Just noticed Amin Maalouf being mentioned in the conversation. Am just skimming through his book "The Crusades Through Arab Eyes" for an essay i'm doing. Makes for some very intersting reading.
thanks for the links. i recall reading one of them before. sadly,tariq ali is not the only member of the former muslim intelligentsia of pakistan/india who has left islam--most of the famous ones living in the west are also apostates: tariq ali, rushdie, zia mohyeddin (not sure bout him actually)..but you get the point. notice his reasons for leaving are all geopolitical.
Tariq Ali doesn't consider himself a Muslim and infact hates the Deen: http://www.counterpunch.org/tariqmullahs.html http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq0425.html
To update an old thread: (being sick and at home has its advantages--apart from the remission of one's sins--alhamdulillah). There is a quintet of novels dealing with islamic history by renowned pakistani-british author and left-wing political commentator tariq ali. I have only read the first one [set in al-andalus] so far but the quintet seems highly interesting: http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2005.07-books-tariq-ali/1/ (btw i am not sure if tariq ali considers himself a muslim or not. another person, arab christian from lebanon and a francophile, resident in france, amin maalouf has also written a wonderful series of novels about historical islam. e.g. samarkand [about umar khayyam and his era--including a cameo by al-ghazzali!] and leo africanus about hassan al wazzan and set in muslim spain and the maghreb...]
ah! you are impressed by the history channel, i see. fair and balanced. if you are realistic, you will realize that history is mostly fiction. atleast that which is not islamic history. ford knew it well. --- i was reading dalrymple's 'the last mughal' recently, and i shall write a review, inshaAllah.
I like my historical fiction to be balanced and full of realistic characters who are flawed, like all humans (prophets and certain awliya aside) not supermen and supervillains. if i want that i'll just read marvel comics!
:s1: I've read some books by Iltamush and by Naseem Hijazi and they are AWFUL pieces of work: the characters are all stereotypes of the worst kind and one-dimensional: the Muslim hero is always strikingly handsome and noble and brave and romantic and pious! The non-Muslims are always bloodthirsty and pure evil (except one who always becomes a Muslim at the end) with no good qualities...this is not historical fiction but fantasy. No thanks.
Try Inayatullah Altamash of Maktaba Dastan, Pakistan. https://www.emarkaz.com/shop/store/author-203.php http://www.jbdpress.com/aspx/authorDetails.aspx?authId=178 I beleive none Pakistani Mother can give birth another Naseem Hijazi, but Altamash is great too. He go more deep to the history. His best book is "Dastan Iman Faroshon Ki" (salah uddin Ayyubi) : 5 parts Few more are:: hamsheer e bae niyaam( khaled bin al waleed)2 parts damishk k khiid khanay main( musa bin naseer and taraq bin ziyad) hijaaz ki aandhi (best period of islamic history/period of Omar ibne al khattab) n saleebi jangeen...is abt (noor uddin zangi.....) sitara jo toot gaya(mohammed bin qasim) He writes lots. You can find list of his books and disscussed about historical novel here :: http://www.islamicboard.com/urdu/15901-what-your-favorite-urdu-novel-4.html Also I can recomended "Isabella: A Girl of Muslim Spain" by Yahiya Emerick. Try: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Isabella+%3A+A+Girl+of+Muslim+Spain&btnG=Search Thanks
This is not a book review per se but a request to ask if anyone has read any Islamic historical novels they'd recommend? I know that Sharar wrote lots. Naseem Hijazi also writes a lot in Urdu. (As did Sharar). Anyone know of any in English. (Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red and Amin Maalouf-a Lebanese Christian in France-are the only two I can think of who have written fictionalised accounts of episodes in Islamic history...) any others?
