by Karen Armstrong
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Product Description
No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the world’s fastest-growing faith is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.
Amazon.com Review
The picture of Islam as a violent, backward, and insular tradition should be laid to rest, says Karen Armstrong, bestselling author of Muhammad and A History of God. Delving deep into Islamic history, Armstrong sketches the arc of a story that begins with the stirring of revelation in an Arab businessman named Muhammad. His concern with the poor who were being left behind in the blush of his society's new prosperity sets the tone for the tale of a culture that values community as a manifestation of God. Muhammad's ideas catch fire, quickly blossoming into a political empire. As the empire expands and the once fractured Arabs subdue and overtake the vast Persian domain, the story of a community becomes a panoramic drama. With great dexterity, Armstrong narrates the Sunni-Shi'ite schism, the rise of Persian influence, the clashes with Western crusaders and Mongolian conquerors, and the spiritual explorations that traced the route to God. Armstrong brings us through the debacle of European colonialism right up to the present day, putting Islamic fundamentalism into context as part of a worldwide phenomenon. Islam: A Short History, like Bruce Lawrence's Shattering the Myth and Mark Huband's Warriors of the Prophet, introduces us to a faith that beckons like a minaret to those who dare to venture beyond the headlines. --Brian Bruya
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Sensible and scholarly, but could be more readable, 2008-12-03
Karen Armstrong is a wonderful educator -- her books, as well as her talks, are sensible, thoughtful, informative, and detailed. She sees the big picture, both geographically and temporally, in a way that is not usually not the case, but that is very crucial in understanding what's going on in the world with respect to religions. She writes of Islam as she would write about any of the world's religions, and her writing is free of the other personal agendas and exaggerations that are so common in books on this subject. It's a great starting place to learn about the history of the world's second-largest religion, but the writing is somewhat dense and the infomation is presented somewhat abstractly.
This is a historical approach, as the title suggests, not a primer on Islam. For a very readable, down-to-earth, and often funny book on what Muslims believe and practice, set in an everyday, American context, try The Muslim Next Door: The Qur'an, the Media, and That Veil Thing.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 A great way to introduce yourself to Islam, 2008-07-29
I listened to the audio set (6 CDs) of this book, & was really impressed by how much was conveyed in such a short time. It would be appropriate to classroom history of Islam as well. This book is very strong on understanding the Islamic view of religion & politics, religion & society needs, etc., not just a dry recitation of facts. I am really surprised at the negative reviews I read here, I thought this was a very approachable text. Give it a try!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Good/Bad in "ALL," Religions PERIOD, 2008-05-31
Read the book and open your closed mind! Do NOT generalize about any culture or religion, as some of the 1 star reviewers have done. Those who generalize against any people or religion are nothing more than hypocritical BIGOTS! There is nothing complicated about it. If you look for the bad/good in any religion you will find it. What 1 star reviewers chose to focus on in this healingesque book, exposes their own misgiuded agenda.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
 Apologetic in capital letters, 2008-05-02
Armstrong seems to be aware of the existence of Ibn-Ishaq's text "Sirat Rasul Allah", yet she doesn't seem to have read it. Instead, she uses Qu'ranic verses to show the peaceful nature of Islam. These verses however are often dating from the Meccan period. Very poetic and often very incomprehensible without the Qu'ran commentaries. She ignores the (more militant) verses from the Medinah period. Unfortunuatly she doesn't explain why she cites so arbitrary from the Qu'ran. On a more personal note I think it's academic suicide to support your (secular) view on history with quotes from religious scriptures alone. But than, she probably doesn't have any academic pretentions.
Some information she presents as 'facts' contradicts the sources we have about the formative years of Islam. These sources could be very 'wrong' since most of them were writen after Muhammad's death, but unfortunuatly she doesn't tell us why she thinks she can push them aside. That would be interesting to read. To know how she got to certain findings. But those conclusions lack footnotes and we'll have to assume she knows more about it than any other person in the world.
A very apologetic book which relies more on the imagination of the writer than on what we know about Islam sofar.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Fascinating Book, 2008-03-24
This was a great book for trying to understand a very complicated religion. I found it easy to read and very insightful.
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