They were annoying, like a swarm of mosquitos. In Western history the Crusades loom large. Before then, Muslims hadn’t noticed the West at all – why would you? So here comes the first real shift of perspective. The first crack in this golden period came with the Franji Wars, or as Westerners know them, the Crusades. That early sense of Islam against the world had long given way to Islam as the world In the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries it was unarguable that the centre of human civilisation was located in the great Muslim empire, and meanwhile, Europeans were illiterate crawlers in the mud (“ooh, some lovely mud over here, Derek!”), and eaters of beetroot and gruel, and had a life expectancy of 23.

There was a golden age of relative peace. This is where Islam erupted – is there any other word? – okay, exploded – will that do? – out of Arabia in the 8th century and was all over North Africa and the Levant and on into Persia and Northern/Central India before you could say whatever mild expletive was common in those far-off days. Tamim lays out the usual story we already kind of know for the first half of the book. “Conquer Vienna” remained on his to-do list always.īut really, I don’t care because this was surely a beautiful change from your usual pompous history writing. The sultan never made another attempt on Vienna but his contemporaries saw no sign of weakness in this. P190.īetween 15 western Europeans sailed pretty much all over the world and colonised pretty much everything. P153įor three years he and his band roamed the wilds, looking for a new kingdom : kinging was all he knew, and king was the only job title he was seeking. One city they attacked in northern Afghanistan was called – well, I don’t even know what it was called originally. Sometimes the chat is a little too casual, and he comes across as your uncle trying to prove he’s down with the kids by doing the frug, not the best choice: Telling you how, why, all about it, from the top to the bottom, with many glints of humour to get you through some very harrowing stuff. You’re out for a beer with this guy and you ask the fatal question – what’s up with these Muslims anyhow? What are they all about? Forty hours later, Tamim is still talking. Tamim Ansary writes in a chatty, slangy, motormouth style. Obscure to a Western reader, that is, but I’m going to hazard that Transoxiana, Khorasan, Ctesiphon, and the exact difference between Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids and Safavids might tax your regular Muslim on the street too. In this book a lot of obscure places and people go rushing by, like a speeded up film, like a boiling river.

This is vast but fast history : you have to hang on to your hat, or whatever you hang on to, which might not be a hat, since the kind of hats which a strong wind might snatch from your head are rarely worn today.

Right time, right place, right style, this is 100% recommended.

Destiny disrupted by tamim ansary