The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In [ペーパーバック]

I read a pre-release copy of this book prior to a trip through some of the Gulf states. My knowledge of the spread of Islam had been limited to a short section of my secondary school history course, where it was mixed up with the fall of the Byzantine empire. It is easy to imagine that countries like Syria were always Islamic, and to forget about the swift process which converted them (from Christianity, in the case of Syria).

I found this book to be extremely readable. The fluency of the writing matched the content, the amazing swiftness of the Muslim conquests.

The author cites his sources often. I liked the fact that it felt like reading the original sources. I never felt it was just one author's opinion. The book is a nice mix of high-level accounts of battles and strategy, plus an insight into the mindset of the original Muslim soldiers, who were agile and lightly armoured, and not afraid to withdraw to fight another day. One thing which it doesn't do is go into great detail on Mohammed himself, but plenty of other books do that already.

Highly recommended.

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. There may have been greater harmony within during a time of tolerance of outside cultures. For those Arabs today who mourn the loss of empire and feel humiliation and inferiority at the hands of the West, they would do well to study the lessons of this book. Tolerance of other cultures and religions - not rigidity and exclusion - is the key to greatness and power.

"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.