Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes [Paperback]

“A must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of the Islamic world” (San Francisco Chronicle) 
              
We in the West share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed through the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the events of 9/11 and beyond. 
  
InDestiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe—a place it long perceived as primitive and disorganized—had somehow hijacked destiny. 
  
With sympathy to Muslim and Western perspectives alike,Destiny Disruptedoffers a fresh and vital perspective on world conflicts we thought we understood.Tamim Ansaryis the author of four books, includingThe Invention of Yesterday. For ten years, he wrote a monthly column for Encarta.com, and he has published essays and commentary in theSan Francisco Chronicle,Salon,Los Angeles Times, and more. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the United States in 1964. He lives in San Francisco. 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 political 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 oflc˜