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

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Hugh Kennedy
By (author) Hugh Kennedy
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:448
Dimensions(mm): Height 214,Width 134
Category/GenreWorld history
World history - BCE to c 500 CE
World history - c 500 to C 1500
World history - c 1500 to c 1750
World history - c 1750 to c 1900
World history - from c 1900 to now
ISBN/Barcode 9780753823897
ClassificationsDewey:909.0976701
Audience
General
Illustrations 9 Maps

Publishing Details

Publisher Orion Publishing Co
Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publication Date 16 April 2008
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Today's Arab world was created at breathtaking speed. Where the Roman Empire took over 200 years to reach its full extent, the Arab armies overran the whole Middle East, North Africa and Spain within a generation. They annihilated the thousand-year-old Persian Empire and reduced the Byzantine Empire to little more than a city-state based around Constantinople. Within a hundred years of the Prophet's death, Muslim armies destroyed the Visigoth kingdom of Spain and crossed the Pyrenees to occupy southern France. This is the first popular English language account of this astonishing remaking of the political and religious map of the world. Hugh Kennedy's sweeping narrative reveals how the arab armies conquered almost everything in their path. One of the few academic historians with a genuine talent for storytelling, he offers a compelling mix of larger-than-life characters, battles, treachery and the clash of civilisations.

Author Biography

Hugh Kennedy studied Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arabic Studies before reading Arabic, Persian and History at Cambridge. Since 1972 he has taught in the Department of Mediaeval History at the University of St. Andrews. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2000.

Reviews

"a lucid and enlightening work that is surely to become the standard popular history of early Islam for many years to come" -- Adam Levitt BIRMINGHAM POST