutta, the much-admired traveler, was a raving Jew-hater and proud of it.

"The Arabs . . . never had a king who could . . . control their fools."

10 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bernard Lewis is a racist, anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab writer, February 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Islam: From the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople Volume 1: Politics and War (Paperback)

Bernard Lewis is a racist, anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab writer. I do not recommend any of his work. I find his work to be not accurate, and offensive.