Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

Tamim Ansary

Apr 2009 · Sold by PublicAffairs

About this ebook

The Western narrative of world history largely omits a whole civilization. Destiny Disrupted tells the history of the world from the Islamic point of view, and restores the centrality of the Muslim perspective, ignored for a thousand years.

In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as it looks from a new perspective: with the evolution of the Muslim community at the center. His story moves from the lifetime of Mohammed through a succession of far-flung empires, to the tangle of modern conflicts that culminated in the events of 9/11. He introduces the key people, events, ideas, legends, religious disputes, and turning points of world history, imparting not only what happened but how it is understood from the Muslim perspective.

He clarifies why two great civilizations-Western and Muslim-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-had somehow hijacked destiny.

With storytelling brio, humor, and evenhanded sympathy to all sides of the story, Ansary illuminates a fascinating parallel to the world narrative usually heard in the West. Destiny Disrupted offers a vital perspective on world conflicts many now find so puzzling.

Ratings and reviews

Index without links or page numbers is useless. In the ebook (purchased from google) the index is merely a list with neither links nor page number references. Grrr. I have only started the book, but it reads well and looks fascinating. But with a useless index.....

Clear, comprehensive and engaging. I would also strongly recommend the audio version - the book really comes alive in his own voice. I was aware of some of the major events that shaped the history of this area (like the invasions of the Mongols and Turks) but I lacked an overall narrative context that this book provided. It deeply changed ny sense of both the region and the religion.

Very well written book which put together an overview of the history of what the author called "The Middle World". A great help for any westener who in school got it piecemeal as side stories to what was going on in Europe. Very enlightening! Gives the reader a much better understanding of middle eastern politics today. Recommend highly.

About the author

Tamim Ansary is the author of Destiny Disrupted and Games without Rules, among other books. For ten years he wrote a monthly column for Encarta.com, and has published essays and commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle, Salon, Alternet, TomPaine.com, Edutopia, Parade, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Bill Moyers, PBS The News Hour, Al Jazeera, and NPR. Born in Afghanistan in 1948, he moved to the U.S. in 1964. He lives in San Francisco.