User Reviews

There are two big problems with this series. First, with only three episodes, this series is far too short to cover the subject properly. Secondly, the series is heavily focused around Islam's interaction with the Christian West, which distorts the history. The episodes cover the early years of Islam, the Eastern Crusades and the Ottoman conquests in the West.

Nonetheless, this might still have been a decent introduction - which is clearly what it is intended to be. Unfortunately, this is very much a post 9/11 series which reacts (understandably) against the more indiscriminate rage felt by some Americans at that time (which was also understandable). The result is a very politically correct series that distorts history quite badly.

For instance, the series describes Janissaries as Christian boys who were "recruited" by the Turks and "brought into the Muslim faith". In fact, the devshirme process involved kidnapping the young male children of Christians whose lands had been conquered by the Turks, forcibly converting them to Islam and turning them into slave-soldiers.

These sort of mealy-mouthed attempts to obscure or excuse away the nastier parts of Muslim history are a constant in the series and totally undermine it; this is politics, not history. I'd recommend Joseph Hogarty's "Europe from its Origins" for a much better view of Islam from a Western perspective.

This is a much needed documentary especially these days on Islam a religion strongly misunderstood for the ordinary person and a good introduction to the history of Islamic civilisation where you can find rooms dedicated too in all the great Museums of the world. The mostly positive aspects about this documentary is that it covers all the general areas of major Islamic history to get an understanding of the religion and its principles with its contribution to world civilisation and history with easy to follow information and structure on its development dually as religion and distinct civilisation especially the first and second episodes and a good overall conclusion at the end of the series.

The critical aspects is that it is also short and should of had an extra episode about the situation of Islam today with the fall of the Ottoman empire and the rise and results of Political Islam in a post-colonial age. The documentary should of also added more social improvements Islam brought to the Arab tribes. The Ottoman episode was good but it should of made a reference to other Mongol states that founded Islamic empires such as the Timurids and explained briefly this new Imperial tradition from its Arab predecessor.

For those who think the documentary is a Eulogy or full of anachronisms they are mistaken. It does make references to gripping negative aspects and these are clearly but briefly said you just have to listen and understand in a wider and proper context of the times and not be judgemental which determines your academic understanding and not just a casual interest. The commentators are expert academics mostly non-Muslim so this is not Propaganda to counter the negative politics of today. I highly recommend this documentary for a general understanding to a great civilisation that even Muslims have forgotten.

Having heard a few good things about this film I was looking forward to viewing it. While very pleased with the cinematography qualities of the production I was disappointed with the poor writing. It's important to realize that this is not an objective view but rather a very professional production burdened with a bias in favor of Islam. Below are a few examples of that bias.

In the first half of the film, while the narrator is explaining how Islam moved through the Middle East and across North Africa, scenes of men mounted on horses or camels are shown riding through desert. And when mention of force is made it is downplayed by noting how most of those conquered saw little change in their daily routine and were happy to have new rulers. Contrast this with later discussion of the first crusade where vivid scenes of fighting and death are shown along with narration explaining how horrible it was for the unsuspecting Muslims who were attacked in their peaceful towns and villages by the evil Christian soldiers from a Europe just emerging from the dark ages.

In the Ottoman Empire section they discuss the military expansion of Islam. But unlike the first half of the film where they've downplayed the military aspects and refer to it as the Islamic expansion, now the military aspects cannot be ignored and it is referred to as the "Ottoman expansion." Again contrast this with the treatment of the Crusades where it is referred to as the Christian army (not European/French/Italian) even though the majority were mercenaries and Christian only because they were born in Europe.

Discussions of the advancements and additions made by Muslim are numerous. The narrator waxes admiringly about how the Muslims were using paper when Europe was still using parchment. And how there were book stores with hundreds of books in Baghdad while a Christian church in Europe would have been fortunate to have had five parchment books. The fact that the Muslims captured the technology of making paper in their imperialistic conquests is mentioned only in passing. This would be exactly like discussing the Soviet and American space programs of the 50's and 60's while dismissing the contribution of German scientists to both programs.

The narrator explains how the Muslims assembled the world's greatest library in Baghdad. No mention made of the great library of Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which pre-dates Islam by some 800 years, and was plundered and ransacked by conquering Muslims. The fact is, much of what is claimed to be of Muslim discovery or creation was merely acquisition or assimilation.

The film makes a glowing description of the Muslim Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.. No mention is made of the fact that Temple Rock, the site of the Dome, is THE most important Jewish religious site. This would be the same as building a synagogue over the Kaaba in Mecca. The point here is that this is a major event in Jewish/Islamic history yet no mention is made of its significance in history or the modern world.

There are more but I'll stop here. The preponderance of examples demands concluding that there is a decidedly pro-Islam bias pervading this film. Had the writing taken a more objective position this could have been a documentary worthy of appreciation by generations to come. Watch it for the photography but don't take the "historical facts" too seriously.