In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (Ancient Warfare and Civilization) Reprint Edition

Very detailed but not in the way many books like this overload you with facts and names and kind of wander around with no point. Kind of reads like an apology sometimes, white washing Arab imperialism, like it wasn't THAT bad... Otherwise a great book.

This was obviously a college kid’s textbook. I don’t mind the notes and highlights too much, but I think that should have been in the description. Many students actually WANT the notes, so sellers shouldn’t hide that fact. I’m enjoying the book, reading when I get a spare moment.

I found this book to be very interesting, informative and well written. It covers the Arab Conquest of the Sasanian Persian Empire and part of the Byzantine Empire, covering the 7th and 8th centuries AD. It covers :· The military aspects of the invasion and some of the principal battles, with an emphasis on the idea that the conquest was not instantaneous, but rather took decades.· The Arab invasion is portrayed as not being motivated by religious factors, but more for plunder than for converting people. There was no initial impetus for converting the defeated people; in fact the opposite was the case, with a resistance to conversion.· The book discusses the nature of the Arab army and the fact that it was not solely composed of Moslems, but also contained Christian and Jewish tribes.· The book discusses the nature of the Islamic society that the invasion produced and the influence of Persia on the nature of Islam.I liked the book and found that is provided an interesting interpretation of this critical aspect of the history of the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucuses and the West in general.

This well written and extremely insightful book deserves a wide readership. It places the Arab conquests in a historical context second to none and provides a clear and concise description of the peoples and events that transpired. It fills an information void with regard to the Late Antique world as seen from the Arab side. The conquests and aftermaths are shown in human terms rather than from a strictly religious point of view. The role of religion is never dismissed or downplayed but is held in a perspective so that the events can be more easily understood in human terms. This is especially gratifying for those of us that are well versed in Byzantine and Persian history. Those tumultuous times can now be more readily viewed and understood on their own terms. There is something to be said for a balanced multi-perspective presentation and 'In God's Path' does just that-admirably so. The events may have occurred a long time ago but the repercussions are as recent as today's headlines. This should be a 'must read' book especially for Westerners that have a poor understanding of the histories of South West Asia in general and the Arabs in particular.

Very detailed and very dry. The author presents conclusions based on a good grasp of primary and secondary sources, but it takes some patience to wade through the various sections. A good research tool, but difficult to read unless you have the background and a lot patience.

I looked for a way to give a feedback on audible books to amazon.com, and found no other way to do it other than leaving a feedback on this book... I think audible book owners should be granted the right to view the maps and figures of the bought book online, or have an option to give a small fee to buy the kindle version completely. Especially history books without the maps are really hard to understand and from a customer point of view, bad purchases. Narration goes like "as seen in map 4.2, they turned eastwards then northwards and reached Samarkand" One needs to go home and see the map immediately... Also audible buyers miss out the plates, pictures of narrated cities, ruins of settings, artefacts etc...

I think the author is downplaying the role of Islam and the Prophet in the expansion of early Islamic state. He’s making great effort to attribute all conquests and successes to other factors. Highly opinionated work!

In God's Path explores the history of the Arabs from an independent and fresh lens utilizing both Muslem's and non-Muslem's resources. It certainly provides the readers with explaination of why the Arabs and Muslems were able to expand their influence into the region and successfully challenge the existing Persian and bezentinum empires in a relatively short time. It is an excellent read for those who would like to make sense of what is happening in the middle east nowadays.