Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong | Book Club

Pages to read: 215
ISBN: 9780812966183 (Originally listed edition, & edition I am Using)

While reading the book, consider the below questions:
•What is the raison d’etre of the book? For what purpose did the author write the book?
•What are some limitations of the book?
•Is religion and politics intertwined?
•What is Islam? What are some of Islam’s social functions? How does the religion approach others?
•What kind of community does Islam want to inspire?
•Who is Prophet Muhammad?
•What changes in the Arab world inspired Prophet Muhammad?
•What happened after Prophet Muhammad?
•What is the purpose of religion?
•Why secularize religion from state affairs?
•Why does fundamentalism develop?
•What impact did Islam have on tribal politics?
•How are men and women treated in the Quran?
•What are some events that happened during the rise of Islam? What did Prophet Muhammad have to deal with?
•What was Prophet Muhammad trying to do with the scriptures?
•Why did some tribes want to break away after Prophet Muhammad’s death?
•What happened to those within the Islamic Empire who did not share the Islamic faith?
•What happened to the caliphs authority over time?
•How did the Mongol Empires influence Islam? How did Islam influence the Mongol Empires?
•How did the Ottoman Empire govern its members?
•What other peoples held Islam as their religion?

Your questions are important and will take priority. If you have questions about the book's content or related ideas, either let me know what your questions are or raise them during the discussion.

My review of the book:
https://www.inquiryreviews.com/2022/08/review-of-islam-short-history-by-karen.html

Upcoming event:
https://www.meetup.com/Inquiry-Non-Fiction-Book-Club-for-Inquiring-Minds/events/

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Summary from Goodreads:
No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular Western imagination as an extreme faith that promotes authoritarian government, female oppression, civil war, and terrorism. Karen Armstrong's short history offers a vital corrective to this narrow view. The distillation of years of thinking and writing about Islam, it demonstrates that the world's fastest-growing faith is a much richer and more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.

Islam: A Short History begins with the flight of Muhammad and his family from Medina in the seventh century and the subsequent founding of the first mosques. It recounts the origins of the split between Shii and Sunni Muslims, and the emergence of Sufi mysticism; the spread of Islam throughout North Africa, the Levant, and Asia; the shattering effect on the Muslim world of the Crusades; the flowering of imperial Islam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries into the world's greatest and most sophisticated power; and the origins and impact of revolutionary Islam. It concludes with an assessment of Islam today and its challenges.

With this brilliant book, Karen Armstrong issues a forceful challenge to those who hold the view that the West and Islam are civilizations set on a collision course. It is also a model of authority, elegance, and economy.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions. This is a mystery story, not about the murder—and rebirth—of man’s spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.