History
Every month, it seems, more books are published on the history of Islam and the Muslim world. I have not read most of them. Of the books I have read, these are the ones I have found most convincing and illuminating.
General Histories
Tamim Ansary, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes (2009). If you expect to read just one history of Islam, this would be a good choice. In this fascinating and well-written book, Ansary tells the story of what he calls “The Middle World” – the world defined by land routes of travel and trade through the heart of the European/Asian/African land mass, which has long interacted with yet been distinct from the Mediterranean world defined by sea routes. He starts with a reflection on the concept of world history – the story of how we got where we are, but which “we” and where are we? The book then explores the origins and growth of Islamic civilization, its challenges from inside and out (crusades, Mongols, etc.), and modern (meaning 18th to 20th century) responses to those challenges. Highly recommended.
Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History (2002). This book is exactly what its title promises: 200 pages that orient a reader to the history of Islam and its major figures and movements. Armstrong is rightly a popular writer on religion, and she always writes clearly, compassionately, and accessibly. One of her basic themes is that Islam has typically emphasized right action (like Judaism) over right belief (like Christianity). She also writes compellingly about the wrenching effects of modernity on the Muslim world. If you want a book that gives you the basic flow of Muslim history, this is a good choice.
Reza Aslan, No god But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam (2005). In this insightful history of Islam from its earliest days to modern times, Aslan argues that the Muslim world is currently undergoing a reformation that is in some ways analogous to the Protestant Reformation in Europe. This reformation was triggered by the mass expansion of literacy and education, translation of the Qur’an into vernaculars, widespread access to non-local knowledge and ideas, the growth of nationalism and individualism, and a resulting deep conflict over who has the authority to define faith: the individual or the institution. “I use reformation deliberately,” he writes, “not only to emphasize that the violence and bloodshed we are witnessing in large parts of the Islamic world are chiefly the result on an internal struggle between Muslims (rather than of a war between Islam and the West), but also to stress that the current conflicts within Islam are those with which all great religions grapple as they face the challenges of modernity.”
Specific Topics
Graham E. Fuller, A World Without Islam (2010). The former Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council of the CIA, Fuller argues that most of the historical and current tensions between “Islam and the West” would have existed even if Muhammad had never been born and there never was something called Islam. If Islam had not existed, the Middle East would probably be predominantly Orthodox Christian, and tensions between Catholicism and Orthodoxy – and between their respective parts of the world – long pre-dated the sixth century. It was European Christians, not Muslims, who sacked Constantinople. More recently, the world has been shaped by economic interests, geopolitical rivalries, power struggles between regional empires, ethnic struggles, and nationalism. All of these interests and rivalries can cloak themselves in religious terms, but they are fundamentally not religious in their nature.
Noah Feldman, The Rise and Fall of the Islamic State (2008). What is shari’a and why do so many Muslims call for its establishment in their own countries? Feldman, a professor at the Harvard Law School, looks at the role of shari’a in the classical Muslim world, where shari’a and the scholars who interpreted it, the ulama, created a center of authority that limited the power of the state and individual rulers. This balance of power broke down in the Ottoman era and under the influence of European colonialism and systems of law. For the last century or more, most Muslims have lived under unlimited executive power that easily tends towards dictatorship. When they call for the rule of shari’a, therefore, most Muslims imagine a constitutional order that would establish the rule of law, limit the power of rulers, and secure basic political and legal justice for everyone. One doesn’t have to believe that shari’a actually accomplished these goals in the past to understand why the image is appealing to Muslims today.
Douglas Little, American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945 (2002). Any book on the United States’ relationship with the Middle East will be incomplete and have its flaws. American Orientalism offers, however, a decent introduction to the goals and actions of American corporations and American governments during the critical era from the end of the second world war to September 11, 2001. This book is more academic in tone than most of the others I’ve recommended, but a certain level of detail and rigor is necessary when dealing with such complicated and politically loaded topics. And Little has a good sense of the motivations and ironies of American attempts to promote our own security by wielding power in the Middle East.
You may also be interested in the text of my talk on A Very Brief History of Islam.
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