
Destiny Disrupted
A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
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Narrated by:
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Tamim Ansary
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By:
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Tamim Ansary
About this listen
“A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the Islamic world” (San Francisco Chronicle)
In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as it looks from a new perspective: with the evolution of the Muslim community at the center. His story moves from the lifetime of Mohammed through a succession of far-flung empires, to the tangle of modern conflicts that culminated in the events of 9/11. He introduces the key people, events, ideas, legends, religious disputes, and turning points of world history, imparting not only what happened but how it is understood from the Muslim perspective.
He clarifies why two great civilizations-Western and Muslim-grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe-a place it long perceived as primitive-had somehow hijacked destiny.
With storytelling brio, humor, and evenhanded sympathy to all sides of the story, Ansary illuminates a fascinating parallel to the world narrative usually heard in the West. Destiny Disrupted offers a vital perspective on world conflicts many now find so puzzling.
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Critic reviews
"Ansary has written an informative and thoroughly engaging look at the past, present and future of Islam. With his seamless and charming prose, he challenges conventional wisdom and appeals for a fuller understanding of how Islam and the world at large have shaped each other. And that makes this book, in this uneasy, contentious post 9/11 world, a must-read."
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W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1919
- Biography of a Race
- By: David Levering Lewis
- Narrated by: Courtney B. Vance
- Length: 28 hrs
- Unabridged
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This monumental biography by David Levering Lewis—eight years in the research and writing—treats the early and middle phases of a long and intense career: a crucial fifty-year period that demonstrates how W.E.B. Du Bois changed forever the way Americans think about themselves. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois—the premier architect of the civil rights movement in America—was a towering and controversial personality, a fiercely proud individual blessed with the language of the poet and the impatience of the agitator.
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Carthage Must Be Destroyed
- The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization
- By: Richard Miles
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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An epic history of a doomed civilization and a lost empire. The devastating struggle to the death between the Carthaginians and the Romans was one of the defining dramas of the ancient world. In an epic series of land and sea battles, both sides came close to victory before the Carthaginians finally succumbed and their capital city, history, and culture were almost utterly erased.
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Outstanding! This is THE book on Carthage.
- By Haakon B. Dahl on 01-21-13
By: Richard Miles
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A Training School for Elephants
- Retracing a Curious Episode in the European Grab for Africa
- By: Sophy Roberts
- Narrated by: Sophy Roberts
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa’s resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants—if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants.
By: Sophy Roberts
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Gaza in Crisis
- Reflections on the US-Israeli War Against the Palestinians
- By: Ilan Pappe, Noam Chomsky, Frank Barat - editor
- Narrated by: Shawn K. Jain
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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While numerous books address Israel-Palestine conflict, Gaza in Crisis brings together two renowned thinkers—American activist Noam Chomsky and Israeli historian Ilan Pappé—to examine why this conflict has lasted so long, who can stop it, and how. Israel's Operation Cast Lead, a 2008 military assault on the Gaza Strip, thrust the region to the center of the discussion. With expert knowledge and deep insight, Chomsky and Pappé survey the fallout from Israel's conduct in Gaza and place it in historical context.
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Excellent
- By Waleed Y. A. Sarhan on 04-29-25
By: Ilan Pappe, and others
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Ancestors
- Identity and DNA in the Levant
- By: Pierre Zalloua
- Narrated by: Sean Rohani
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In recent years, genetic testing has become easily available to consumers across the globe, making it relatively simple to find out where your ancestors came from. But what do these test results actually tell us about ourselves? In Ancestors, Pierre Zalloua, a leading authority on population genetics, argues that these test results have led to a dangerous oversimplification of what one’s genetic heritage means. Genetic ancestry has become conflated with anthropological categories such as “origin,” “ethnicity,” and even “race” in spite of the complexities that underlie these concepts.
By: Pierre Zalloua
What listeners say about Destiny Disrupted
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Chaim J.
- 05-02-25
You cannot know a person until you know how he sees himself.
I was enamored of the premise of this work from the moment I read its introduction. An Afghani kid from the US is going to explain the history of the world from the view of one of the other major cultures. I immediately imagined such a project for the Chinese world or the Indian.
I loved this book on my first read through, and when I saw that it was coming to audible I eagerly awaited its release. To a great extent it continues to inform my understanding of Arab, Turkish and Farsi attitudes in the modern world.
Although I of course disagree with the author’s understanding of the events since the start of the 20th century, this work is, by definition, one of perspective, and even that disagreement is, in a way, vindicating.
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