أهل الكتاب: التاريخ المنسي لعلاقة الإسلام بالغرب

by Zachary Karabell, زاكري كارابل, أحمد إيبش (ترجمة)

نبذة الناشر:
أحداثٌ تاريخيّة مثيرة ومذهلة في هذا الكتاب نميط اللثام عمَّا غفا عنه الزمان وطواه النسيان من عادات وأعراف كانت تسم العلاقة بين الإسلام والغرب.

صحيحٌ أننا نعيش في عالم منقسم بفعل الخلاف المستمر بين المسلمين والمسيحيين واليهود، إلا أن العلاقة بين الإسلام والغرب لم تكن دوماً علاقة عدائية، فهي شهدت أيضاً فترات كثيرة من التعاون والإزدهار، وعلى مدى القرون الأربعة عشر الماضية...

يذكَّرنا "كارابل" بأسلوب تحليلي سردي رائع بأن هذه الأديان الثلاثة التي تقاتلت يوماً مع بعضها بعضاً إنما تعلَّمت أيضاً الكثير من بعضها البعض، وإسترجاع هذا التاريخ المنسي هو أمر ضروري جداً للوصول إلى عالم ينعم أكثر بالأمن والإستقرار.

Genres: History, Religion, Islam, Nonfiction, Christianity, Middle East

392 pages

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Zachary Karabell is a New York-born author, columnist and investor who previously served as Head of Global Strategies at Envestnet, a publicly traded financial services firm. He currently hosts the podcast “What Could Go Right?” and analyzes economic and political trends as president of River Twice Research.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars

This was a really amazing history book. It provides history from an Islamic point of view in connection to Christianity and Judaism, in the last fourteen centuries. I felt it to be an important book that one needs to read at this time. It reminds us that the relationship between Islam and the West has never been just of animosity, but also of coexistence and cooperation. The book makes a reader to understand what is the state of Islam at this point in time and why, due to everything that has bygone in the centuries past.

Everything is explained in a lucid language, while at the same time making it a very interesting read. Very much recommended.

[Khairul Hezry · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author got a basic fact wrong at the very beginning! In the second paragraph of the first chapter to be precise where he described that Prophet Muhammad's father died when he was a boy (when in fact he died before his son was even born). Two pages later, the author repeated a debunked tradition regarding an instance when Prophet Muhammad was tricked with Quranic verses that were inspired by Satan (the so-called Satanic Verses). If he presented basic facts wrong in the very first chapter, how can I trust that he will present the rest of his book correctly? I did not bother to find out. Horrible book. Do not read.

[SB · Rating 5 out of 5]

In world which pits Islam against Christianity and Arab against European, Karabell deplores the increasing polarisation between the east and west, stating that historically, relations between the two sides has been peaceful, co-operative and fruitful. As a natural starting point for the book, Karabell traces the establishment of Islam in the seventh century and the prophet Mohammed, then going on to explore European Islam in Spain and the Middle East. He argues that people exaggerate the role of religion in influencing how history has played out; power, money and ethnicity have always been the drivers of conflict in the Islamic world- basically no different from anywhere else on the planet. He notes that it is difficult to talk of an Islamic 'world', as all states were distinct and had few relations with other Islamic countries.

Karabell documents the rise of Islam in al-Andalus, Spain and its capital, Cordoba, the flourishing centre of European Islam. It was a cosmopolitan city, filled with Jews, Christians and Muslims who lived together peacefully (or in no more conflict than any other part of the world!) and which encouraged debate and dialogue between religions. It promoted openness, cultural exchange and learning, philosophy and science in particular. Whilst, people of all religions lived together and worshipped freely, he notes that there was a limit to how high a Christian could rise and non-Muslims were subject to poll tax. Thus, without being forced, Christians began to convert in large numbers for economical and political reasons and all spoke the language of their conquerors: Arabic. The Jewish population of Iberia frequently acted as middlemen between Muslims and Christians, especially in Christian northern Spain. Whilst intermarriage between the religions was frowned upon, in Spain people of all religions worshipped side by side and so it was unavoidable; often a wife would have to adopt the religion of her husband, unless she was Muslim, in which case her husband would have to convert.

By the end of the thirteenth century, most of Muslim Spain had fallen, with Granada remaining as the lone post of European Islam until 1492; "In return for a hefty annual tribute to the Christians, Granada remained a Muslim state [...] Its rulers turned their palace complex into a monument to past glories, and just before [Granada fell], the Alhambra was completed."

Karabell argues that the idea of jihad being a holy war against all non-Muslims is untrue and that jihad was also waged against other Muslim sects too, "Muslim calls for holy war in the twelfth century were much like calls to end poverty in the twentieth- no one could disagree with the noble ambitions, but few were interested in actually doing anything." He cites other economic, political and ethnic factors as reasons for waging holy war, reasons that had little to do with religion.

An excellent, riveting read of the history of various states and a plea to not conflate all Islamic countries and history into one homogenous mass, distorting the lens through which we view the past. Today, the author argues, Islam is made out to be more antagonistic and bloody than other religious and religion is given too prominent a role as a catalyst in beginning wars and inciting conflict than it actually deserves.

[Alanoud · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfinished

OMG !!!! this is one of the WORST books ever!!!

People of the book is a book was written "supposedly" to highlight the peaceful coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews. Now the very idea of this book is quite good ... apparently! The only problem is that it's based on LIES!! yeeeah endless big fat lies!!

As the author talks-even incorrectly-about how Muslims, Christians and Jews used to get along with each other, he provides the reader with plenty of awful, false images about Muslims. Although he claims he, in his book, trying to help the Western world to understand Islam and touch upon the true side of it, he actually does nothing but giving terrible images even worse than the already-existing ones!

Seriously, if I ever wanted to write a book about say America, France Or any Western country, I would do nothing but three things:

1- I would go to and use WESTREN sources!! written by western themselves. and NOT to Arabs who write things, about Western, most probably from their point of view.
2- I would TAKE THE FACTS AS THEY ARE without any TWISTING !
3- I would not invent fairytales and sew them into the factual events, especially if we were talking about history!!

Now why is this too hard, almost impossible, to some -not some actually many- to keep this in mind when writing about other nation, culture, religion OR ANYTHING?!

[Lionkhan-sama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is a book to be celebrated!
What a fantastic compilation of historical research, woven together oh so coherently. This book paints an amazing picture of the relationships between Muslims, Christians and Jews over the centuries.
Contains so much insight that would otherwise have been completely lost on me.
Absolutely thrilled to have found this book and read it.

[Tom Radford · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great central premise, but I have some questions over the historical accuracy of some passages

[Anish Morakhia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting historical perspective of Islam and it's relationship with Judaism and Christianity. The last 100 pages about the 20th century are great.

[Komal Zeeshan]

Basic facts about prophet Muhammad(pbuh) are incorrect, I wish the writer or the reviewer could have researhed or cross varified the information before publishing.

[Cormac Niland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally fine. Not standout.

[Sophia Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book unveils the history of shared harmony, pain and bond among Abrahamics, stories that are much needed at present more than before.
A book that dismantles religious hatred and separation.

[Cryleo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9/5

[Noor]

I stopped reading it from the first paragraph. I would have expected someone with a Phd in Modern Middle Eastern studies to have at least known that the prophet Mohammed pbuh died in Madinah and was buried there.

[Amaal Ibrahim]

seems to be a good one. but the timing was NOT