In God's Path
The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire
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In God's Path
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Narrated by:
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Peter Ganim
About this listen
In just over a hundred years - from the death of Muhammad in 632 to the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 - the followers of the Prophet swept across the whole of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. Their armies threatened states as far flung as the Franks in Western Europe and the Tang Empire in China. The conquered territory was larger than the Roman Empire at its greatest expansion, and it was claimed for the Arabs in roughly half the time. How this collection of Arabian tribes was able to engulf so many empires, states, and armies in such a short period has perplexed historians for centuries. Most accounts of the Arab invasions have been based almost solely on the early Muslim sources, which were composed centuries later to illustrate the divinely chosen status of the Arabs. Robert Hoyland's groundbreaking new history assimilates not only the rich biographical information of the early Muslim sources but also the many non-Arabic sources, contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous with the conquests.
In God's Path begins with a broad picture of the Late Antique world prior to the Prophet's arrival, a world dominated by two superpowers: Byzantium and Sasanian Persia. In between these empires, emerged a distinct Arabian identity, which helped forge the inhabitants of western Arabia into a formidable fighting force. The Arabs are the principal actors in this drama yet, as Hoyland shows, the peoples along the edges of Byzantium and Persia - the Khazars, Bulgars, Avars, and Turks - all played critical roles in the remaking of the old world order. The new faith propagated by Muhammad and his successors made it possible for many of the conquered peoples to join the Arabs in creating the first Islamic Empire.
Well-paced, comprehensive, and eminently readable, In God's Path presents a sweeping narrative of a transformational period in world history.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2015 Oxford University Press (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about In God's Path
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- thomas
- 19-02-16
A Fascinating Read
Once sped up to 1.25 or 1.35 the narrator becomes far more enjoyable
would recommend.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-05-22
Excellent history of the spread of Islam, 632-750
This magnificent book focuses on the rashidun and umayyad caliphates, and answers the often asked question of how the Arabs were able to conquer so much land so fast, and how they successfully converted its population to the religion of Islam.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jonathan
- 24-01-15
Good to read, but works poorly as an audiobook
This is an interesting book which gives a detailed account of an aspect of history that is typically glossed over. Every other book that I have read/listened to just describes the muslim conquests as very fast -- here one finds details beyond this. However this book does not transfer well to audio format. This is not because the narration is in any way deficient; rather it is the nature of the book. One really needs to refer regularly to map in parallel with the narrative -- the maps are provided as a pdf but having to look them up on the computer while listening rather defeats the purpose of an audiobook. Also there are lots of details that one would skip over while reading, especially the dates of almost every person mentioned. In an audio book these really get in the way of the narrative. Some parts of the book are more discursive and these work fine, but most is historical narrative which suffers from these various problems. Overall my advice is to read this book but not to listen to it.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dennis Sommers
- 04-08-21
A detailed and well argued text, well pronounced!
To encounter an American reader who gets all the pronunciations correct is an unexpected pleasure when many don’t even get Italian right. Patronising, I know, but I made such a difference to my appreciation of this informative and well argued text. I am acquainted with the Middle East and interested in its culture and history but this brilliant book has put a lot of what I thought I knew about Arabs and Islam into a different perspective. It’s about the last thing I’d expect from an zAmerican author , given that Phillip Hitti’s pioneering history of the Arabs had not even sold 100 copies by 1929! Wonderful: thanks a bunch!!!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- ish
- 11-12-19
well read but very biased account
while the author attempts, rightfully so, to question the mainstream scholarship (Arab and non Arab) on the early Arab conquest, he tends to be rather inconsistent with his claimed approach. The main question is : why does not he question the very sources he base his account on? it is unclear why he would regard the dominant scholarship as inaccurate and consider his own historical interpretation as closer to reality. he does not actually question the sources he used to depict this period of history. This is, however, an interesting book, despite its methodological bias. The narrator's pronunciation of Arab words and proper nouns is fairly good and the book is generally well read.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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- Sam E.
- 18-11-19
Misleading and biased
A very disappointing read. Certain parts were misleading and biased. Description was so promising. A wasted credit
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Tahir Nasser
- 16-10-21
Bereft of Reality
Myopic in its failure to recognise the role of the Quran. The author frames history as if there are no 7th century Qurans. His narrative is upended by the finding of contemporaneous Quranic excerpts that upend many notions in this work.
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