Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) (U)

No Religion In The Modern World Is As Feared And Misunderstood As Islam. It Haunts The Popular Imagination As An Extreme Faith That Promotes Terrorism, Authoritarian Government, Female Oppression, And Civil War. In A Vital Revision Of This Narrow View Of Islam And A Distillation Of Years Of Thinking And Writing About The Subject, Karen Armstrong's Short History Demonstrates That The World's Fastest-growing Faith Is A Much More Complex Phenomenon Than Its Modern Fundamentalist Strain Might Suggest. Beginnings. The Prophet (570-632) ; The Rashidun (632-661) ; The First Fitnah -- Development. The Umayyads And The Second Fitnah ; The Religious Movement ; The Last Years Of The Umayyads (705-750) ; The Abbasids : The High Caliphal Period (750-935) ; The Esoteric Movements -- Culmination. A New Order (935-1258) ; The Crusades ; Expansion ; The Mongols (1220-1500) -- Islam Triumphant. Imperial Islam (1500-1700) ; The Safavid Empire ; The Moghul Empire ; The Ottoman Empire -- Islam Agonistes. The Arrival Of The West (1750-2000) ; What Is A Modern Muslim State? ; Fundamentalism ; Muslims In A Minority ; The Way Forward -- Key Figures In The History Of Islam. Karen Armstrong. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.