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Reddit mentions of A History of Islamic Societies

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Reddit mentions: 6

We found 6 Reddit mentions of A History of Islamic Societies. Here are the top ones.

A History of Islamic Societies
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Found 6 comments on A History of Islamic Societies:

u/WhiteRastaJ · 79 pointsr/religion

Firstly, a caveat. I am not, nor have I ever been, a Muslim. I have, however, studied Islam at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

That being said, let me point out just a few huge blunders in this article:

>Mohammed was in Mecca preaching to any who would listen that he alone was the Divine Prophet of the One God, Allah

False. Mohammad claimed to be one in a line of many prophets. Islam also accepts Jesus, Moses, Adam, Noah and other as prophets.

>traveled to the Jewish city of Medina

Medina wasn't called Medina then. It was known as Yathrib. There were Jews living there, from the Jewish tribes of the Banu Nadir, Banu Qurayza and Banu Qaynuqah. But Arabs lived there as well. The name Medina is a contraction of the Arabic Medinat-ul-Nabi ( مدينة النبي ), meaning 'City of the Prophet'. It acquired this name only after Muhammad migrated there.

The author writes that, "Mohammed sneaked out of Mecca..." but also "Mohammed was consumed with rage over his being booted out of Mecca". Which is it? Did he sneak out or was he booted out? A serious contradiction.

>Even the Jews of Medina, who had shown him such kindness, were eventually driven from their homes while Mohammed's Muslim band pillaged the city

The three Jewish tribes I mentioned above were eventually driven out. This is usually based on betrayals of the conditions laid out in the Constitution of Medina, to which those tribes had agreed.

>In 630 A.D. Mohammed marched triumphantly into Mecca with 40,000 followers. His revenge was complete, but the horrors of Islam had only begun.

Inane. There were skirmishes between the Meccans and the Ummah (Muslim community) that culminated in the Battle of Badr, fought on March 13, 624 AD, when the Meccans attacked Medina. The Muslims won. A year later, in 625 AD, the Meccans attacked the Ummah in the Battle of Uhud, which the Muslims lost. In 627 AD the Meccans, allied with some of the Jewish tribes mentioned above, again attacked the Ummah in The Battle of the Trench. Ultimately the Muslims won the day and Mecca surrendered. To say all of this was 'revenge' for being driven out is simplistic, ignores the context of the event and shows no real understanding of the events leading up to the conquest of Mecca.

>In all, Mohammed had eleven wives, nine of them simultaneously, with the youngest being only ten years old. Eye-witness accounts claim that Aisha brought her toys with her when she was delivered to the Prophet of Allah.

Again, overly simplistic. Blood and family ties were--and are--central to Arab culture. We are familiar with marriage alliances in Europe, and in Arabia it was the same. Many of Muhammad's marriages were undertaken to cement alliances between tribes. Simply put, through this and other maneuvers, Muhammad united the Arabian peninsula in peace for the first time in its history. Yes, he married Aisha when she was young, but there is no real evidence to support sexual activity between them until she had reached the culturally-appropriate age for such according to Arab culture (this remains hotly debated...a debate beyond the scope of this post).

>Mohammed regarded women as nothing more than sexual toys and servants

Patently false. The Qur'an gives women rights they did not have before Islam. These included the right to initiate divorce; to inherit property; and to have their say in the governance of the Ummah. Additionally, the Qur'an forbade female infanticide, which was a common occurrence before Muhammad's prophetic career.

This entire article is full of invective, a lack of historical knowledge, and blatant fabrications designed to support an anti-Islamic agenda. It is fear and hate-mongering of the worst sort. It smacks of the kind of Bush-era paranoia and Islamophobia that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

You can find out more by following the links above. Also, the following books might be of interest:

Muhammad: his Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings

A History of Islamic Societies by Ira Lapidus

A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani

Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong.

Hope this helps.

u/Vampire_Seraphin · 4 pointsr/AskHistorians

Ira Lapidus' tome A History of Islamic Societies is a well written reference and exactly what it says on the tin.

u/RayWest · 3 pointsr/books

Robert Fisk: The Great War for Civilization.

Nikki Keddie: Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution

Ira Lapidus: A History of Islamic Societies

And other good ones I know of that were mentioned in here:

A History of the Arab People" by Hourani

"All the Shah's Men" by Stephen Kinzer

The Palestinian People: A History

The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land

This is all a good place to start, I think.

u/zizzybot · 2 pointsr/history

"A History of Islamic Societies" by Ira M. Lapidus is an excellent survey of this field. It does a good job of addressing the more prevalent themes without getting bogged down in esotericism. Here is a link to amazon where you can get it for around $35 (Canadian). Hope that helps! Cheers.

u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

Here are some useful books on what I study;
Ebrey - East Asia
Lapidus - A History of Islamic Societies
Iliffe - Africans: The History of a Continent
Lane - Genghis Khan and Mongol Rule
Which are very good introductions based on contemporary discourse. With an interest in Ancient History of the regions you're looking at, I'd most recommend Lapidus's book. It'll give you a different perspective on the Middle East which may have some influence on how you look those ancient empires. But I don't know, I've never studied them tbh.

u/0w1Farm · 1 pointr/history

This book is really thorough.