Book Review

Islamic Imperialism: A History by Efraim Karsh

As the title suggests this is a book about the history of Islam and their basic tenet of ruling the world. The author writes about the major dynasties and  events of Islamic rule from the beginning with Muhammad's claimed revelation from God to the current date (2007) of Osama bin Laden's Holy War.

The basic history of Islam is to rule the world and convert everyone to the Islamic faith. Throughout history there have been more aggressive leaders that would kill the infidel while other leaders would leave them alone as long as they paid their dues, taxes, tributes, protection money, or whatever you want to call it.

Since it is a history book, I found it rather boring and in fact I could only read a few pages a night before my eyes would magically close. However, I don't believe there is any reason to doubt any of the facts in the book. In fact, there are over 30 pages of footnotes to back up what the author writes.

One aspect of the book that I did not like is how the author jumped around historically. For example, in one chapter he starts writing about events that happened in 1993 with Bill Clinton, then a few paragraphs later jumps back to the Ottoman Empire in 1916. Then gets back to the 1990's a few pages later, only to jump back to the 1970's after that. Then ending the chapter back in the 1990's again. The chronological jumping around got me lost on several occasions. Not only that, but many of the Islamic people had very similar names, most of which I could not pronounce.

If you are interested in a brief history of the major parts of the Islamic Imperialist doctrine then I would recommend this book. If you are simply looking for something to help you sleep at night, then I also would recommend this book! Otherwise, take a pass on this one.