The Crucible of Islam
English
By (author): G. W. Bowersock
Little is known about Arabia in the sixth century, yet from this distant time and place emerged a faith and an empire that stretched from the Iberian peninsula to India. Today, Muslims account for nearly a quarter of the global population. A renowned classicist, G. W. Bowersock seeks to illuminate this obscure and dynamic period in the history of Islamexploring why arid Arabia proved to be such fertile ground for Muhammads prophetic message, and why that message spread so quickly to the wider world. The Crucible of Islam offers a compelling explanation of how one of the worlds great religions took shape.
A remarkable work of scholarship.
Wall Street Journal
A little book of explosive originality and penetrating judgment The joy of reading this account of the background and emergence of early Islam is the knowledge that Bowersock has built it from solid stones A masterpiece of the historians craft.
Peter Brown, New York Review of Books