Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past
JOSEPH HAMMOND
Firas Alkhateeb
2017, Hurst Publishers, 978-1-84904-689-3, £9.99 pb.
Presenting 1,400 years of Islamic civilization in a comprehensive, easy-to-follow manner is no small feat. Firas Alkhateeb has been doing that for years as a high-school teacher in Illinois, and he puts those skills to work in Lost Islamic History, a revised and updated version of the title originally published in 2014. Alkhateeb pays close attention to the foundation of Islam and the early Caliphate. Elsewhere, he focuses on Muslim accomplishments both in the sciences and in governance, and discusses such topics as philosophy (fiqh) and theology (‘aqaidah). Sidebars highlight “lost” aspects of Islamic civilization, from the Bengali architect who planned the Sears Tower in Chicago, to the Islamic school established in China by the Ottomans in 1908. The book is valuable not only for its insights into lesser-known aspects of Islamic history, but also as a general introduction to the subject.
You may also be interested in...
A History of Mali’s National Drink Traces Green Tea—Book Review
By tracing ritual instead of commerce, anthropologist Ute Röschenthaler shows that the story of tea in West Africa involves multidirectional routes and local agency.
The Alhambra at the Crossroads of History—Our Book Review
The Alhambra at the Crossroads of History shows how the 13th-century Andalusi palace complex in Granada, modern Spain, generates often conflicting meanings at the same time—meanings actively constructed and sometimes misread. Edhem Eldem, an Istanbul-based history professor, traces its role in shaping social and cultural identities across imperial Europe, Arab North Africa and Ottoman Türkiye from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.