Best Brains: History of Islam

[katster]

I'm going to be starting a project on NFZ here in a week or two, and in conjunction with that project, I could probably use a good history of Islam. Does anybody out there in LJ land have any recommendations? I'd prefer something a little less on the academic side (i.e., doesn't read like a textbook), but that's not a hard and fast requirement.

What am I up to? I'll probably explain on Thursday on NFZ, but the short of it is that I got a book in the mail in February or so, and I've been meaning to try and read it. And it's interesting and timely enough that I think folks might want to follow along.

Comments

[duskcat.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't done much reading on Islam, but my Dad has. I asked him if he had any suggestions, and this was his response:

actually i've never read any textbooks on islam. but i have read and heard
of several books and authors on various aspects of the subject that spin a
relatively interesting yarn. both martin lings and karen armstrong have
written biographies of muhammad in a storytelling style. both books are
entitled "muhammad" i believe. i haven't read the latter. i found "the
tide of islam" by thomas b. irving interesting to read because it actually
follows the influences of islam and muslims from arabia and the time of
muhammad, through europe and islamic spain, ultimately into the western
hemisphere and the 20th century. it's not a thick book but carries a lot
of fresh perspectives. another author, who in several books, including a
heavily annotated and quite unique translation of the qur'an, spans
interesting epochs from 500 a.d. to modern times is muhammad asad. oh yes,
and there is the very lively classic on islamic spain, "the moors in
spain" by stanley lane-poole. all of these books are written by native
english speaking westerners, by the way. an eastern author that i've read
a good bit for his works on islam as well as on islamic spirituality is
syed hossain nasr. on top of being a good writer and a prolific one, he
does his homework and is perhaps the deepest source of any i have
mentioned so far on islam as understood from a traditional muslim
perspective. there are more i could mention, but my thought is that the
list above probably comes closest to addressing what you friend may be
looking for. hope this helps.