DESTINY DISRUPTED

Felt like reading a game of thrones. Highly engaging. I have never read a non-fiction with this much engagement. You get some idea on how many famous historical fictions are made based on true events.

This is fascinating introduction to world’s second largest religion. Beauty of book is that it is compact and incisive. Tammi Ansari’s prose is well written and his analysis is objective. Unlike many books on this subject Tamim doesn’t spoon fed its reader religious narrative. Overall worthy read.

Gives us an insight into the growth of Islam and challenges faced by the religion. The history is traced and the splitting of Islam and the development of Kingdom and nations are disused at good length. A good book to read.

I read this book perhaps third time. Tamim Ansary approaches this topic as a neutral scholar and not as a believer in Islamic ideology. This often unsettles a devout muslim who reads this. He is benign and seems forgiving to West for its atrocities on Muslims, particularly in Palestine, perhaps because he wants to maintain his neutrality while residing in the biggest perpetrator country. However, his diagnosis of multiple ailments pf muslim societies and their rulers is accurate most of the times.

Exceptionally well written account of not just the history and origins of Islam but also a very nuanced account of the more recent history that led to the various upheavals in the Middle East.

fastest delivery...the book was as shown in the pic..quality was also good

Provides a good summary of history of islam and its evolutionary spirit at its different stages before it lost momentun and was supersed by another powerful social set up......it provides a good opportunity to ponder upon the interaction between the two...in particular why Muslims remained from developing the expedient motor to propel their ship.....Good read

Excellent, never knew much of Islamic history beyond four khalifas. Good read and would recommend for its easy understanding and well managed sequence.

I'm a major history buff. However, I'll freely admit to having done much more reading in American history than other topics. For example, I've read more biographies of George Washington than I have histories on Asia and the Middle East combined (unless maybe you give me partial credit for Japan and World War II). And, while such a trend is unlikely to change completely, I have started making some effort to branch out. An early pick for this effort was Tamim Ansary's 2009 Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Ansary's ambitious attempt to introduce the Islamic view of world history is fantastic, and well worth reading for any history fan, especially those like me who have been provincial in their previous reading. Ansary, who was born of an Afghan father and American mother in Afghanistan and moved to the United States in high school, is very well-suited to act as a bridge for the two worlds for his readers. He is able to see Islamic culture from an insider's point of view while also recognizing its place in relation to the Western view of history, and explain all of that to a Western audience - no small task, that. Ansary begins with a brief introduction the Middle East (itself a very Western-centric term, of course) before Muhammad's arrival on the scene. He then devotes a large segment of the book to Muhammad's time and that of the first four Caliph's to follow him. Since this was obviously such a major event in the formation of Islamic culture and outlook, the detailed look at this period is worth the space devoted to it, as it shapes everything that follows. The book then moves into detailing the political, social, and religious changes in and challenges to Islam over the years, and how even dividing that into three themes as I did is an artificial external imposition, since from within Islam, the political, social, and religious are so often all one thread. Ansary introduces all the major empires, religious schisms, and so on, until the Western narrative collides with Islam, at first with the minor - as far as Islam was concerned - detail of the Crusades - and then later in the 18th and 19th centuries as Western powers and greedy rulers slowly end up with foreigners calling the shots, openly or behind the scenes, in many major Islamic former powers. Ansary then details the natural response to that from Islam as it has sought to take back its own destiny. Ansary does an amazing job of bringing all the historical figures to life and entertaining the reader. As he states in his introduction, his approach is less an academic tome and more a conversation about just what the heck is going on over there with Islam. For such a broad and sweeping attempt to introduce the Islamic view of the world to readers unfamiliar with it, it's a perfect approach to engage while educating. I listened to Blackstone Audio's 2009 production of the book, narrated by Ansary himself. The production was very well done, and Ansary does a fantastic job. Author narration can be hit or miss, but Ansary really hits a great tone that's easy to listen to and indeed fits his conversational writing approach, and he nails all the pronunciation that another reader would trip over. The unabridged production runs approximately 17.5 hours. I've become a fan of Ansary with Destiny Disrupted, and I definitely plan to read more from him - and if possible listen to him. His history of Afghanistan, Games Without Rules, also self-narrated, is high on my to read list. I also aim to read more about some of the topics Ansary introduces from other authors, so much has my curiosity been piqued. Ansary does an amazing job of making a vital part of world history accessible to the average Western reader. Given the modern state of the world, it's imperative we Americans understand how our two cultures ended up where we are. Ansary's Destiny Disrupted is an excellent place to start.

Great histary

This book gives a clear brief description of the history of the Middle World with some deep thoughts on the recent history!

Very fast seller. And very reliable, and very kind. Simply perfect.

People in the review section losing their minds because this book contradicts western narrative about a few things. This is a book about the view on history from Islamic eyes. Of course thinks will be written in a different way when you tell the story out of a pov. In conclusion: this book is amazing. I really enjoyed reading it and learnt a lot about Islam and the Middle East itself. It really made me question a lot about what I thought of „history“ so far. If you like it or not, people will always write and tell things differently when it benefits them. Do your fact checks through multiple sources and get your own understanding.