Customer Reviews

Islam: The Straight Path Updated with New Epilogue, 3rd edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Many books these days claim to give readers "a true depiction," of Islam, but most of them fail to live up to their promise. "Islam:The Straight Path," is an exception to that rule.

Esposito's book is the most objective overview on Islamic beliefs published, and is required reading for any one who wants to understand prevalent beliefs and virtues held in esteem, embraced and practiced by Islamic societies in countries across the world - not only where Islam is the dominant religion, but also in countries such as the US and UK where Islam is a religion of a minority. Esposito highlights how the interpretation and articulation of values may differ depending on cultural settings.

This book is often a standard core text for survey courses on Islamic societies, Islamic history and basic relgion courses for good reason. It is comprehesive in its analysis and provides a great wealth of information in very accessible form. No serious student of world affairs or religious dialogue can afford to ignore this book.

Esposito does a good job writting an introduction to Islam. This is a worthwhile educational piece for non-Muslims and Muslims alike.

Esposito does a fine job of relating Islam to the lay person. His text is easy to read, the definitions are solid and he dispells much of the myth surrounding Islam. The newest text references 9/11 and the radical sects which have surfaced since then.

I would highly recommend this text to teachers and students alike; as well as those who are simply looking for a way to properly understand the history, beliefs and laws of Islam.

This is a scholarly written introductory book to anyone like me who is curious about Islam. The book can be generally broken down into four parts. The first part talks about the history of Islam.

The second part talks about the belief and practice of this religion. I think for the readers out there who is looking for an in-depth treatment of Islam as a religion, this book is not the right book but it should be a good starting point. At least certain concepts such as 'jihad' and veiling are discussed in detail.

The third and final sections of the book talks about the evolution of Islam through time till present day. Some aspects are rather repetitive (for example, the characteristics of ulama has been mentioned several times), but overall, you get to know the differences between Sunni and Shii, what internal struggles Islam is (or has been) going through, as well as how and why Islam is so tightly integrated to politics and life.

Overall this is a readable (although it can be slightly dry sometimes) and reliable book. My only criticism is that, in the chapters where the modern Islam countries are discussed, for some reasons unknown, countries like Iraq, Syria and Palestine have been completely left out. This is quite a big omission as these countries have huge impact in the Middle East (and evolution of Islam in general).

A good introduction to Islam and it's history. The author explains the orgins and core beliefs of the relgion. The development of Islam is presented within its social and cultural context (which is how I think most religions should be studied but is especially important in Islam since it is incoporated into every aspect of a Muslim's life), and shows how it both influened the cultures it appeared it and was influenced by them. I didn't notice any bias one way or the other.

The names of significant figures, leaders and groups are listed and its a little hard to keep straight. The author had a tendancy to repeat certain phrases and sentences from earlier sections almost word for word, which I found annoying but probably wouldn't bother most readers :)

This book is for everyone that wants to learn about Islam and its diversity. There is no bias tainting this work, just sound scholalry research.

Great book. I would recommend it for those who are interested in learnung about the history of Islam. It was extremly informative.

For me, the credibility of this book was destroyed on page 6. Esposito states, referring to the late sixth century, "Central Arabia was emerging was emerging as a major commercial power, sitting astride important trade routes that extended from Africa across the Middle East to China and Malaysia." This was long before the era of long distance ocean-going shipping. Due to lack of rainfall, nothing much grows around Mecca. What did the people there eat? Arabia is south of any European and Middle Eastern centers of civilization, not between obvious trading partners. And what on earth was traded? Logically it had to be very high value material, to cover high transportation costs. What was it? Esposito doesn't say. In looking into these matters, I discovered that others had had similar questions, in particular Patricia Crone, who had examined these issues and wrote a book about her findings, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam which concludes that there is no evidence anything was traded through Mecca in this period. Indeed there is no evidence that Mecca even existed in this period. Esposito does not list Crone's book in his bibliography. Esposito's book may well tell you what Muslims believe, if that's what you want to know, but it is too biased to be a textbook.

It took close to a month for me to finally receive this book. I needed it for class, however, it didn't arrive until after my midterm. My advice, order from a different vendor even if it's more expensive. I just want to add, this is my first time writing a negative review and I order plenty of products through Amazon. The fact that I'm expressing my frustration says a lot.

This man is on the payroll of Saudi Arabia and by Palestinian Business men who hate Jews and the West. He is the Middle East's puppet. Beware of this mans writing. He is nothing but a shill for the Jihadis. You will find no truth here, only the fifth column. Georgetown University should be ashamed to have this man on staff.