First published in 2008. Written by a barrister and Muslim who also authored the well-known book The Spirit of Islam, this is an unusual and indispensable history of the Saracens, a people who left behind them a great legacy and incredible intellectual wealth. The history of the Saracens is also the history of the spread of Islam. This work chronicles the rise and decline of Saracen power and of the economic, social and intellectual development of the Arab nations.
I received the comment that "It was a shiah history" from a "pathan" friend well read in history after I had loaned the book to him. It is sad that in the case of a Muslim history or rather an identity, in these religious revivalist times, there is no common Muslim identity, forget about a common South Asian identity that we share with the Indians.