Reviews (61)

A very readable translation and good complement to others
This is a very readable translation of the Quran. For the Western reader, it is much more accessible than translations such as that of Shakir. This translation attempts to capture some of the literary style and beauty of the original. The footnotes are especially helpful in pointing out the meanings of difficult words or phrases. Often, the footnotes clarify who is speaking and about whom or what. I find that difficult passages are best understood by comparing several translations and this translation is often the most helpful. An example is Quran 4:3 where Shakir says "what your right hands possess" whereas Dawood translates it as "slave girls". I fault Shakir for obscuring the true meaning by his overly literal translation. My only frustration is that Dawood changed the traditional order of the chapters, and this makes cross referencing rather slow. I highly recommend this book, especially for who are reading the Quran for the first time.

Go elsewhere
I have read the other reviews with great interest.
A summary, not complete
N.J. Dawood's translation has been held in high regard throughout the English speaking world (though not by English speaking MUSLIMS). It certainly achieves the translator's stated goal: to render the Koran in contemporary English. In comparison to Abdullah Y. Ali and especially Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, Dawood's translation flows easily and naturally, while retaining in some part the forcefulness of the original Arabic.
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Subjects:  1. General    2. Islam - Koran & Sacred Writings    3. Religion    4. Religion - Socialissues    5. Religion - World Religions    6. Islam    7. Religion / Koran    8. Sacred texts   

Reviews (24)

Comprehensive, treatment of military Jihad and it's relationship to slavery
This book is a very comprehensive treatment of the unique Islamic phenomena of Jihad (often called the 6th pillar of Islam).The book is very heavily footnoted and will be a guide for scholars for many years.
BRILLIANT ANALYSIS...INTERESTING ,FACTUAL AND QUITE DISTRUBING
THIS IS A QUITE INTERESTING BOOK. DONT LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT ISLAM IS THE RELIGION OF PEACE. THROUGH ITS FOUNDING IT HAS ONLY CAUSED DEATH,MURDER,RAPE,PLUNDER AND MISERY OF "INFIDELS" WHO WERE THE RECIEVING HAND OF JIHAD. EVERYONE TAKE NOTICE. FUNDAMENTAL ISLAM IS A CANCER IF NOT CHECKED WILL DESTROY ALL CIVILIZATIONS AND ALONG WITH IT CHRISTIANS,BUDDHISTS,HINDUS AND ALL THE OTHER "NON BELIEVERS" IN THE CRESENT TIDE..

no religious tolerance tolerated
This book is an excellent read if you want to know how non-muslims fair under islamic law.
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Subjects:  1. Dhimmis    2. General    3. Islam    4. Islam - General    5. Islam - History    6. Jihad    7. Religion    8. Religion - World Religions    9. Religion And Politics    10. Religion, Politics & State    11. Religious aspects    12. War   

Reviews (26)

This book should be required reading..by all the Leftist who hate America
As an activist who is concerned about the slow death of one of the greatest democracies in the world, this book says why. Unless people understand that we are fighting an enemy, who uses the very freedoms of democracy to destroy it, we are doomed. Everytime I hear about another effigy burning, cars being torched, Churches and Synagogues painted with Swastikas, and the constant "anger" of the Muslim world, I am baffled as to how most of the world either just does not understand, or we live in a world filled with stupid people. We are facing the greatest threat to our life as we know it. Our freedom to travel without fear, to go to work in a tall office building, to congregate in a tourist spot outside of the USA, and freedom to speak without worrying about "anger". As Salman Rushdie said ot our dinner honoring five Muslims who decry the Jihadist radicals and the silent majority, Muslims today need "anger management" and western democracies need to read Robert Spencers books. If we live under the laws of Sharia, typing reviews online like this, and buying books, uncensored, will only be a part of past history. I would like the ability to read, write, speak, and live free, and enjoy others to do the same. Thank you Robert.

An Interpretation of Islam
The book starts by explaining how the Quran is translated and how some parts supersede others.This alludes to a dynamic document.This author highlights that the term "jihad" does not refer to a war, but a struggle, and that this definition doesn't appear to change.Jihad is a struggle that will no end until Islam is the supreme religion.
Scary But True
As a former member of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, one who had occasion to speak with our detainees of all nationalities, I find this book startlingly reminiscent of my interaction with those detainees.If what author Spencer is saying is true (and I suspect it is), western civilization could be in a world of hurt unless we find a way to delete the political correctness attitude of our press and our liberals.If even a quarter of this world's Muslims think like the detained folks we have in Gitmo, our civilization is in trouble.Our society has taught us not to judge people by their color, creed or religion.I still believe that principle, but we should still remain open minded enough to be vigilant. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Islam    3. Islam - General    4. Jihad    5. Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. Religious aspects    10. Terrorism    11. War    12. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    13. Political Science / Political Freedom & Security / Terrorism   

Subjects:  1. Armageddon    2. Body, Mind & Spirit    3. End of the world    4. International Relations (General)    5. Islam    6. Islamic Studies    7. Islamic fundamentalism    8. New Age    9. New Age / Body, Mind & Spirit    10. Prophecy    11. Body, Mind & Spirit / Prophecy   

Reviews (253)

Everyone Needs to Read This Book!
Like thousands of others, while at university, I was taught middle-eastern history, anthropology, and art by post-colonialist/post-modernist/cultural relativists who have created a climate of unquestioning acceptance of the arab/islamic version of just about everything.This book sets the record straight about just what islam is and why it is so utterly at odds with a modern, pluralistic world.Warraq tells it like it is, with an insider's intimate knowledge of the mind-controlling cult that islam is.

Wow!!!
This is an incredible critique of Islam. Must read for all who are in Islam's way, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Secularist, and Liberal Muslims. Arm yourself with knowledge of the truth behind Mohammed and Islam.

read it and read Quran..
This book is an honest yet highly biased representation of one man's perception of Izlam. Fine..please read it if you are curious but do not base your opinion about Izlam with the reading of this book. I am reading the Quran and I am against the institutional nature of the majority of Izlamic states. Izlam, if approached with intelligence, can be a wonderful and powerful addition to anyone's spiritual life. This book is good for a critical perspective but please read the Quran too and do so in a spirit of humility and prayer. Draw your own conclusions about Izlam by reading the Quran with the intention of knowing more about the spiritual life. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Islam - General    2. Religion    3. Religion - Church History    4. Islam   

Reviews (15)

Koran for real dummies who can't think
For the first time since buying a book on-line I was tempted to wrap it up and send it back, this book was that terrible. It went out of its way to avoid any negativity or criticism about the Koran or about Moslems, whether mainstream or fanatical. This is a very sanitized version of this holy book, and unobjective to the extreme.I was searching for true meanings of the Koran elements but reading this version was a complete waste of time.

Koran
I agree with the reviewer below...the koran is a dud of a book. I can't believe people are willing to kill, rape, and destroy over this turgid tome. It has NO STRUCTURE! The suras are all jumbled together with no cronological sequence or thematic order at all. There is no consistancy in thought or theme - one minute the text says one thing then it switches to another subject that has no relation to the previous statement. Sometimes you cannot even tell who is speaking...mohommad or allah.
Good but missing a few points
This is a very good book but I believe it is missing a few points to understand the Quran clearly. When a person having no background in Arabic reads the translation of Quran he finds the writing to be boring and dull. He also fails to see consistency in text, one time the text says one thing and then it abruptly changes to something else.
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Subjects:  1. Essence, genius, nature    2. Islam    3. Islam - Koran & Sacred Writings    4. Koran    5. Religion    6. Religion - World Religions    7. Theology    8. Criticism & exegesis of sacred texts    9. Religion / Koran   

Editorial Review

No translator could do greater justice to the gorgeous simplicity of Rumi's poetry than Coleman Barks has done here. These exquisite renderings of the 13th-century Persian mystic's words into American free verse capture all the "inner searching, the delicacy, and simple groundedness" that characterize Rumi's poetry while remaining faithful to the images, tone, and spiritual message of the originals. Barks's introductions to each of the 27 sections (described as "playful palimpsests spread over Rumi's imagination," and "meant to confuse scholars who would divide Rumi's poetry into the accepted categories") are themselves wonderful achievements of a poetic imagination; searching explanations of unfamiliar concepts and funny stories provide colorful background and frame the selections as no dry historical exegesis could. Read more

Reviews (55)

Not really a "translation" as such
I have to say I agree with some of the other reviews here, that this collection of poetry by "Rumi" is in reality modern American poetry by someone drawing only very loosely on Rumi's work. It is rather a stretch to call it a translation! If one were cynical, one might think the large number of books from this "translator" indicates merely a money-making exercise.
An excellent compilation
I enjoyed Essential Rumi and thought that it was an excellent compilation gathered by Coleman Barks.There is a phrasing and verse that Barks understands and imparts on his readers making this old poetry new in each take.He makes the message of Rumi accessible to the 21st century in a beautiful way and I especially liked the variety of subjects addressed in this volume.

Some illumination
As a Persian I felt I can write some illuminating remarks here. I came to this verse from Mowlanaa Rumi in this book: "Let the beauty of what you do be what you love" and I looked a lot for the original poetry. It seems to be sth like this originally:
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Subjects:  1. 1207-1273    2. Ancient, Classical & Medieval    3. Inspirational & Religious    4. Islam - Sufism    5. Jalal al-Din Rumi,    6. Jalåal al-Dåin Råumåi,    7. Maulana,    8. Poetry    9. Religion    10. Sufi poetry, Persian    11. Translations into English    12. Islam    13. Persian (Farsi)    14. Poetry / Inspirational & Religious    15. Works by individual poets: classical, early & medieval   

Reviews (10)

One of the bases of today's fundamentalist Islam
This treatis on political Islam is helpful in understanding the mindset of violent Muslim Jihadists in today's world.You may disagree with the logic--or after close study lack thereof, in this book.I wish this volume included a better introduction of who the historical Sayyid Qutb was, it helps put this volume and what it was/is trying to accomplish in its proper context.
The Muslim "Mein Kampf"
If it weren't for the fact that Qutb had and has millions of followers before and after the Egyptians had him hanged for his rantings, it would be easy to dismiss this book as the Muslim equivalent of Hitler's Mein Kampf.
Typical Hizbi garbage from its prodigal son, Syed Qutb.
We can only credit Qutb with identifying the true enemies of Islam. Him and those who think as he does have single handily, in our modern times, seduced the youth into believing in his heresy and deviance. Anyone who credits this troublemaker with any goodness can only be classified as the enemy of Prophet Muhammed's (saw) legal ways and examples. Qutb uses modern unislamic political thought to frame the discussions on how to "revive" the Islamic world while neglecting many authentic hadiths to that effect. How this fool has strayed from the path of the righteous Muslims of the past, only Allah (swt) knows but anyone with the slightest knowledge of Qutbs history will know that he has, in fact, been influenced by the French and Russian Revolutions and its architects, not to mention Hassan Al- Banna the goofy Sufi from the slums of Egypt. When Al-Banna wasn't perverting the minds of the Muslim youth in Egypt he could be found worshipping around the graves of the deceased, a popular Sufi practice.
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Subjects:  1. History & Theory - Radical Thought    2. Islam - General    3. Religion - World Religions   

Reviews (3)

Deeply Moving Memoir
In this poignant,intensely personal and informative memoir Nahid Rachlin traces her life from her childhood under the Shah, through the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which she witnessed from America, where she was living at that point, to a bittersweet reunion with a family both shattered and healed by the tragedies that have befallen them. The way her life goes in a different direction from that of her beloved sister, as she remains in Iran and she comes to the U.S., offers great insights into the dynamics of the culture they lived in and how it affected each. It is a story of painful separations, heartbreaking losses, and hard-won freedoms. It has the same mesmerizing power as her novels, lingering in the mind after we have finished reading the book.
A Powerful Memoir
This book kept me up all night. Among other things it gave me a glimpse into the inner workings of Iranian family life and the author's creative development. As a fan of Nahid Rachlin's fiction, I wanted to know more about her own life; Persian Girls has given me an insight into that life and its emotional conflict. It reveals the suffering that many women, among them her sister, and the aunt who raised her as a child, endure in many Islamic cultures--the limitations imposed on them by the legal system and their families, especially the husbands who rule over them with tyrannical power. The oppressiveness and the pain of separation the author endured when her father took her away from her aunt the only mother she knew as a child (and forced her to live with him and her biological mother and siblings) are deeply conveyed. And so is the strength the author found within herself that allowed her to break away from these restrictions and create another life in America.

A Riviting Story of Oppresion and Hope.
During my careful read of this extraordinarily meaningful and important book written by respected author Nahid Rachlin, a deep forboding feeling of gloom and heavy weights continued to cover my spirit. So powerful is the tale of the two Iranian sisters Rachlin writes about: one who is able to essentially flee Iran to America to persue the freedom of her artistic desires, while the other sister is tragically confined to a similiar fate of many oppressed women post-Shah: pre-determined marriage, mental and physical abuse by an arrogant husband suitor, divorce, seperation from children, and the downward spiral of loss of self dignity and hope for a better tomorrow.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Ethnic Cultures - General    7. Iran    8. Iran - History    9. Iranian American authors    10. Iranian American women    11. Personal Memoirs    12. Social conditions    13. Women    14. Women In Islam    15. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs   

Subjects:  1. Encyclopedias    2. Islamic Studies    3. Reference    4. Social Science    5. Sociology    6. Islam    7. Reference works    8. Sacred texts   

Subjects:  1. History    2. History: World    3. Reference    4. Religion - Commentaries / Reference    5. Islam    6. Reference works    7. Sacred texts   

Reviews (13)

Understanding the Koran
I bought this book along with a copy of the Koran.I found the book extreamly helpful in getting an understanding of the Moslem religion.The author does and excellant job on comparing Christanity and Islam.The text is easy to read and very understandable.In these times anyone wanting to have a better understanding of Islam should read this book.

For Christians Only
I am a Muslim from Somalia and so I wanted to see what Christians say about our Holy Book. This book pretends to be an examination of the Koran but the author tries to show that Christianity is better.In many ways the author's discussion of the Koran is fair to make Westerners more sympathetic to our people and in that his heart is in the right place.But ultimately this is a book by an infidel for infidels.It is not for Muslims.

not good at all..read an honest book
Preaching to the converted. Pun intended.
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Subjects:  1. Christianity    2. Christianity and other religions    3. Controversial literature    4. Islam    5. Islam - Koran & Sacred Writings    6. Koran    7. Reference    8. Relation to the Bible    9. Relations    10. Religion    11. Religion - World Religions    12. Christian Interest    13. Religion / Reference    14. Sacred texts   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (6)

A book with refreshing ideas
This is a must-read book written by a broad-minded, knowledgeable and experienced author, if you are interested in current World events and the notions behind them.
Thoughtful essay on Muslim predicament
For those who reflect on the mess in much of the Islamic World Ahmed's uncompromising essay is worthwhile reading. Mature reflections by an Anthropologist, former Ambassador and Muslim intellectual provide perspective and ideas all but absent in Western media. This author lacks objectivity
Ahmed unconvincingly dismisses the "envy/jealously" excuse for why there is so much animosity in the Islamic world toward the USA and tries to present an overall cultural reaction to the breakdown of 'asabiyya' or social cohesion and group loyalty as the main culprit.Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Globalization    3. Islam    4. Islam - General    5. Islam and world politics    6. Religion    7. Religion - World Religions    8. Religion, Politics & State    9. Religious aspects    10. 21st century    11. History of religion    12. ISLAM AND POLITICS    13. Islamic studies    14. Religion / Islam   

Reviews (8)

Excellent Resource
Leila Ahmed's "Woman and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate" is an outstanding contribution to the field of Middle Eastern Women's Studies. Ahmed explores and effectively dissects the many intersections between women, gender, and Islam. Her book is readable and makes an excellent sourcebook for those who are interested in the historical foundations of women and Islam.
Everyone should read this
By far the best scholarly and historical work amidst the increasing number of books on this topic.Particularly interesting is the discussion of how Muslim caliphs adopted the Persian custom of having huge imperial harems.Of course, this is one of the aspects of "Muslim" culture that really tantalized the early Orientalists, as discussed by Edward Said in his book on the subject.

Good history book
This is a good book for anyone to read who doesn't know much about Islam.The author gives several chapters of in-depth history of the rise of Islam.It is interesting to read--not dry and boring like a lot of other detailed history books. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Arab countries    2. Attitudes    3. General    4. History    5. Middle East - General    6. Muslim women    7. Sexism    8. Social conditions    9. Sociology    10. Women    11. History / Middle East    12. Islam    13. Islamic studies    14. Women's studies   

Reviews (22)

All Academics,Intelligence officials,and politicians should read
This is the best book on terrorism that I have had the pleasure of reading.It is very informative regarding past foreign policy blunders and clearly states how we have been misslead by our government and academics(many of which advise government). Any person that wants to be aware should digest this information. I could not rest until it was read, and plan to read it again.

A study of what the terrorist in Jihad wants
I found this to being an interesting study of what the people that modern Jihadist want and think.

Terrorism vs Jihad
I have broken my reply down into the following topics:
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Subjects:  1. Islam - General    2. Political Freedom & Security - Law Enforcement    3. Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism    4. Political Science    5. Politics/International Relations    6. Religion - World Religions    7. Political Science / Political Freedom & Security / Terrorism    8. Political science & theory    9. Terrorism, freedom fighters, armed struggle   

Reviews (45)

The Prophet in perspective...
I have often found it difficult to find any good biographies regarding the Prophet of Islam, but this one is truly a gem. Martin Lings has done an amazing job of taking the life of this Man from the most earliest and reliable sources, then turning it into a narrative that is such a pleasure to read. It feels as though one as reading a novel, and it is difficult to put this book down once one has picked it up. The author shows real talent and i can only imagine how great and difficult a task it was to have done research to such a deep level, and then taking it all and writing it in story form. If i remember correctly i think Martin Lings is a Professor at the famous University of Cambridge, England.
Another whitewash of Muhammad
A real waste of time. It is a highly selective suspect interpretation of both Muhammad and Islam drawn from a single source. At least, try to read some of the works by Abdul Hasan al-Tabari, the most prolific writer-doctor-scholar on Islam and Muhammad from the 10th century.
Come out to play Warriors
This book lay on the shelves for years before I read it. As a simplistic narrative about the Prophets life I thought it had nothing significant to say to my esoteric taste.