The History of Islam, Volume 1 (The History of Islam Series)

The first volume of The History of Islam focuses on the period elapsing from around the mid 6th century CE until the final years of the 9th. It begins, however, with a lengthy chapter dealing with modern narrative of Islamic history, and how this narrative, rather than improving with time, has simply deteriorated so much that Muslim history written in our day is largely incomprehensible. The work, then, relying on both Western and Muslim sources, old and new, deals with the more salient events of Islamic history. Its focus in this volume is on the rise and expansion of Islam and the early caliphate. The vast expansion under the first three caliphs of Islam and the Umayyad dynasty is dealt with in detail. The work includes maps that sum up different events taking place in different parts of the realm in order to provide an overview of Islamic history at a glance.