A religion of peace, my eye! This book carefully and methodically disabuses one of the notion that this "religion" is based on anything but greed and avarice. It is clear that from its beginning fourteen centuries ago the sole intent is to conquer the world, causing everyone to convert, submit, or die. Those who claim otherwise are blind to reality.

Prof. Karsh'e history of Islamic "imperialism" is an agenda-driven history of Islam with a single-minded focus on Muslim conquests described as flowing from Islamic religious teachings. At times, it reads like a political propoganda rather than objective history. Following Bernard Lewis, the author seeks to undersytand the current politics of the Muslim societies in the light of both Islamic theology and Islamic history, neglecting totally the realities of the modern period -- colonialism, nationalism, cold war, and global economic forces. A bad history and a worse politics!

Islamic Imperialism by Efraim Karsh is a sweeping history of Islamic imperialism from Muhammad to Osama bin Laden. The book shows how non-Muslims, and even Muslims, have been subjected to the ambitions of an endless stream of brutal tyrants who appealed to Muhammad as justification for their own narcissistic, imperialist dreams.

The book is well documented and exceptionally well written by an expert on the subject. Every presidential candidate, every congressperson, and indeed, every American should place this book high on their reading list.

I have seldom read such a blatantly one-sided piece of history writing. It is filled with small inaccuracies which make me question the truth of other small things I don't know from other sources. For example, the author asserts that the Janissaries were never defeated, that all challenges to their para-military authority were "nipped in the bud." Not so, they were famously crushed by the reigning Sultan in 1826.

The errors of omission are more egregious. The author gradually begs the question, which he never asks, "what's so different about this particular brand of imperialism besides its basis in Islam?" The answer is nowhere to be found in this book, despite the misdirection of focusing on Crusader princes as examplars of the total character of European imperialism. I am quite ready to accept that Islam contains a major strand of military conquest. But the mixing of religion and rapid, ruthless, exterminatory seizure of land has a long and ethnically varied history, beginning well before Islam, and extending to at least the conquest of North America (a drive that was explicitly tied to religion throughout, or does this somehow not count?)

The need to present only one side of an argument borders on hilarity (were the events concerned not so tragic in all directions) when the author turns his attention to modern day Iraq and its alleged connection to radical Islam. The existence of American foreign policy is acknowledged only very obliquely, and mostly as a way of casting Carter as a sort of Neville Chamberlain figure - is Bush supposed to be Churchill here?... we'll never know, because he is, staggeringly, HARDLY MENTIONED, nor are most of the neocon architects of post-realist middle East policy in Washington. It's one thing to say that Islam is more violent than not (it would take a better book, more of a social history than a military one, to delve thoughtfully into that question). It's quite another to assert that the role of European commerce and military adventurism is utterly irrelevant to the character of Arabic life today.
The simplest way to refute this argument is to reverse the roles. If the United States or Europe had been invaded and carved up, its economic assets divvied up to the highest bidders in unbreachable contracts, at terms highly unfavorable to citizens... well, we'd look at this a little differently, wouldn't we?

The early passages about Muhammed's undoubted anti-Semitism (or his pragmatic use of it, an unprovable distinction given the available sources) are compelling and disturbing, but they can be matched with countless incidents of unspeakable cruelty in the Western world, including those directed against Jews. There is nothing exceptional in the least about the Islamic use of state terror. Read accounts of executions and pogroms, through the Indian wars and slavery,
all the way up to the Holocaust and napalm and Pol Pot and Central African genocide. You can talk to actual living survivors if you try, and we seem to be in the business as a country now of creating more. Europe and the US, and many others, have just as much blood on our hands.

So one must ask... what's the goal here? It is clearly to misdirect us from any discussion of our own mistakes as a nation and a government and a culture. It is a long, relentless attempt to change the subject, and from the looks of some posts, it has succeeded for many.

...and I still only gave it three stars because it is one heck of a read. Maybe history is that dry but I had to really force myself through the pages.

On the other hand this book has changed the way I look at Islam and Arabism. It is profound and hard to refute. Even one of my most appreciated scholars, Edward Said, has found some well-documented criticism that I eventually succumbed to.

Many of my friends or acquaintances are Arabs and Muslims. I have always perceived their history through the eyes of apologist Karen Armstrong or the more serious thinkers of Said's caliber. But there is another side to the story and as empires go, it is ugly.

I find it hard to comment on all the details but eventually a picture emerges that is substantially critical without being slanderously Islamophobic. Maybe it is the dry presentation, devoid of much emotion which respected me as a reader to form my own opinion. Sometimes it reminded me of Noam Chomsky's writing style in works such as the Fateful Triangle which demands much of the reader. If you are looking for some entertaining quips and quotes or ravaging drama you probably will be disappointed.

Karsh should be taken with a grain of salt. His other works have received much criticism and his pro-Israeli bias leaves a bitter aftertaste. However, since this review is about this particular book I can only recommend it as a must-read, a far cry from the polemics that permeate the current discourse.

This is a very important book for this time. The author walks us through the history of what today is again a very aggressive political movement - within Islam, there is no distinction between religion and polity. The reader will learn of the centuries long, aggressively expansive, and brutal nature of classical Islam.

I have read more books about Islam in my lifetime than I care to admit. Having traveled extensively in the areas where Islam prevails over many decades, I was always struck at the poverty of the masses in those areas as measured not only in material wealth, but intellectual curiosity, openness to new ideas, hostility to equality for women, and a willingness to point the finger of blame at the West for all of the ills which the Islamic world suffers today.

While my first overseas assignment in the land governed by the Koran was in Pakistan in the 60's and I was more than willing to try to separate the obvious tribal nature of Peshawar and its surroundings from the religion of its inhabitants, I realized a few decades later than they were so intertwined that they really were one, like a vine that becomes part of the bark of a tree as it wraps itself around it.

I was on a cruise down the Nile which started at Luxor the day after the massacre at the temple of Hatshepsut in November 1997 of mostly Swiss and Japanese tourists, and the blood was still being washed off the temple. This attack, financed by bin Laden according to many reports, made me look at the river and the many cities and temples we stopped to visit along the way much more differently than i had done in my other visits. The armored personnel carriers that the tour company had hired from the Egyptian Army to lead the way said that something was dramatically different than previous trips even though over 1,000 tourists had been killed in the years before this slaughter, but were never really a part of the discussion.

But Karsh has done a good job in this book of showing that this carnage and fact of life was really nothing new. The number of groups responsible for this mass murder, such as "Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest" and "The Islamic Group" which was involved in the first World Trade Center bombing in NY in 1993, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc. were all dedicated to adding Egypt to the "Islamic States" where religious diversity would be forbidden as it is in Saudi Arabia and other places.

Karsh has detailed hundreds of similar attacks, over many centuries, not only on "the infidels" but also those "Moderate Muslims" who are viewed to be traitors to "true Islam."
If you are looking for an introduction to why Islamists are a threat to the world as we know it, this is as good a book as you can get. While he spends a lot of time on the issues associated with Israel and the "occupied territories" he does a good job of showing that the plight of the Palestinians is far more attributable to the political imperial motivations of Israel's neighbors who manipulate the millions that their rulers steal from every day. No better a distraction has ever been created to deflect attention from the kleptocracies that compose the vast majority of Islamic dominated states. From quoting Mohammed and his views of how to convert a band of thieves into religious warriors to bin Laden's rantings today, Karsh has done a masterful job of showing that we are not dealing with anything other than the most modern version of Islamic Imperialism, and all the horror that has brought and will continue to bring.

I have read more books about Islam in my lifetime than I care to admit. Having traveled extensively in the areas where Islam prevails over many decades, I was always struck at the poverty of the masses in those areas as measured not only in material wealth, but intellectual curiosity, openness to new ideas, hostility to equality for women, and a willingness to point the finger of blame at the West for all of the ills which the Islamic world suffers today.

While my first overseas assignment in the land governed by the Koran was in Pakistan in the 60's and I was more than willing to try to separate the obvious tribal nature of Peshawar and its surroundings from the religion of its inhabitants, I realized a few decades later than they were so intertwined that they really were one, like a vine that becomes part of the bark of a tree as it wraps itself around it.

I was on a cruise down the Nile which started at Luxor the day after the massacre at the temple of Hatshepsut in November 1997 of mostly Swiss and Japanese tourists, and the blood was still being washed off the temple. This attack, financed by bin Laden according to many reports, made me look at the river and the many cities and temples we stopped to visit along the way much more differently than i had done in my other visits. The armored personnel carriers that the tour company had hired from the Egyptian Army to lead the way said that something was dramatically different than previous trips even though over 1,000 tourists had been killed in the years before this slaughter, but were never really a part of the discussion.

But Karsh has done a good job in this book of showing that this carnage and fact of life was really nothing new. The number of groups responsible for this mass murder, such as "Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest" and "The Islamic Group" which was involved in the first World Trade Center bombing in NY in 1993, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc. were all dedicated to adding Egypt to the "Islamic States" where religious diversity would be forbidden as it is in Saudi Arabia and other places.

Karsh has detailed hundreds of similar attacks, over many centuries, not only on "the infidels" but also those "Moderate Muslims" who are viewed to be traitors to "true Islam."
If you are looking for an introduction to why Islamists are a threat to the world as we know it, this is as good a book as you can get. While he spends a lot of time on the issues associated with Israel and the "occupied territories" he does a good job of showing that the plight of the Palestinians is far more attributable to the political imperial motivations of Israel's neighbors who manipulate the millions that their rulers steal from every day. No better a distraction has ever been created to deflect attention from the kleptocracies that compose the vast majority of Islamic dominated states. From quoting Mohammed and his views of how to convert a band of thieves into religious warriors to bin Laden's rantings today, Karsh has done a masterful job of showing that we are not dealing with anything other than the most modern version of Islamic Imperialism, and all the horror that has brought and will continue to bring.

This is the most thorough account I have read of how we got to where we are in the Middle East. All along I thought, as the Palestinians, have been telling us, that this was about land. Well it's not, and this is not a new phenomenon. Its just another chapter, since Mohammed came out of his cave in the 7th century and declared himself a prophet. Iran...the same goal, conquest, pure and simple. Middle Eastern tribes have been fighting each other since the beginning and continue to do so. After reading this book I now seriously doubt if we will ever have peace in the Middle East. This is about conquest, domination in the region, and the destruction of Israel. Nothing more, nothing less. I still hope, but it's fading.

I enjoyed reading Karsh's book. It helped fill in some gaps in my knowledge of world and religious history. The chapter on the Ottomans was particularly enlightening.

Yet I also find the book troubling. The author has gone out of his way to scour Islamic history for everything negative and included almost nothing positive.

What is really scary is that some group (I lost the cover letter) sent it to me for free at my church. I am a Christian minister and I presume their intent is that I will now begin exposing the supposed awful truth about Islam in my preaching and classes. I have no tolerance for selective dredging of history for either the good or bad of religion, and increasing inter-religous tensions is the last thing the world needs right now.

Rev. Mike Capron

Unlike other readers, I found this book neither "Brilliantly original" or a "cover-up." What it is is a good, solid one-volume history of political Islam. The novice reader will no doubt find most of the book a revelation (we teach so little Asian history here in America), but I appreciated his detailed attention to such neglected topics as the Muslim invasion of Sicily (and Italy!) and the political history of Persia/Iran, as well as his corrective analysis of Turkish and Arab roles in the 1st World War and its aftermath (i.e.,not such passive victims of the West as we generally imagine).

My disappointment comes mainly from the title. I picked this up this book, "Islamic Imperialism," expecting a sustained analysis of Islamic political and war theory; its self-understanding for its wars of conquest. The book really doesn't add anything to that topic that cannot be easily gleaned elsewhere. Really, this book should be entitled "Islamic Empires: A History."

But that's a personal gripe. If I had bothered to flip through the book before buying it, I would have figured that out from the start. As I said, I good introduction to Islamic political history.

ISLAMIC IMPERIALISM

The book's author, a professor at King's College in London, analyzes Muslim history in an effort to consider the facts behind the common Islamist narrative of Muslim victim hood at the hands of Western Imperialism. He essentially asks: "What does history say about the matter?"
Were third world countries, including those inhabited by Muslim peoples, dominated and exploited by Western powers? Yes. "However," Karsh asks: "is this Imperialist Impulse a purely Western phenomenon?" Nay indeed. In a striking bit of irony, Karsh proposes that one of the world's greatest imperialist empires was carved out in the name of Islam. In that case, those who proclaim themselves the present victims, hail from a history of that very same imperialism they currently decry. What is more, Karsh says, Christian, or Western Imperialism is largely a phenomenon of the past, whereas - in the case of Salafist extremism at least - Muslim Imperialism, as in the spreading of ones culture/beliefs by force ... is very much present and ongoing.
While some of Karsh's arguments give "Cause for Pause", on the whole he is well-reasoned and exampled from history. In any case, this book is certainly a thoughtful departure from the story of Muslim victimization so often painted by the mainstream media

"Islamic Imperialism: A History," by Efraim Karsh is an important work that effectively dispels several myths about Islam and statecraft. Karsh's central thesis is that, from the beginning, Islamic Middle Eastern powers have been driven more by a traditional urge to empire than by any higher fealty to religion.

Karsh chronicles empire after empire in the Middle East, showing how they played big power politics against competing Muslim empires as well as in alliance with Christian empires. Karsh shows that even Saladin the Great, the Kurdish, not Arab ruler, who retook Jerusalem from the Frankish Crusader kingdom, viewed the Christian Franks as just another power player. Today, of course, modern Muslim Arab mythology holds Saladin out as the great role model in the struggle to destroy Israel.

Karsh also details how the Ottoman and Persian empires deftly manipulated European powers to extract money and protection in an attempt to remain in power. Had they spent as much effort on internal reform and growth as opposed to foreign intrigue, they might have survived. This manipulation of European foreign policy continued right up into the 20th Century as Sharif Hussein and his sons (the Hashemite royal line) parlayed a close relationship with the British into imperial ambitions in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Far from being passive victims of European colonialism, Karsh shows Arab leaders as being quite adept at fighting for their personal interests.

After summarizing more than 1,300 years of Islamic imperial tradition Karsh comes to his most important conclusion for present policy makers: "...Arab and Muslim anti-Americanism, have little to do with US international behavior or its Middle Eastern policy. America's position as the pre-eminent world power blocks Arab and Islamic imperialist aspirations. As such, it is a natural target for aggression. Osama bin Laden and other Islamists's war is not against America per se, but is rather the most recent manifestation of the millenarian jihad for a universal Islamic empire (or umma). This is a vision by no means confined to an extremist fringe of Islam, as illustrated by the overwhelming support for the 9/11 attacks throughout the Arab and Islamic worlds."