The Great Arab Conquests: How The Spread Of Islam Changed The World We Live In

This is a superb introduction to early Islamic history. It deals with the historical material cautiously but without totally dismissing it out of hand. It is, of course, written from a Christian perspective but that's to be expected and does not detract overall from the quality of the research.
Kennedy is respectful of his sources but some of his conclusions could have been elaborated further. It's not enough to attribute the crushing defeat of the 2 greatest empires of Eurasia within 8 years of the Prophet Muhammad's death to the bubonic plague and Romano-Persian wars: the Arab position was rather as if Poland had decided to attack both the Soviet Union and Germany in 1937 - both the Soviets and Germans had suffered from war and contagion - the great influenza epidemic - and, in the former case, even mass starvation but just as Poland wouldn't have lasted more than a couple of weeks, I would have expected the same for the Arabs in CE 632. We need to look elsewhere for the answer and it's a shame that Prof. Kennedy does not do so.
The writing is at times pedestrian but this book is a lot better written than The Court of the Caliphs and tackles a subject rarely covered well in history books.

Interesting but monotonous (3/3 people found this helpful)

I fully agree with the two comments below especially the fact that this book highlights the problems of analyzing Arab conquests without any attempt to address them. The book, while fairly well researched, leaves you wondering what to take as an historical fact and what to discard as pure myth. In many places the author goes on for couple of pages telling a story only to go back and doubts its sources.

Being from the Middle East myself, I have read about most of the general topics in the books. However, I found few points to be very interesting like 1) the role of Copts in conquering Egypt 2) the relationship with different religions in general and finally the fate of many great conquerors. I had thought that only Musa Bin Nusair was ill treated as the regime in Damascus changed but apparently it was quite a typical treatment. I also liked the use of poems from the period to try to understand the psychology of the time.

Overall I think the author has what it takes to write very good history books but he will have to reach his own conclusions instead of treating the book as an academic research paper.

I give it Four Stars.

Enigma (8/8 people found this helpful)

The Great Arab Conquests is a summary of the initial 100 years (approx) erruption of Islam from its founding heartland of Arabia, relating events on a territory by territory basis.

Kennedy begins discouragingly by setting out the problem faced by the historian: the lack of detailed and reliable contemporary record. Unfortunately, but predictably, this problem is not overcome and the success of the conquests ultimately remains an enigma.

At commencement the two regional superpowers were Byzantine and Persia. To the east the Arabs subsumed the whole of the Persian Sasanian empire and extended their dominion beyond as far as Sind. They took from the Byzantines the Fertile Crescent and northern Africa before conquering almost all of Spain and Portugal, and leaving a Byzantine rump corresponding to modern day Turkey, Greece and the Balkans.

Both empires had been ravaged in the 6th century by bubonic plague. At the turn of the 7th century they fought a ruinous war against each other leaving them further depleted economically and demographically. Trade in the mediterranean had partly collapsed due to the strife in the former Western Roman Empire. Great cities were left depopulated by this combination of circumstances. Religious divisions between Christians meant that local communities often felt little allegiance to Byzantine. Yet these factors alone do not explain why time after time Arab armies overcame substantially more numerous opponents. Ultimately Kennedy has no real explanation for this - a Muslim is left entitled to attribute it to God's will.

What is striking for the modern reader is that the primary purpose of the conquests does not appear to have been religous conversion, which usually occurred only gradually over the ensuing 200-300 years. Rather it was a process of military conquest. There was a strong economic imperative in the initial form of "booty" and subsequently by means of the poll tax that non-muslim peoples required to pay in order to live peacefully. Wealth flowed from the conquered lands to Damascus in the form of precious metals and stones, and in human form as slaves (the Berbers of north Africa suffering in particular). Relatively small Arab populations formed miltary and administrative elites in the conquered lands with life otherwise going on much as before for the local populations. It is difficult not to see a parallel with the British presence in India a thousand years later.

Kennedy tells his story in a simple narrative style with occassional humour but his prose is often flat. The territory by territory presentation has its drawbacks. It is often hard to relate simultaneous events in different geographic areas. The central policy of Damascus (if one existed) is hardly defined. The religous and political disputes within the central authority are alluded to but not well explained.

Surprisingly disappointing (5/12 people found this helpful)

Due to the mostly positive reviews i read i was greatly looking forward to appropriately filling the gap in my knowledge on the Arabic Conquests.
The reviews must have been written by speed-readers or accomplished Arabic historians. My first problem is the cover. Im sure this isnt the authors fault as he exlusively writes in the 7th and 8th centuries, but the illustration shows guns being fired on two occasions. The next certainly includes the author, in his quality of writing. To cut a diatribe short, this isnt a tour through a period of time but a year ten history essay. Myself being ME Noones son, i should know being 15 years myself; its a superbly accomplished and wonderfully detailed essay, but clearly the work of a man under pressure nonetheless.
Lastly the names. This book is not designed for a first-time historian; the presentation names alone would put someone under 14 off, if only for the lack of any clear explanation. Moreover the lands of which he constantly details need to be remembered by someone who at least knows a little of the conquests of Alexander .And thats just plain stupid .
The book is certainly illuminating but compared with the flair of John Julius Norwich or the barefaced enthusiasm of Michael Wood or even Niall Ferguson Kennedy needs to work a lot harder on his prose.

The Great Arab Conquests: How The Spread Of Islam Changed The World We Live In

Hugh Kennedy

Reader Reviews:

Superb introduction to early Islamic history (2/2 people found this helpful)

Interesting but monotonous (3/3 people found this helpful)

Enigma (8/8 people found this helpful)

Surprisingly disappointing (5/12 people found this helpful)

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