(Part 3) Best historical middle east biographies according to redditors

History:

After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton https://www.amazon.com/After-Prophet-Story-Shia-Sunni-Split-ebook/dp/B002NXOR6A

A Restatement on the History of Islam and Muslims https://www.al-islam.org/restatement-history-islam-and-muslims-sayyid-ali-asghar-razwy

Relationship: https://www.al-islam.org/feature/unity-between-shia-sunni

• The Ascent of Money
  
• Roman History Podcasts
  
• Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World
  
• Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War
  
• Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor / Hiroshima / 9-11 / Iraq

Your request is an interesting one. You want to know Islam, but in context I am gathering this is all completely new to you. I am not Muslim, but majored in Islamic studies and studied Arabic in the Middle East, so I have a more thorough academic background in Islam than most, and I, like you, started out knowing little to nothing.

Although others might suggest reading the Qur'an or some academic books, I think for someone like you it might be more helpful to start someplace else. There is an agnostic Jewish woman who writes about Islam named Lesley Hazelton. I would start with her book The First Muslim: the Story of Muhammad. She writes in a novel-like tone that really helps introduce people to the history of Islam.

Then, if you want to read the Qur'an, I would say you need to start with two things.

1. You need to get a list of the Surahs (aka chapters) in chronological order. This is important because if you read the Qur'an as it is traditionally arranged you go from the really short first surah, to a really long one with lots of laws and zero context. It is more helpful to someone new to Islam to picture themselves as a 7th century Arab, and receiving the Qur'an for the first time. So read the Surahs in chronological order instead.
   
   
2. Get a translation of the Qur'an that is easy to read. I have lots of experience with reading the Qur'an with people like yourself who have no prior experience and background. In my last Qur'anic study group we started out reading each Surah from about 8 different translations, just to hear the different interpretations of the original Arabic. Over time however, one stood out as being the easiest for new people to read and understand. It is the Haleem translation, it is a fairly recent translation so it is not on the radar of very many people, but in my experience it offers a good amount of notes and introductions, without being overwhelming for first time Islam students. Of course some people will insist that in order to really understand the Qur'an you have to read it in Arabic, and yes that is true, but reading this translation is a good place to start.

Thought you might enjoy this book I just read:

http://www.amazon.com/Off-Radar-Fathers-Mothers-Heroism-ebook/dp/B00KWG6024/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1448981113&sr=1-1

It most likely parallels your own grandfather's story.

A Search in Secret Egypt

Also check out A Search in Secret India by same author. This book introduced me to one of favorite philosophers: Ramana Maharshi

Apparently everyone's grandfather posed in front of the sphinx, including mine. We used the photo for the book cover (we published some of his letters when he was in the Navy after WWI). http://www.amazon.com/Black-Sea-Naval-Officers-Experience-ebook/dp/B00II5AQVC/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1421284456&sr=8-15&keywords=black+sea+murray

The war was no doubt sold on misleading premises. That being said, Hussein sanctioned Bin-Laden coming into the country and was building nuclear weapons illegally.

>No nuclear material was found besides yellowcake that had been under IAEA monitoring since the 90s. Significant evidence that Saddam decided to stop pursuing WMD in the mid 90s was found.

This is not true at all. One of Husseins scientists actually wrote a book on how Hussein had acquired a centrifuge and ordered the scientist to hide it so inspectors would not find it.

Best single source: https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Wall-Israel-Updated-Expanded/dp/0393346862

Since you like audio: https://www.amazon.com/Prime-Ministers-Intimate-Narrative-Leadership/dp/B00D5WO1LE/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

It was this one: http://www.amazon.com/Saddam-Hussein-Politics-Sa%C3%AFd-Aburish-ebook/dp/B0077RMR1O/

I read it just pre-2003 and I don't think its been updated to include that time period onwards. It was interesting and well written.

Patrick Cockburn has a book on Muqtada Al Sadr that covers alot of these topics. Muqtada Al Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq. Muqtada's family was one of the most prominent backers of the new Shia empowerment train of thought. His father Ayatollah Sadeq al Sadr known as "The White Lion" opposed Saddam Hussein and was assasinated. While his uncle was Musa Al Sadr from Lebanon whom Hezbollah consider their spiritual leader even though he went missing on a trip to Libya. So Muqtada has always been involved with "the Shia revival" movement.

Also recommend Nir Rosen's book Aftermath. Nir Rosen is a New Yorker of Kurdish origin, who basically moved to Baghdad after the 2003 war and lived there for 4-5 years. Haven't read his first book yet, but this one really goes into detail on the spread of sectarianism. The first half covering the Iraq civil war on the ground, and the second half of the book he travels to Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan to witness the fallout. Basically how thousands of wannabe Jihadists went to Iraq to fight the Americans, got radicalised, then went home to Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan with these sectarian views and began organising.

Finally the book that thought me more about the Middle East than any other is Robert Fisk's The Great War for Civilisation its around 1,500 pages long but covers all the major events from the 70's onwards in the Middle East from a journalist who has spent 30 years living in Beirut. It's more a general history than specifically dealing with sectarianism but highly recomended.

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

I shit you not he already wrote one tho

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079L5QNM3/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

my name is Jess [then they came for me] (http://www.amazon.com/Then-They-Came-Captivity-ebook/dp/B004J4X2XK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1370931224&sr=1-1&keywords=then+they+came+for+me) Jon Stewart was talking about it on the daily show and how he described this mans ordeal going through prison and how he was tortured and most of all how he over came sounded like a amazing read

Thanks again! I was looking earlier for a book written by Yitzhak Rabin in my local library online browsers and I couldn't find any mention of any book written by him, I thought that it might also just not exist in my country just like the book written by Chaim Herzog. But don't worry about the mistake, it is good that you clarified! It appears that Shimon Peres is an author of numerous books. The one that you have in mind is called "No Room for Small Dreams" or "Ben-Gurion: A Political Life"? By the description of those books both seem to be autobiographies of Shimon Peres and I am just a bit confused to which one is the one you mean. Luckily it seems that I could get my hands on both of these.

Also I understand fully what you mean but the book written by Said might be more useful for someone who already has reasonable knowledge in history of Israel so that the reader doesn't unknowingly read and use biased facts, and quite frankly I can't consider myself as having good enough knowledge of Israeli history to be able to discern bias so easily so I think I will pass books like that, at least for now.

>What country are you in? I might be able to narrow down my recommendations a bit more.

I can't say more other than that I am form Eastern Europe. I use this account to frequently comment in r/europe and because of that I don't reveal from what country I am from, other than that I am from Eastern Europe. It seems that in that subreddit and in some others if one reveals the country he is from others immediately assume bias or simply because of the fact the relations between some Eastern European countries are strained is used as a reason to downvote or disagree with an opinion. But about book availability, I simply check all libraries in my country through internet and if it is not there I look in eBay and if the book is at reasonable price I sometimes buy Kindle versions from Amazon. So if it helps for any recommendations any book that exists on Amazon will be almost certainly available to me.

For anyone who loved the book, check out Joker One.

Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service
by Michael Bar-Zohar

The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel by Uri Bar-Joseph

Also check out the Gabriel Allon Series by Daniel Silva. Same kind of meticulous planning, sometimes it goes perfectly, sometimes not. Very good series.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine:_Peace_Not_Apartheid

https://www.amazon.fr/Birthing-Nation-Strategies-Palestinian-Anthropology

https://www.amazon.fr/Out-Place-Edward-W-Said/dp/1862073708

Robert Fisk : The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East

https://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Golda-Meir/dp/0399116699

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01CR706PM

Do you have a source for that? According to

https://www.amazon.com/Bin-Ladens-Arabian-American-Century-ebook/dp/B0015DYKPC

Bin Laden received $7m/year from his family like all his relatives, and was cut off in 1994 due to pressure from the government. And Osama was pretty public about not blaming his family for that. I don't seem to recall reading about what you're saying.