Sir John Bagot Glubb

"Many books have been written about the life of the Muslim founder, but none is quite like this one by the famous Glubb Pasha. Most have been scholarly tomes or popularized condensations of the tomes written by people who have done their research well. Sir John lived his research, for he was no armchair historian. Most of his adult life was spent in Arabia, and he was almost as fluent in its language as in his own.". "It would be of little help in writing about a Roman of the same period as Muhammad (around AD 600) if the writer lived in Italy today. But in the deserts of Arabia, the bedouins have survived into the twentieth century almost as they existed two thousand years ago. Thus, Glubb Pasha has been able to recreate the world of Muhammad and breathe life into the man.". "Because the Muslim religion has been a traditional enemy of Christianity, nearly all the biographies of Muhammad have been distorted. Western authors, religious or not, seem to have inherited centuries-old prejudices against the Muslims. Muslim writers, on the other hand, have responded in equally biased, indeed vitriolic, terms. In this classic, Sir John has written the life of one of the most influential figures in history without rancor or bias. He has performed a twofold service: he has given us a major work for readers of biography and a book that has become a standard for students and for all those who want to understand the forces that move the Middle East and reverberate around the world."--BOOK JACKET.

In less than fifty years, the Bedouins of Arabia established the greatest empire in the world of their day and one of the greatest in history. These years, from 630-680, not only transformed a whole vast region, but ensured that the pattern of life in the Middle East would never be the same again. Muhammed and his immediate successors decided the framework of many things for thirteen hundred years. In this vivid book, Arabic scholar John "Pasha" Glubb chronicles the short period of time in which the Bedouin Empire developed, highlighting the simplicity of its administration and the many victories achieved through sheer zeal and courage by relatively untrained and unorganized armies.