The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century

I bought this book because it's the most highly-recommended English book on the Abbasid Caliphate. It's very informative! However, as you might expect from an academic book, it's fairly dry. This is not "pop history"! You'll need to keep a highlighter handy and consult the index frequently if you want to really grasp everything.

I bought this book for a graduate course in Islamic political thought. It was used as and introductory read. It provides a detailed overview of the life of the Prophet Mohammed, and follows into the golden age of Islam. It does a great job of using all sources from religious to making mention of various 'mythical' images or stories that surround the early days of Islam. I would recommend this book for all who want to gain a better understanding of the beginnings of Islam or the origins of political islamic thought.

This book is supposed to be a basic overview of Islamic history from the sixth century to the eleventh century. The problem is that if you are a beginning student of Islam it throws way to many names in rapid succession at you with not enough in depth discussion for you to remember any of them. On the other hand if you are an expert in the field you probably know you all these people are and there is not enough analysis to make it worth your time. Compounding the problem is the ridiculous price of fifty dollars for a paperback!

Great book for a foundation in Islamic history. It can get quite confusing for a westerner, with the names and all, but once an understanding of the historical figures is reached, it becomes very clear and insightful.

Has a huge negative bias against Islam and is incredibly inaccurate. Definitely do not buy this book if you want to learn the truth about Islam and its history. Trust me when I say the Western superiority and bigotry in this book is appalling

For a student of the religion and its history Kennedy does a superb job of helping people to objectively understand the spread of Islam and Muslims.

Mr. Kennedy has provided an excellent overview of the Muslim Empire in one place with easy to follow sequence. I found it informative.

I first encountered this book as a text in a graduate-level seminar on early Islam some years back. Overall it is a successful, and insightful reading of early Islamic history, from the sixth to the eleventh century. It is especially good for students in the field, as its detail in names and dates can shortly overwhelm and weary even a determined general reader. The author could have omitted, or greatly abbreviated, some of the chapters in the book, specifically those on the Kurds, the Buyid Confederation, the Hamdanids and the Bedouin Dynasties, as they are minor in importance to the general sweep of the narrative. Especially informative, I found, was Kennedy's "Principal Sources for the History of the Near East, 600-1050, again, for the special attention of the student and the instructor involved in professional research; in this long but interesting afterword, he explores the historical and archaeological testimonies to his historical narrative. Also, I would greatly recommend attention given to Kennedy's chapter on "The Structure of Politics in the Muslim Commonwealth", as he there gives the reader a masterful overview of the political dynamics of the Islamic aegis from the fourth to the tenth century, the Islamic Caliphate at its height of unity and power.

The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, is an attempt to chart the early history or the growth of Islam. A very interesting propostition and as relevant today as it ever has been, especially given the troubles in the middle east, this books should be of great help to anybody with an interest in this area of the world.However it is not. While detailed, the style of writing is very dry and can be very confusing at times. Names of people and Caliph's come and go with very little to actually tell you who they are or where they come from. The success of the early Arab/Muslim armies agains all opposition is not really explained, to paraphrase, they came, they saw, they conquered and thats all we know from this work.A decent attempt, but could have been so much more

Five stars for content, two stars for readability. Densely written, colourless, but masses of factual detail which are not easy to find elsewhere. A book for specialists only, in my opinion.

good. Well-preserved.