Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

4.29 of 5 stars 4.29  ·  rating details  ·  996 ratings  ·  233 reviews

We in the west share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.

In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why ou

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Audio CD, 14 pages
Published May 1st 2009 by Blackstone Audiobooks (first published 2009)
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Paul
Mar 14, 2013 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Westerners

Right time, right place, right style, this is 100% recommended.

This is vast but fast history : you have to hang on to your hat, or whatever you hang on to, which might not be a hat, since the kind of hats which a strong wind might snatch from your head are rarely worn today. In this book a lot of obscure places and people go rushing by, like a speeded up film, like a boiling river. Obscure to a Western reader, that is, but I’m going to hazard that Transoxiana, Khorasan, Ctesiphon, and the exact...more
Diah Sukmawati
Perspektif. Memang segala sesuatu menurut saya adalah perspektif. Termasuk juga sejarah dunia. Literatur yang beredar mengenai sejarah dunia dan yang sering dipublikasikan oleh dunia didominasi oleh penulisan dari perspektif Barat seperti Yunani, Romawi, Imperialisme, Revolusi, Reanisans dan semacamnya membuat perspektif kita mengagungkan oleh sejarah peradaban dan perkembangan umat manusia dari perspektif Barat.
Lalu bagaimana dengan Islam? Seperti yang dituliskan oleh penulis, biasanya sejarah...more
Kim
Dec 22, 2011 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone
Shelves: non-fiction
I do not think it would be a stretch to say that this book has changed my world view. A history of the world through Islamic eyes, it describes the kingdoms of Asia Minor and Persia chronologically, covering several I had literally never heard of, and explaining the various sects and rifts of Islam in a way that is engaging, memorable, highly readable, and fascinating. One learns why the Abbasids and the Fatimids split, why they are named what they are named, what the Caliphate really is, how lu...more
Sandy Tjan

Being neither Muslim nor Western, but nevertheless a citizen of what CNN and other Western media regularly dub “the world’s largest Muslim nation*”, I often feel baffled by the so-called “clash of civilizations” between these two entities. And lately, not just baffled, but also profoundly disturbed by the scale and frequency of sectarian violence in my country, the majority of which allegedly perpetrated by those the author of this book calls “jihadists”. The overwhelming majority of Indonesians...more
John
I want to recommend the unabridged audio version, as read by the author. The man's a giften historian in that he's able to tell an informed and accessible story both in writing and by voice. This book fits neatly as a grand narrative of Islam and helps to set contemporary events and worldviews into a historical context. I'd call it scholarly light, emphasizing the story over analytical details, and helps stitch more focused books into a larger picture most westerners are unfamiliar with.
E
Knowing about as little about the history of the Middle World (a.k.a., Middle East to Westerners) as one can, this book offered a tremendously satisfying overview, striking the ideal balance between summary and detail, objective reporting and critical analysis. Gently derisive of both Western and Muslim prejudices and dogma, Ansary presents himself as a trustworthy guide, unafraid to critique the culture of his forebearers but refusing to betray it or declare allegiance to another. Of course, an...more
Orion
Can't recommend this enough. One of the best world history books there is, and especially helpful to see the Muslim perspective of events. I found it most helpful when it got to the Age of Discovery and told the story of how Muslims in India and Saudi Arabi had to deal with strange newcomers from England and France. The Crusades were also interesting. Apparently it is NOT considered a watershed moment in Islamic history. What was much bigger was Genghis Khan 200 years later storming through and...more
Hilman
Apa jadinya bila tentara Muslim kalah di Yarmuk? Kerjaan Byzantium akan bercokol, cendekia tak bertumbuh, dan abad kegelapan Eropa akan berjalan lebih lama.

Ujaran tentang kepakan kupu-kupu yang menuai badai adalah fondasi kuat filsafat chaos (kaos) yang marak di era modern. Intinya, itu adalah runutan panjang dari hukum kausalitas yang tidak melihat variabel sebatas a dan b, tapi juga dampak panjang. Kajian ini marak sebagai sebuah langkah preventif, dan juga evaluatif. Di bidang sejarah, hal se...more
Ardhi
Great job for the author on writing such a tremendous piece about the world history from a different perspective. I have a complain, though.

It’s disheartening when the world talks or writes about Islam, the ‘only’ thing that came up is about the Middle East, or in this book, the Middle World. Although not fully ignored, the role of Islam in South East Asia is only told as bits and pieces. Come on, Indonesia today is the most muslim populated country in the world. The big difference is that the s...more
Tim Vicary
This is a great book. If you ever wanted to know how Muslims see the world, and how their idea of world history differs from that commonly taught in the west, then this book has the answer. Not only that, but it’s delightfully written too.

Tamim Ansary grew up in Afghanistan, but now lives in the United States where, amongst other things, he has been part of a team writing textbooks to teach world history in American schools. So he is ideally placed to see the world from two different perspective...more
Keith Swenson
In the west we are taught about the "middle of the world" which centered on the Mediterranean Sea and other cultures are "outside" and mentioned only when they send troops in (e.g. Darius) or attempt to block the path of troops (e.g. Alexander). Particularly missing are those cultures in what we call the middle east that seem to cause so much "trouble".

There is another way to view this, that Mesopotamia was the center of a different world consisting of land routes. Ansary writes about the "other...more
kathleen
A must read for anyone seeking to understand the Middle East. This book will help you see that comparing western democracies to Islamic states is like comparing apples to oranges -- the terms of reference are completely different. We will continue to misunderstand the motives and actions of states in this region until we "get" this. I lived and studied in Egypt many years ago and was constantly asked why Americans and others in the West considered the Middle East to be "third world," when it was...more
JS

World History, says Tamim Ansary in his introduction, is always the story about how we got to be where we are. It therefore always includes an implicit notion of who "we" are, and what our current place in the history of the world is.


Most people with a basic college education feel that they know how history works. First there was the ancient world, from whose murky depths emerged the cultural brilliance of the Greeks and the political might of the Romans. Then the Roman Empire fell, plunging the

...more
Kim
May 29, 2011 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Keith Clasen
Wow. Not only is this a fresh perspective for 'Western' eyes but the author uses an excellent combination of antidotes and sarcasm to unwind history, both Middle Eastern (or Middle World as he very compellingly explains) and Western. The story he tells, and he frankly explains that it is an Arab world-view story as opposed to a sourced and a footnoted history, is easy to read and understand, entirely enjoyable. Why did industrialization take root in Western Europe but, although the engineering w...more
Willowwind
Ansary is a remarkable story teller in the best sense of the word. Few Americans are sufficiently conversant with the history of the West, let alone Islam. Ansary takes us through the birth and decline of one of humanities most brilliant civilizations from an Islamic point of view, explaining why that culture sees things differently than the industrial west does. He also shows how the seeds of current conflict in the Middle East were sown not only by differing ideas about the world but by the ac...more
Emmett
Tamim Ansary's book Destiny Disrupted is a look at the complicated history of the the Islamic world or the "Middle World" as he calls it and its intersection with Westernizing forces. In his introduction he claims it not to be a scholarly work, but an attempt to tell the story and show the arc of history in the region. His book is not entirely damning of Western forces (he himself was born in Afghanistan but now lives in The United States and at certain points refers to westerners as "we"), and...more
Rachel
If you have have an interest in either history, global politics, or civilization stories I'd recommend this book.

The author seeks to tell the history of the world through Islamic eyes and, while I am not a Muslim, I have a deep interest in history and I found the narrative of the "Middle Universe" fascinating since most of my historical knowledge comes from the Western perspective.

A couple quotes toward the end that stuck out, especially after spending several hours hearing the foundation behind...more
Aziz Zabidi
Jika anda kira sejarah itu sesuatu yang kering dan membosankan, tapi pada masa yang sama anda sangat ingin tahu apa yang sebenarnya berlaku dalam sejarah panjang dunia Islam semenjak wahyu pertama diturunkan kepada Muhammad s.a.w, buku ini saya kira sesuai untuk anda. Tamim Ansary seboleh mungkin cuba menghuraikan kepada pembaca sejarah dari kaca mata masyarakat/tamadun Islam secara bersahaja dan kadang kala dengan nada humor, namun apa yang dihuraikannya bukanlah satu jenaka. Sejarah dunia dari...more
Bryn Hammond
Just when I thought my interest in this book had petered out -- because with Ottomans, Safavids and Moghuls installed, the time periods I'm most into are at a close -- and where I am least familiar with the history, I came to the bit I truly learnt from, in a big-picture way: the infiltration of these grand edifices, that were at their peaks, by Europeans, non-deliberate, unconscious, that was the quiet (often quiet) ruin of them.

Before that -- I found of value his account of early Islam, and o...more
Pasteurisiert
Für jede Person, die sich für Weltgeschichte interessiert, ist dieses Buch ein absolutes “Muss”.



Im unterhaltsamen Stil des Geschichtenerzählers erzählt mir Tamim Ansary die Geschichte des Teils der Welt, der so gerne in der westlichen Geschichtsschreibung ausgelassen wird und der heute Schauplatz von soviel Krieg und Elend geworden ist.



Tamim beginnt mit den vor-moslemischen Kulturen der Regionen östlich des Mittelmeeres und westlich von Indien. Mit Mohammed wird dann ein Projekt des menschlichen...more
Siria
Destiny Disrupted is a lively, engaging introduction to world history from the perspective of the 'Middle World'—Western and Central Asia, the birthplace of Islam. It's not an academic work or a textbook, and covering such a vast swathe of history in about 400 pages means that Ansary inevitably has to gloss over some details. Yet he still manages to impressively synthesise a lot of material here into a narrative which gives the reader a sense of the broad arc of history from a Muslim/non-Western...more
Anti Wibawa
buku ini sebenarnya menarik. tapi bahasanya agak rancu jadi seringnya tersendat. terpaksa baca ulang sambil 'dahi berkerut'. kalau bukan gaya bahasa penulisnya, bisa jadi bahasa si penulis diinterpretasikan secara utuh ke dlm bhs indonesia oleh penerjemah.

two stars: for Indonesia translation. I still believe this is a good book, maybe i should consider English edition.
Tom
Ansary set off with a very good goal in mind. He wanted to tell the history of the world from a Islamic perspective, starting with Mohammed's time and running on to 9/11. He was working off the idea that the Islamic world had its own version of world history, independent of the West, and that whatever conflicts exist between Islam and the West comes from these two histories rubbing against each other, and both sides, as he puts it, talking to themselves and not really getting what the other may...more
Herman
Buku yang diterjemahkan ke versi Indonesia dengan judul "Dari Puncak Bagdad" ini cukup luar biasa menurut saya. Tamim Ansary membawakan tema sejarah Islam menurut kacamata Islam itu sendiri. Perbedaan persepsi antara barat dan Islam selama ini membawa salah tangkap informasi. Ternyata setelah digali kenapa "dia" bisa sampai "di sini", adalah karena bermula dari beda persepsi. Islam dengan cita-cita luhurnya telah membangun sebuah peradaban dan membantu eropa di abad2 kegelapan mereka. Dengan dem...more
Kate
A fascinating book that is a must-read for our political leaders and anyone that considers themself a student of history, political science or wants to learn more about how we got to 9-11. "Destiny Disrupted" is an important reminder that our historical perspective is severely limited by the teachers we have and the cultural history that shapes the discourse. Tamin Ansary does a brilliant job explaining how two world cultures developed side-by-side with limited interaction creating two distinct...more
Erin
Every single person who grows up in the United States should have to read this book before graduating high school. There is too much ignorance about the history of the Islamic World and that vacuum gets filled up with misinformation, propaganda and lies. This book is written by a historian in the US who hails from Afghanistan and it's an accurate historical account with some philosophical conclusions very similar to Will Durant. In a world where each side is trying to make the other side a "vill...more
Catherine
I loved this book - a wonderfully written, captivating survey of world history seen from the vantage point of the Muslim world. Ansary is a storyteller, not a historian, and that makes for a galloping good read that was frequently funny, not to mention wry. I appreciated, so much, his attention to community as well as individuals, to religion and politics, and his critical deployment of tropes from The Princess Bride. I learned an enormous amount, and I'm still reflecting on everything it say ab...more
J
This had been on my "to read" list for a long time, and I kept putting it off thinking it would probably be too dry to hold my attention. Was I ever wrong! Not only is this a sweeping history of the Islamic world, it's a sweeping history of the world, period. I am amazed how Ansary could include so much information yet keep it from becoming a book of facts. Not only does he explain what happened, but why it happened and the consequences of it happening. Wow. I listened to Ansary read this himsel...more
Mary Gormley
I found this book fascinating. Tamim Ansary's style of English is clear and easy to follow. The book is written as a story, but the author draws on academic sources. Before reading this book I knew little of the Islamic world. The only difficulty I had was in remembering who the different people were, as I had never heard of many of them, and the names were challenging for a westerner. I initially set out with great intentions of making notes on each character, but I soon gave up.

I read this bo...more
Kevin
Destiny Disrupted is not an academic history of the Islamic culture through the ages and Tamim Ansary doesn’t pretend to be to be Islamic Scholar. What Destiny Disrupted is, is a very readable collection of the core stories that make up the Islamic history from its earliest beginnings to right through September 11 attack and the subsequent wars. A narrative of world history that is so different from our own, but as complex and intricate as anything the west as has to offer. Any survey of world h...more
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Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes (Hardcover)
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes (Paperback)
Dari Puncak Bagdad: Sejarah Dunia Versi Islam (Paperback)
Destiny Disrupted:  A History of the World through Islamic Eyes (Paperback)
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes (Kindle Edition)

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Mir Tamim Ansary is an Afghan-American author and public speaker. Ansary gained prominence in 2001 after he penned a widely circulated e-mail that denounced the Taliban and called on the United States to bring political change to Afghanistan. The e-mail was a response to a call to bomb Afghanistan "into the Stone Age." His book West of Kabul, East of New York published shortly after the September...more
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