Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

An important and informative and very well written book.

This is not a history book nor is it a novel and yet it reads much like a story, told in the ancient tradition of storytelling, and I could easily imagine our author talking aloud to a group. It's a tale lovingly told, a tale of passions, the tale of world history from a non-Western perspective. Like the storytellers of old, the author engages us, cajoles us, throws in little tit-bits of gossip but most of all informs the un-informed. So, be warned history buffs, although there is an extensive bibliography this is a one man's perspective of certain events he has chosen to include and he makes no excuse for that. The title also makes clear that this is a religious tale, so be prepared for explanations of Islam the religion and Islam the way of life, its tenants and rules, as well the details of what sometimes seemed to me obscure differences of opinion. There are also mystics and universities of learning and through the tales one learns their debut to our Classical world and their gift in return, to western civilization which allowed the Enlightment and Renaissance to flourish. Reading this I felt that the tragedy of the currently popular ''clash of civilizations'' is that sailing back and forth on the sea of time we are completely intertwined; learning, knowledge and culture seeping back and forth between, so ultimatey its a re-telling of bits of our culture that we seemed to have rubbed out of the history books. I thoroughly enjoyed, this unusual and personal telling of history as a story, its engaging, interesting and amusing - the author is just that a author not a historian, so he can give his view and get away with it. It also allows him to be emotional and passionate in highlighting the tragedy of the common man, women and child living in what we now call the Middle east, their failed aspirations and somewhat hidden tale. Be prepared it is also a political tale as despite the spices and characters on the way it's a tale of corruption and missed opportunities of golden ages and depths of despair. And it seemed to me that one of the main reasons for writing this book was for our author - an Afghan- to help the west understand the roots of those tears. Just like a good movie our storyteller knows how to tell a tale and at the end I felt enlightened, I learnt things I didn't know, I heard interesting stories and would recommend this as a enjoyable way to understand our shared past and what should be, if we can talk and argue openly about such stories our shared future.

First a rant because it might prompt improvement: The index on the kindle version is a waste of space because it lacks links into the content. It doesn’t even include page numbers; it’s just a list of names etc., lacking any purpose. Come on publisher: you should be doing better. I enjoyed the book, which succeeds in providing the Islamic perspective regarding its relations with the West. It’s written in quite a casual style, which was fine with me. Just 4 stars because there were topics that I would have liked to learn more about that it didn’t cover adequately, if at all. In particular there was nothing about Indonesia, nor the Islamic world’s relations with black Africa, and little about the Mughal empire.

One of the most fascinating books I have ever read. The familiar history of the world is completely transformed by this different perspective. I didn't know how massively ignorant I was until I read this book but it is so engagingly written that the new discoveries are a treat rather than a chore. For weeks I have been exhausting friends and family with fascinating new facts from this great book. The treatment is not at all academic and while i am sure it does not tell the full story it tells a gripping and exciting one from an intelligent and tolerant point of view. Brilliant.

We are good at seeing the world though our own eyes, through our own traditions. And we tend to assume that our perspective is the truth, when it is actually only our understanding of `the truth'... something which exists outside of us. How much of how we view the world today is based on the way we were taught history, through the lens of western historians and policy makers? This book "Destiny Disrupted" is the story of world history seen through a particular lens: that of Muslims, who have their own 1400 year history which was not much intertwined with Europe. We can learn a good bit both about Islam and about world history by taking in this different perspective, written by a Muslim who is not afraid to be self-critical, to distinguish between what is known and what is believed about history, and who loves to tell it as a good story. Ansary has spent years writing in an accessible style for western readers, and this is an enjoyable and informative read. I wonder how other Muslims respond to this book, and hos much his perspective is influenced by his Afghan heritage, with its Persian influences.

This was full of extremely valuable information that shed light on parts of history that were confusing. The writer's concise style and objectivity make it illuminating and honest. I feel like I have an introductory knowledge of how the world and countries' reputations have got to where they've got to as a result of reading this and, the best thing I can say, is it has made me want to read into each part a little further. Great stuff.

The first chapters of this book tell a familiar story, about the origins of the Islam, the development of the religion, the place Muhammed has in the story, the struggle between the first successors of the Prophet, and the civil wars that took place in the first decades AH. These familiar stories are well-known and Ansary tells nothing new about them in this book. Of course, he adds some nice details and appealing story twists, but nothing special. If you want to learn about this fascinating piece of history, you will find that this book has everything want. If you want to read another book telling basically the same story, but with more Shia (over against the Sunni) story lines, read " After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam " by Lesley Hazleton. The chapters in "Destiny Disrupted" about Europe and the way that Islamic countries were overpowered by the Europeans - economically, socially and politically - are very interesting and belong to the strongest parts of the book. In these chapters Ansary shines in describing how the (policy) choices of the Europeans impacted the Islamic countries, and what the effects were on the people living in those countries and their culture. In these chapters, this book proofs its subtitle - "A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes" - to be absolutely true. Europeans can write about this, but not in the same way that a Muslim can, simply because Europeans were - and still are (as is one of the theses of this book) - the guys who knew how others had to behave and develop. This book tries to be a history of the world, but it misses quite a number of historic developments, such as the Goths in Spain or the various Arabic tribes/clans in Nothern Africa. Basically, this book re-tells the history of Europe and the Middle East, and it does so in a very thorough and interesting way, and of course from a new perspective. But it's no history of the world. "This book presents two mismatched world histories intersecting. Muslims were a crowd of people going somewhere. Europeans and their offspring were a crowd of people going somewhere. When the two crowds crossed paths, much bumping and crashing resulted, and the crashing is still going on." (p.353) "Destiny Disrupted" is a book written by a Sunni. For example, when Ansary describes how the Prophet Muhammed dies, he tells that the Prophet died in the lap of his wife Aisha. But that's not how Shia people tell this story; according to them, the Prophet died in the lap of his son-in-law Ali. Moreover, the first four Caliphs are described as the 'Rightly Guided'. But, Shia believers don't except the first three Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman), according to them Ali (the fourth Caliph) is the rightful successor of Muhammed. If the author is a Sunni and tells history from a Sunni perspective, he should tell the reader so, but he did not do that. This is unfortunate, because it sows doubt about his background and thus about his portrayal of Shia history in the larger perspective of Islamic history. In the introduction, the author mentions that he is not a professional historian, jurist or theologian, which might make the book not live up to professional historic quality standards. Indeed this is visible in the text, for example through sentences in the text in which the author writes in the I form and presents his own opinion and ideas, without substantive arguments or backing from sources. This might be a disadvantage, but I don't think it is. By telling the story this way, Ansary gives the reader the idea that he is speaking directly to you instead of through a book: in person-to-person discussion you have more liberty to present well-known common sense developments and correlations, because all the participants in the discussion know that they are true. All in all, this book is a welcome addition to my personal library on European and world history, because it presents a perspective that is so often lacking from discussion, the perspective from the overpowered ones. We need more of these kind of stories.

i really learnt a lot from this book. not only did i learn Islamic history, i also learnt a bit about history before Islam, about some of the first civilizations on the planet. it is a really engaging book, whilst also simultaneously being a very inspiring book.

I'm a major history buff. However, I'll freely admit to having done much more reading in American history than other topics. For example, I've read more biographies of George Washington than I have histories on Asia and the Middle East combined (unless maybe you give me partial credit for Japan and World War II). And, while such a trend is unlikely to change completely, I have started making some effort to branch out. An early pick for this effort was Tamim Ansary's 2009 Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Ansary's ambitious attempt to introduce the Islamic view of world history is fantastic, and well worth reading for any history fan, especially those like me who have been provincial in their previous reading. Ansary, who was born of an Afghan father and American mother in Afghanistan and moved to the United States in high school, is very well-suited to act as a bridge for the two worlds for his readers. He is able to see Islamic culture from an insider's point of view while also recognizing its place in relation to the Western view of history, and explain all of that to a Western audience - no small task, that. Ansary begins with a brief introduction the Middle East (itself a very Western-centric term, of course) before Muhammad's arrival on the scene. He then devotes a large segment of the book to Muhammad's time and that of the first four Caliph's to follow him. Since this was obviously such a major event in the formation of Islamic culture and outlook, the detailed look at this period is worth the space devoted to it, as it shapes everything that follows. The book then moves into detailing the political, social, and religious changes in and challenges to Islam over the years, and how even dividing that into three themes as I did is an artificial external imposition, since from within Islam, the political, social, and religious are so often all one thread. Ansary introduces all the major empires, religious schisms, and so on, until the Western narrative collides with Islam, at first with the minor - as far as Islam was concerned - detail of the Crusades - and then later in the 18th and 19th centuries as Western powers and greedy rulers slowly end up with foreigners calling the shots, openly or behind the scenes, in many major Islamic former powers. Ansary then details the natural response to that from Islam as it has sought to take back its own destiny. Ansary does an amazing job of bringing all the historical figures to life and entertaining the reader. As he states in his introduction, his approach is less an academic tome and more a conversation about just what the heck is going on over there with Islam. For such a broad and sweeping attempt to introduce the Islamic view of the world to readers unfamiliar with it, it's a perfect approach to engage while educating. I listened to Blackstone Audio's 2009 production of the book, narrated by Ansary himself. The production was very well done, and Ansary does a fantastic job. Author narration can be hit or miss, but Ansary really hits a great tone that's easy to listen to and indeed fits his conversational writing approach, and he nails all the pronunciation that another reader would trip over. The unabridged production runs approximately 17.5 hours. I've become a fan of Ansary with Destiny Disrupted, and I definitely plan to read more from him - and if possible listen to him. His history of Afghanistan, Games Without Rules, also self-narrated, is high on my to read list. I also aim to read more about some of the topics Ansary introduces from other authors, so much has my curiosity been piqued. Ansary does an amazing job of making a vital part of world history accessible to the average Western reader. Given the modern state of the world, it's imperative we Americans understand how our two cultures ended up where we are. Ansary's Destiny Disrupted is an excellent place to start.

Great histary

This book gives a clear brief description of the history of the Middle World with some deep thoughts on the recent history!

Very fast seller. And very reliable, and very kind. Simply perfect.

Felt like reading a game of thrones. Highly engaging. I have never read a non-fiction with this much engagement. You get some idea on how many famous historical fictions are made based on true events.