No religion in the modern world inspires as much fear and has been as misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination in the West as an extreme form of faith that supports authoritarian governance, the oppression of women, civil war, and terrorism.

This brief history by Karen Armstrong, the result of many years of research and engagement with Islam, attempts to provide a fuller and more objective picture. It demonstrates that this religion, which is rapidly gaining more followers, is a phenomenon far more complex and rich than today’s fundamentalist trend suggests.

The book begins with the flight of the Prophet Muhammad and his family from Medina in the seventh century and the establishment of the first mosques. It describes the causes of the schism between Shia and Sunni Muslims and the emergence of the mystics known as Sufis; the spread of Islam throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia; the shocking effects of the Crusades and the Muslim world; the evolution of the imperial Islamic state into a major world power in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and finally, the roots and consequences of revolutionary Islamism.

In the final section, the author offers us a perspective on Islam in the contemporary era and examines future prospects. At a time when it seems that those who argue that the West and the Islamic world are inevitably on a path to conflict are being validated, this book is even more valuable.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]