Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

418 Pages·2011·11.11 MB·English

TAMIM ANSARY
Praise for
DESTINY DISRUPTED
"If you want to put today's headlines about jihadist suicide
bombings into the much larger context of history, you'd be well
advised to settle in with Destiny Disrupted. It's the story of a
civilization that suddenly found itself upended by strangers and
now wants to put itself right. And if author Ansary stops short of
calling the result a clash of civilizations, he feels free to call it two
one-sided views of world history. His book is a valuable tool for
opening up a view of the other side."
-St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"This is a marvelous book. Ansary has written an indispensable
historical account of the last 1,500 years from a perspective that
is all too often ignored in the West. Destiny Disrupted will be
read for generations to come."
-REZA AsLAN, author of No god but God
and How to Win a Cosmic ~r
"A must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history
of the Islamic world. But the book is more than just a litany of past
events. It is also an indispensable guide to understanding the politi
cal debates and conflicts of today, from 9/11 to the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, from the Somali pirates to the Palestinian/Israeli
conflict. As Ansary writes in his conclusion, 'The conflict wracking
the modern world is not, I think, best understood as a clash of
civilizations ... It's better understood as the friction generated by
two mismatched world histories intersecting."'
-San Francisco Chronicle
"Ansary has written an informative and thoroughly engaging look
at the past, present, and future of Islam. With his seamless and
charming prose, he challenges conventional wisdom and appeals
for a fuller understanding of how Islam and the world at large
have shaped each other. And that makes this book, in this uneasy,
contentious post 9/11 world, a must-read."
-KHALED HossEINI, author of The Kite Runner
and A Thousand Splendid Suns
"A lively, thorough, and accessible survey of the history of Islam
(both the religion and its political dimension) that explores many
of the disconnects between Islam and the West."
-ShelfA wareness
"There's not a page where you won't learn something startling in
Destiny Disrupted. Beautifully clear and endlessly engaging, it's
a romp through science, poetry, politics, and religion, in the
company of a wise and charming mind, the perfect antidote to
the Islamophobia that clouds Europe and North America."
-RAJ PATEL, author of Stuffa nd Starved and visiting scholar,
Center for African Studies, University of California at Berkeley
"Never apologist in tone, meticulously researched and balanced,
often amusing but never glib, Destiny Disrupted is ultimately a
gripping drama that pulls the reader into great, seminal events of
world history, a book which offers a wealth of knowledge and in
sight to any reader who wants to understand the movements and
events behind the modern-day hostilities wracking Western and
Islamic societies." -Portland Oregonian
DESTINY DISRUPTED
THE ISLAMIC WORLD TODAY
DESTINY
DISRUPTED
~
of
A History the World
Through Islamic Eyes
TAMIM ANSARY
PublicAffairs
NEW YORK
Copyright © 2009 by Tamim Ansary
Hardcover edition first published in 2009 in the United States by PublicAffairs'™,
a member of the Perseus Books Group.
Paperback edition first published in 2010 in the United States by PublicAffairs.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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Designed by Brent Wilcox
Text set in Adobe Garamond
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-58648-606-8
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58648-813-0
10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2 1
For Amanuddin and Terttu

CONTENTS
List ofM aps IX
Names and Dates XI
Introduction
Xlll
The Middle World
2 The Hijra 17
3 Birth of the Khalifate 33
4 Schism 53
5 Empire of the Umayyads 67
6 The Abassid Age 79
7 Scholars, Philosophers, and Sufis 91
8 Enter the Turks 117
9 Havoc 133
10 Rebirth 159
11 Meanwhile in Europe 199
12 West Comes East 217
13 The Reform Movements 247
14 Industry, Constitutions, and Nationalism 269
15 Rise of the Secular Modernists 301
vii