Reddit mentions of The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam

needs Hodgson's "Venture of Islam" (all 3 vols)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Venture-Islam-Volume-Classical/dp/0226346838

Basic: Islam by Karen Armstrong

Intermediate: A History of Islamic Societies by Ira Lapidus

Advanced: The Venture of Islam by Marshall G. S. Hodgson, Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3.

I'm not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but Burton Mack's The Christian Myth is the best religious studies book that I've read. It's short, elegant and profound. A Myth of Innocence is also good, but it might be a dense outside of a classroom. Both books deal with the study of the New Testament from a secular, sociological perspective, but there's a lot of theory on the concept of myth-making and social influences that can be more generally applied to other fields of religious study. Mack is sorta the antithesis to the "secular" Historical Jesus Movement, which is the dominant movement in academic New Testament studies (and insufferably stupid in my opinion but I'll save my rant).

Actually, the class that I read Mack for used Wayne Meeks's The First Urban Christians as an introduction to the topic. So, if you're really into learning about the origins of Christianity, that's a better place to start.

I never Islam from a sociological perspective, but I liked Hodgson's series The Venture of Islam for a relatively readable (if quite long with some extremely dense sections) description of the history of Islam and Muslim society. It's straight history, though, nearly textbook-style, but it does a great job interweaving all of the different strands and tracking competing and mutating social influences up to the 20th century (I didn't actually read much of the third book, which ends in the 1950's, I guess). Even my converted-to-Islam brother (le sigh...) doesn't hate it because Hodgson did more original research on Muslim history than probably any other Western scholar.

Sorry to ramble on. This was what I studied in college.

• The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam
  
  
• The Venture of Islam, Volume 2: The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods
  
  
• The Venture of Islam, Volume 3: The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times

i know a professor and she did give this multiple book series for history a pass, the author is not an orientalist as well, the Venture of Islam:

https://www.amazon.com/Venture-Islam-Classical-Age/dp/0226346838/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523804477&sr=8-1&keywords=the+venture+of+islam&dpID=51KRFoNyv9L&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Quran.com you can read, also see the text and listen as well.

Oh, a friend also used this when researching religions:


https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Religions-Plus-Huston-Smith/dp/0061660183/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523804928&sr=8-1&keywords=huston+smith+world%27s+religions