Destiny Disrupted : A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

by Ansary, Tamim

• ISBN13: 9781586486068
• ISBN10: 1586486063
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-27
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

We in the west share a common narrative of world historythat runs from the Nile Valley and Mesopotomia, through Greece and Rome and the French Revolution, to the rise of the secular state and the triumph of democracy. But our story largely omits a whole civilization that until quite recently saw itself at the center of world history, and whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europea place it long perceived as primitive and disorganizedhad somehow hijacked destiny. Entertaining and enlightening,Destiny Disruptedalso offers a vital perspective on current conflicts.

Author Biography

Tamim Ansary is the author of the memoir West of Kabul, East of New York, co-author with Farah Ahmadi of the New York Times bestseller The Other Side of the Sky, and has been a major contributing writer to several secondary school history textbooks. Ansary is director of the San Francisco Writers Workshop. He writes for Encarta.com, the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Alternet, Edutopia, Parade, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	p. ix
Names and Dates	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
The Middle World	p. 1
The Hijra	p. 17
Birth of the Khalifate	p. 33
Schism	p. 53
Empire of the Umayyads	p. 67
The Abassid Age	p. 79
Scholars, Philosophers, and Sufis	p. 91
Enter the Turks	p. 117
Havoc	p. 133
Rebirth	p. 159
Meanwhile in Europe	p. 199
West Comes East	p. 217
The Reform Movements	p. 247
Industry, Constitutions, and Nationalism	p. 269
Rise of the Secular Modernists	p. 301
The Crisis of Modernity	p. 317
The Tide Turns	p. 329
Afterword	p. 349
The Structure of Islamic Doctrine	p. 359
Notes	p. 361
Bibliography	p. 367
Acknowledgments	p. 371
Index	p. 373
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