Islam
A Short History [Modern Library Chronicles]
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Narrated by:
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Richard M. Davidson
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By:
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Karen Armstrong
About this listen
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In the tradition of Jared Diamond and Jacques Barzun, prize-winning historian Anthony Pagden presents a sweeping history of the long struggle between East and West, from the Greeks to the present day.
The relationship between East and West has always been one of turmoil. In this historical tour de force, a renowned historian leads us from the world of classical antiquity, through the Dark Ages, to the Crusades, Europe's resurgence, and the dominance of the Ottoman Empire, which almost shattered Europe entirely. Pagden travels from Napoleon in Egypt to Europe's carving up of the finally moribund Ottomans - creating the modern Middle East along the way - and on to the present struggles in Iraq.
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Great story, with a lot of unfamiliar names
- By Tad Davis on 07-02-08
By: Anthony Pagden
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Lost Islamic History
- Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past
- By: Firas Alkhateeb
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social, and political forces in history. Over the last 1,400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities, and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists, and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen, and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions.
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Excellent narration
- By Jamal on 06-19-22
By: Firas Alkhateeb
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The History of the Sunni and Shia Split
- Understanding the Divisions within Islam
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 1 hr and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Different branches of the same religion are the exception more than the rule, and they have had a profound impact upon history. The schism between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches influenced relationships between nations across Europe, and religious intolerance based on different Christian faiths led to persecution and outright violence across the continent for centuries.
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Excellent preface to making sense of intl news.
- By MolllyT on 07-16-15
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The Lost History of Christianity
- The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church --- and How It Died
- By: Philip Jenkins
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Lost History of Christianity will change how we understand Christian and world history. Leading religion scholar Philip Jenkins reveals a vast Christian world to the east of the Roman Empire and how the earliest, most influential churches of the East---those that had the closest link to Jesus and the early church---died. In this paradigm-shifting book, Jenkins recovers a lost history, showing how the center of Christianity for centuries used to be the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, extending as far as China.
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Worthwhile with caveats
- By Telorast on 03-05-13
By: Philip Jenkins
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Destiny Disrupted
- A History of the World through Islamic Eyes
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Until about 1800, the West and the Islamic realm were like two adjacent, parallel universes, each assuming itself to be the center of the world while ignoring the other. As Europeans colonized the globe, the two world histories intersected and the Western narrative drove the other one under. The West hardly noticed, but the Islamic world found the encounter profoundly disrupting.
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A history of the world before the West mattered
- By David on 05-05-14
By: Tamim Ansary
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Lost Kingdom
- The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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From a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prizewinning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialism. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine - only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the confluence of Russian imperialism and nationalism today by delving into the nation's history.
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More like a history of Languages spoke in Russia.
- By kucherv on 10-24-17
By: Serhii Plokhy
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A History of Christianity
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 28 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1976, Paul Johnson's exceptional study of Christianity has been loved and widely hailed for its intensive research, writing, and magnitude. Weaving a great range of material, the scholar and author Johnson creates an ambitious panoramic overview of the evolution of the Western world since the founding of a little-known "Jesus sect".
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Read Brant Pitre's the case for Jesus instead.
- By Catherine BFT on 05-08-17
By: Paul Johnson
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Christianity
- The First Three Thousand Years
- By: Diarmaid MacCulloch
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 46 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Once in a generation, a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read or heard - a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Breathtaking in ambition, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith.
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Bias
- By David Danielson on 10-04-10
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The most important book you haven’t read yet
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Great recasting of how God should be interpreted
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The Qur'an
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Not quite enough
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Islamic History
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Does history matter? This book argues not that history matters, but that Islamic history does. This very short introduction introduces the story of Islamic history; the controversies surrounding its study; and the significance that it holds - for Muslims and for non-Muslims alike. Opening with a lucid overview of the rise and spread of Islam, from the seventh to 21st century, the book charts the evolution of what was originally a small, localized community of believers into an international religion with over a billion adherents.
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Not good as an audio book
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down to the man
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Fills in the blanks
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The Battle for God
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In the late 20th century, fundamentalism has emerged as one of the most powerful forces at work in the world, contesting the dominance of modern secular values and threatening peace and harmony around the globe. Yet it remains incomprehensible to a large number of people. In The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong brilliantly and sympathetically shows us how and why fundamentalist groups came into existence and what they yearn to accomplish.
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The most important book you haven’t read yet
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Great recasting of how God should be interpreted
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Not quite enough
- By Leigh A on 06-27-07
By: Bruce Lawrence
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Islamic History
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Not good as an audio book
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Since the beginning of time, humankind has looked upon nature and seen the divine. In the writings of the great thinkers across religions, the natural world inspires everything from fear, to awe, to tranquil contemplation; God, or however one defined the sublime, was present in everything. Yet today, even as we admire a tree or take in a striking landscape, we rarely see nature as sacred.
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More of a political piece than a spiritual one
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The First Muslim
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Muhammad's was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance, yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality. Hazleton's account follows the arc of Muhammad's rise from powerlessness to power, from anonymity to renown.
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Can't get past the narrator
- By Robert Horan on 06-18-17
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Karen Armstrong believes that while compassion is intrinsic in all human beings, each of us needs to work diligently to cultivate and expand our capacity for compassion. Here, in this straightforward, thoughtful, and thought-provoking book, she sets out a program that can lead us toward a more compassionate life.
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An Accessible, Digestible Manifesto About Kindness
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The Lost Art of Scripture
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In this timely and important audiobook, one of the most trusted and admired writers on the world of faith examines the meaning of Scripture. The sacred texts have been co-opted by fundamentalists, who insist that they must be taken literally, and by others who interpret Scripture to bolster their own prejudices. These texts are seen to prescribe ethical norms and codes of behavior that are divinely ordained: They are believed to contain eternal truths. But as Karen Armstrong shows, such a narrow, peculiar reading of Scripture is a relatively recent, modern phenomenon.
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Good religious history; complete recording
- By Claudia on 02-03-20
By: Karen Armstrong
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No god but God
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- By: Reza Aslan
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Though it is the fastest growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded by ignorance and fear. What is the essence of this ancient faith? Is it a religion of peace or war? How does Allah differ from the God of Jews and Christians? Can an Islamic state be founded on democratic values such as pluralism and human rights? A writer and scholar of comparative religions, Reza Aslan has earned international acclaim for the passion and clarity he has brought to these questions.
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Informative and Interesting!
- By Kate on 03-14-12
By: Reza Aslan
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A Peace to End All Peace
- The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
- By: David Fromkin
- Narrated by: David de Vries
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- Unabridged
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The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War. Author David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies drew lines on an empty map that remade the geography and politics of the Middle East. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all seemed possible, he delivers in this sweeping and magisterial book the definitive account of this defining time.
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Still A Great Book On The Topic
- By Nostromo on 02-03-19
By: David Fromkin
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Arabs
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- By: Tim Mackintosh-Smith
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This kaleidoscopic book covers almost 3,000 years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances. Tracing this process to the origins of the Arabic language, rather than the advent of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith begins his narrative more than a thousand years before Muhammad and focuses on how Arabic, both spoken and written, has functioned as a vital source of shared cultural identity over the millennia.
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Good book bad narration
- By Anonymous User on 09-18-19
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The Lost History of Christianity
- The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church --- and How It Died
- By: Philip Jenkins
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
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The Lost History of Christianity will change how we understand Christian and world history. Leading religion scholar Philip Jenkins reveals a vast Christian world to the east of the Roman Empire and how the earliest, most influential churches of the East---those that had the closest link to Jesus and the early church---died. In this paradigm-shifting book, Jenkins recovers a lost history, showing how the center of Christianity for centuries used to be the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, extending as far as China.
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Worthwhile with caveats
- By Telorast on 03-05-13
By: Philip Jenkins
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Lost Islamic History
- Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past
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Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social, and political forces in history. Over the last 1,400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities, and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists, and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen, and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions.
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Excellent narration
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By: Firas Alkhateeb
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The Bible Unearthed
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In this iconoclastic and provocative work, leading scholars Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman draw on recent archaeological research to present a dramatically revised portrait of ancient Israel and its neighbors. They argue that crucial evidence (or a telling lack of evidence) at digs in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon suggests that many of the most famous stories in the Bible - the wanderings of the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, and David and Solomon’s vast empire - reflect the world of the later authors.
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Quite Eye Opening
- By K. Walker on 10-11-22
By: Neil Asher Silberman, and others
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1453
- The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley's listenable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmed II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Constantine XI, the 57th emperor of Byzantium, illuminates the period in history that was a precursor to the current jihad between the West and the Middle East.
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A well written narrative with bizarre and biased commentary
- By Patrick D. Flynn on 08-17-17
By: Roger Crowley
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The Ornament of the World
- How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
- By: Maria Rosa Menocal, Harold Bloom - foreword
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Widely hailed as a revelation of a "lost" golden age, this history brings to vivid life the rich and thriving culture of medieval Spain, where, for more than seven centuries, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance, and literature, science, and the arts flourished.
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Excellent Book
- By Zahid Ahmad on 08-14-18
By: Maria Rosa Menocal, and others
What listeners say about Islam
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Ammar
- 07-16-05
Well done!
This review is of the paper edition.
A well written history that will explain plenty to someone who wants to know more about Islamic history. This is not an in-depth study but an easy read. I only wish more Muslims would read it, I think the book would be an eye opener for them too.
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11 people found this helpful
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- J.L.
- 07-17-15
Narrator ruined this book
This was a good short history of Islam, that perhaps gave a generous interpretation of some parts of its history.
The narrator, however, consistently mispronounced the most common Arabic words and phrases. Yes it's a foreign language. But how can you keep pronouncing the name 'Hussein' as Hu-sign? And that wasn't the worst of it. His pronunciation was totally distracting and I sometimes got the feeling he was doing it on purpose; no one could be that ignorant. Karen Armstrong deserves better.
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- Ishraf
- 06-16-17
Great history, tying it to current day lives
wonderfully covered history from the perspective of both Muslims and non Muslims. lessons derived and applied to the lives of today. some are companies about the pronunciation but I thought they were clear and totally fine. great listen. very insightful.
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- robert n berkeley
- 07-30-15
Very good book. Breaks it down for the casual reader and anyone else for that matter.
Right on, right on, right on! This was a very good book. It spoke to me like a story and Armstrong is a very good storyteller
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-26-15
Wonderful work of religous devotion.
If you could sum up Islam in three words, what would they be?
Armstrong's elegant prose and attention to detail asks us to see Islam from inside itself as the preeminent faith of peace and beneficence without the encumbrances of historical positivism. Armstrong's weighs each measure of the Islamic history with marvelous sympathy and pathos on its protagonists. For the Muslim reader, Armstrong's work will provide immeasurable source of comfort and strength. As a pragmatic work of apologetics, its shines and delights. The sole shortcoming of this work would be those who would prefer a purely historical and unfiltered work informed by all logically available sources including those that are unsympathetic to its message. Some readers will be disappointed in mistaking Armstrong's fine work of evangelical and religious devotion for a investigation of historical evidence.
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- J**********
- 08-21-06
Read the Book, pass on the audible!
The book is an excellent book. I have read several of Karen Armstrong's books and find them important in today's happenings. However the narrator is dreadful! He is dull and annoying! I agree with others, he has mangled pronounciation of names and terms and it is very difficult to listen to the book, knowing the correct pronounciation. It took me awhile to figure out he was talking about the Shia's when he was saying, "Shure-RIa" and "Shure-ease" Read the book and ask the publisher to get another reader to do the book justice.
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19 people found this helpful
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- JerryT
- 07-23-05
Typical Armstrong - Always Good
One of the pre-eminent religious historians, perhaps the only writer who deserves that title, Armstrong provides a brief and concise history of Islam. Regretably Audio.com does not yet have her "Jerusalem" or other works (other than the excellent brief histor of The Buddha which is available). The fact that this is a "short history" in no way suggests it is historically incorrect or incomplete. Considering all of the trash about Islam published after 9-11 this book tells a simple and history of Islam which is *historically* correct. In many ways she walks in the footsteps of Barbara Tuchman, an historian to was concerned with the facts and in telling them in an interesting way. An excellent audio book and well narrated. And no I'm not a Moslem. I admire good and accurate history without all the political prejudice which seems popular with the current "history" being written. If fables and political viewpoints are your idea of "history" look elsewhere.
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16 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Mark Adams
- 02-18-07
Somewhat apologetic
Karen Armstrong's history of Islam reads like a fairy tale, and that's the problem. One senses that the Islam she presents is not the one readily accepted by most Muslims. Often speaking of the original spirit or intent of the religion, Armstrong leaves this reader/listener is left wondering how she knows what runs contrary to early Islamic belief or what complements the original spirit of Islam. It would have been nice to have the book before me, but it does not appear that she allows the sources to speak for themselves. Instead, the reader/listener is confronted with a series of generalizations and overstatements, particularly concerning Mohammed.
The apologetic tone of the book is frustrating. If Muslims are attacked, they are victims. If Muslims make war, they felt threatened. Not that the author defends aggression by any group, but she seems to slant history in favor of Muslims. Some of her assertions about Mohammed are extraordinary, particularly that he "single-handedly" ended the system of reprisals and vendettas in Arabia (Mohammed led reprisals and vendettas! and they seem to continue after his death).
She frames the story of Islam in the context of modernity, which is interesting and worth examining more closely. She sees the conflict between the West and Islam as being one between a modern society and an agrarian culture unable to keep pace.
The overall thesis of her book, that Islam is not an inherently intolerant religion, is, however, compelling. Islam is often presented as a wholly intolerant religion--which may be true in very many instances, but not comprehensively.
It would be interesting to read a Muslim response to her many assertions. (I don't know what religious persuasion Armstrong is, but she appears to be very liberal.)
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Iowa Girl
- 08-03-07
Armstrong's Islam
Armstrong's picture of Islam is illuminating and insightful. Her discussion of fundamentalism in general is valuable.
Unfortunately, the recording suffers from a reader who didn't bother to learn to pronounce either the Arabic or the religious vocabulary. Apart from that annoyance, I would give the book five stars.
S. Treloar, M Div
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Andrew E. Budson, MD
- 04-29-15
Good overview but a lot of history
I had previously read the Qur'an and I wanted a book to better understand Islam. What I learned was that the history of Islam is really complicated. There were more dates and places than I could keep track of, such that for much of it I felt I was listening to a textbook. Still, it provides a good overview in a relatively short amount of time.
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1 person found this helpful