In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire

I had high hopes for this book and looked forward to a unique perspective of the Arab conquests during the early years of the Islamic empire. However, I was very disappointed by the orientalist view that manifested through this book, which discounted the testimony of Arab sources and showed a lack of understanding of the Islamic faith.In addition, the book was very difficult to follow. It is ordered chronologically and by region. Yet, there is no context to the individuals in the book. Names and leaders just show up, and the jumping between events make this a challenge to follow.I understand that Robert Holland wanted to provide a unique understanding of the history of the Arab invasions but the bias and lack of understanding of Islam was too great. For example, he cites that Abd al Malik established the creed “There is no God but God and Muhammad is his messenger” to garner larger Muslim support (Location 2301 in book). This statement is numerous in the Quran and was long established before the Al Malik “established” it. Statements such as this were many and it unfortunately took away from the book.

I found this book to be very interesting, informative and well written. It covers the Arab Conquest of the Sasanian Persian Empire and part of the Byzantine Empire, covering the 7th and 8th centuries AD. It covers :· The military aspects of the invasion and some of the principal battles, with an emphasis on the idea that the conquest was not instantaneous, but rather took decades.· The Arab invasion is portrayed as not being motivated by religious factors, but more for plunder than for converting people. There was no initial impetus for converting the defeated people; in fact the opposite was the case, with a resistance to conversion.· The book discusses the nature of the Arab army and the fact that it was not solely composed of Moslems, but also contained Christian and Jewish tribes.· The book discusses the nature of the Islamic society that the invasion produced and the influence of Persia on the nature of Islam.I liked the book and found that is provided an interesting interpretation of this critical aspect of the history of the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucuses and the West in general.

This well written and extremely insightful book deserves a wide readership. It places the Arab conquests in a historical context second to none and provides a clear and concise description of the peoples and events that transpired. It fills an information void with regard to the Late Antique world as seen from the Arab side. The conquests and aftermaths are shown in human terms rather than from a strictly religious point of view. The role of religion is never dismissed or downplayed but is held in a perspective so that the events can be more easily understood in human terms. This is especially gratifying for those of us that are well versed in Byzantine and Persian history. Those tumultuous times can now be more readily viewed and understood on their own terms. There is something to be said for a balanced multi-perspective presentation and 'In God's Path' does just that-admirably so. The events may have occurred a long time ago but the repercussions are as recent as today's headlines. This should be a 'must read' book especially for Westerners that have a poor understanding of the histories of South West Asia in general and the Arabs in particular.

Great book on the battles and politics of the Late Antiquity of the Muslim lands. Everyone interested in the history of Islam or the Middle East should read this book. We are all so wrapped up in the Middle East, and we are affected by its history every day, we need to understand what that history was and how it has shaped our world. Great read.

I looked for a way to give a feedback on audible books to amazon.com, and found no other way to do it other than leaving a feedback on this book... I think audible book owners should be granted the right to view the maps and figures of the bought book online, or have an option to give a small fee to buy the kindle version completely. Especially history books without the maps are really hard to understand and from a customer point of view, bad purchases. Narration goes like "as seen in map 4.2, they turned eastwards then northwards and reached Samarkand" One needs to go home and see the map immediately... Also audible buyers miss out the plates, pictures of narrated cities, ruins of settings, artefacts etc...

Although relatively short, this book provides an excellent short history of the early expansion of the Arab/Muslim Empire. The author makes a number of valuable insights into the emergence of the Umayyad and Abassid empires. His use of available sources is admirable, and his conclusions flow logically from his sourcing. This is the sort of work that can create a lot of argument among specialists, but provides a much more nuanced picture of early Islamic history. Very recommended.

A widely shared impression is that, immediately on conversion to Islam, Arabs swept across the Persian and Roman empires, wielding the sword as alien invaders. This study demonstrates that most elements in this story are false or at best simplifications. The Arabs in the heartland of Islam were partly Romanised, familiar with military service. People other than Arabs joined the conquerors, who also fought each other and used negotiation as well as violence in their conquests, which took place over an extended period.

Perhaps not as in depth as some might want, but for the casual reader with a passing interest it is entertaining and informative. I feel it provides a good grounding for those looking for a "starting point" on the subject, or a good overview for those just looking to get a general idea of when, how and why the early Arab Conquests happened.

This is a book that I have been looking for. After reading a number of books on how the Arabs managed to create their empire and the spread of Islam I was still looking for the answer to some fundamental questions. This book,short as it is, manages to describe this world changing process perfectly and in doing so addresses these questions probably as far as is possible today.Professor Hoyland has taken a different approach than most other writers in that he uses non-Muslim sources from the time that this expansion took place and up until the break-up of the Empire combined with available Muslim sources. This is necessary since there are almost no Muslim sources from the seventh century and most of them are from two hundred years after events took place. By bringing together information from all available sources the picture that emerges is far more complex than what is usually presented.He starts the book by describing the situation in the Middle East before the Arab expansion. It is clear that the Arabs did not burst out of the desert but were well established in all border areas and in contact with surrounding empires. It is quite surprising to read about Christian and Jewish Arabs (!) living in these border zones.When the expansion really starts it is also quite clear that what drove it was the ambition to conquer and create an empire like any other state. The spread if Islam came after this first wave of armed forces.Professor Hoyland also manages to explain how it was possible to conquer such a vast territory when the Arabs were outnumbered at least 50 to 1. The Capture of Egypt was a particular interesting story. By reading this one has to give credit to the Arabs for using a tactics that probably made their expansion far easier and also less costly for both them and the people they conquered.Finally the spread of Islam took far longer than at least I had been aware of. Egypt as an example did not have a majority of Muslims until four hundred years after the Arab invasion.While the text is excellent the book itself would have been worth a higher production quality. Maps and photos are all in black and white and the text itself has a font size that is from my point of view to small.But what I learned from this book was a great deal. Also a reflection that the people trying to spread Islam 1400 years ago were far less aggressive than some of those trying to do the same today. Remember that the Arab aggression was about creating an empire and not spreading Islam. This is an excellent book to put even today's events into perspective.

This scholarly but very readable narrative continues in the same vein as the highly praised Hugh Kennedy's book on the Arab conquests published in 2007. Both authors while facing a major challenge because of paucity or biased sources try to strike a balance between the limited contemporary Christian testimonies written mostly by clerics or monks in the 7th century and the much later Muslim canonical sources of the 9th Century about long past events which relied on chains of oral transmitters.Although they cover the same material I found Kennedy's account generally more lively and particularly informative about the political and religious background of the various conquered lands. By contrast Hoyland's account gives more detailed analysis about the dynamics of the early Arab rule and the impact of the conquests on the populations. He provides good insights about the Persian immense contribution to the forging of a distinct Islamic civilisation as well as hinting about the reasons for the early cleavage between the supporters of a sacred lineage( Shiites) and the more egalitarian meritocratic Sunnis.Both authors explain the success of the Muslim conquests as the product of a unique set of historical circumstances with the fatal weakening of the two dominant empires after years of strife, the preaching of a simple new monotheistic faith devoid of clergy in a Christian environment of fratricidal doctrinal disputes and the flexible mobility and tenacity of a hardy nomadic soldiery gratified by the promise of plunder. Other factors were the occasional active collaboration of disgruntled misruled populations or their opportunist leaders as well as ethnic affinities particularly in the desert confines of Syria and Mesopotamia leading to alliances between the local population with the Arab invaders. They both emphasise that the original Arab rulers were very reluctant to convert their subjects to their own religion for fear of undermining their source of taxation as they relied on the poll tax ( jizia) imposed on the infidels.It is refreshing to have now two solid accounts based on a multiplicity of sources to counteract the wayward claims of some revisionists who deny that the Arab invasions were triggered by the rise of Islam preached by the prophet Mohamed in the Hejaz or they ever took place.

Beautiful book with helpful maps and the text size is about 13 which is great as it makes for easier reading.I really enjoyed reading this and it explains a lot, such as how Islam spread so quickly. Hoyland shows how a few Arabs could not control cast areas such as North Africa. So conversion happened by assimilation. It explains how many capitulated rather than fight and some like the Persians were battle weary.He explains how by speed the Arab tribes would begin by making raids to test defenses before invasion. There were a few surprises too such as how Christian and Jewish tribes participated in raids, at least in the early days.Overall its very I formative and you won't regret buying it.

An interesting book to read but its more about the opinions and conclusions of the writer rather than history

An interesting book that gives useful insights into a crucial period in history. As always, maps are indispensable for places with unfamiliar names and they are a bit small on the Kindle.