In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands

By Martin Gilbert

From one of the most popular historians writing today comes a book as fascinating as the bestsellers of Karen Armstrong and Reza Aslan.

In this captivating chronicle, Martin Gilbert shines new light on a controversial dilemma in the modern world: the troubled relationship between Jews and Muslims. Beginning at the dawn of Islam and sweeping from the Atlantic Ocean to the mountains of Afghanistan, Gilbert presents the first popular and authoritative history of Jewish peoples under Muslim rule. He confronts with wisdom and compassion the stormy events in their dramatic story, including anti-Zionist movements and the forced exodus to Israel. He also gives special attention to the twentieth century and to the current political debate about refugee status and restitution.

Throughout, Gilbert weaves a compelling narrative of perseverance, struggle, and renewal marked by surprising moments of tolerance and partnership. A monumental and timely book, Jews under Muslim Rule is a crowning achievement that confirms Martin Gilbert as one of the foremost historians of our time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 24, 2010
• ISBN: 9781551993423

Martin Gilbert

Sir Martin Gilbert was named Winston Churchill's official biographer in 1968. He was the author of seventy-five books, among them the single-volume Churchill: A Life, his twin histories The First World War and The Second World War, the comprehensive Israel: A History, and his three-volume History of the Twentieth Century. An Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College, Michigan, he was knighted in 1995 'for services to British history and international relations', and in 1999 he was awarded a Doctorate of Literature by the University of Oxford for the totality of his published work. Martin Gilbert died in 2015. 

Reviews for In Ishmael's House

[robertp_400354 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is certainly time for Islam to have its own Reformation, and move away from medieval attitudes. A very sad book indeed, enlivened only by the evidence of human spirit among the 850,000 survivors expelled from Moslem lands.