The Oxford History of Islam (Hardcover)

One such quality book is John Esposito's recent volume on the history of Islam. Published in 1999, this one might well have included the word Illustrated in the title, for it is lavishly illustrated throughout with pictures, photographs, maps, and drawings. It provides a wide-ranging and in-depth account of Islam. 'Although Islam is the youngest of the major world religions, with 1.2 billion followers, Islam is the second largest and fastest-growing religion in the world. To speak of the world of Islam today is to refer not only to countries that stretch from North Africa to Southeast Asia but also to Muslim minority communities that exist across the globe. Thus, for example, Islam is the second or third largest religion in Europe and the Americas.'

This is an accessible volume -- technical terms have been kept to a minimum, and the writing is cast in a readable, narrative format. Yet this volume is still of good service to scholars and specialists, with indexing and chapter topics that are arranged conceptually as well as chronologically. Including both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars, the contributors are experts in different disciplines and come from a variety of national and religious backgrounds.

The first section of the book covers the beginnings of Islam: the development of faith and scripture in the Koran, community and institutional development, early personalities in Islam, and contributions to art and science. Included in this section is the early interactions of Christianity and Islam, which have provided in many ways the continuing framework of tension between the West and the Muslim world.

The second section of the book looks at the decline of Islam as an 'imperial' religion, and the splintering of the Muslim world into kingdoms, sultanates and smaller bodies inside other political structures -- these various groupings provided different bases for Islam, which in turn developed differing regional expressions in terms of practice and outlook.

The next sections address the developments of colonialism and the post-colonial problems and opportunities that face Islam, both in political and religious terms, as well as the relationship of Islam to the modern world both at it impacts Islam in countries officially Muslim as well as in more pluralistic nations. 'At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Islam is indeed a global presence that blurs old distinctions between the Muslim world and the West. Islam is truly a world religion, necessitating coverage of both Islam and the West and Islam in the West.'

Tracing an early history of Islam presents many of the same problems encountered in doing such for any religion -- to what extent can the scholars remain objective? What does objectivity mean? To what extent can scriptural and traditional sources of stories be regarded as historically authoritative, and to what extent have details been changed to achieve other, more religious ends? Little is known (in the historically authoritative sense) about the Prophet Muhammad's early life. Apart from the Koran, most of the texts with historical information about Muhammad and the early years of Islam were recorded later, perhaps (like the New Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures) by people who chose to emphasise some items and overlook other details that do not conform with what modern scholars are hoping for in their research.

Well indexed, with timelines and other reference aids, this is a great volume for scholarly work as well as for interesting reading about this religion which impacts with great importance on the world scene. Many Christians tend to forget that Islam grows out the traditions of worship of the God of Abraham, the same God worshipped by Moses, Elijah, and Jesus.

This is a wonderful volume -- for the typical Western reader, if you were to only read one book on Islam, this would be it!