Table Of Content

TAMIM ANSARY Praise for DESTINY DISRUPTED "If you want to put today's headlines about jihadist suicide bombings into the much larger context of history, you'd be well advised to settle in with Destiny Disrupted. It's the story of a civilization that suddenly found itself upended by strangers and now wants to put itself right. And if author Ansary stops short of calling the result a clash of civilizations, he feels free to call it two one-sided views of world history. His book is a valuable tool for opening up a view of the other side." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch "This is a marvelous book. Ansary has written an indispensable historical account of the last 1,500 years from a perspective that is all too often ignored in the West. Destiny Disrupted will be read for generations to come." -REZA AsLAN, author of No god but God and How to Win a Cosmic ~r "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 politi cal 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 of civilizations ... It's better understood as the friction generated by two mismatched world histories intersecting."' -San Francisco Chronicle "Ansary has written an informative and thoroughly engaging look at the past, present, and future of Islam. With his seamless and charming prose, he challenges conventional wisdom and appeals for a fuller understanding of how Islam and the world at large have shaped each other. And that makes this book, in this uneasy, contentious post 9/11 world, a must-read." -KHALED HossEINI, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns "A lively, thorough, and accessible survey of the history of Islam (both the religion and its political dimension) that explores many of the disconnects between Islam and the West." -ShelfA wareness "There's not a page where you won't learn something startling in Destiny Disrupted. Beautifully clear and endlessly engaging, it's a romp through science, poetry, politics, and religion, in the company of a wise and charming mind, the perfect antidote to the Islamophobia that clouds Europe and North America." -RAJ PATEL, author of Stuffa nd Starved and visiting scholar, Center for African Studies, University of California at Berkeley "Never apologist in tone, meticulously researched and balanced, often amusing but never glib, Destiny Disrupted is ultimately a gripping drama that pulls the reader into great, seminal events of world history, a book which offers a wealth of knowledge and in sight to any reader who wants to understand the movements and events behind the modern-day hostilities wracking Western and Islamic societies." -Portland Oregonian DESTINY DISRUPTED THE ISLAMIC WORLD TODAY DESTINY DISRUPTED ~ of A History the World Through Islamic Eyes TAMIM ANSARY PublicAffairs NEW YORK Copyright © 2009 by Tamim Ansary Hardcover edition first published in 2009 in the United States by PublicAffairs'™, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Paperback edition first published in 2010 in the United States by PublicAffairs. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107. PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (BOO) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected]. Designed by Brent Wilcox Text set in Adobe Garamond A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-58648-606-8 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58648-813-0 10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2 1 For Amanuddin and Terttu CONTENTS List ofM aps IX Names and Dates XI Introduction Xlll The Middle World 2 The Hijra 17 3 Birth of the Khalifate 33 4 Schism 53 5 Empire of the Umayyads 67 6 The Abassid Age 79 7 Scholars, Philosophers, and Sufis 91 8 Enter the Turks 117 9 Havoc 133 10 Rebirth 159 11 Meanwhile in Europe 199 12 West Comes East 217 13 The Reform Movements 247 14 Industry, Constitutions, and Nationalism 269 15 Rise of the Secular Modernists 301 vii