Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

Book Content
In contrast to the book’s title, it is really a history of the Middle East (what the author calls the “Middle World”) with a near exclusive focus on the region extending from Egypt to Iran/Afghanistan. During the last 40% of the book, Europe comes into the picture mostly insofar as Europe’s development and actions impacted the inhabitants of the Middle East. There is one chapter describing the period where Muslims governed most of the Indian subcontinent under the Mughals (1500s-1700s) and a mere paragraph mentioning Islamic countries in southeast Asia. There is nothing more than a very few passing mentions of history as it relates to China and the Far East.

My Review
This is an excellent book: it is thoughtful, well organized and in its Middle Eastern context, it is largely thorough for a book covering the range of years. The author generally manages to stay neutral and explain issues from both a secularist Middle Eastern view and an Islamic fundamentalist view without heaping praise or criticism on either. Of course, there are areas (like the Islamic Golden Age) that are touched upon and not explored in detail but a 400-page book covering more than 1500 years must be selective and not always in a way that the reader might wish.

The project here -- presenting the history of the world for non-Muslims through a Muslim worldview -- is a superb one, and Ansary does well with it. It's not encyclopedic, of course, but it is panoramic, and illuminative. The Afterword, especially, ties the entire presentation up masterfully. Ansary's sense of both the typical Eurocentric/Christian and Islamic worldviews are spot on. His sense of the fact that they are not dimetrically opposed to each other, but rather almost completely ignorant of each other, is a valuable way to view the world we find ourselves in. His sense of their fundamental incompatibilities is well laid out, and I appreciate his choice not to try and reconcile them.

中东、伊斯兰教、以色列，这些与战乱、宗教、恐怖主义纠缠在一起的字眼在Destiny Disrupted 书中有了清晰的纹路及逻辑，让我们终于在一团乱麻中找到了前因后果，弥补了我们对穆斯林世界的认知断层。 公园几世纪，伊斯兰教的鼻祖穆罕默德开创了初起时以自由、平等、互助为教义的伊斯兰教。与其他宗教不同，穆罕默德并不自称拥有超能力，也否认自己与上帝齐名，只以上帝的信使自称，并称自己是上帝唯一的信使。他强调只要按照上帝的旨意行事，就会有富足及安宁，而他数次以以少胜多的战争也为他招收了大批的信徒。但他给后穆罕默德留了难题，当上帝唯一的信使离世，领取上帝旨意的唯一渠道就消失了，何以做到按上帝的旨意行事？唯一的办法就是参照穆罕默德的生前所为而为，如此造就了大量的坊间学者，搜集整理穆罕默德的一言一行，为伊斯兰文化打下了根基，也为后来穆斯林世界的分分合合埋下了种子。 穆罕默德后，伊斯兰初几代的首席使者尚能秉承最初无私、平等、互爱的教义，但随着伊斯兰教的不断扩张及社会结构的复杂化，内外分歧渐显，权、益争夺上演，滋生出伊斯兰教林林总总的分枝，各分枝均号称己为伊斯兰正教，开启了各领地吞并与被吞的模式。而遭受来自西方基督教十字军东征及东方成吉思汗忽必烈掳杀的重创，穆斯林教徒几近灭绝。这些东、西武者善战却不善治，硝烟散尽，伊斯兰才得以破土重生。 欧洲文明的触角随着航海技术的完善最终延抵伊斯兰王国。与以往列强武力征霸不同，欧洲以商为主，从物物交换到物土交换，渐渐将西方的理念和生活方式渗入中东。 第一、二次世界大战后，散居于世界各地的犹太人迫切需要一个自己的家园，伊斯兰疆土中犹太人定居点以色列即在美、英等国支持下成为了犹太人自己的国家。 穆斯林教徒原本遵循自由平等的教规与犹太人和平共处，却渐渐发现自己已在自己的土地上失去了话语权，于是伊斯兰教又滋生出了三大主要分枝，一派主张向西方靠拢，学习西方的先进技术，由此一部分现代化城市在中东塑起；另一派主张借用西方的先进科技来振兴伊斯兰教，还有一派认为伊斯兰教之所以到了今天的地步是因为偏离了教义，没有遵循上帝的旨意，要振新伊斯兰教必须远离西方世界。这后俩派均视非伊斯兰教徒为撒旦，以消灭异教徒的战争为圣战，911，恐怖袭击都是这俩派的产物。 伊斯兰教的鼎盛时代是其建立平等、自由、互助制度并遵重其他教派的时期，他的衰败期是其内战外战的年代。历史已经给出如何振兴伊斯兰教最好的答案。