Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past

Firas Alkhateeb

Nov 2017 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

Islam has been one of the most powerful religious, social and political forces in history. Over the last 1400 years, from origins in Arabia, a succession of Muslim polities and later empires expanded to control territories and peoples that ultimately stretched from southern France to East Africa and South East Asia. Yet many of the contributions of Muslim thinkers, scientists and theologians, not to mention rulers, statesmen and soldiers, have been occluded. This book rescues from oblivion and neglect some of these personalities and institutions while offering the reader a new narrative of this lost Islamic history. The Umayyads, Abbasids, and Ottomans feature in the story, as do Muslim Spain, the savannah kingdoms of West Africa and the Mughal Empire, along with the later European colonization of Muslim lands and the development of modern nation-states in the Muslim world. Throughout, the impact of Islamic belief on scientific advancement, social structures, and cultural development is given due prominence, and the text is complemented by portraits of key personalities, inventions and little known historical nuggets. The history of Islam and of the world's Muslims brings together diverse peoples, geographies and states, all interwoven into one narrative that begins with Muhammad and continues to this day.

Ratings and reviews

A colleague of mine recommended this book. I've just read the sample pages now. I'm a little bit disappointed from what I've read because I thought this book would be more specific on the timeline and more complete, i.e. mentioning the year (at the least) of every events, and who's with whom when the Muslim people started the hijra (not just that Abu Bakr was with Muhammad SAW when they went to Madina). Still, I just read the samples and I don't know what would it be on the whole book. However, I really consider about buying this e-book or maybe buy the paper form.

I read a few pages and stopped because this book is a whole lie.. Writer first talks about what is 'jihaad'. After that he starts with the birth Muhammad ﷺ. He talks about his early age and later how Allah talked to him.. Later the writer says the prophet started insulting the idols of Quresh in Mecca.. Quresh still allowed him to enter Kaaba.. How prophet ﷺ started explaining people.. The muslim converts also started entering Kaaba and they insulted the idols in there. Later he says that Quresh was a good man.. even when prophet ﷺ insulted his idols he still used to let him enter Kaaba. There are no proofs that Quresh killed any muslim converts.. How prophet ﷺ invented a new religion and then seized the Kaaba from Quresh through jihaad. When a guy told the writer how creul Quresh was who used to kill every muslim converts from his army... The writer called it as an act of justification by muslims for wrong doings of prophet ﷺ... The prophet married khadija (R.A) for her money.

This book leaves out all the things that show the perfidy of those it praises. It ignores who actually did what. Cause and effect is covered up. The goodness of societies islam defaced is despised here too. The preislamic history of Arabia is in no way done justice by this author of lies.

About the author

Firas Alkhateeb is an American researcher, writer and historian who specialises in the Islamic world. He completed his BA in History from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 2010 and has since been teaching Islamic history at Universal School in Bridgeview, Illinois. He founded and writes the website Lost Islamic History.