Islam: Empire of Faith Book

It's sometimes difficult for Westerners not to write off Islam as a fanatical religion for war-like fundamentalists in turbans. In Islam: Empire of Faith, Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair have written an excellent resource which knocks such media-conditioned prejudice on the head. As professors of Islamic and Asian art at Boston College, they are well placed to unlock the complex history and culture of Islam for Western readers. This book and the BBC documentary series it ties in with should work well to break down our bigotry by providing a fascinating and enlightening introduction to Islamic culture. The authors avoid the complex modern history of the Muslim world and focus on the origin and rise of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries before dwelling on Islam's golden age between 750 and 1250. The third part of the book covers the age of empires from 1250 to the dawning of the 18th century. Islam: Empire of Faith covers the politics, wars and in-fighting which have been part of Islam from the beginning, but the authors' real passion is Islamic culture. The sections describing the flowering of Islamic art, learning, and literature are the strongest sections. Despite the wide cultural divide between modern day Islam and the West, the writers succeed in showing how much we owe to the high culture of Islam at its peak. With 30 pages of illustrations, maps and a complete index, this book is an attractive and necessary introduction to a culture and religion which will continue to challenge the Western world. --Dwight LongeneckerRead More