Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East

by Bernard Lewis

Recent events have made an understanding of the turmoil in the Middle East more important than ever. In these essays, Bernard Lewis, a leading expert on Islam, gives essential background on Middle Eastern conflicts with the West and shows how Islam — from its first expansion to its interpretation by Saddam Hussein and other extremists — has always been inextricably linked to the Western world.

Genres: History, Islam, Religion, Historical, Middle East

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

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

Bernard Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of many critially acclaimed and bestselling books, including two number one New York Times bestsellers: What Went Wrong? and Crisis of Islam. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Internationally recognized as the greatest historian of the Middle East, he received fifteen honorary doctorates and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Reviews

[Hosam]

كتاب رائع
هي الافكار وتاريخ والايديولوجية الاسلامية على مدى ١٤٠٠ عام
من وجهة نظر احد اهم اعمدة الاستشراق الحديث سواء اتقفنا معه ام اختلفنا
الكتاب يتناول بعض الاحداث الاجتماعية والتاريخية والمذهبية
وبعض من الجوانب الاقتصادية بالحضارة الاسلامية
ويضيف بعض الاراء والتحليلات لها
ارى انه من الجيد النظر للامور من وجهة نظر خارجية غربية لتعطي مجال اكبر بالتحليل والنقد
لم يكن هناك اساءه بالكتاب كما تناول البعض
من وجهة نظري الجزء الممتع بالكتاب بعد اول ٢٠٠ صفحة

ملحوظة انا لا اتحدث عن شخص المولف وجنوحة لليمين المتطرف في اخر مراحل حياتة وانما اقيم الكتاب ومابه من افكار

[Covey Mcallister]

Excellent assortment of essays on all things Islam! I especially enjoyed the last section and the work on the Rushdie affair. It is true that he’s heavy on Turkish issues but what can be expected when Turkey dominated the Muslim world for centuries? He has plenty on Iran and Egypt as well! Love his writing style :)

[Robert Miner]

I have my problems with Bernard Lewis, partly in content, partly in style.
Content: Lewis, as in all previous books of his, is preoccupied with Turkey, its history, its culture, its challenges. He needs to present himself as a "turkologist", for that is what he is. His representation of Arab-based Islam is negligent, and peripherial at best. I can't resist the impression that "Islam" in all his titles is motivated by marketing, whereby his vast knowledge of Turkey should be his calling card.
Positively in this book are the contributions to historical research and the necessity to know vastly both the language and the people of the culture, which one claims to analyse and project to the public, meaning mostly the western public.
One way or another, this book is an unbalanced amalgam of weakly related articles, superficially glued together for publishing.
Style: Lewis's extensive knowledge is impressive. However, he seems locked into his vague and undocumented generalities, writing vaguities without any reference, explination, or details.
Perhaps my "Steckenpferd" (hobby horse), his essay-style, very British and out-dated, of exposing his data without subtitles, outlines, visible directions, drives me to dismiss his results. At least, he has chapters with titles, but that's all. Where is he going? How has he arrived at this generality? What are the bases of his claims?
All this leaves me delegating this book to those, who are impressed with his literary style, satisfied with his vaguities, and desirous of his evaluations, not wanting to question his data.

[Mahmoud Taher]

طبعا بغض النظر عن يهودية وأمريكية برنارد لويس إلا إن اختلاف هذا الكتاب يتركز فى توقيت كتابته و أقصد قبل أن تتبدل مواقفه و يكون مستشارا لإدارة بوش و قبل أن يكون منظرا لليمين فى أمريكا ولذلك تشعر ببعض الموضوعية فى الطرح والعرض بإستثناءات قليلة تتعرض بما يسمى سوء الفهم لظروف بعض الأحداث فى التاريخ الإسلامى

[نبيه العاكوم]

لم ألمس عنصرية أو فوقية أو إسلاموفوبيا عند برنارد لويس في هذا الكتاب والتي تكلم عنها الكثير. هذا المستشرق الذي يتمتع بغزارة فكرية وثقافة تاريخية مهولة، جعلته يقتنص محطات حساسة ودقيقة للتاريخ الإسلامي، كافية لفهم المسار التاريخي للإسلام حسب منظور المستشرق.

[Carol Miller]

Lewis spent a lot of the early pages of the book critiquing previous authors and historians of Islam.

[Erik Ferguson]

It's so refreshing to read about a topic like this by a master of serious scholarship.

The work is a bit disconnected -- it's an assortment of essays loosely focused around setting straight misconceptions about Islamic history. And a fair amount of its sometimes dry, microscopic focus is of real interest to specialists only.

However, part VIII ("New Events") -- especially the pieces "Behind the Rushdie Affair" and "The Middle East Crisis in Historical Perspective" -- is so wonderfully insightful and thought-provoking (while remaining scrupulously, unflappably disciplined and balanced in delivery), that it alone is well worth the journey through the meandering sub-topics of the volume.

Would that all "academic" writing were of this quality and long-lasting value.

[Sunny]

excellent book and some very interesting different points of view on the Islamic empires over the last 1400 years! there is a huge ottoman focus in this book but that may be understandable as that was the caliphate closest to our times therefore more material available. the book talks about lots of different subjects like the salman Rushdie incident, Khomeini in Iran, the economics demise of the ottomans and other reasons for its demise, Muslims in Spain, the relationships with Judaism and Christianity, the corsairs in Iceland and lots more. the book is interesting not because of the breadth of subjects it covers but the insight and other angles it shows. worth the read.

[sologdin]

author's basic thesis is that islam is evil and that moslems are barbarians. it's the standard orientalist claptrap.

[David]

This book is more about historians than history so I had to skim over large sections of it.

[Malik Qaisar Iqbal]

A wonderful book, objective and analytical on sources of Islamic History. Author does show a bit of biases in certain parts but overall its neutral.