God Has Ninety-Nine Names: Reporting from a Militant Middle East

by Judith Miller

A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER IN TODAY'S MIDDLE EAST
God Has Ninety-Nine Names is a gripping, authoritative account of the epic battle between modernity and militant Islam that is is reshaping the Middle East.
Judith Miller, a reporter who has covered the Middle east for twenty years, takes us inside the militant Islamic movements in ten Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Isreal and Iran. She shows that just as there is no unified Arab world, so there is no single The movements are as different as the countries in which they are rooted.
Vivid and comprehensive, Miller's first-and report reveals the meaning of the tumultuous events that will continue to affect the prospects for Arab-Isreali peace and the potential for terrorism worlwide.

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Middle East, Islam, Journalism

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book was published in 1996 and is therefore not the most up to date account of Middle Eastern politics and militancy, it is still an incredible reporting of this region of the world and provides vast insights into the trajectory that this region of the world is on. Miller's candid interviews with people across the region, combined with a vivid analysis of on the ground events, provide the reader with a comprehensive look at the different forms that militancy has taken over the past 20 years. If anything, this book is an important lesson--that not all Muslim countries are the same, not all Muslims are the same, not all Arabs are even Muslim, and not all militant Islamic movements are the same--all essential facts to remember, especially as the outsider tendency to group all of these together into one exists so rampantly.

[Cem · Rating 3 out of 5]

For 1997, before anyone gave a damn about the Middle East apart from Israel-Palestine ranters and specialists, this was a great introduction to the region for an American audience.

Looking at it now among the shelf-buckling piles of books on the Muslim world, post 9/11 fluff, and academic prancing... it's still a pretty good book, as an intro. Great impressions of "Islamism" across a number of countries and general overview of the region(s) from a Cairo bureau chief.

You can hate on Judith Miller all you want for things that have happened since the book was published, and you can knock the book for being a bit thin on substance -- but she was on-the-ground in the region way before it was considered "relevant", and way before 90% of the academic and journalistic world had a clue, and before middle east studies became so popular.

Most importantly, she was writing this book for an American audience that didn't know the difference between Shia and Sunni, much less the different types of Shia belief systems, which the book does a good job of explaining.

It was a good intro book for the time, a bit ahead of its time, and a lot better than a lot of what has been published since.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first go-to book on learning about politics and culture in the middle east. Each chapter covers a country, and it was a great reference. I'm giving it 3 starts instead of 5 because journalist, Judith Miller, was later involved in a scandal over the Weapons of Mass Distruction in Irag where her stories were determined to be inaccurate and often, outright false. That's disappointing and makes one wonder about the accuracy in this book. I still think it's worth a read and has a lot of useful information in it. And, it's easy to read and entertaining.

[Yusuf Murteza · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still, I have hard times to understand the fact that how people are keen to like and read this book as an introduction to the Islamic world. She even confesses that she does not know any Arabic at all. A true form of Orientalism. Check out Covering Islam from Edward Said .

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

While her style was a bit hard to take at times (throwing in a lot of new first hand accounts and interviews in the last few pages of many chapters), it was worth reading.

The premise of learning about Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon) through their religious histories and inclinations instead of focusing only or even mostly on political institutions was a great idea.

Each of these countries is unique. There is a difference between Hezbollah and Hamas, many of us knew this. But there is also a different type of Islam in every area and usually different types within each country. Complex, fascinating.

It is a great starting point for me. I've had quite a few suggestions about additonal reading to bring me up to current times (this book deals with everything up to about 1996).

I started compiling a list of words (mostly arabic but not all) which truly help make sense out of current events.

I'm about to add an additonal star for Ms. Miller's work.

[Antigone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A correspondent for The New York Times since 1977, Judith Miller has here compiled her views (pre-9/11) on the political status of ten Middle Eastern countries. Experience has gifted her with a great deal of complex information, making this a difficult read for those without a basic understanding of the region. (Best sections: Syria, Jordan and Iran.) One is left to wonder if Ms. Miller, with her boots-on-the-ground expertise and informed insight of Islamic militancy, could miss the impending threat of Al Qaeda, whether anyone outside that terrorist cell would have been capable of issuing us an ounce of forewarning. Doubtful.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a foundation book for anyone trying to understand the news in Middle East. Sure, it's almost twenty years old, but everything Judith writes about had a direct influence on what's going on today.

The fight to control radical Islam is an old one. In this book you can see all the different methods that have been tried and how they sometimes worked for a while.

Highly recommended. I wish Ms Miller would write more.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been reading on this book for several years now and have finally finished it. Although I often became confused by and overwhelmed with the amount of information included inthe book, Ms. Miller has presented a well-researched look into the development of radical Islamism in the Middle East.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love history you'll like this one. It's imformative and chilling!