If one made a Prezi presentation (the kind that gives a spatial overview of the presentation and then uses animation to zoom into a particular part) of the timeline of major eras in the history of Muslim civilization you would get something that reads like the book the Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past. The book leads the reader through the history of Islam beginning from its origins up to the present day, through a brief and easy-to-read text.

Synopsis

Alkhateeb begins with a geopolitical description of Arabia before the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad in 610 CE, which helps explain why the message of Islam was able to gain a foothold at a time when the Roman and Persian Empires were dominating the world. The major events in the life of Prophet Muhammad which influenced the spread of his message are narrated.

The following chapters outline the time of the first four caliphs after the passing of Prophet Muhammad and the rise of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. What follows next is the story of the glorious period of the Muslims’ past, an era of intellectual progress with great advances in science, arts, medicine, theology, and Islamic jurisprudence at a time when the rest of the world was still in the dark.

In the story of Islam, next, the reader can spot a pattern of rising and falling of different empires as we learn about the loss inflicted by the Crusaders and the Mongols, the rise of Al-Andalus in present-day Spain their fall at the hands of the Catholics from the North and the rise of the Ottomans and their eventual fall after World War II.

In the end, we learn about the birth of the nation-states that the world is split into today and how since the end of colonialism Muslims around the world are grappling with the significance of and the place that Islam holds in their lives.

What’s to like

Firas Alkhateeb is an academic and that is obvious with how the book reads like a history textbook would, yet that does not make the book a slog to get through. It is surprisingly fast-paced even though you might find yourself wishing for more details at some parts of the book.

What is especially interesting is the discussion of the presence of Islam on the fringe i.e. in Western and Eastern Africa, China, and to America through the slave trade. It is in this discussion that one sees how the author is reclaiming Muslim history that is often overlooked or forgotten; Islam’s presence in the far corners of the world that seldom makes it into mainstream history textbooks and discourses.

What’s not to like

The book tries to cover a lot of ground in terms of the subject matter which can make the reader lose interest. The one thing that could make reading this book easier to follow for those with limited knowledge of history would be to include a timeline of the rulers in power over time and the areas they ruled.