The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live in

by Hugh Kennedy

Book Overview

The success of the Muslim conquests was the product of a unique set of circumstances and the preaching of a simple new monotheistic faith. There were many features of Islam that would have made it approachable to Christians and Jews. It had a Prophet, a Holy Book, established forms of prayer, dietary and family laws. Abraham and Jesus were both great prophets in the Muslim tradition. From the very beginning Islam established itself as a new faith,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306815850
• ISBN13: 9780306815850
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 421 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

history of Moslem conquest in mid-east in 600's & 700's

Very thorough history of Moslem conquest of the middle east in the approx 200 years after death of Muhammad in 632 AD. Can be slow reading but is very informative. Full records of events are scant and author acknowledges this. Explains the rapid conquest of a hige area and population as a unique historical fluke which caught the Byzantines, Persians, and other established powers at a weak time.

Arab conquests

A very clear and superb description of the Arab arrival into the Mediterranean area and into Central Asia as far as Samarkand. Divided into intependent chapters according to the waves of occupation of various parts of the Eastern Empire, with a clear explanation of why this conquest met such a fast success and why the Eastern Empire and Sassanian Persia were in no condition to oppose resistance. A book that is a must for persons interested in this period

Engaging, superbly-organized, well-reasearched... A great book!

"The Great Arab Conquests" is not only informative and enlightening, it's also a fascinating, fast-paced, and wholly understandable read. I'll highlight just a few aspects of the book which I considered its high points: Writing style. The author, Hugh Kennedy, writes with a style that is easy to follow and quite often fun to read. Many history books that I have read begin with a "Preface" or an "Introduction" where the author directly addresses you, the reader. But typically, once Chapter 1 begins, the author steps far, far away from you, the reader, to dictate events from some high "historical writing" platform. Kennedy stays with you throughout the entire book, offering insightful and sometimes even humorous commentary. It reminded me less of "historical writing", and more of some of those great, engaging history class professors I had in college. More authors of history should write like this. Organization. Kennedy's smooth and straightforward structure makes it a breeze to comprehend the vast and diverse Arab conquests. The conquests are divided up into separate chapters for each geographical region conquered (e.g. "Conquest of Iran", "Conquest of Egypt", etc.). Each chapter is roughly 30 pages in length which always felt like the ideal amount of material that I could digest in one sitting. Some history books have colossal 60-page chapters, which have always felt exhausting to me. Other books have new topic headings every few pages, which I have always found distracting. Kennedy seems to have found an ideal middle ground, and it works beautifully. Historical sources. The original contemporary Arab sources from the time of the Arab conquests are sketchy, and often nearly fictitious. Kennedy acknowledges this and deals with it in a superbly scholarly fashion. In addition to setting aside several pages at the beginning of the book to deal with this important matter, he continually wrestles with sparse and/or untrustworthy sources throughout the course of the book. Maps. For every separate conquest region, there is a corresponding, well-detailed map. Iran, Iraq, Egypt, North Africa, Transoxania, etc. all have fantastic maps located at the front of the book. I was constantly referring back to them. Finally, as a small but delightful bonus, the dustjacket illustrations of the hardcover edition of this book are absolutely gorgeous. The lavish Arabic design aesthetic constantly invited me to crack open the book every time that I glanced at it on my desk. All in all, "The Great Arab Conquests" has quickly become one of my favorite books on Arab history. I was impressed by Hugh Kennedy's treatment of the Abbasid caliphate in his previous book, "When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World", and this latest work of his has only increased my appreciation for his engaging, intelligible writing on complex topics in Arab history.

Early Arab Military Campaigns

After the death of the Mohammed in 632 and up to the Battle of Poitiers in 732, Arab Muslim armies conquered a swath of land that extended from Spain and Portugal in the West to what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan in the East. Our traditional understanding of these events is that a group Muslim fanatics were hell-bent (pardon the expression) on proselytizing others to their faith. Hugh Kennedy, professor of history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, tells us in this excellent and well-written book that there were more mundane reasons for this sudden expansion of the realm: namely, the quest for the spoils of war. Religious conversion was not yet a factor; that would come two to three hundred years later. This story is told in chronological as well as geographical order, moving outward from Mecca and Medina. Kennedy reminds us that many of his sources are unreliable and unclear since they were written by the victors. But he has done a masterful job putting it together, making use also of the records of the conquered. His knowledge of Arabic is evident throughout this book. How did a group of disorganized Bedouins with no military weapons or martial tradition create such a large empire? In the beginning, Kennedy tells us, it was due mainly to the weakness and decline of the immediate surrounding empires. Byzantium, which controlled Syria and Palestine, and Sassanid Persia, which controlled what is now Iraq and Iran, had exhausted themselves fighting each other. When the Arab armies arrived they were met with little resistance. Their mode of conquest was simple and time-honored. First they defeated the army, then they beseiged the population centers giving them a choice of paying tribute and allegiance or facing death. Conquered peoples invariably chose the former. Arab administrators wisely left existing structures and traditions in place. They established a very tolerant and multicultural empire. ( For more on empires and tolerance read Amy Chua's Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--and Why They Fall.) They were tolerant of Christianity in the West as well as Hinduism in the East. During the 100 year period covered in this book, Egypt remained Coptic-speaking and Christian, and Persia remained Pahlavi-speaking and Zoroastrian. It was not until much later that the Arabic language and Muslim faith took hold. The conquests were driven by the quest for booty to satisfy the growing Arab-controlled armies. Since Muslims were forbidden to fight each other, according to Kennedy, the constantly sought out new lands and peoples to conquer. This may throw some light on the present condition of the Middle East. Now we know that Muslims do fight each other and that Islam in its current form in Iran and Saudi Arabia has very little tolerance of other faiths. During the time period covered in this book, Kennedy does not say much about inter-Muslim and inter-Arab conflicts, apparently there weren't many. T

Highly readable and informative

This is an extremely well-written book about the conquests of the Arabs up till 750 AD. The narrative is surprisingly coherent for such a big job where the sources are not always consistent. Prof. Kennedy has done a great service, particularly to the general readership, to render the history of those times into one volume. The narrative again was never burdened with scholarly jargons. With perfect juxtaposition of poems and non-Arab/muslim accounts of similar events, the author tried to provide the social context of those conquests, giving accounts of both sides. This book comes with appropriate maps and a fine collection of pictures, mostly taken by the author himself, that shows the geography, architecture, people and gives a feeling of reality of the magnitude of the terrain and diversity of the cultures being conquested. The author takes pains to describe the social context and social reality in which some key players of the conquest lived and made decisions and left an impact. This is a perfect companion for educational, teaching and information purposes. I earnestly hope, this book will also help to clarify many historical events that caused many tensions and prejudices among diverse cultures.